‘There are plenty of Britons who want to find their spiritual voice’

Cristina Odone Sunday September 11, 2005 The Observer

The statistics should worry God-botherers like me. Fewer than 40 per cent of Britons attend church – ever. The great majority think that faith schools should be shut down. And every Christmas and Easter, vox pops reveal how no one seems to know what these holidays mean. No wonder that in any description of Britain, the adjective ‘secular’ features prominently. And yet. Let a pope or a princess die, or a tsunami strike, and Britons fill churches up and down the land

Ask parents of any class and in any area, whether they would like to send their child to a faith school and, lowering their voice and looking furtively over their shoulder, they will tell you that, yes, they know that some of the best schools in Britain are church schools and that if only they could somehow swing it, they would enrol their children there. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence, too, to show that the most secular of parents will swallow their pride and prejudice and show up at church, contribute generously to parish funds – and lavish hospitality on the vicar – in the hope of securing a place for their son at St Someone’s C of E school.

Equally revealing is the way alternative spiritualities – anything from the kabbala to crystal gazing – are attracting more and more spiritual seekers. Men and women desperate to explore another dimension have turned this into a billion pound industry.

If we are turning into a secular society, then we are doing so reluctantly. The liberal intelligentsia may scoff, but the majority want to believe in something and still feel their faith tugging at them. The churches could easily capitalise on this vague, but real, spiritual hunger. Yet, as I found in making the film Godless Britain (part of the Don’t Get Me Started series on Channel 5), the churches are uncertain about how to reel in potential converts.

Again and again in the course of my interviews, I heard vicars and priests say that they did not think they were ‘reaching’ some of the people who might be interested in finding a life of the spirit. Yet they also confessed that they felt nothing but hostility towards the media, the very conduits which could prove useful in rebuilding a faith-based society. In their eyes, journalists have done nothing but knock the religious-minded, reducing them all to the most degrading denominators: paedophiles, homophobes, misogynists.

How could they trust this lot to spread their message? Fallon, the firm that redirected Skoda’s image, turning it from laughable rust-bucket to bargain VW, volunteered its services to rebrand the church. But the Christian leaders I spoke to reacted as if the offer were like selling advertising space on an altar cloth.

This wariness may be understandable, but it is unhelpful. There are plenty of Britons who want to find their spiritual voice, but just need to hear how. By playing the media game, savvy churches can sharpen the message, polish their image and see off their foes. It wasn’t being standoffish and timid that turned Christianity from being a tiny sect in first-century Palestine to a world religion. Godless Britain is at 7.30pm on Tuesday on Channel 5

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1567225,00.html

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