THE majority of Church of England clergy are comfortable in talking about science and faith with members of their congregations, research from Durham University suggests.

The survey of 175 clergy from around England — 68 per cent male, and 30 per cent female — posed questions including could science save humanity from the pandemic, a subject on which respondents were almost equally divided. Forty-four per cent found the statement “Science can save us” to be unhelpful, while 47 per cent found it helpful.

The research was conducted by a sociologist of science and religion at Durham, Dr Thoko Kamwendo. Detailed results are still to be published, but Dr Kamwendo concludes that that religious leaders played an important part as science communicators during the pandemic. A number of them had addressed it in informal conversation, prayer, meetings, pastoral-care visits, and sermons, and had encouraged their congregations to take part in the vaccination programme.

There were mixed answers to a question about narratives around the pandemic, in which respondents were given eight statements to rank, from “Very unhelpful” to “Very helpful”. Ninety-six per cent found the statement “Christ can be found in the midst of suffering” helpful, and 90 per cent deemed the statement “People of faith are provided with special protection from God” unhelpful.

Other results in this section were closer: 44 per cent found the statement “Science can save us from the pandemic” unhelpful, against 47 per cent who found it helpful. When it came to judging the statement “The narrative of Exile provides a good analogy for the Christian experience in the pandemic,” 35 per cent found it unhelpful and 54 per cent helpful. Very few (19 per cent) considered the pandemic to be “a war we have to win.”

There was a split on on scientific versus humanitarian uses of funding: 38 per cent agreed that money spent on space research should be spent on providing clean water for people throughout the world, while 40 per cent disagreed, and 22 per cent were not sure. Sixty-one per cent of respondents agreed with the statement “Biological evolution is the best model we have for understanding the natural world.” The majority — 95 per cent — disagreed with the statement that “in order to be a successful research scientist, you need to be an atheist.”

The survey tried to ascertain where church leaders obtained their information — particularly from which commentators. Questions three and four were centred on their engagement with commentators on science and faith, including those judged to have a significant platform. Top of those whom church leaders were likeliest to have come across proved to be Richard Dawkins, Alister McGrath, and Stephen Hawking. The top results in the category of “significant platform” were Alister McGrath, John Polkinghorne, and Richard Dawkins.

Genesis (45 per cent), the Psalms (19 per cent), and 1 John (15 per cent) topped the list of primary biblical texts or theological understandings that the church leaders would turn to, to preach on the relationship between science and religion. Their main themes were: God as Creator, the compatibility of science and religion, the conflict between science and religion, relationship with God and his creation, human desire for understanding, and the context of time.