The Worship in Birmingham Project aims to produce a body of data about the nature of worship in different religious traditions within Birmingham. The Project aims to assess this data comparatively in order to add to our knowledge about the way in which worship impacts on the lives of ordinary worshippers and congregations within the city.

The Project consists of a number of postgraduate students at PhD and MPhil level, each of whom is undertaking a detailed ethnographic study of some aspect of worship in Birmingham. These students, along with the Project Director, other staff members and consultants, also form a wider 'research team' which will facilitate the comparative analysis of the data collected through regular seminars, conferences and a close working relationship.

The work undertaken by the Project falls into four interrelated areas:-

COMPARATIVE WORSHIP: RITUAL, PERFORMANCE, LANGUAGE Drawing on previous anthropological work on ritual in different cultural settings the Project aims to ask whether there are any common themes or processes within congregational worship in contemporary Birmingham.

CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALITIES The Project aims to investigate the relationship between formal, congregational worship in different religious traditions and the forms of spirituality expressed by individuals both within and outside the congregations involved.

WORSHIP, COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL VALUES Can worship create community or influence wider social values? The Project aims to explore the relationship between worship, community and social values in different religious and cultural traditions, placing a particular emphasis on the way in which worship encourages values to be actualised in practice.

WORSHIP IN AN URBAN ECOLOGY The Project aims to explore the relationship between worship, religious congregations and regeneration within inner-urban areas of the city with a particular focus on Highgate.

MA in RELIGION AND CULTURE The Project is rooted in the MA in Religion and Culture in the Department of Theology which is co-ordinated by the Project Director. This MA aims to act as a bridge between theological and anthropological enquiry and has a primary focus on religion as it is actually practised. The MA involves a major element of research training in ethnographic methods and all the students taking the course are expected to undertake three months of fieldwork in the Highgate area of Birmingham.

PUBLICATIONS Each student attached to the Project is expected to complete a PhD/MPhil or MA dissertation and to produce Journal articles related to their chosen topic. A series of publications will also be published on a regular basis. These will include both specific monographs relating to the work of individual studies and edited texts which draw on the comparative element of the Project. A network of interested scholars from around the world each receives a quarterly research bulletin produced by the Project (for further details contact the Director).

OUTCOMES FOR CONGREGATIONS INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT Individual ethnographic research projects are understood to be a corporate activity between the researcher and the host community. The Project therefore offers an opportunity for any congregation which chooses to become involved to evaluate their worship, their congregational life or the impact of their worship on the wider community.

OUTCOMES FOR RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS Regular events are organised with representatives from the religious organisations involved with the Project at which material relevant to that religious body can be communicated and discussed. In this way it is hoped that the Project can offer help and encouragement to any religious institution which was concerned with its worship and impact of that worship on their members.

The Worship In Birmingham Project is based in the Department of Theology at the University of Birmingham.

DIRECTOR: Dr Martin Stringer, Department of Theology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham. B15 2TT (Telephone: 0121 414 6867,  Fax: 0121 414 6866)

e-mail: m.d.stringer@bham.ac.uk