What is “culture”? The dictionary definition describes it as “customs, institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people or group”. I have always tended to understand “culture” more along national or ethnic lines more than anything else. I don’t think I have ever consciously considered the idea of religious culture – even though, as any regular reader of this blog will no doubt observe – I do go on about it quite a bit!

I have encountered some media recently that has made be sit and be more conscious about this idea of religious culture. What strikes me about the reports I’ve seen is how the lines are notably blurred between “national”, “ethnic” culture and “religious” culture. It so happens that my religious and ethnic “cultures” overlap quite nicely. This of course is both an accident of history, and personal choice. But what about someone who has chosen a religious culture that is essentially alien to his or her ethnic culture? How are they affected? How do they adapt?

This is a very important question when you consider people who have converted to, or who are participating in, Independent Catholic communities. It is easy to see how people and communities do or do not adapt to this apparent disjunct of cultures.

Al Jazeera has produced a three part series exploring the impact of immigration on French Muslims. It recounts the journey from North Africa, first as economic migrants, then as settled families, and now as “fully” French. The question asked in the piece: “What challenges have generations of Muslim immigrants in France been facing to retain their cultural identity?” What strikes me here is that the “Muslim culture” from the various former French colonies would presumably differ from region to region – so is it possible to describe “Muslim culture” in this sense without first qualifying it as Algerian Muslim, Lebanese Muslim, Egyptian Muslim etc.?

Here in Britain we are starting to see the description “British Muslim”, I’ve not done a search yet but wonder is there a parallel description in France? Does this mean that there is a uniquely British Muslim culture emerging from the mix of Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, Egyptian, Malaysian Muslim cultures? What does that look like? What is the effect of converts – for there are converts either purely through personal conviction, or marriage – on such a development?

The Al Jazeera piece also mentions – almost in passing – those from immigrant families who have “quietly renounced Islam”. Presumably they have done this to better assimilate into the national culture of France and Western Europe? Does this imply that their link to their families traditional culture and religion was an impediment, an embarrassment? Or can it be said that this is a natural progression of assimilation?

For this last point at least, I can look at a simple, but tell tale example in my own family. Slovak custom is that you do not put up the Christmas tree before Christmas Eve. An American custom, particularly in the South, is that you put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. Some of my extended family, now living in the American South, no longer wait until Christmas Eve (which they certainly did just over 20 years ago), but now put their tree up the day after Thanksgiving. The question is why? Is it purely assimilation? Partially yes – I once asked. It turns out they no longer remember what the “old” custom was, or what it meant. They therefore, simply do what everyone else does. Yet the “old” custom is not so old so as to be “forgotten” – my grandparents and great grandparents did it and they only died within the last decade, but it does seem that this custom has not been passed on to my younger relatives, so they have no knowledge of it. This simple custom is dead in that branch of the family in less than a generation.

It seems to me that as the original immigrants die, and families spread out in the new land. The communal aspect of these customs looses its meaning, because the community that practiced it no longer exists as it once did. This means that abandoning the old ways, is grounded in the process of naturalising in a new setting. If you are the only Slovak family on the block it will stand out that you don’t have your tree up yet. If you are the only Muslim in the village, it can be pretty damn lonely!

What the Al Jazeera piece does not specify, is of those who it says have quietly renounced Islam, how many have converted, at least nominally, to Roman Catholicism? How many have abandoned religion entirely – as cultural baggage they are attempting to leave behind?

A series of Israeli government ads (albeit rather crassly) addresses the challenges of living outside the context of a particular culture in this case both national-ethnic and religious. The ad that grabbed my attention shows an American Jewish family skyping grandparents in Israel. The grandparents are seated with a lit menorah prominently seen in the background. The grandmother asks the little girl, what is the holiday being celebrated. She grins and blurts out “Christmas!” To the obvious discomfort of all four adults.

Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic writes:“These government-sponsored ads suggest that it is impossible for Jews to remain Jewish in America. How else are we supposed to understand the “Christmas” ad? Obviously, assimilation and intermarriage are issues in America in ways they aren’t in Israel. Israel has other problems of course, such as the fact that many of its rabbis act like Iranian mullahs. . . .The idea, communicated in these ads [is] that America is no place for a proper Jew, and that a Jew who is concerned about the Jewish future should live in Israel. . . .”

Here in the UK there is a small (I think it is safe to say microscopic) but vocal minority of Muslims seeking to turn the UK into a new Khalifate. Is this because as a minority religion in an historically Christian kingdom these voices feel intensely the challenge of living outside one’s historic cultural context? Do these groups, like the Israeli government believe that it is difficult, if not impossible to maintain their religious identity and practice outside the context of a Muslim theocracy?

These are two examples (Judaism and Islam) that are relatively easy to talk about the challenges. What about a Christian minority community present in the land of another Christian majority? Here of course we are bringing these ideas close to home – because lets face it, as many Indie folk that are out there, we are still, and I suspect always will be a minority (I should point out that this does not bother me at all, it is simply a fact). Here the challenges, and changes are not as easy to detect. So what effect do they have? Can we talk about the negative effects? Are we even aware of them?

We can also talk about how within the majority community – and here I can use British Anglicans as an example, or perhaps more widely British Christians – there are challenges to and pressures on the received understanding of religious cultural identity. If we look at the responses to controversies caused by an increasing pressure on the wider society for Christianity to accept lesbian and gay marriage, and ordinations. The response from the right (i.e. the socially and institutionally conservative) is that such a shift in religious praxis would undermine cultural and social cohesion. This is clearly a challenge not to an immigrant population, but to the native population that is consciously or unconsciously worried to protect its cultural identity – in this case its “Christian” cultural identity.

What we have not talked about here is how these communities define and understand their religious culture. Why for example do Israeli authorities responsible for the “Christmas ad” believe that one can only be a proper Jew living in Israel? What is it about the veil that offends the sensibilities of being French, resulting in its public ban earlier this year? What is so challenging about living in a western liberal democracy that is so challenging to Muslim belief and practice, that leads some to call for a Khalifate take over in the UK? Similarly what terrifies nominally Christian conservatives in the US so, that a number of states have officially banned Sharia law when there has never been a campaign to institute it in the first place? These examples are not about “fear” (though for sure they are a little bit) rather they are expressions of how various groups majorities and minorities understand the make up of, and challenges to their religious culture.

So, can we talk about an Indie religious culture, and if so what is it? I think that as we move further away from the consolidation of “independent catholicism” in the late 19^th century, it is becoming increasingly difficult to talk about one Indie religious culture. Rather I think we need to see the movement (and here again I now wonder if this too ought to be plural: movements) as streams of different OC/IC and yes, ISM cultures. To do otherwise would simply do one’s head in they have in the past forty years alone exploded into a convoluted interwoven tangle.

Are we as a minority group within the Christian tradition so overwhelmed by the praxis of those around us that he can do little more than assimilate? This is a question that has bothered me for some time. Because I’ve seen the assimilation happen. When I say assimilate I should clarify, I mean to have the look and feel of the surrounding Christian group. So here in the UK it is not uncommon to see indie groups following Anglican or Roman Catholic custom and practice. To do otherwise is seen as suicidal. I was once chastised by a then member of the community, that my liturgical practice was not in keeping with what Anglicans would approve of! That’s nice, I replied, given that we are not Anglicans! It is a challenge to be authentically indie when all everyone sees, and most know is the custom and practice of a larger, stronger, Christian tradition surrounding your community. However, I believe that there is a lost opportunity for development within an authentic Indie context if we get lazy and merely “assimilate”.

We cannot overlook the fact that just as some in France (and I suspect too here in England) are quietly forsaking the religion of their immigrant families in order to feel better connected with French society, it is true that the Indie community looses many great thinkers, artists, and faithful members every year because of the pressures of being a minority, an “outsider”. Especially when it is entirely possible to simply attend, or join a church that has the same liturgical practice, and communal life and customs as the indie community one once enjoyed. Here the question becomes – what is our reason for being? What makes us different, especially now that the issues that brought the OC/IC movement into existence over a century ago, seem to no longer pose a challenge for modern believers.

Are we seeing new developments emerging in the OC/IC community, re-working and shaping our identity, our culture, and reason for being? I confess I don’t know that I have enough information to even begin answering this question. I have certainly seen shifts in my lifetime. Shifts away from predominately ethnic issues of Slovak, Polish, Belgian, and German. Shifts in the wider movement’s attitude toward authority. And more recently shifts in understanding what exactly qualifies as being OC/IC. These are all challenges. But I also like to think of them as opportunities for thoughtful committed Indie folk to develop and contribute to our “religious culture”.

Thinking about Indie religious culture, reflecting on the challenges and issues of other traditions, has given me more questions and answers. But I suspect that that is a good thing. It is good to be aware, to be conscious of what those things are that when set down together describe an OC/IC identity and practice. Twenty years ago I believed I understood what that was. Today . . . .I have many more questions than answers, and the challenges of being Indie in a culture that is overwhelmingly not, make some of those questions all the more interesting.