An announcement from Westminster Faith Debates, Clergy Polled In New Anglican Survey, reports that:
A new survey is underway, gathering information about the beliefs and values of Anglican clergy in the UK for the purpose of academic research, and to support a forthcoming debate series on the Future of the Church of England. Designed by Professor Linda Woodhead at Lancaster University, the survey is being administered by the professional market research agency YouGov among a random sample of UK clergy. It is carried out anonymously so that individuals can complete their answers and express their views with the guarantee of confidentiality.
The research is gathering opinion on different aspects of the Church of England and its future direction from the people who serve it and know it better than anyone. As well as seeking views on the operation and priorities of the Anglican Church itself, the survey also asks for responses to questions on various moral, social and political issues. Findings will be made available on the Westminster Faith Debates website in due course.
These findings will also inform a series of free debates to be held at the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford this autumn, which will bring distinguished speakers and experts together with an open public audience to consider how the Church of England can flourish in the future. Panellists include Sir Tony Baldry MP, Vicky Beeching, Diarmaid MacCulloch and the Bishop of Oxford, and the debates will be made available online afterwards as podcasts. The events are being organised by the Westminster Faith Debates, with the support of Ripon College, Cuddesdon and the Church Times.
In addition, Professor Woodhead is inviting any Anglican clergy who are listed in Crockfords to nominate themselves to participate in a panel, which she can call upon to respond to future requests for polls of clergy opinion. Write to s.reader@lancs.ac.uk putting ‘panel’ in the subject line.
Seems I’m not random enough. Is that good or bad?
The link to the survey doesn’t quite seem to work. It gives me an intro, but there appears to be no link to click to get into it. Or is it me?
Jeremy, it is only a link to a picture of the front page of the questionnaire, to give a hint of what is being referred to. The survey itself is not at present available online.
Fr Paul, the survey chose every third person from the database, so you are in the majority. No idea if that means good or bad 🙂
I tend towards the sceptical, but perhaps I’m over-influenced by Steve Bruce’s passionate defence of secularisation theory. I tend to think there’s a question whether Linda Woodhead’s research is over-influenced by her desire to argue for a different kind of church which takes seriously the (to Bruce and others a vanishingly small group of) spiritual-but-not-religious
If it takes 10 to 15 minutes to fill in, it can’t be very in-depth. Theology is a writing and speaking art-form that allows one kind of presentation to sound like one thing while meaning another, and clergy as preachers are quite skilled in this. Use of questions instead of statements, a referral back to history, use of technical language all helps. Perhaps anonymity and must be bullet points creates a clarity of expression that is unusual.
“Professor Woodhead is inviting any Anglican clergy who are listed in Crockfords to nominate themselves to participate in a panel”
Repeat after me. Selection Bias, selection bias, selection bias…..
Seems to me this is a sort of liberal (in varying degrees) fight-back. Jolly good.
Linda Woodhead is worth her weight in gold – to the whole of the Church of England. She makes no secret of her liberalism, and correctly defends it as a legitimate philosophy with an important role to play in our national church. But she is also a professional and honest collector and interpreter of independent data and this makes a truly priceless contribution to debates which are otherwise too often based merely on the personal and anecdotal. She is definitely part of the solution for a Church of England which has been losing its way, and we are very lucky… Read more »
Peter,
why selection bias?
‘The research is gathering opinion on different aspects of the Church of England and its future direction from the people who serve it and know it better than anyone.’
‘Selection bias’ seems a very biased way of describing this cohort. And a survey of all C of E members would yield results even less congenial to PO.
Peter and Erica: ‘Selection bias’: yes, if people are invited to invite themselves to take part, depending on where the survey is advertised, of course – but better described as ‘SELF selection bias’.
But the original survey – every third name on the database – is surely not biased in its selection criteria?
The pool of possible respondents does not seem to reflect any bias, but there may in the long run be a bias based on who chooses to respond. It may be heavily weighted towards people who tend to respond to survey requests. 😉
“It is carried out anonymously so that individuals can complete their answers and express their views with the guarantee of confidentiality.”
it must be wonderful to know you don’t have to be afraid of your bishop.
This does sound a wee bit like the Roman Catholic Survey of how members of that Church have responded to the more recent call to comment on matters of social, moral and liturgical concern in today’s world. I guess this C. of E. initiative has about the same odds of producing an accurate picture of the view of clerics in the C. of E. At least, there is the guarantee of anonymity for the clergy concerned. Not sure how a survey of interested laity would measure up – considering the vociferous voices of the few who held up the process… Read more »
Father Ron, you said “Not sure how a survey of interested laity would measure up – considering the vociferous voices of the few who held up the process of ordaining women bishops not too long ago.” The organisation doing this survey did a survey of the views of the laity on gay marriage, with interesting results. To quote from their website “Our YouGov survey found an overall majority (52%) in favour of same-sex marriage and an even split among religious people, with those who identify as Anglican and Catholic supporting it by a small margin despite the churches’ official opposition.”… Read more »
I am one if the ‘lucky’ one-third, although I am part of the Church in Wales rather than the CofE. Some questions seemed biased to a liberal viewpoint, others to a conservative one. The multiple choice format is not subtle and there are too many questions where a ‘good enough’ answer had to be given. The questions on the nature of God and the route to salvation are far too simplistic, but there has to be a limit as write-in answers would not be helpful. So, perhaps like an opinion poll, results may be helpful to show a general direction… Read more »
Every third name from a directory is a random sample
Richard, as a non research scientist can I ask how a random sample differs from choosing every third applicant?
“The research is gathering opinion on different aspects of the Church of England and its future direction from the people who serve it and know it better than anyone”.
The position of the laity to the clergy in the Church of England can nowadays be compared to the position of recipients of services/welfare to the public sector providers.
We also serve, you know, even if we are not members of your exclusive club. And I once thought we were all in it together.
Well said, Jill Armstead! I’m sorry to say that my former diocese’s magazine, Crux, seems to contain almost exclusively stories about clergy, as if nobody else in the church mattered or did any work.
Thanks for commenting. You’ve answered all the questions yourselves, but just to reiterate: -the current survey is a random sample (every 3rd name is a standard way of constructing such) -we are also asking clergy who are willing to join a panel for occasional future surveys. This will be weighted in order to minimise bias -we already surveyed the laity (and clergy) in two large population surveys last year, results here: http://faithdebates.org.uk/ -there is indeed a limit to the theological and other depths that survey questions can probe, but this one is not just about theology -all academics have their… Read more »