Belonging through Events? Exploring the Demographic Profile, Motivations, and Experiences of Those Attending the Afternoon Carol Services on Christmas Eve at Liverpool Cathedral

Abstract

This study tests the strength of Bishop David Walker’s notion of belonging to God through the Anglican Church through participation in events, by exploring the demographic profile, motivations, and experiences of 1234 participants attending the two afternoon Carol Services on Christmas Eve 2019 at Liverpool Cathedral, alongside 564 participants who completed the same survey at the evening Holly Bough Service on the Fourth Sunday in Advent 2019. The data confirmed the importance of event-belonging for 76% of the participants who do not regularly attend church services but who return year on year to the Cathedral and often invite friends to join them. The data also affirmed the presence of newcomers (12%) alongside returnees. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of the participants perceived beneficial impact on their personal wellbeing. For the participants, what drew them to the Cathedral and what made the experience so special was not simply the quality of the music (93%), but also the opportunity to remember the Christmas story (82%).

1. Introduction

The questions regarding who feels that they belong to God through the ministry of the Church of England and for whose benefit the Church of England exists are of considerable theological and ecclesiological significance. They are also of considerable interest to scientists concerned with the social scientific study of religion within the contemporary landscape that is characterised both by growth in religious diversity (Arweck 2017) and by growing numbers of people who choose to identify themselves as having no religious affiliation, the so-called ‘religious nones’ (Thiessen and Wilkinson-Laflamme 2017). Drawing on data from the British Social Attitudes Survey, David Voas has given particular attention to the declining numbers of people who self-identify as Anglican, particularly among the younger age group. Voas and Bruce (2019, p. 20) make the point that the proportion of the population identifying as Anglican (Church of England, Church in Wales, and Episcopal Church of Scotland) declined from 40% in 1983 to 12% in 2018. They conclude their evaluation of the situation in 2018 in the following way.

This collapse of Anglican affiliation is even more strikingly demonstrated when viewed by age groups. A third (33%) of respondents who are aged 75 and above regard themselves as Anglican; in the youngest age group who are 18–24, almost none (1%) do.

(Voas and Bruce 2019, p. 22)

David Voas has also been particularly influential in shaping the current trajectory of the Church of England through the interpretation of his findings from the project commissioned by the Church Growth Research Programme (Voas and Watt 2014). Voas’ new data that captured a snapshot of the activity and reach of the Church of England at that point in time was conceptualised within a sociological overview of a declining and struggling institution overwhelmed by the irreversible progression to a secular future. Quite properly, the Church of England’s administrative attention was focused on two core indicators of decline, the declining numbers of people attending services week by week, and the consequent decline in revenue generation. Quite properly, considerable re-allocation of resources has been engineered to reverse these trends. The measurable success of the redeployment of such resources may be gauged by looking for growth in regular attendance and for an upturn in revenue generation.

While the Church of England’s public manifesto remains unchanged on the national website, ‘A Christian presence in every community’, the reality on the ground may feel somewhat different. Rectories have been disappearing for decades (Jennings 2018), the resident priest has become less visible (Francis and Lankshear 1992), and now parish churches are increasingly joining chapels as either closed or on the property market for change of use (Roberts and Francis 2006). All of this may be an inevitable consequence of secularisation, with the gradual transformation of an institution that once served as a Church for the people who did not attend into a Sect that serves the enrolled and paying membership (see Swatos 1976).

1.1. Walker’s Ways of Belonging

While keeping a proper eye on regular weekly attendances and on regular financial contributions is not only prudent, but essential to ensuring sustainability for the future of the Church of England, in a series of studies, Bishop David Walker has consistently drawn attention to other more fluid ways in which belonging to God through the Church of England may be considered. Walker’s model, developed initially in a series of theoretical and empirical studies (Walker 2006, 2009, 2010a, 2010b) and then summarised in his book God’s belongers (Walker 2017), distinguishes among four ways of belonging that he characterises as belonging through activities, belonging through events, belonging through people, and belonging through places. Here are some ways of belonging readily recognised by Churches, but less obviously embraced by Sects.

Sects and Churches can agree on Walker’s first way of belonging to God that he characterises as ‘belonging through church activities’. Church activities take place on a regular and frequent basis. Participants are expected to engage with church activities, not just on some occasions, but with the whole series. Sunday services, home fellowship groups, and regular functions for children and young people are all activities that require significant investment of time and energy and display the sense of commitment week in and week out.

Churches and Sects are less likely to agree on Walker’s three other ways of belonging. Walker’s second way of belonging to God he characterises as ‘belonging through events’. Church events embrace several different categories. Major Christian festivals, including Christmas, Harvest Thanksgiving, and Remembrance Sunday, offer a recurring pattern through the calendar. The occasional offices, including baptisms, marriages, and funerals, address particularly poignant points in the life cycle. Church-related public events, including summer fêtes, harvest suppers, and other social activities, offer engagements with wider networks into local communities. Walker argues that participation in such events engenders a real sense of belonging.

Walker’s third way of belonging to God he characterises as ‘belonging through relationships’ or through connections with people. Each local church has associated with it key individuals who are recognised as representing the face of the church more broadly within the communities with which they interact. Some of these key people hold a formal office, as priest, reader, churchwarden, or member of a local ministry team. Others are recognised simply for being there and for doing things. Walker argues that engagement with such people engenders a vicarious sense of belonging.

Walker’s fourth way of belonging to God he characterises as ‘belonging through place’. While chapels may feel like private property belonging to the privileged key holders, the unlocked door of the parish church may feel invitational, and the threshold easier to cross into the unoccupied and hallowed space. The churchyard affirms the way in which that space belongs both to those interred there and to those who revere their memory. Walker argues that there are many ways in which individuals may feel connected with a specific church that engenders a sense of belonging.

1.2. Carol Services as an Event

Testing his model concerning the four ways of belonging to God through the Church of England, Walker focused on two kinds of events: harvest festivals within the rural church (Walker 2009, 2010a, 2010b) and cathedral carol services (Walker 2012a, 2012b, 2013, 2015). Other researchers, too, working independently over the past decade, drawing on either qualitative or quantitative methods, have identified the importance of carol services within both cathedrals and greater churches for forging contact with a wider range of people than those who would sign up for the kind of membership that entailed a weekly activity (Phillips 2010; Murphy 2016; Muskett 2017; Coleman et al. 2019; Francis et al. 2020a, 2020b, 2020c). Taken together, these diverse studies begin to provide a rich picture of who attends carol services in cathedrals and greater churches, and why they attend.

Walker’s research among those who attended carol services began in Worcester Cathedral in 2009 and attracted responses from 393 participants from two services. In his first study among these participants, Walker (2012a) explored their motivational style, drawing on religious orientation theory. Walker’s survey included the New Indices of Religious Orientation proposed by Francis (2007). Building on theory originally shaped by Allport and Ross (1967) and extended by Batson and Ventis (1982), this instrument distinguishes among three religious motivational styles: intrinsic religious orientation (where religion is an end in itself), extrinsic religious orientation (where religion serves other social or personal ends), and quest religious orientation (where doubt, provisionality, and tentativeness are valued as part of what it means to be religious). Religious orientation theory does not conceptualise these three orientations as mutually exclusive, but recognises that each of the three orientations may play a part in shaping an individual’s motivational style. Of particular significance for Walker’s study was the quest orientation. The quest orientation defines an approach to religion that focuses on religious questions more than on the answers to those questions. People who record high scores on the quest orientation are on a journey to find out more about religion and to test what they are finding. The core contribution to knowledge made by Walker’s study was that the quest orientation was of higher importance to those attending the cathedral carol service than to those who attend services in Anglican churches on a normal Sunday.

In his second study among the participants attending the two carol services in Worcester Cathedral in 2009, Walker (2012b) explored their psychological profile, drawing on psychological type theory. Walker’s survey included the Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis 2005; Francis et al. 2017). The Francis Psychological Type Scales offer measures of two orientations (introversion and extraversion), two perceiving functions (sensing and intuition), two judging functions (thinking and feeling), and two attitudes (judging and perceiving). A series of studies conducted among church congregations has demonstrated how much churchgoers diverge from the population as a whole in terms of the distribution of psychological types. Anglican congregations are somewhat weighted toward introversion and toward sensing, and heavily weighted toward feeling (see Francis et al. 2007, 2011, 2016). The main finding from Walker’s (2012b) research is clearly stated in his title, ‘O come all ye thinking types: The wider appeal of the cathedral carol service’. Given that thinking types comprise the group of people least likely to attend Anglican churches, this finding was of considerable importance. Walker’s finding has been subsequently replicated by recent studies conducted in Bangor Cathedral (Francis et al. 2020a) and Liverpool Cathedral (Francis et al. 2020b).

Following his initial study conducted in two carol services in Worcester Cathedral in 2009, the following year Walker collected responses from a further 758 participants attending two carol services in Lichfield Cathedral. Combining the data from both cathedrals, Walker (2015) addressed two direct questions to the data provided by the total of 1151 participants, ‘Who attends and why?’ The demographic data demonstrated some clear differences from the typical Anglican Sunday congregation. There were higher proportions of men (42%), of younger people (36% under fifty), and of occasional churchgoers (40% attended less than six times a year). The attitudinal data suggested that what most appeals to these attendees at the Christmas carol service is a liberal and inclusive Christian faith. They are seeking a faith that is relevant for their daily lives.

In a second study drawing on the combined data from Worcester Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral, Walker (2013) examined the responses of the 460 participants who attended church services less often than six times a year. In current scientific research, attendance at least six times a year is taken as the threshold for defining churchgoers (see Francis and Richter 2007). Accordingly, Walker focused on the participants attending carol services who could not be defined as churchgoers using this criterion, and explored their responses to the survey through the lens of ordinary theology as refined by Astley (2002, 2003). Walker concluded that for many of these occasional churchgoers, faith retained a significant religious content from which can be constructed a picture of their ordinary theology.

1.3. Christmas at Liverpool Cathedral

Liverpool Cathedral provides an interesting context in which to test Walker’s findings from Worcester Cathedral and Lichfield Cathedral and to refine the research question further by distinguishing between two different groups of people. During the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Liverpool Cathedral holds two carol services at 14:00 and 16:00. These services are similar in format to carol services held elsewhere. On the evening of the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Liverpool Cathedral holds what is known as the Holly Bough Service. This is a service unique to Liverpool Cathedral that was designed by Frederick William Dwelly, the first Dean of Liverpool Cathedral (Kennerley 2015).

In an earlier study, Francis et al. (2020c) explored the demographic profile, motivational intentions, and perceived impact among 564 participants who attended the Holly Bough Service in Liverpool Cathedral in 2019. The aim of the present study is to revisit the data provided by Francis et al. (2020c) among participants attending the Holly Bough Service, and to place alongside these data comparable data provided by participants attending the two carol services held on the afternoon of Christmas Eve in Liverpool Cathedral.

2. Method

2.1. Procedure

When people came into the Cathedral for the Holly Bough Service and for the two Carol Services, the welcomers gave them a copy of the service and a white envelope containing the questionnaire and a pen. The welcomers invited participants to complete the questionnaire. This invitation was reinforced by the video screens organised around the cathedral to relay the service. The front page of the questionnaire carried the following message from the Dean.

As Dean of this wonderful Cathedral I would like to listen to and to learn from the many people who come to our special services preparing for Christmas. By listening and learning I hope to be able to plan wisely for the future.

This survey has been designed with two parts. I would like to invite you to complete part one while you are sitting and waiting for the service to begin. Then toward the end of the service there will be an opportunity for you to complete part two.

Everything you tell us is completely confidential and anonymous. Please feel free to answer as honestly as you can. We want to find out what people are really feeling and thinking about what we are doing as a Cathedral.

Please finish completing the questionnaire before you go, and leave the questionnaire on your seat.

Thank you for your help and cooperation.

2.2. Instrument

The questionnaire comprised two parts. Part one, completed while waiting for the service to start, contained three sections. Section 1 explored demographic and background information, including age, sex, employment status, social status, relationship with the cathedral, religious affiliation, and frequency of worship attendance. Section 2 presented 50 Likert-style items assessed on a five-point scale from disagree strongly, through not certain, to agree strongly. These items explored religious identity and motivation, reasons for attending the service, and personal wellbeing assessed by the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (Hills and Argyle 2002). Section 3 presented the Francis Psychological Type and Emotional Temperament Scales (Francis 2005) designed to assess orientations (extraversion and introversion), perceiving functions (sensing and intuition), judging functions (thinking and feeling), attitudes (judging and perceiving), and emotionality.

Part 2, completed toward the end of the service, presented 49 Likert-style items assessed on a five-point scale from disagree strongly, through not certain, to agree strongly. These items explored the perceived impact of attending the service, and for the second time assessed wellbeing by the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (Hills and Argyle 2002).

2.3. Analysis

The present paper draws on three components of this survey, demographic profile (who came to the Cathedral?), motivational intentions (why did they come?), and perceived impact of the experience (what effect did they experience?).

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Demographic Profile

The first part of the questionnaire concerned with demographic data was thoroughly completed by 564 attendees at the Holly Bough Service and 1234 attendees at the two Christmas Eve Carol Services.

Sex. While the Church of England collects and publishes counts of church attendance, these data do not provide profiles of the sex and age of those who attend (see Church of England 2019). For information about the sex and age profile of churchgoers congregation surveys are needed. The recent detailed survey of 31,521 churchgoers reported by Francis and Lankshear (forthcoming, in press) within the Diocese of Southwark found that 35% of Anglican churchgoers were male, compared with 65% who were female. Although not ideal, these data from the Diocese of Southwark offer the only contemporary comparison available. Of those who identified as either male or female, at the Holly Bough Service 37% were male, and at the Christmas Eve Carol Services 36% were male. The proportion of men attending at Christmas is only marginally higher than attending Sunday services in the Diocese of Southwark, and the situation is similar for the Holly Bough Service and for the Christmas Eve Carol Services (

Table 1. Sex.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Male	207	37	448	36
Female	335	59	748	61
Other/missing	22	4	38	3

).

Age.Francis and Lankshear (forthcoming, in press) found that within the Diocese of Southwark, 21% of churchgoers were under the age of forty, 30% were in their forties or fifties, 35% were in their sixties or seventies, and 9% were aged eighty or over. At the Holly Bough Service, 20% were under the age of forty, 33% in their forties or fifties, and 46% were aged sixty or over (

Table 2. Age.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Under 20	21	4	76	6
20–29	47	8	157	13
30–39	46	8	178	14
40–49	69	12	193	16
50–59	118	21	257	21
60–69	138	25	230	19
70–79	92	16	113	9
80+	28	5	25	2
Missing	5	1	5	0

). At the Christmas Eve Carol Services, 33% were under the age of forty, 37% were in their forties or fifties, and 30% were aged sixty or over. The Christmas Eve Carol Services were attracting a higher proportion of younger people.

Employment status. Francis and Lankshear (forthcoming, in press) found that within the Diocese of Southwark, 36% of churchgoers were in full-time employment, 16% in part-time employment, and 36% were retired. At the Holly Bough Service, a similar pattern emerged with 38% in full-time employment, 11% in part-time employment, and 36% retired (

Table 3. Employment status.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Full-time employed	212	38	490	40
Part-time employed	62	11	136	11
Self-employed	37	7	126	10
Student	26	5	120	10
Homemaker/carer	10	2	28	2
Unemployed	5	1	16	1
Retired	203	36	298	24
Missing	9	2	20	2

). The major difference with the Christmas Eve Carol Services concerned the lower proportion of retired participants (24% compared with 36%). This is consistent with the younger age profile of the congregation as a whole.

Type of work. At the Holly Bough Service, 61% located themselves in professional occupations, with a further 16% in semi-professional occupations (

Table 4. Type of work.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Unskilled manual worker	8	1	22	2
Semi-skilled manual worker	17	3	35	3
Skilled manual worker	30	5	65	5
Semi-professional	91	16	209	17
Professional	345	61	730	59
Student	28	5	120	10
Missing	45	8	53	4

). The proportions in professional and semi-professional occupations were similar at the Christmas Eve Carol Services: 59% and 17%, respectively.

Connection with Liverpool. Over half of the attendees at the Holly Bough Service (54%) lived within ten miles of Liverpool Cathedral (

Table 5. Connection with Liverpool.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Live within ten miles of cathedral	306	54	740	60
Live over ten miles away	251	45	481	39
Missing	2	1	13	1

). The proportion of the attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services who lived within a ten-mile radius of Liverpool Cathedral was higher at 60%.

Connection with Liverpool Cathedral. Both the Holly Bough service and the Christmas Eve Carol Services were reaching far beyond the regular congregations, although they were not strongly attractive to the regular congregation (

Table 6. Connection with Liverpool Cathedral.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Member of the congregation	36	6	28	2
Regular visitor	89	16	144	12
Occasional visitor	387	69	913	74
Visiting for the first time	46	8	144	12
Missing	6	1	5	0

). Seven out of every ten attendees (69%) at the Holly Bough Service and even more at the Christmas Eve Carol Services (74%) regarded themselves as occasional visitors to the Cathedral. This high proportion indicates a strong loyalty to Liverpool Cathedral among those who come back for occasional visits. At the Holly Bough Service, a further 8% were visiting for the first time; and at the Christmas Eve Carol Services, a further 12% were visiting for the first time. In other words, both the Holly Bough Service and the Christmas Eve Carol Services presented Liverpool Cathedral with unique opportunities to embrace a large number of occasional visitors who may not be coming back for some time, and to a number of first-time visitors who may be tempted to return sometime in the future.

Hearing about the service. The survey invited attendees to indicate how they had heard about the service in terms of six mechanisms and to tick all that applied. Almost half of the attendees at the Holly Bough Service (48%) were there this year because they had been there last year, and 43% of the attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services were there this year because they had been there last year (

Table 7. Hearing about the service.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Came last year	263	48	520	43
Friends invited me	132	24	287	24
Cathedral website	120	22	272	22
Social media	51	9	147	12
Cathedral Christmas leaflet	41	8	62	5
Local news	23	4	46	4
Missing	15	3	0	1

). The Holly Bough Service and the Christmas Eve Carol Services offer an experience that draws people back. The second key influence concerned friends who had attended in previous years and discovered something that they wished to share with others. This was true for 24% of the attendees at the Holly Bough Service and for 24% of the attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services. The Cathedral website played a part by being consulted by 22% of the attendees at both types of service. On the other hand, the Cathedral Christmas leaflet, social media, and local news played a less important part.

Religious affiliation. The survey assessed religious affiliation in terms of the six religious traditions included in the census for England and Wales for the first time in 2001, preceded by the category ‘none’ (Francis 2003; Sherif 2011). At the Holly Bough Service, the majority of attendees (84%) self-assigned as Christian, and 14% self-assigned as none (

Table 8. Religious affiliation.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
None	79	14	230	19
Christian	475	84	972	79
Buddhist	3	1	10	1
Hindu	1	0	4	0
Jewish	2	0	3	0
Muslim	0	0	5	0
Sikh	0	0	0	0
Missing	4	1	10	1

). At the Christmas Eve Carol Services, there was a slightly higher proportion of the religiously unaffiliated (19% compared with 14%) and a slightly lower proportion of those who self-assigned as Christian (79% compared with 84%). There was a small group of attendees from other faith backgrounds at both types of service.

Christian denomination. At the Holly Bough Service, 70% of those who self-identified as Christian were Anglicans, 20% were Catholics, 5% belonged to other Christian groups, and 4% did not identify a specific denomination (

Table 9. Christian denomination.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Anglican	334	70	547	56
Catholic	95	20	246	31
Orthodox	2	0	9	1
Pentecostal	3	1	24	2
Methodist	10	2	26	3
Presbyterian	6	1	10	1
Baptist	3	1	8	1
Unitarian	1	0	4	0
Welsh Presbyterian	1	0	3	0
Other specified	9	2	15	2
No denomination specified	11	2	88	9

Note: Other specified denominations included City Mission, Dutch Reformed, German Evangelical, Latter Day Saints, Lutheran, Quaker, Salvation Army, and Vineyard.

). At the Christmas Eve Carol Services, the proportion of Anglicans was lower (56% compared with 70%) and the proportion of Catholics was higher (31% compared with 20%).

Public worship attendance. Current practice among social scientists identifies as churchgoers people who attend services at least six times a year apart from weddings and funerals (Richter and Francis 1998; Francis and Richter 2007). Using this criterion, slightly over half of the attendees at the Holly Bough Service would be identified as non-churchgoers (52%), compared with (46%) who would be identified as churchgoers (

Table 10. Public worship attendance.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Never	64	11	233	19
At least once a year	232	41	526	43
At least six times a year	97	17	171	14
At least once a month	46	8	74	6
Nearly every week	118	21	218	18
Missing	7	2	12	1

). The situation is somewhat different at the Christmas Eve Carol Services, where 62% would be identified as non-churchgoers, compared with 38% who would be identified as churchgoers. Among the non-churchgoers, 11% at the Holly Bough Service reported as never attending, and the proportion rose to 19% at the Christmas Eve Carol Services. These services clearly attracted people who have widely differing connections with church, and gave the Cathedral the opportunity to connect with many people on the fringes of church life.

3.2. Motivational Intentions

The second part of the questionnaire concerned with motivational intentions was thoroughly completed by 499 attendees at the Holly Bough Service and by 1064 attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services. In other words, 65 attendees at the Holly Bough Service gave up after completing the demographic section and so did 170 attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services. The second part of the questionnaire contained four groups of questions concerning self-assessed religiosity, motivation for attending the Cathedral service, intrinsic religious orientation, and quest religious orientation. The idea of intrinsic religious orientation has its origin in the work of Allport and Ross (1967) and is concerned with the centrality of religion for shaping personal lives. The idea of quest religious orientation has its origin in the work of Batson and Ventis (1982) and is concerned with the centrality for individuals of the religious quest, compared with the importance of reaching religious certainty. Intrinsic religious orientation and quest religious orientation were assessed by the New Indices of Religious Orientation (NIRO; Francis 2007). Intrinsic religious orientation and quest religious orientation are not exclusive categories. The same individuals may score high on both measures, or score low on both measures.

Self-assigned religiosity. Following Heelas and Woodhead’s (2005) initiative, researchers concerned with the place of religion in contemporary societies have invited participants to assess themselves on scales of religion, spirituality, and belief in God. Between one-half and two-thirds of the attendees at the Holly Bough Service and the Christmas Eve Carol Services rated themselves positively on all three scales. At the Holly Bough Service (

Table 11. Self-assessed religiosity.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
I am a religious person	274	55	528	50
I am a spiritual person	329	66	725	68
I believe in God	319	64	675	63

), 55% counted themselves as a religious person, 66% counted themselves as a spiritual person, and 64% counted themselves as believing in God. At the Christmas Eve Carol Services, 50% counted themselves as a religious person, 68% counted themselves as a spiritual person, and 63% count themselves as believing in God.

Motivation for attending Christmas services. Drawing on Walker (2013), the present study identified the six reasons for attending services at Christmas listed in

Table 12. Motivation for attendance.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
To enjoy the Christmas music	476	95	943	93
To remember the Christmas story	407	82	831	82
To keep a traditional Christmas	420	84	874	87
To experience the true meaning of Christmas	379	76	785	78
To worship the Son of God	308	62	591	59
To celebrate Christmas with friends	386	77	859	85

. The top motivation for attending the Holly Bough Service and for attending the Christmas Eve Carol Services was to enjoy the Christmas music (95% and 93%, respectively), followed by to keep a traditional Christmas (84% and 87%, respectively). To remember the Christmas story was a motivation for 82% within both groups. To experience the true meaning of Christmas was a motivation for 76% at the Holly Bough Service and for 78% at the Christmas Eve Carol Services. To celebrate Christmas with friends was a more important motivation for the Christmas Eve Carol Services than for the Holly Bough Service (85% and 77%, respectively). The proportion fell to 62% at the Holly Bough Service and to 59% at the Christmas Eve Carol Services who cited the motivation to worship the Son of God.

Intrinsic religious orientation. The responses to the scale of intrinsic religious orientation (

Table 13. Intrinsic religious orientation.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
My religious beliefs really shape my whole approach to life	222	44	446	44
I try hard to carry my religion over into all my other dealings in life	239	48	426	42
I allow almost nothing to prevent me from going to church on Sundays	97	19	168	17
The church is important to me as a place to share fellowship with other Christians	241	48	470	47
I pray at home because it helps me to be aware of God’s presence	226	45	446	44
I pray chiefly because it deepens my relationship with God	190	38	376	37

) suggest that up to half of the attendees at the Holly Bough Service and the Christmas Eve Carol Services held a significant depth of Christian commitment. Although this was not the kind of Christian commitment reflected in weekly attendance, it was the kind of commitment that Walker (2017) described as engaging with events. Thus, while just 19% and 17% said that they allowed almost nothing to prevent them from going to church on Sundays (a figure closely reflected in the 21% and 18% who attended church nearly every week according to Table 10), 48% and 47% affirmed that church attendance was important to them as a place to share fellowship with other Christians. Twice as many attendees attributed importance to personal prayer compared with those who attributed importance to weekly church attendance. Thus, 38% and 37% affirmed that they pray chiefly because it deepens their relationship with God, and 45% and 44% affirmed that they pray at home because it helps them to be aware of God’s presence. Almost half of the attendees at the Holly Bough Service affirmed that they try hard to carry their religion over into all their other dealings in life (48%), although the proportions fell to 42% of the attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services; 44% of the attendees at both kinds of service agreed that their religious beliefs really shape their whole approach to life.

Quest religious orientation. The responses to the scale of quest religious orientation (

Table 14. Quest religious orientation.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
I was drawn to ask religious questions by a growing awareness of the tensions in my world	140	28	298	30
My life experiences have led me to rethink my religious beliefs	208	42	447	44
I value my religious doubts and uncertainties	259	52	495	49
For me, doubting is an important part of what it means to be religious	244	49	506	50
As I grow and change, I expect my religion to grow and change as well	258	52	558	55
I am constantly questioning my religious beliefs	183	37	379	38

) suggest that up to half of the attendees at the Holly Bough Service and the Christmas Eve Carol Services held a significant commitment to the quest orientation, with very little variation between the two groups. Their religious commitment was one characterised by enquiry, seeking, and testing faith, rather than by longing for certainty and for unchanging truths. In terms of the existentialism component, 28% and 30% of the attendees said that they were driven to ask religious questions by a growing awareness of the tensions in their world, and 42% and 44% affirmed that their life experiences had led them to rethink their religious beliefs. In terms of the self-criticism component, 49% and 50% said that for them doubting is an important part of what it means to be religious, and 52% and 49% affirmed that they value their religious doubts and uncertainties. In terms of the openness to change component, 37% and 38% said that they are constantly questioning their religious beliefs, and 52% and 55% affirmed that, as they grow, they expect their religion to grow and change as well.

3.3. Perceived Impact

Toward the close of the Christmas services, the attendees were invited to reflect on their experience of the service. This part of the questionnaire was thoroughly completed by 420 attendees at the Holly Bough Service and 874 attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services. In other words, a further 79 attendees at the Holly Bough Service and 190 attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services did not return to the second part of the questionnaire when space was offered in the structure of the service for them to do so. The items in this part of the questionnaire followed the prompt ‘Attending the service today in Liverpool Cathedral…’ The items following this prompt reflected the understanding of spiritual wellbeing or spiritual health developed by Fisher (1998, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2016). Fisher’s model of spiritual wellbeing is concerned with the quality of relationships that individuals experience in four domains: with the self (the personal domain), with other people (the communal domain), with the world around them (the environmental domain), and with a personal or impersonal transcendent other (the transcendental domain). Fisher’s model of spiritual wellbeing has been tested through the development of several measures: the Spiritual Health in Four Domains Index (SH4DI; Fisher et al. 2000), the Spiritual Health And Life-Orientation Measure (SHALOM; Fisher 2010, 2016; Gomez and Fisher 2005a, 2005b), and Feeling Good, Living Life (Fisher 2004). The items presented in

Table 15. Perceived impact.

	Holly Bough		Carol Services
	N	%	N	%
Personal
to reflect on my personal wellbeing	310	74	622	71
to feel better about myself	277	66	582	67
to feel less stressed about myself	262	62	546	62
to open my eyes to the good in myself	217	52	486	56
to connect better with my inner self	273	65	549	63
Communal
to reflect on my relationship with other people	309	74	629	71
to feel better about my relationships with other people	269	64	538	62
to feel less stressed about my relationships with other people	235	56	475	54
to open my eyes to the good in other people	274	65	572	65
to connect better with other people close to me	271	65	558	63
Environmental
to reflect on my relationship with the world	276	66	585	67
to feel better about my relationship with the world	226	54	496	57
to feel less stressed about my relationship with the world	203	48	441	50
to open my eyes to the good in the world	262	65	529	60
to connect better with the natural world	203	48	420	48
Transcendental
to reflect on my relationship with God	260	62	548	63
to feel better about my relationship with God	234	56	469	54
to feel less stressed about my relationship with God	195	46	409	47
to open my eyes to the good in God	235	56	518	59
to connect better with God	238	57	476	54

Note: N and % are the sum of the agree and agree strongly response.

build on Fisher’s tradition of measurement.

Across all four domains the responses of those attending the Holly Bough Service and those attending the Christmas Eve Carol Services are quite close (Table 15): they perceived a positive effect from attending the service on their spiritual wellbeing across all four of the domains proposed by Fisher’s relational model. In respect of the personal domain, between half and three-quarters of the attendees affirmed that the service in Liverpool Cathedral has helped them to reflect on their personal wellbeing (74% and 71%), to feel better about themselves (66% and 67%), to connect better with their inner self (65% and 63%), to feel less stressed about themselves (62% and 62%), and to open their eyes to the good in themselves (52% and 56%).

In respect of the communal domain, between half and three-quarters of the attendees affirmed that the service in Liverpool Cathedral had helped them to reflect on their relationships with other people (74% and 71%), to open their eyes to the good in other people (65% and 65%), to connect better with other people close to them (65% and 63%), to feel better about their relationships with other people (64% and 62%), and to feel less stressed about their relationships with other people (56% and 54%).

In respect of the environmental domain, between just under half and two-thirds of the attendees affirmed that the service in Liverpool Cathedral had helped them to reflect on their relationship with the world (66% and 67%), to open their eyes to the good in the world (65% and 60%), to feel better about their relationship with the world (54% and 57%), to feel less stressed about their relationship with the world (48% and 50%), and to connect better with the natural world (48% and 48%).

In respect of the transcendental domain, between just under one-half and just under two-thirds of the attendees affirmed that the service in Liverpool Cathedral had helped them to reflect on their relationship with God (62% and 63%), to connect better with God (57% and 54%), to feel better about their relationship with God (56% and 54%), to open their eyes to the good in God (56% and 59%), and to feel less stressed about their relationship with God (46% and 47%).

4. Conclusions

The present study set out to explore the demographic profile, motivation, and experiences of those attending the Carol Services on Christmas Eve 2019 at Liverpool Cathedral. These new data were set alongside data in an earlier study by Francis et al. (2020c) reporting on the demographic profile, motivation, and experiences of those attending the Holly Bough Service at Liverpool Cathedral on the evening of the Fourth Sunday of Advent 2019. The study had two principle aims. The first aim was to test the similarities and the differences between the two groups of participants attending different kinds of services during the evening of the Sunday immediately before Christmas and during the afternoon of Christmas Eve. The second aim was to test the extent to which these participants met the basic criteria for event-belongers within Walker’s four-fold model of ways of belonging to God through the Anglican Church. The data generated by the study suggest the following eight conclusions.

First, there were some basic similarities in the demographic profiles of those who attended the Holly Bough Service and those who attended the Christmas Eve Carol Services. Both groups were weighted toward women and toward people engaged in professional or semi-professional occupations. The difference between the two groups resided in the age profile. Those who attended on Christmas Eve were younger and were probably more likely to be accompanied by children. There were higher proportions of retired people and of those in their sixties, seventies, and eighties at the Holly Bough Service.

Second, both types of services contained a high proportion of people who would qualify to be included in Walker’s category of event-belongers. Thus, 69% of those at the Holly Bough Service and 74% of those at the Christmas Eve Carol Services described themselves as occasional visitors; 48% of those at the Holly Bough Service and 43% of those at the Christmas Eve Carol Services were at the service this year because they had been there the previous year. It seems to be the case that these event-belongers tend to invite other people to come with them. One in four of those attending either type of service reported that they were there because friends had invited them. If these events were not to be sustained, then the sense of belonging brought with these people would no longer be validated.

Third, approximately one in ten of the participants were visiting for the first time (8% at the Holly Bough Service and 12% at the Christmas Eve Carol Services). The Christmas services at Liverpool Cathedral are not solely for returnees. Newcomers continue to be attracted to the Cathedral.

Fourth, participation in the Christmas services at Liverpool Cathedral is by no means restricted to those who live within a ten-mile radius. Thus, 45% of those at the Holly Bough Service and 39% of those at the two Christmas Eve Carol Services had travelled more than ten miles to be there. The Cathedral has considerable reach beyond the Cathedral Close.

Fifth, the religious profile of the participants reveals that the Christmas services brings into the Cathedral a significant number of people who would generally regard themselves as unconnected with church and with the Christian tradition. At the Holly Bough Service 14% and at the Christmas Eve Carol Services 19% describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. At the Holly Bough Service 11% and at the Christmas Eve Carol Services 19% describe themselves as never attending church services. At the Holly Bough Service 36% and at the Christmas Eve Carol Services 37% do not describe themselves as believing in God. Here is an opportunity for such people to encounter the atmosphere and the faith proclaimed by and within the Cathedral.

Sixth, half of these event-belongers regard themselves as religious people (55% and 50%) and two-thirds regard themselves as spiritual people (66% and 68%). Between two-fifths and nearly half try hard to carry their religious beliefs over into all their other dealings in life (48% and 42%). Over half of them expect their religion to grow and change (52% and 55%). Herein are serious opportunities with which the Cathedral may collaborate.

Seventh, the perceived impact of both the Holly Bough Service and the Christmas Eve Carol Services on spiritual wellbeing is profound. When given the opportunity to reflect seriously on their experience of attending the service, well over half of the attendees felt that they were going away feeling better: feeling better about themselves, feeling better about other people, feeling better about the world, and feeling better about God. Here is perhaps the most important contribution made by Liverpool Cathedral at the centre of a bustling and busy city. Liverpool Cathedral makes an impact for good on the lives of people who engage with it during the major events that shape both the secular and the religious calendar.

Finally, what is it that draws these people to Liverpool Cathedral in the first place? At the top of their list, attendees at the Holly Bough Service (95%) and attendees at the Christmas Eve Carol Services (93%) place the music, while also giving a high priority to the way in which the choice of music offers the opportunity to remember the Christmas story (82%). Liverpool Cathedral is rightly proud of its musical tradition, a tradition that contributes not only to the spiritual life of the Cathedral, but to the cultural life of the city, and to the wellbeing of its people.