Although there are often stories of the rural church being in decline, the popularity of cathedral attendance, particularly at Christmas, has increased.
The most recent statistics on Church of England Cathedrals specifically from 2017 show midweek service attendance changed from a total of 7,000 people attending per week in the year 2000 to just over 18,000 people per week in 2017.
A survey to look into the reasons why people are attracted to evensong has now been launched by University of Oxford musicologist Kathryn King.
The doctoral researcher at Magdalen College will be asking: “Who is going to Choral Evensong? Who’s not going? What does it mean to them? What does it do for them? Why now?
“And what can understanding these motives and experiences add to our understanding of the role of cathedral music in the 21st century?”
She cites an increase of 35 per cent in evensong attendance since 2007 and the listener data for BBC Radio 3’s Choral Evensong, showing its highest audience levels in the programme’s 92-year history, as a catylist for her curiosity.
Her research methods will combine insights from music psychology, using the congregations of two cathedrals and an Oxford college; interviews and focus groups and a programme of psychological and physiological ‘experiments’.
Her project will include an immersive Evensong experience, which…
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