As Anglican chaplains should we be worried about Anglican ‘brand loyalty’ on the part of our students and staff. In the current climate, is it not enough to ‘rejoice and be glad’ when anyone takes the Christian faith seriously be that of any (or almost any) hue?
Before coming to any form of conclusion on this rather ticklish question, let us examine the evidence. Guest et al (2013) have revealed an intriguing window into what is taking place. First, we need to understand the general picture.
“[O]f all self-identifying Christians who attended church before university, 45.3% continue to attend a church within the same denominational category at university, 15.5% switch to a different denominational category, while 39.2% opt out of churchgoing altogether.” (p.92)
What then happens to Anglicans? Their ‘brand loyalty’ across the transition to university is pretty much in line with the average at 45.4%, but there is a higher drop off rate for those who give up on churchgoing at 44.6%. However, this does not mean that Anglican churches are relatively poorly attended by those at university. These losses are more or less compensated for by the transferring loyalty of others, particularly those of evangelical leanings (pp.203f).
Thus overall, Anglican churches appear to maintain their ‘market share’ of students in the transition to university, but do so primarily by a migration of both established and new evangelicals. This, as Guest et al point out, has some profound implications for the future theological balance of the Anglican Church (Ibid., p.204) and raises questions of precisely what conception of ‘Anglican’ is gaining ground. In other words, non-evangelical expressions of Anglicanism may begin to look like endangered species. This rings true with my own experience where comparatively few of the Anglican students who demonstrate an increased intensity of commitment elect to adopt my own ‘brand’ of thinking orthodoxy that is central in its church tradition by conviction (not by passive default). A significant minority of such students, however, do elect to move ‘up’ rather than ‘down’, probably in part so as to distinguish themselves from the Christian Union.
One should not, however, rush to the conclusion that somehow loyalty to the ‘Anglican brand’ is being built during the university years. The privileging of an ‘individual’s right to choose’ – such a potent and ubiquitous contemporary conviction – means personal autonomy is likely to win out over any sense of ‘brand loyalty’ (Guest et al, 2013, p.202). And if there is a secularizing tendency engendered by university participation this is it: the placing of personal freedom above church authority and religious conformism (p.203). Ironically this also goes hand in hand with a migration towards the ethical norms of society on the part of student Christians (except for certain ‘Active Affirmers’). Thus the adoption of Anglicanism at university is probably more a ‘flag of convenience’ than a matter of deep commitment.
It seems to me that, in all honesty, we have relatively little control over which denomination students might chose to align themselves, and that any attempt to manipulate this could well be a form of disloyalty to our own Anglican inheritance which has quite a lot to say about the bestowal of freedom to follow one’s convictions. Further, to capitulate to a demand to fight for ‘market share’ is to effectively support the prevailing ‘marketing of everything’ that places popularity above integral value and is thus hard to reconcile with a quest for what is true, good and beautiful, the quest for God.
Rather we need to have and demonstrate confidence in our own tradition. This is a tradition that gives room to breathe. It can hold in balance Scripture, reason, tradition and (reflection on) experience in a way that both supports and guides freedom of conscience. It means taking our place alongside such luminaries as Richard Hooker, George Herbert and William Temple. Yet, to speak personally here, I am not an Anglican because I weighed up the options available to me and made a conscious choice. I am an Anglican because it was through the providential mediation of this tradition that God found me. And I remain an Anglican because it is through the mediation of this tradition that God still finds me.
No thoughts yet on “Promoting Anglican ‘brand loyalty’?”