What makes me happy? Not the church, say Eastern European youth
(Photos: © Sarah Dunlop)
Sarah Dunlop was commissioned by CMS to run a unique listening project involving 70 students from the former eastern bloc. Here’s what she found out
Central and Eastern Europe has seen massive change in the last two decades.
Working with a team of researchers and partnering with an organisation in Slovakia, the work involved time listening to more than 70 students talk about their search for meaning, hopes for the future and what is significant to them in life. Students from Slovakia, Poland, Bucharest, Romania, Ukraine and Russia took part.
Alongside the conversation Sarah and her team used photography and publish some of the fruits of this work in Yes.
“Working with images means that the young people can respond to our questions about spirituality on an emotional as well as cognitive level,” Sarah explains.
“When you ask someone a personal question such as, ‘What are your greatest hopes for the future?’ then it’s really helpful to use pictures to draw out responses.”
After the fall of the Soviet Union, people talked about a ‘spiritual vacuum’ and how many in post-Soviet countries were eager to find some sort of religious meaning. Yet, 20 years on, this project revealed that young people have very little interest in practising Christianity. Moreover, although they may have an interest in exotic spiritualities such as Buddhism, Hinduism, astrology and other beliefs, very few practise these as a religion. Instead, this study found that young people are simply creating their own worldview by taking on various beliefs that are appealing.
Pictures of freedom
The young people spoke about their dreams for the future: how they hope to travel abroad, have a family of their own, be in a romantic relationship, have a network of supportive friends and live in a better world (without wars, poverty, disasters and injustice). For the most part, their thoughts about the future were focused on life lived here and now. They believed that as long as they try hard, they could achieve their life goal of being happy.
Additionally, the young people who took part in the project were invited to spend a week taking photographs of what is significant to them in life. As they spoke about these photos, their values emerged. They said that opportunities for self-expression and creativity were very important to them. A Slovakian student took a photograph of her shoes and said, “I had a moment of creativity – I was painting my exercise shoes, I made them quite crazy…I enjoy it a lot, to create something, to give energy out of myself…”
Sarah (right) hard at work with translator Alona Denghacheva in Russia(Photo: © Sarah Dunlop)
The concept of freedom was highly significant for these young people. A Russian girl from Nizhny Novgorod took a photo of a person in a hang glider. She explained what this meant to her: “For me it primarily signifies freedom. I mean I have always dreamed of taking off the ground this way – to feel that I am flying high in the sky, above the earth. I mean, this is great, these extreme, new feelings…it is also the embodiment of freedom from something in society.”
Many of the young people feel the pressures of work, studies and family and spoke about how much they value opportunities to have fun. A female student in Nizhny Novgorod summed it up with a photo of an ad featuring a large yellow smiley face: “This is fun, laughing, entertainment. Naturally, it is important for me. One can’t live without fun at any age, especially at my age.”
When asked about their attitudes toward church the young people gave a mixed response. Some were positive, talking about the church as a place to meet with God or as a symbol of their country’s religious heritage. Others were ambivalent, not seeing it having relevance to their life. A large number said negative things about the church. Many believed that churches are for uneducated, unthinking people. A Romanian student said, “I don’t have anything to do with churches… Because Orthodox religion cannot offer me the key to understanding things, I consider this religion to be simply a way of gathering common people, stupid people.”
Spiritual needs
Many felt that church was a place where they would be told that they were wearing the wrong clothes or not following the rituals in the proper manner. Essentially, they said, when they were in church they lost their ability to express themselves. The students valued self-expression, freedom and fun and saw the church as an institution that would force them to conform to its rules for living, restricting their freedom and certainly not a place for ‘fun’. This clash of values indicates that young people tend not to make time for church because they perceive that it would mean sacrificing their values in some way.
Yet these young people were open to talking about their spiritual needs. A Russian student said: “This is my life. What will become of me? What do I live for? I have such a feeling of emptiness, like I am in a vacuum, like I don’t mean anything.” A Slovakian young person said, “I get scared that we are passengers, powerless, lacking significance in whatever we do. At the moment, I don’t have an answer to my fears.”
Sarah Dunlop sums up, “The words of the young people clearly show that they need to discover a meaningful relationship with God. Any ministry that will reach them effectively will give them the freedom to creatively explore Christianity for themselves, engage them in dialogue and most of all, it will be fun!”
A full account of the responses of the young people and comments from church leaders across the region has been published as a book called Visualising Hope: Exploring the Spirituality of Young People in Central and Eastern Europe.
Sarah’s blogsite:
visualisinghope.wordpress.com