Abstract
This chapter examines perceptions of the quality of church life and the extent to which lay participants in the surveys were involved in their churches and in their communities. Churches are important institutions for encouraging people to socialize and serve those around them, and this has been a key emphasis for the Church of England over the last decade or more. Church Times readers had a strong sense of belonging to their churches, and this did not change between surveys. Church was more likely to be an important part of the social life of older people, though older people were less likely to feel they could influence decisions, which may have been related to their less active participation in church groups. Voluntary service beyond the church improved significantly between the surveys, perhaps reflecting the Church’s emphasis on serving the common good in this period.
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Notes
- 1.
This phrase was coined by Grace Davie (1994) and has sparked lively debate about what exactly it means for someone to affiliate to Christianity but not attend or belong to a church.
- 2.
In 2001, 42% of respondents reported they had no access to the Internet, but this had fallen to 11% by 2013.
- 3.
Figures are from Church Statistics 2001 and Statistics for Mission 2013, available on the Church of England website.
- 4.
See, for example, the Church of England growth project, http://www.churchgrowthresearch.org.uk/.
- 5.
Analyses of questions using number of items mirrored those for the Likert items, but due to the nature of the distribution of responses, a negative binomial model was used to estimate means and statistical significance.
- 6.
For lay people not on the PCC, membership of the following groups was associated with significantly higher endorsement of this item: choir, music/drama, youth group, Sunday school, uniform groups, house groups and other men’s groups. There was no effect for those who were bell-ringers, in a mother-toddler group, in the Mother’s Union or in other women’s groups. This gives an interesting picture of where influence may reside among laity in the Church of England.
- 7.
For Evangelicals, 68% had at least one leadership role, compared with 64% for those in Broad churches, and 58% for Anglo-catholics.
- 8.
The overall Church Times figures for belonging (91%), importance of social life (73%) and caring (77%) are all slightly higher than those reported for whole congregations in Southwark (88, 63 and 72%, respectively). Whole congregation surveys are more likely to include those who are less well bonded to congregations than self-selecting surveys of individuals.
- 9.
Figures from the Church of England 2016 Ministry Statistics show that the vast majority of those with permission to officiate are over 65 and therefore probably retired. The proportion of this group among the ‘active’ clergy rose from 32% in 2013 to 34% in 2016.
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Village, A. (2018). Belonging and Serving. In: The Church of England in the First Decade of the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04528-9_9
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