By way of a seasonal post, I note an exchange of columns and correspondence in the Times over the singing of carols by those of uncertain or professedly no faith. It began with a column by Libby Purves, and generated a reply from David Aaronovitch and some correspondence. It revolves around Richard Dawkins' recent comments about his general willingness to join in singing of carols, despite his (presumable) rejection of the words.
The debate became somewhat sidetracked by the matter of sections of the well-known carols which are without biblical basis - 'the little Lord Jesus no crying he makes', or the snow lying about, deep and crisp and even. What I find more interesting is the continuing currency of this 'cultural Christianity'. I can see that carol singing in schools or other non-church venues can be straightforward communal singing for its own sake, rather akin to that at football matches. What would be very interesting would be to tease out the path the parish carol service or Midnight Mass has taken over the last fifty years. In my own experience, the carol service is often treated in a quite unique fashion to the rest of the year's worship, with the 'regulars' often choosing a different service. They seem to have elements of local social fixture, reunion, entertainment, and nostalgia, as well as perhaps (as Purves suggests) the leaving-open of a door to God, whoever He may be. I wonder when it is that these services cease to be part of the usual liturgical round, and become 'guest' services.
Reading the edited collection, distantly: some trends in British
theological publishing in the twentieth century
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Regular readers will know that I’ve become interested in the history of
publishing, both as an exercise in the history of technology and as a way
of seeing...
5 weeks ago
1 comment:
Richard Dawkins is not alone! There is considerable historical and contemporary evidence that attendance at Christmas carol services outstrips usual Sunday attendance.
Notably, research in 2004 by the University of Manchester's Dr David Voas found higher Christmas service attendances across the board of Anglican dioceses. Interestingly, the smallest increases were reported in large cities (Manchester only 19th higher) and the biggest in rural areas (up to 200% higher in some rural dioceses). Intriguingly, the results reflected a historic tendency for attendance to be significantly higher in areas south of a line between the Wash and the Bristol Channel!
More recently, Church of England statistics suggested a 6% increase in church attendances in 2006 over 2005, and a 28% increase in attendance at cathedral Christmas services since 2000.
What is going on here? Tentatively I'd suggest a couple of factors, though these are by no means exhaustive of the topic.
1) Might the growing popularity of cathedral services reflect a wider cultural tendency to prefer services delivered by large organisations with more resources at their disposal? (e.g., the hegemony of supermarkets, commercial conglomerates, etc.). If this is the case, cathedral carol services are doing for the occasional churchgoer what mega-churches are increasingly doing for the regular attender. If so it should be salutary to the churches that the two constituencies are largely attending different types of service.
2) With the possible exception of money, 'culture' is arguably the god of contemporary western society. Cathedrals are well-placed to provide the kind of aesthetic treat which people are accustomed to from listening to Classic FM, and which may not available to such professional standards in the local church (on which note, incidentally, that radio station's Christmas tagline was 'Christmas on Classic FM - just like the ones you used to know' - appealing to those who, for whatever reason (spiritual, nostalgic, aesthetic), mourn the disappearance of carols from other aspects of life. On this note, I wonder if some people are more actively seeking out Christmas carol services because of the increased difficulty of hearing carols elsewhere (e.g., shops now tend to play Slade, Wham, etc.)
3) Unlike some other aspects of Christian practice, Christmas still receives extensive treatment in schools and this probably keeps alive the memory of carol services (even if not of the meaning of Christmas itself).
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