Interfaith activity among faith communities has more than tripled since 2000, according to the latest national survey of U.S. faith communities.
The survey, sponsored by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, found that slightly more than two in 10 (22.3%) congregations reported participating in an interfaith worship service in the past year. Nearly four in 10 (37.5%) congregations reported joining in interfaith community service activities.
These figures are from Faith Communities Today 2005 (FACT2005) survey of 884 randomly sampled congregations of all faith traditions in the United States. The survey updates results from a survey taken in 2000, before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The 2000 figures are from the groundbreaking, baseline setting, FACT2000 survey of 14,301 randomly sampled congregations. FACT2000 found that only 7% of congregations reported participating in interfaith worship in the previous 12 months, while only 8% reported joining in interfaith community service activities.
David A. Roozen, director of the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership and professor of religion and society at Hartford Seminary, said immediately after September 11 there was a surge of interfaith activity, but by the following year many social commentators were talking about a return to the general interfaith indifference of pre-2001. There were no hard data to support or refute such claims. Now we know, four years later. The increased attention being given by communities of faith to interfaith engagements continues to be dramatic.
Roozen continued, The Sept. 11 upturn in interfaith awareness has been accompanied by a fundamental change in the United States’ perception of the American religious mosaic. Our public consciousness has had to acknowledge in the most powerful way in our history that the religious liberty-in-diversity that Americans cherish has moved from ecumenical Christian to interfaith, and that this American, interfaith consciousness will forevermore include Islam.
As I noted almost five years ago, the Democratic presidency of Jimmy Carter will long be associated with our country’s rediscovery of evangelical, born again Protestantism. With equal irony, it will likely be that the Republican presidency of George W. Bush is long remembered as marking the official acknowledgement and affirmation of Islam’s addition to America’s interfaith reality, Roozen said
The FACT2005 survey also shows that interfaith worship is significantly higher for mainline Protestant congregations (30%) than for other Protestants (17%), and slightly higher among mainline Protestants than for the Catholic and Orthodox faith family (28%). [Other Protestant includes both evangelical and historically black Protestant groups.]
But it is highest among congregations in faith traditions other than Christian (40%). The latter makes sense, according to Roozen, because as minority faith traditions in the U.S. context, they arguably have most to gain from increased understanding and tolerance; and also because of demographics, they tend to be concentrated in cosmopolitan areas where there are larger numbers of Christian congregations seeking to partner with relatively small numbers of other than Christian communities.
In terms of interfaith community service activities the faith family pattern runs from other than Christian as the highest (64%) followed by Catholic and Orthodox (59%), mainline Protestant (46%) and other Protestant (30%). That the relative ranking of Catholic and Orthodox interfaith involvement in community service is higher than for interfaith worship makes sense, Roozen said, because of the unique sacramental practice and theology that defines worship in this tradition.
Levels of interfaith worship do not vary greatly by region of the country, according to the survey, although and not surprisingly it is slightly lower in regions of evangelical strength (the South and West — both at 21% of congregations) and higher in regions with higher concentrations of mainline Protestant congregations (the Northeast –26%; and the Midwest — 23%).
These surveys were conducted by Faith Communities Today (FACT), a collaboration of American faith communities known as the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership (CCSP) and hosted by Hartford Seminary’s Hartford Institute for Religion Research. FACT2000 and FACT2005 are the first two of an ongoing series of national surveys designed to track changes in U.S. congregations. The studies aim to offer research-based resources for congregational development that are useful across faith traditions, believing that communities of faith encounter common issues and can benefit from one another’s experiences. In addition, the researchers seek to inform the public about the contributions of congregations to American society and about the changes affecting and emanating from one of America’s major sources of voluntary association — local congregations. Further information may be found at the FACT/CCSP Web site at https://FACT.hartsem.edu for a complete list and further information.
