U.K. Churches Viewed More Positively Since COVID-19 Pandemic, New Survey Shows
NEW YORK — A survey commissioned by YourNeighbour and the international Christian children’s charity World Vision shows that non-Christians in the U.K. have developed a more positive view of the church since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
As of February 2021, 25% of those surveyed agree with the statement that the U.K. Church is making a positive difference in the world. This is up from 19% three years ago, the report says.
Dr. Russell Rook, co-founder of YourNeighbour. Courtesy of Jersey Road PR.
“The last time it was trying to work out whether people in the country think the church has a beneficial role within their communities,” said Dr. Russell Rook, co-founder of YourNeighbor. “What we were looking for in a year where the church has been more high profile was whether this amount of social action that churches have been engaged in punctured the public imagination.”
YourNeighbor is an organization of over 1,000 churches in the U.K. of varying denominations founded this time last year that works with the government to bring unity and community aid in the COVID-19 pandemic.
They launch the six week Give Hope campaign on Feb. 22, starting with Vaccine Week to spread awareness and give practical help to churches and those looking to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The campaign will cover the span of the Lenten season and will include missions such as training adults who want to become foster or adoptive parents, prioritizing mental wellbeing and offering financial help to those unemployed or in debt.
Graph created by Stuart Strother.
“Churches have brilliant resources in terms of helping people who are in debt, helping people who are in a difficult family situation or helping people to find work,” Rook said. “And what we need to do is create more resources so that churches could start up more of those programs at a time when they'll be desperately needed.”
Beyond the six week campaign, the Give Hope program will last five years. YourNeighbour will focus on long-term solutions for the community and the church.
“If we can get you into work, if we can help you deal with challenges of debt in your family — or whatever the causes of your food poverty are — then obviously that's much better than the church just having to deliver more and more food, week in, week out,” Rook said.
Internationally, churches have been leading areas of community outreach in the past year, particularly in spreading awareness about COVID-19 and available vaccines to combat misformation. Christians like Thabani Maphosa from Zimbabwe, who oversees global vaccine distribution for a public-private health partnership in many low-income and middle-income countries, have encouraged the church to help the poor receive and welcome vaccines.
Graph created by Stuart Strother.
As Religion Unplugged recently wrote about, Antiochian Orthodox priest Rev. Paul Abernathy is combating vaccine skepticism by visiting homes in Pittsburgh, Pa. to answer questions and offer reassurance. Megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes in Dallas, Texas hosted a panel of experts to debunk misinformation.
“One of the aspects is not just about doing the work of God to others, but it actually includes people in the work that we are doing in the community,” Rook said, “which is saying, ‘We think we're doing a great job. But we could do an even better job if you joined us and you helped and were part of our programs.’”
A report from Pew Research Center shows that personal faith has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. The report suggests this is at least partially correlated with the desire to turn to God in a time of crisis.
Read more: Nearly a Third of Americans Say COVID-19 Has Strengthened Their Faith
The U.S. experienced the largest uptick in faith, according to Pew. In the U.K., 10% of people said their personal faith grew because of COVID-19. This is one of the natural results of the community work they’re doing, Rook says.
He also believes COVID-19 has created an opportunity to offer more online church programs and that worship is more accessible now than it ever has been.
“People are hungry for these things and they've not had a way of accessing the church as they do right now, in such a safe way as they can through an online presence,” he said. “We hope that we're just a really small part of a global movement right now, whereby God's Holy Spirit is reenergizing the church so that it can reestablish itself and the hearts of every community in the world.”
Jillian Cheney is a Poynter-Koch fellow for Religion Unplugged who loves consuming good culture and writing about it. She also reports on American Protestantism and evangelical Christianity. You can find her on Twitter @_jilliancheney.