Young people in the UK are twice as likely as older people to pray regularly, a new survey has found.Some 51% of 18 to 34-year-olds polled by Savanta ComRes said they pray at least once a month, compared with 24% of those aged 55 and over.It also found 49% of the younger age group attend a place of worship every month, compared with 16% of over-55s.The associate director of Savanta said the numbers could reflect the move to online worship during the pandemic.Chris Hopkins added that there were "a few theories" as to why young people made up such a large proportion of the religious landscape. "Firstly, as the demography of the UK changes, minority faiths do tend to have a larger proportion of practising young people, and therefore as the population of these groups increases within the UK, so will the prayer habits of the population at large," he said.He explained it was important to "factor in the impact the pandemic has had on the ability to engage with one's faith" with virtual prayers and services being held online. "It is possible that the pandemic opened up more avenues to prayer to young people, and this is reflected in the findings," he said. The study polled 2,075 British adults in August and seems to contradict the stereotypical view that religious groups in the UK are overwhelmingly elderly.A separate study by Manchester Metropolitan University coming out this week suggests religious communities have boomed in the pandemic with the move online.Dr Alana Vincent, co-investigator of the British Ritual Innovation under Covid-19 (BRIC-19) project, said the pandemic "opened doors to those for whom worship has been inaccessible or uncomfortable". She added: "Nevertheless, we've found that the actual experience of digital worship has been disappointing and frustrating for many people. "This includes young adults, who in our survey have had a decidedly harder time than their older peers. Religious life can't escape the digital age, and it shouldn't - the need is real and significant."
Last weekend, my rural village church celebrated harvest festival. In a 2019 poll, 67 per cent of parents, from all faiths and none, expressed warm memories of taking part in Christian harvest festivals, saying that they wanted their children to do the same. The perceived benefits were: giving thanks for the good things in our lives, teaching children where their food comes from and showing generosity to people in need.Harvest is one of our farming village’s best-attended services. Even the smallest child can understand. The church is lovingly decorated with flowers and fruit. I organise a choir, to belt out well-loved hymns: We Plough the Fields and Scatter, All Things Bright And Beautiful and Come, Ye Thankful People, Come. The children bring up harvest gifts to the altar, destined for our local food bank.Sometimes, the church does solemnity better than joy; but harvest exemplifies a palpable sense of community, bounty and shared exuberance. Despite some gloomy modern prayers about our destruction of God’s creation, this is a festival and God is good. “Consider the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin,” as the Bible reading goes. “[King] Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew, vi, 28-30).Harvest is more than a nostalgia trip for traditionalists. Certainly, older people revisit happy childhood memories and there is the aroma of apples stored for the winter and smoke from the post-harvest burning of the fields, and people make a corn dolly to take to church. However, recognising the cyclical nature of human existence — “for everything there is a season” (Ecclesiastes, iii, 1) — has what feels like a renewed modern resonance. After 18 months dominated by the pandemic, our human vulnerability to challenges such as disease, weather problems and disruptions to the supply chain feels more relevant than ever.Our food bank’s stock is running low. News reports of empty supermarket shelves add a poignancy to realising our interdependence, reliance on others and the need for connection, for the supply of our most basic human needs.Farmers’ reports at harvest suppers offer insight into lives lived on the land. The TV series Clarkson’s Farm has recently engendered a wider respect for farmers and a more sympathetic understanding of the problems that they face every year. Their livelihood is dependent almost entirely on the weather and other factors beyond their control. No prayer is perhaps more heartfelt than a farmer’s prayer for rain — or for it to stop raining.Small rural churches often seem rather marginalised, treated in diocesan league tables like “failed” urban churches. They cannot apply for strategic development funding from the Church Commissioners, whose own bounty is used to try and improve attendance in urban areas. Yet harvest allows countryside communities a big moment of celebration.It is well deserved. The underappreciated rural church pulls its weight in terms of percentage attendance. On an average Sunday, 40 per cent of bottoms on Church of England pews are in rural areas, although they contain only 17 per cent by population. At Christmas, 50 per cent of churchgoers are rural. Figures for donations suggest that rural churches also punch well above their weight in that regard.Harvest conveys a feeling of handing on the baton to the next generation. I have so far failed to pass on my Christian faith to my own children, who accept the common social attitude that religion is the cause of war. However, in my own life, Christianity has been nothing but a source of comfort and joy. The author John Buchan said that an atheist was a man who had “no invisible means of support”. I hope that small rural churches will stay open long enough for my children to return to them if they ever want to do so.Harvest suppers showcase the glories of nature, coming to terms with not being in control, looking after the hungry and needy and the wonderful reading from St Matthew about the lilies of the field, advising against worrying about what to wear. They add up to a message that the nation’s mental health problems could be addressed if we looked not inwards but upwards and outwards, with gratitude at all the good gifts around us.Emma Thompson is a freelance writer and a member of Save the Parish
UP TO 50 candidates in the General Synod elections are standing in some dioceses, presenting electors with a mountain of addresses to read, and sometimes — in a new departure for the new quinquennium — videos to watch.Voting closes on 8 October: hustings are scheduled during the next two weeks.Southwark tops the list: it has 24 clergy standing and 27 lay people. Chichester comes next, with 17 and 33 respectively, up from 15 and 16 last time. Oxford has 23 clergy and 24 lay; Chelmsford has 16 of each; Manchester has 17 and 13; York has figures of 11 and 21. By contrast, the two candidates standing in Sodor & Man have been elected unopposed, and the process is complete.This was the first time in the Synod’s 50-year history that the elections had been advertised nationally, with a 90-second film, a short explanatory animation, and a dedicated webpage. The secretary-general of the Archbishops’ Council and the General Synod, William Nye, said in July: “We are praying that the leadership of the Church of England, including bodies like General Synod, may become more representative of the people of England — and that means younger and more diverse.“This campaign has a very clear message which we hope will reach everyone in the wider Church: if you want to be part of making decisions affecting the whole Church of England and debating matters of national and international importance, this is your chance. Will you stand?”All the candidates’ addresses have been posted on their diocesan website, with no limit, in most cases, on the number of words. Some are, in effect, full CVs. Others paint a picture of clerical family life with children and dogs: ”I am blessed with a vicarage buzzing with our four teenagers, their school friends, church friends and girlfriends.”
We hope you can join us at St Mary and All Saints' Church, Dunsfold for tomorrow's joint parish Holy Communion service at 10am. Our celebrant is the area dean, Canon Roy Woodhams.If you can't be with us in person you can join us by clicking on the Zoom link below. Harvest Festival is traditionally a special time in the calendar for a rural parish like Dunsfold and having had a sneak preview yesterday I can tell you that our already beautiful church has been decorated exquisitely for the occasion. A special thank you to those involved in tastefully adorning the church with flowers and symbols of agricultural produce that emphasise our reliance on the land.Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/5253921788?pwd=MC9kNmpldmFrRSsrV1pkc1k5aU1vZz09Meeting ID: 525 392 1788Passcode: 379904
