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Introducing ‘Insights’ at Liverpool Cathedral

Liverpool Cathedral has always been more than just a place of worship—it’s a cornerstone of our community, contributing significantly to the social, cultural, and spiritual life of Liverpool. The ‘Insights’ is our dedicated initiative to measure and showcase this positive impact.

With five key objectives, Insights aims to:

  1. Document the Cathedral’s Benefits: We’re capturing the many ways in which the Cathedral enriches the lives of our visitors, worshippers, and the broader community.
  2. Understand Expectations: By listening to those who engage with the Cathedral, we’re learning about their needs and expectations to serve them better.
  3. Assess New Initiatives: We’re evaluating the success of new programs and initiatives to ensure they deliver meaningful benefits.
  4. Establish Best Practices: Our goal is to identify and implement the most effective strategies for community engagement and support.
  5. Secure Future Funding: By proving the Cathedral’s impact, we aim to secure the resources needed to continue our vital work.

Through ‘Insights’ , we’re committed to making informed, evidence-based decisions that enhance our social contributions. The findings and tools developed will not only benefit Liverpool Cathedral but will also be shared with other organisations to advance knowledge and best practices in this field. Regular seminars and workshops will be held to disseminate insights and foster collaboration across communities.

Social impact can be defined as the effect on people and communities that results from an action or inaction, activity, project, programme, or policy.

Social value is a way of quantifying the relative importance of impacts that are not already captured in financial or market transactions

Dr Ann Casson, Liverpool Cathedral Insights lead

The Light Before Christmas: The Angels Are Coming, held from 2nd to 9th December 2022, and the second in the Son et Lumiere immersive experience series, ‘Light Before Christmas: The Manger,’ from 1 to 8 December 2023, were stunning Son et Lumière installations by Luxmuralis, featuring the artistic talents of sculptor Peter Walker and composer David Harper. This immersive light and sound experience captivated audiences, transforming Liverpool Cathedral into a visual and auditory wonderland. In this research insight, we explore the different types of audiences who attended this extraordinary event and their thoughts on the installation. From first-time visitors to loyal attendees, their feedback sheds light on the wide-reaching impact of this festive spectacle.

The Insight Lead post is funded through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Liverpool Cathedral, Bishop Grosseteste University, and Innovate UK.

Click Here to read the Insights Research

 

The Octobers Post Graduate Learning Community Seminar offered a diverse mix of papers. One theme in several papers was the nature of Liverpool Cathedral’s role as a sacred space and common ground, blurring the boundary between the sacred and the secular.
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A summary of the presentations is offered below; the complete abstracts of the papers with the author’s contact details are Found Here

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Summary
One strand of papers illuminated the diversity of activities occurring within Cathedrals: Three papers looked at the creative arts.
• The social and cultural significance of Liverpool Cathedral’s music outreach initiatives, with particular focus on two key projects, the Digital Turn Project (2020-2024) and the Social Value of Music Participation Project (2022-2024). (Krüger Bridge)
• An understanding of Liverpool Cathedral as a space where theology and art intersect was considered, particularly an enabling of deeper reflection and public engagement. (Mart)
• A philosophical exploration of the aesthetic experience suggested an alternative object, where the object is not the form of the artwork itself, but instead, the object is located within an artwork and only in some instances is revealed. (Deacon)
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Two papers explored the experience of people who encountered the Cathedral as worshippers or visitors:
• Exploring the therapeutic effects of Catholic-Charismatic worship on individuals’ wellbeing looked at the potential within empirical research to record this trend. (Davies)
• Observations of visitors’ experience of digital technology and co-creation at cathedrals underscored the effect of digital co-creation on public value, aesthetic, economic, environmental and social. (Walker)
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Two papers considered children and young people’s experience:
• Considering children’s spirituality highlighted Liverpool Cathedral’s potential contribution to children’s spiritual development. (Casson)
• Another paper, although it did not specifically focus on cathedrals, examined young people’s engagement with Scripture to support their faith construction. (Miller)
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A second strand of papers focused on the merits of robustly applying psychological theories to clergy well-being and religious experience. These papers offered a means to better understand:
• The well-being of the Catholic Indian clergy was analysed using the lens of the Francis Burnout Inventory (FBI), which defines the positive work-related psychological health of priests and clergy as a balance between positive and negative emotions. (Swaminathan)
• The value of applying established psychological instruments was shown in exploring Catholic priests’ personality profiles in Italy. (Crea)
• The efficacy of applying personality psychology to analyse religious experiences identified by key hallmarks of RSEs, including transiency, ineffability, and noetic quality, revealed fascinating insights. (Vroom)
• The contribution of randomised controlled trials to religious and spiritual research was evaluated with suggestions to make this process more robust and accessible. (Sailer)
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The next Liverpool Cathedral Post-Graduate Learning Community Seminar will be held on Monday, February 24th, and Tuesday, February 25th.
For further information, please contact Leslie.Francis@warwick.ac.uk.

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