As Anglican chaplains should we be worried about Anglican \u2018brand loyalty\u2019 on the part of our students and staff. In the current climate, is it not enough to \u2018rejoice and be glad\u2019 when anyone takes the Christian faith seriously be that of any (or almost any) hue?<\/p>\n
Before coming to any form of conclusion on this rather ticklish question, let us examine the evidence. Guest et al<\/em> (2013) have revealed an intriguing window into what is taking place. First, we need to understand the general picture.<\/p>\n \u201c[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.\u201d (p.92)<\/p>\n What then happens to Anglicans? Their \u2018brand loyalty\u2019 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).<\/p>\n Thus overall, Anglican churches appear to maintain their \u2018market share\u2019 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 <\/em>point out, has some profound implications for the future theological balance of the Anglican Church (Ibid<\/em>., p.204) and raises questions of precisely what conception of \u2018Anglican\u2019 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 \u2018brand\u2019 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 \u2018up\u2019 rather than \u2018down\u2019, probably in part so as to distinguish themselves from the Christian Union.<\/p>\n One should not, however, rush to the conclusion that somehow loyalty to the \u2018Anglican brand\u2019 is being built during the university years. The privileging of an \u2018individual\u2019s right to choose\u2019 \u2013 such a potent and ubiquitous contemporary conviction – means personal autonomy is likely to win out over any sense of \u2018brand loyalty\u2019 (Guest et al<\/em>, 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 \u2018Active Affirmers\u2019). Thus the adoption of Anglicanism at university is probably more a \u2018flag of convenience\u2019 than a matter of deep commitment.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s convictions. Further, to capitulate to a demand to fight for \u2018market share\u2019 is to effectively support the prevailing \u2018marketing of everything\u2019 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As Anglican chaplains should we be worried about Anglican \u2018brand loyalty\u2019 on the part of our students and staff. In the current climate, is it not enough to \u2018rejoice and be glad\u2019 when anyone takes the Christian faith seriously be that of any (or almost any) hue? 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