The Kendal Project A Spiritual Revolution? Program Support Notes by: Irene Matthews BSc (Hons) © Video Education Australasia Pty Ltd 2012 Psychology, PGCE, AdvancedCertificate in Counselling, Dip Ed (Education Management) Reproducing these support notes You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Produced by: Further copying or printing must be reported to VEA Pty Ltd CAL as per the Copyright Act 1968. Commissioning Editor: Simon Garner B.Ed, Dip Management Executive Producers: Edwina Baden-Powell B.A, CVP. Simon Garner B.Ed, Dip Management VIDEO EDUCATION AMERICA www.veavideo.com The Kendal Project A Spiritual Revolution? For Teachers Introduction At the end of June 2002 after 21 months of research, the Kendal Project drew to a close. This project (which was funded by the Leverhulme Trust) aimed to investigate ‘Patterns of the Sacred in Contemporary Society’, by taking a single locality (Kendal in Cumbria) and treating it as a ‘spiritual laboratory’. Researchers identified all the major religious and spiritual activities taking place in the town and were able to answer such questions as; ‘Are yoga, Reiki and other forms of holistic practice set to become more popular than churchgoing?’ Specifically, ‘The aim of the study was to map patterns of religion and spirituality in Kendal, exploring questions such as how different forms of Christianity are faring, the relative importance of alternative forms of spirituality, and the meanings and significance of religion and spirituality in people’s lives’ (Newsletter 1, April 2001). While there is good evidence to support the claim that traditional forms of religion appear to be declining, and that new forms of alternative spirituality are growing, involvement in church or chapel still outweighs that in alternative spirituality. This though is changing. Are we then undergoing a spiritual revolution? Stonehenge was constructed over 5000 years ago and almost certainly was a place of worship – somewhere sacred. But what is meant by the word sacred? Emile Durkheim in his classical study of religion described sacred as: ‘Those things that set apart from everyday life’. Organized religions relate to: ‘Unified systems of beliefs and practices around sacred things’. Religion offers explanations of the world and lays down rules that believers are expected to follow. Religion was at one time all powerful, but as society modernized it began to lose its authority. This decline in religion is known as the process of secularization. Max Weber saw the decline in belief as inevitable. We now have other ways of making sense of the world and science, which provides us with evidence for our beliefs as opposed to faith alone, and has contributed to this decline. Secularization theory states that religion now serves no other function than to mark special occasions such as Christmas and Easter, or that religion does not serve a function at all. However not all sociologists agree with secularization theory and in 1980 the view that religion was not actually declining but changing began to gain popularity. This has led to the introduction of a new theory, the theory of secularization (the growth of religion) as opposed to the theory of secularization (its decline). 2 © Video Education Australasia Pty Ltd 2012 Reproducing these support notes You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further copying or printing must be reported to CAL as per the Copyright Act 1968. The Kendal Project A Spiritual Revolution? It was to answer such questions that the Kendal Project was set up. In this project there were three stages to gathering the data. Stage 1 Mapping, this enables quantitative data to be gathered, in particular how people attended church and how many people attended alternative spiritual activities. It was relatively easy to get information about church services as churches are often easily identified and have the times of services outside. This information can also be obtained from Tourist Information for example. However, gathering the same information about alternative spiritual activities was very difficult because often these may take place in people’s homes and may not have a regular meeting place etc. This initial stage of the mapping process therefore took two years. Stage 2 Gathering of qualitative data through participant observation and interviews. Stage 3 Gathering quantitative data through questionnaires. Combining methods like this allows triangulation which is a method of study that enables you to check how accurate the results to certain questions are. For example, answers to a questionnaire should be the same as those given to questions in an interview or what may have been observed by one of the researchers. In this way, information gathered is more robust than it would be if only one method were used. Results indicated that on comparison there seems to be far more people who attended traditional religious services (2175 which is 7.9% of the population) in comparison with those from the holistic domain, (650 which is 1.7% of the population). This does not support the idea of secularization. However, given the fact that the population of Kendal has increased significantly in the last few years, the trend has been no growth compared to the increase in activities in the holistic domain. This means that at the current rate, by 2025 there will be more spiritual activities from the holistic domain and alternative spiritual practices than those from traditional religious activities. Thus there will continue to be a steady rise in socialization. So significant is this result that the authors of the study feel that rather than being an example of secularization, it amounts to a ‘spiritual revolution’! (On the next page is a more detailed time line for both the research and the results). 3 © Video Education Australasia Pty Ltd 2012 Reproducing these support notes You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further copying or printing must be reported to CAL as per the Copyright Act 1968. The Kendal Project A Spiritual Revolution? Table to show how the data was gathered with some findings: Holistic Domain Congregational Domain Mapping stage: Step 1: finding as many From October 2000 until April 2002 first activities as possible in Kendal. round observations to gain a detailed understanding of the broad profiles of church life in Kendal. This entailed attending at least Step 2: Contacting the facilitators to one service at as many churches in the town ascertain whether these activities have a as possible. spiritual dimension. Only if it was agreed that the activities did have a spiritual dimension would they then be able to take part in the On Sunday 26th November 2000, a number study. count was taken of church attendance at 25 churches. It was found that 2207 people attended church on that day which was 7.9% A questionnaire administered to facilitators of the population compared with 7.5% for the and participants to ascertain if these UK as a whole. However, the conclusions of activities shared a spiritual dimension. Most the study showed that not one church had reported that health and fitness were the experienced sustained growth since the most popular reason for being involved, 1970s. Kendal has experienced a rapid followed by stress relief. This was closely growth in population and the figures at first followed by spiritual growth. indicate a rapid growth also in church attendance – from 18,599 in 1961 to 27,500 in 2001. However when the population Case study: a number of case studies were figures are adjusted the national picture of a chosen to yield more detailed qualitative 30% decline in church attendance is data. matched in Kendal. The Street Survey (door-to-door using semi- Case study work in order to gain in depth structured interviews): between December information about the life of this small 2001 to March 2002. This was to ascertain number of churches. (Visits were also made the extent to which people who do not attend to the Roman Catholic church in order to church or holistic activities attend any ensure that the selection was as alternative spiritual activities. representative of the churches in Kendal as possible). Results: In comparison with those attending church (2207) in November 2000, 650 people (1.7% of the population) took part in alternative spiritual activities which does not support the idea that religion is in decline. 4 © Video Education Australasia Pty Ltd 2012 Reproducing these support notes You may download and print one copy of these support notes from our website for your reference. Further copying or printing must be reported to CAL as per the Copyright Act 1968. The Kendal Project A Spiritual Revolution? How can these findings be explained? One way to explain these changes in religious and spiritual activities is to look at the influence of culture. We live in ever increasing individualistic societies that emphasizes the self as opposed to others. Most respondents were aged 45-60, with a considerable number over the age of 60 and 35- 44. This suggests that those who entered adulthood in the 1960s and 70s are active in alternative spirituality. Certainly the influence of the development of the self, for the masses as opposed to the privileged few, through the influence of music and drugs and the popular culture during this time, should be considered important in responding to this data. We are driven by market forces and often our success is measured by how much money we are able to borrow! Perhaps the notion that although we may not be able to ‘buy our way out of misery’ we can at least shop in a ‘spiritual supermarket’ that is more suited to our needs, can again explain why there is a decline in traditional religions and an increase in nontraditional ones.