Evaluating the missional impact of an advent son et lumière in Liverpool Cathedral

Abstract

This study tests the thesis that innovative cathedral installations and events may soften the boundaries between common ground and sacred space, perhaps especially at Christmas. Over two-fifths of the participants surveyed at the 2023 son et lumière ‘The light before Christmas’ in Liverpool Cathedral said that their experience made them more likely to attend a carol service in the cathedral and one-fifth said they were more likely to attend a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service. By coincidence, the 4,749 attendance at the Christmas Eve carol services was a 21 per cent uplift on the pre-Covid 2019 attendance; the 1,232 attendance at Midnight Mass was a 73 per cent uplift on the 2019 attendance.