The Science of Cathedral Studies: Exploring Demographic Profile, Motivational Intentions, and Perceived Impact among those Attending the Holly Bough Service in Liverpool Cathedral

Abstract

The Holly Bough service is a unique pre-Christmas event, combining musical excellence and theological depth, crafted by the founding dean of Liverpool Cathedral in the early twentieth century for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Located within the developing science of cathedral studies, this paper analyses the demographic profile, motivational intention (drawing on religious orientation theory) and perceived impact on spiritual wellbeing (drawing on Fisher’s four dimensional model) among 564 participants who completed a detailed survey at the service held in 2019. The data demonstrated a mix of ages, a sense of Anglican commitment to this form of event-belonging by those who return year-on-year and invite friends to join them, and a perceived beneficial impact on all four dimensions of spiritual wellbeing.

Cathedrals as agents of psychological health and well-being within secular societies: Assessing the impact of the Holly Bough service in Liverpool Cathedral

“…The 'events' best researched within the science of cathedral studies are the pre-Christmas carol services as evidenced by Walker (2012aWalker ( , 2012bWalker ( , 2013Walker ( , 2015aWalker ( , 2015b. Within the group of studies concerned with carol services, Francis et al (2020b) found that over half of the participants at a pre-Christmas service in Liverpool Cathedral reported that the service had enhanced their sense of well-being over the four domains embraced by Fisher's (1998Fisher's ( , 2016 model of spiritual health. From our analysis of this study, we concluded that the research design was weak, in the sense that it relied on the participants' feeling that the service had acted as an agent of psychological health and well-being for them.…”

“…Alongside the Sunday congregation and the hidden congregation, cathedrals attract different styles of congregations for special events and for special occasions. Amongst these special events and special occasions, the specific event that has received most attention is the Christmas carol service, from both qualitative (Coleman, Bowman & Sepp 2019;Murphy 2016;Muskett 2017;Phillips 2010) and quantitative perspectives (Francis et al 2020b;Francis, Edwards & ap Siôn in press;Walker 2012aWalker , 2012bWalker , 2013Walker , 2015aWalker , 2015b. A particular feature of these studies is that they draw attention to the distinctive profile of the individuals who come to these services.…”

“…One stream of the quantitative studies conducted amongst those who attend carol services has explored the participants' self-perceived impact of attendance at such services. Using the four-component model of spiritual well-being proposed by Fisher (1998Fisher ( , 2004Fisher ( , 2010Fisher ( , 2011Fisher ( , 2016) that speaks about the personal domain, the communal domain, the environmental domain and the transcendental domain, Francis et al (2020b) found that over half of the participants surveyed at the pre-Christmas service in Liverpool Cathedral reported that the service had helped them over all four domains: 66% felt better about themselves (personal domain), 64% felt better about their relationship with other people (communal domain), 54% felt better about their relationships with the world (environmental domain) and 56% felt better about their relationship with God (transcendental domain). This indicates that cathedrals enhance the psychological health and well-being of those who attend special events.…”

“…Whilst the cumulative evidence arising from the previous research reviewed here is largely consistent in supporting the view that people who come to cathedrals, either as worshippers or as tourists, tend to feel that their psychological health and well-being has been enhanced by such engagement, the research design from which such data have been derived is weak. For example, the recent study by Francis et al (2020b) amongst individuals who attended the pre-Christmas service in Liverpool Cathedral reported that 66% of the participants had helped them to feel better about themselves. Reported self-perception of this nature is of considerable importance, but there are research designs that can generate a different and stronger kind of evidence.…”

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

“…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(Walker , 2010a(Walker , 2010b and cathedral carol services (Walker 2012a(Walker , 2012b(Walker , 2013(Walker , 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 2020aFrancis et al , 2020bFrancis et al , 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.…”