with or without god goes uk

It’s been two years in the making and the dates are drawing near but the question still needs to be asked. Are there enough people in the United Kingdom that care about religion or what’s becoming of Christianity for me to bother heading over there to speak about innovations in the practice of church? Even if those innovations share the concept of a church with or without god at its heart? We’ve yet to see.

My “UK tour” started out with two weekend conferences and two stand alone evening events sprinkled over four different cities. It’s down to one weekend and one evening event in two cities primarilty the result of an anticipated lack of interest on the part of the general public.

The whittling which began after the venue in Newcastle pulled out when they learned who the speaker for the weekend conference was going to be. In what might be seen as every speakers’ best-case-scenario when it comes to publicity, the church at which the event was to occur, citing “ecumenical relations”, banned me from its premises. But the organizing committee had difficulty coping with the logistical mess the withdrawal created and the trip to Newcastle was cancelled.

As was Manchester.

In the end, I’m now visiting London on September 24^th for an evening lecture and Oxford for the following weekend. The event is a cooperative effort of the Progressive Christian Network – Britain (PCN-B)*, and The Sea of Faith – UK (SoF)**, two groups which have been skating along the edges of church for some time now. It seems that their membership will be the primary audience for the two events.

So back to the question. Is there enough interest in re-doing church to warrant continuing to speak on the subject, especially in England where church attendance rates are at an all-time low, 6%, and the number of people who identify as having no religion nearly doubled in the decade between its most recent censuses (14.1% – 2001; 25% – 2011)? One wonders about these things.

I’m going, so obviously I think there is merit in the undertaking, but not because I think church should be salvaged. Rather, because I believe there were off-label benefits to the opiate of religion that we, as an Earth-bound species, may suffer the lack of.

Chaeyoon Lim and Robert Putnam blew the lid off the assumption, fed by previous studies, that religion led to higher life satisfaction. They published a study in 2010 that clearly indicated it was the relationships created with others in the congregation that led to the highest levels of satisfaction. Their study cited a strengthened sense of belonging as the crucial element, arguing that without the development of friendships, the moral and spiritual elements of religion remain too abstract. Close, intimate relationships helped ground those aspects of the religion in the individual’s lives.

So what? Is it that important that people feel good about themselves and aren’t there other institutions and organizations that create the same kinds of intimate relationships? Yes and no.

A sense of well-being leads to the greater possibility that an individual will extend him or herself beyond the pursuit of personal gain and into the territory of cooperation for which we are all hard-wired. If we have our personal needs met and feel good about ourselves, our capacity to observe and empathize with those around us is enhanced. We tend to look at them as more than simply the means to our own ends and that leads to a more cooperative community and a stronger democracy, something I think we all treasure, the current realities of the political situations in the US and Canada notwithstanding.

There is a unique quality to participation in religious communities that is replicated in very few other organizations and institutions: the permission to discuss the intimate concerns of one’s life with the expectation of compassion and support being offered alongside guidance and edification. Self-help groups, twelve-step programs, and group therapies may offer such environments; neighbourhood associations and hockey leagues, not so much. In societies in which the isolation of families from one another is becoming the norm – brought about by longer work and commuting hours, staggering financial obligations, inept urban design, and the mostly erroneous perception of a growth in violence in our own neighbourhoods – the interest in civic engagement can only be expected to decrease. Reaching our hands out to one another across those challenges can be life-changing if not life-saving. Religions knew how to do that well. Learning how to do it without religion is going to take some work.

Still, the conversation happening within progressive religious organizations and individuals choosing to come together to create godless churches are a steps in the right direction. With the wisdom of religious communities properly identified and distilled from them, we can look forward to increased wellbeing, a stronger sense of belonging, and greater civic engagement focused on the whole and not simply individuals and their families.  This, I believe, is certainly worth the conversation.  I’ll keep you posted.

* PCN – Britain was formed, I believe, in much the same manner as the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity which grew out of an invitation from the late Jim Adams, founder of The Center for Progressive Christianity in the United States. Jim’s vision of a network of congregations willing to live out the loving tenets of Christianity and leave behind the divisive ones carried many of us through some challenging times and inspired the organization of networks around the globe. He believed it important to bring the leaders of these networks together as often as was financially possible for the fledgling organization. Through his generosity, I was able to meet other leaders in the work in the UK in 2005. Represented at that gathering were Australia, New Zealand, the US, Ireland, the UK, and Canada.

** The Sea of Faith network is named for a 1984 six-part television program moderated by Christian philosopher, Don Cupitt. The program took its name from Matthew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach in which the poet laments the ongoing change in his 19th century world.  Following the program, the conversation continued and the SoF has maintained a hold on the progressive development of thought in relation to religion having active networks in the UK and Australia.