Sarah Johnson is a Visiting Fellow at TMTC and a PhD candiate at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Sarah will be presenting on "The Implications of Occasional Religious Practice for Christian Ministry: An Ethnographic Liturgical Theology in a Changing Religious Landscape."
The Canadian religious landscape is characterized by declining participation in religious institutions, increasing uncertainty about matters of faith, and a growing proportion of the population who identify as nonreligious. Nevertheless, people with a range of relationships with religion continue to turn to religious practices occasionally, often in connection with specific types of occasions such as holidays, life transitions, and personal or communal crises. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork in the Anglican tradition in Toronto, including interviews with 41 participants in Anglican baptisms and funerals as well as 20 Anglican clergy, Sarah Kathleen Johnson develops the concept of occasional religiosity and explores its implications for how we understand religion in Canada, religious ritual, and liturgical theology today. This presentation considers the practical implications of this research for pastoral ministry. How can a better understanding of occasional religious practice inform preaching, liturgical leadership, preparation processes, and, most of all, the attitudes clergy take toward those who engage in Christian practices only on certain occasions?
The Scholars Forum will take place virtually. RSVP for a link and instructions to connect.
47 Queen's Park Crescent East
Toronto, ON M5S 2C3
Canada