OPEN LECTURE: Liquid Faith

Liquid Faith: Heeding the wild swimmers 
Sunday 24th November at 4.30pm
Tickets have sold out. Email [email protected] to be notified of any cancellations

We appear to be witnessing a spiritual revolution, in which traditional authoritarian, institutional religion as represented by churches is giving way to spirituality based on personal fulfilment and experience.

One of the most striking aspects of this phenomenon is the way that many people now express their ‘religion’ as communing with nature.

One of the most dramatic sources of this growing natural spirituality is water, that simplest, most ubiquitous and yet also most precious element that covers over 70% of the earth’s surface. Wild swimming has taken off in a spectacular way over the last decade or so. 7.5 million people in the UK now venture into rivers, lakes, lidos and the sea, considerably more than double the number of regular churchgoers which stands at under three million.  

Wild swimmers describe being cleansed, renewed, and healed. They often go further in identifying what might be better described as spiritual rather than physical or psychological benefits: finding a sense of being part of something much bigger than themselves, and release from grief and bereavement by letting their tears of grief mingle with the salt water.

These are exactly the kinds of words that one might expect to hear from those attending religious worship or going to church. Yet the overwhelming evidence from surveys is that for the diminishing band who do attend them, church services induce negative reactions of boredom, disappointment and frustration. 

Are wild swimmers articulating deep spiritual and religious truths more clearly than churches and religious leaders? In this provocative lecture, Ian Bradley argues that they are and outlines a new ‘liquid faith’.


--

Cover image by Yafut. Released under CC license

--