The Anglican Church in Newfoundland: an exceptional case?

• Main Author: Peddle, Geoffrey
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: BR Christianity; Canada; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/27921/; https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/27921/1/2012peddlegphd.pdf; https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/27921/7/PeddleG.pdf

Statistical trends among the Anglican Churches of Canada, the United States of America and England demonstrate significant patterns of decline not yet apparent in the Anglican Church in Newfoundland. This dissertation sets out to assess the extent to which this resilience is associated with a civic and church structure that has maintained a high level of investment in the social components of religious expression and the more private devotional patterns of Anglican life. This dissertation is divided into three parts. Part 1 will look at the origins of the Anglican Church in Newfoundland and its contemporary place in society and will propose social capital theory as a theoretical explanation for the patterns of Anglican Church life in Newfoundland. The relevance of religious orientation theory will be considered as a counterbalance to ask if the social capital found among Anglican churchgoers in Newfoundland is at the expense of intrinsic religious motivation. Part 2 begins with a discussion of methodological considerations followed by a comparison of statistical trends since 1960 for the Anglican Church in Newfoundland, the Anglican Church in the rest of Canada, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and the Church of England. A contemporary profile of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador will then be considered followed by a qualitative study of the Diocese. Results from the US Congregational Life Survey administered in the Diocese will also be presented, enabling comparisons to be undertaken between the Anglican Church in Newfoundland and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. Part 3 will reveal that in and around the Anglican Church in Newfoundland social capital remains high along with intrinsic religious motivation among churchgoers but it will be shown that the resilience of the Church is due to an unusually high degree of passive church membership in the wider society and the mutually beneficial way in which the Church and the community around it relate.