Believing and Belonging in Britain Yearly Meeting
Many of us are very interested in where British Quakerism is at present and what its future may hold but we often lack very basic information about who we are and what we believe. This survey, following one we ran in 1990, 2003 and 2013, is a vital piece of that information-gathering.
About the Survey
There are five sections to the survey. In the first, we ask you about your religious background and upbringing, and your introduction to Quakerism. In the second, we ask about your religious beliefs. The third section explores your attitudes to Quaker practice, the fourth ideas about the world. The fifth section asks basic questions about yourself. Some questions have been borrowed from other surveys so we can compare Friends’ responses with the wider population.
The survey is quite long and may take up to half an hour to complete but previous experience is that many people have found it helpful in helping them think through their ideas. We hope and trust you find it an interesting and fulfilling exercise. We want everyone to complete the survey: all those worshiping with Quakers across Britain (online or in-person / member or attender) or considering themselves Quaker. Please share the link, and please see if you can help those without internet access to complete the survey. Please ask others in your worshipping community if they have already completed the survey.
At the end, you can volunteer to be one of about thirty people we hope to interview later. All the results will be held anonymously and confidentially. If you are not based in Britain or connected to a British Quaker Meeting please don’t complete the survey at this time – we are planning a worldwide survey of Quakers in 2024. The deadline for the survey has now passed.
The data from the survey will be analysed as part of a CRQS PhD project and the results will be made widely available through Woodbrooke courses and publications.
Survey Update
Over 4600 Quakers completed the survey, we are delighted with this response. The data is being collected together. We need to transfer the responses from the paper forms Friends kindly sent in to a computer so that we have it all together. Then the process of reviewing the design and of analysis will begin. We hope to share some results in 2024 and the major conference on The Future of British Quakerism that Woodbrooke is organising in the second half of 2024, will definitely feature some of the findings.
At the same time, we are designing a survey to be used by participants at the FWCC World Plenary in August to begin our work on Quakerism globally. We are very grateful to everyone who completed the survey and to those who sent in comments in its design.
