TruthBook Religious News Blog

Anthony Seldon, the headmaster of Wellington College and renowned historian and author, is planning to instruct his pupils on how to be happy. Here he explains the thinking behind his pioneering curriculum:

Helping to produce happy young adults when they leave the school at 18 is my highest priority as head. I have been saying this for 10 years, but only in the past year have I begun to realise this isn't just an airy-fairy aspiration, but one can in fact learn happiness in classes. Hence my decision, announced this week, to teach happiness and positive psychology in timetabled lessons at my new school, Wellington College.

Last year, I came across Dr Nick Baylis of Cambridge University, who lectures in positive psychology and the science of well-being, and who has just set up the "Well-being Institute" at the university. Then I started hearing about the highly popular and well-publicised courses on happiness at Harvard University, and I realised what might be done. I recognised the duty to do something about it at my school. Hence, the classes that begin later this year, which will be taught by our staff, to be overseen by the team at Cambridge.

I believe that our education in schools is fundamentally ill-balanced. Of course exams matter greatly - they are the passport to an individual's higher education and career. A school which fails to let every child achieve the best grades of which he or her are capable is failing to do its job properly. But education is far more than this, which is why league tables, and the reverence in which they are treated, is so wrong. They say nothing about the quality of the teaching (or the intake), about the wider life of the school, or whether it is turning out resentful and ill-balanced young adults, or whether it is helping to produce young men and women who are happy and who know themselves and what they want to do in life.

As a teacher, I have seen far too many tortured and unhappy pupils who have achieved four or five A grades at A-level. If they can achieve these grades while leading balanced lives, taking part in a wide variety of activities which will develop different facets of their character, and if they blossom as human beings, then all is well and good. But as any teacher will know, this isn't always the case with high achievers. Neither is it with high achievers in life. These driven people see their lives flash by in fast living and fast cars, and most fail to realise they are missing the point of life. Is it more important to be highly successful, or to be a respected colleague and a valued friend, and a loving parent whose children grow up in a secure environment in which they know they are valued and treasured? I have had to learn the hard way, the answers are obvious.

Hence the need to teach happiness while at school, while individuals are still having their characters and habits formed. It is much harder to acquire good habits later in life.

So in what will the lessons consist? These will not be lessons like history or physics, where it is primarily the intellect involved, and where the acquisition of knowledge is all important. This is about emotional learning and emotional intelligence, and is a far more reflective activity then traditional classes. Pupils will learn about how to form healthy and sustaining relationships. They will gain understanding about the goals they should want to set in life, which should be realistic and appropriate for their own talents and interests. The negative emotions which are an inevitable part of life will be explored: pupils will be able to learn more about what it is that causes them pain and unhappiness, how they might be able to avoid or minimise these emotions and how to deal with them when they do occur. So the essence is that pupils learn more about themselves, which will be information which they will be able to use for the rest of their lives.

Some individuals are born with sunnier dispositions than others. These lessons will be able to help children regardless of their genes. The childhood experience of some is very happy and secure while for others it is fraught and unstable. Again, these classes should be able to help children with both kinds of experience, not the least by learning from each other.

The lessons will, I believe, be highly moral. The pupils will learn how to look after their bodies well and how not to abuse them. A healthy body is far more likely to lead to a happier mind than one which has been abused with bad food, drink, cigarettes and drugs.

Good relationships, which lie at the heart of anyone's happy life, are based on a strong moral code of caring for the other and being loyal. Abusing others, either with words, physically or by inappropriate sexual relations, does not produce happiness but rather the opposite.

The pursuit of true happiness is also a deeply spiritual quest: the heart of spirituality is about the transcendence of one's own self and the forming of deeply loving and compassionate relationships with others. Neither do I see these lessons as selfish. Ask any parent. Would they sooner see their children happy and fulfilled, even at the cost of achieving slightly less, or stressed out and vexed in the pursuit of ever-higher goals which always seem to be beyond their reach? Happiness I believe lies in knowing one's own limitations, accepting oneself for what one is, and being proud of what one achieves, at whatever level that might be.

The purpose of these happiness lessons becomes abundantly clear when one considers the lives of students at university. Once there, they will not each day enjoy the presence of loving parents, or caring teachers. They will no doubt have to cope with loneliness, depression and rejection in love. Yet schools send them off ill-prepared to cope with these eventualities, as they also mostly fall short in preparing their leavers to manage money, accommodation and looking after themselves.

What is the purpose of schooling if not to prepare its young for higher education and beyond? It is not only at university that personal difficulties arise. Most of us have had to cope in our lives with professional rejections, breakdowns of relationships, bereavements and periods of depression. These are all part of life. I personally wish that I had received a better grounding at school, not only in what kind of career I might have followed to make me feel fulfilled, but how also to cope better with the difficulties that life throws at one.

Studies as diverse as those from the Cabinet Office, the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research and Harvard University point to similar conclusions, that money, fame and worldly success do not necessarily lead to happy and fulfilled lives.

Despite the large increases in income in Britain over the past 30 years, studies show the levels of satisfaction have not increased commensurately. Research further shows that focusing on materialistic pursuits often diminishes personal well-being. Yet governments, for reasons to do with their own re-election, try to convince us that life is getting better for all because of economic growth, just as they try to convince us that schools are getting better because exam results are improving. If they are re-elected, it makes them happy. But does it make the nation happier?

Schools cover some of the positive psychology curriculum in existing classes. But the focus is on the acquisition of knowledge, about the effects of drugs, sexually transmitted diseases and so on, rather than on encouraging the pupils to reflect on their own lives and learn to understand themselves and their relationships better.

I would like to see all schools within five years begin to teach positive psychology and happiness. The Well-being Institute is becoming involved with advising the health service and businesses about the subject. Valuable though this will be, I believe it is almost too late to teach, and it is much better to put the whole subject over to individuals when they are still at school. Governments will not be able to boast of quantifiable improvements, and schools won't be able to show off any tangible benefits for league tables (although I would say that happy children are more likely to do their best in exams).

But I do believe that by taking the subject seriously, schools will not only be doing a much better job morally for their pupils, but they will also help produce young men and women who will help to build a far better society than their parents did. This is a real challenge and it is one to which I believe all schools should rise.

Anthony Seldon is the Master of Wellington College and is John Major and Tony Blair's biographer

The philosophy of contentment:

Epicurus (341-271 BC)

The Greek philosopher preached that the sole source of happiness is pleasure and that, as the key to happiness, pleasure should be the aim of every action. So to embrace it is fundamentally healthy and good.

Seneca (4 BC-65 AD)

The Roman courtier Seneca took refuge in the Stoic values of detachment and indifference. He did not have an easy life and found that these values could bring him happiness in the most dreadful of situations. He explained that everlasting freedom and tranquillity follow once we have banished all that vexes and frightens us.

St Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

Happiness lies in the possession of an invulnerable good, which cannot be lost to ill fortune, according to St Augustine. The only good in the universe of such strength, in his view, is God. Therefore happiness lies in the "vision of" or "union with" God. This necessitates living a moral life.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058-1111)

The Islamic theologian and mystical thinker al-Ghazali turned to Sufism after reaching a spiritual crisis. His view of happiness is derived not from dogma or doctrine but the transforming power of the personal experience of God's presence. The Sufis call this experience dhawq or "taste".

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

The Prussian philosopher said: "It is not God's will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy." He also said happiness was not an ideal of reason but of imagination. "Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness."

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

The 19th-century German philosopher is renown for his pessimistic view of life as defined by needless suffering, and the primacy of human desire over the intellect. But he saw the possibility for salvation from this miserable existence through ascetic living, an appreciation of art, and charity for fellow man ("loving kindness", in his words). The two enemies of human happiness are "pain and boredom", he wrote. The symptom of unhappiness is the pursuit of wealth, he believed.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Utilitarianism, published in 1861, put forward Mill's view that we ought to aim at maximising the welfare of all sentient creatures, and that welfare consists of their happiness. He defended the general principle that right actions are those that tend to produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

The British mathematician was commonly known for popularising philosophy - his books were "a modern substitute for the Bible" according to Time magazine. In The Conquest of Happiness, Russell describes how happiness is something that can be attained through hard work. "A world full of happiness is not beyond human power to create," he wrote. "The real obstacles lie in the heart of man, and the cure for these is a firm hope."

Dalai Lama (1935- )

The leader of Tibetan Buddhism wrote a handbook for living in 1998 entitled, The Art of Happiness. He says: "I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace."

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Sunday, April 16, 2006

Faith in God, but not in church: New poll finds believing is one thing, but going to church is quite another

Almost half of Canadians believe they have been in the presence of God and one in three say they have had a religious or mystical experience, reveals a new poll.

The survey, conducted for CanWest News Service in the days leading up to the Easter weekend, also shows that religious beliefs among Canadians remain as strong as they were a decade ago, but church attendance has slipped.

"There's a huge gap between those who believe and those who belong," said Andrew Grenville, senior vice president of the polling firm Ipsos Reid.

"There are three times as many believers as there are regular attenders."

Sixty-two per cent of those polled agreed with the statement that "through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God provided the way for the forgiveness of sins."

But only 17 per cent reported regular church attendance of at least once a week.

"There is a thriving privatized faith," said Grenville, adding that Canadians, unlike Americans, have a tendency to avoid public displays of religion. "In America every athlete thanks God after a game and in Canada if somebody did that after a hockey game, they'd be a freak."

The number of Canadian believers is virtually unchanged from 1996, but regular church attendance dipped four per cent.

Moreover, a little more than half of Canadians now say they go only once a year or never at all, an increase from 43 per cent a decade ago.

There was no clear division between younger and older adults, which Grenville said is surprising considering today's young adults, compared to their baby boomer parents, were not raised as Sunday schoolers.

The survey shows a widening gulf between Canadians and Americans.

In the U.S., regular church attendance is more the norm and has remained virtually unchanged since the Second World War.

Thirty-nine per cent of Americans said they went to church at least once a week, more than double Canada's regulars.

The difference can be attributed to Canadians' mistrust of institutions and the fact that there are fewer smaller evangelical churches in this country that there are in the U.S, said Richard Ascough, a religious studies professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

"The church in a way is perceived as just another institution and people are shying away more and more from things institutional," he said.

"Often I'll hear things like 'I'm religious but I don't go to church, I'm spiritual but I don't go to church.' There's a clear difference to them between believing in God and the institution of the church."

Believers also may have been scared away by scandals that have rocked the churches in recent years, including revelations of sexual abuse and the treatment of Indian students at church-run residential schools, he said.

Janice Tibbetts, CanWest News Service
© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2006

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Tuesday, April 11, 2006

New poll reveals college students more invested in religion

A majority of U.S. college students say religion is important in their lives and that they're concerned about the country's moral direction, a finding that could influence the way they vote in upcoming elections, according to a Harvard University Institute of Politics poll that was released Tuesday.

In a telephone survey of 1,200 American college students, 7 out of 10 said religion was somewhat or very important in their lives, and 1 in 4 said they'd become more spiritual since entering college.

Fifty-four percent said they were concerned about the moral direction of the country.

Students who were surveyed said abortion policy, stem cell research and gay marriage provoked questions of morality. In a finding that surprised the institute, 50 percent said the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina raised questions of morality.

Jeanne Shaheen, the director of the Institute of Politics, said in a statement that the findings showed that "religion and morality are critical to how students think about politics and form opinions on political issues."

"Students have gone from the `me' generation, Generation X, to the `we' generation," Shaheen said.

BY JENNIFER MARTINEZ
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Going to church may extend life

Weekly religious attendance could add years to your life, according to a medical study carried out in the US.

The effects of exercise, religious attendance and anti-cholesterol drugs on life expectancy were examined.

All three were found to be beneficial, with religious attendance adding two to three years to your life.

The results of the research were published in the March-April issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Community factor?

Using age-dependent death-rate statistics, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that weekly attendance at religious services accounted for an additional two to three years.

Regular physical exercise clocked up an extra three to five years and cholesterol-reducing drugs such as Lipitor cholesterol about 2.5 to 3.5 years.

Study leader Daniel Hall, a resident in general surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told the LiveScience website that the benefits of religious attendance may stem more from social set-up, than faith.

"There is something about being knit into the type of community that religious communities embody that has a way of mediating a positive health effect," he said.

Financial cost

He also suggested that religion may have a role in reducing stress, or at least in boosting an individual's ability to cope.

"Being in a religious community helps you make meaning out of your life," he said.

However, such benefits do not come for free. The study estimated the cost of each year of life apparently gained by each method.

The costs were based on average gym fees, medical costs and household donations to religious institutions:

The approximate cost per life-year gained was:

* $2,000 to $6,000 for regular exercise

* $3,000 to $10,000 for regular religious attendance

* $4,000 and $14,000 for cholesterol-lowering drugs.

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POLL: Just Over Half of Americans Say They Are ‘Very Happy’ with Their Lives

The keys to happiness are simple -- grow up, get married, have children, go to church and try to forget about the wilder days of youth.

Only 52 percent of Americans say they are "very happy" with their lives, according to a Scripps Howard/Ohio University survey of 1,007 adult residents of the United States. Forty-three percent said they are "fairly happy," 3 percent said they are "not too happy" and 2 percent are undecided. That might not seem sufficiently ebullient for a nation that embraces the pursuit of happiness as an inalienable right. But the survey found Americans with particular lifestyles -- especially those having a family and planting roots in a community -- are much more likely to say they have found contentment.

While wealth has a modest impact on well-being, other social factors appear to have greater influence.

"It's a lot of fun to see what the correlations are for happiness," said Glenn Van Ekeren, an elder care executive in Omaha, Neb., who has published three books on the secrets to happiness. "There are some real affirmations of life in this poll."

One of the most important things Americans can do to improve the odds of being happy, the survey found, is to get married. Sixty percent of married people are very happy, compared to 41 percent of singles.

"Of course, it's unclear whether happy people are more prone to marriage or whether marriage makes people happy," Florida State historian Darrin McMahon, author of "Happiness, A History," said after reviewing the poll results. "But, certainly, it's an old idea that community and close friendships have a bearing on our happiness. It stands to reason. We are social beings."

The survey found that young adults, 18 to 24, are especially likely to be unhappy. Only 37 percent of this age group said they are happy. A clear majority of all other age groups report contentment.

McMahon said he takes "a great deal of comfort" from the statistics. "Here at Florida State I can assure you that, for these kids anyway, happiness is essentially a hedonistic search for intense pleasure. It's 'Girls Gone Wild' and Spring Break madness," McMahon said. "But from everything we've learned about life, the pursuit of hedonism and pleasure for pleasure's sake won't make us happy."

Most people who have children say they are very happy in life, while most people who have never been parents say they are only "fairly happy" or "not too happy." Even among single people, having children in their lives increases the odds they will be happy.

An even stronger factor is the power of organized religion -- any religion -- on a sense of well-being.

Although their numbers were small, Jewish participants in the poll were the most likely of any group to say they are very happy. Protestants -- especially self-identified "born again" evangelicals -- also report a high rate of contentment.

Sixty percent of people who have recently attended worship services at a church, synagogue or mosque say they are very happy, compared to 46 percent of people who have not publicly worshiped and 44 percent who have no religious preferences.

"Look at the Book of Ecclesiastes which says, 'Go eat your bread with enjoyment and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God long ago approved of what you do,' " McMahon said. "Taking pleasure in the gifts of God whenever you can, that is the Jewish tradition and in the Christian tradition as well."

The survey found that people of different races, regions and urban settings are about equally likely to be happy.

There was a link between wealth and joy, with the happiest group in the middle brackets of $60,000 to $80,000 annual household income. People in disadvantaged homes were less likely to report contentment, but the level of joy does not steadily increase with rising income.

"If you are not happy with what you have, you never will be happy with what you will get," said Van Ekeren. "The core things that are really important are not influenced by dollars. When my wife and I first got married, we were so poor we couldn't even pay attention. But we were happy."

The survey was conducted by the Scripps Survey Research Center at Ohio University, Athens, OH, from Feb. 19 to March 3, 2006. The study was sponsored by a grant from the Scripps Howard Foundation.

The poll generally has a margin of error of 4 percentage points, although the margin rises considerably among subgroups.

By Thomas Hargrove and Guido H. Stempel III
Scripps Howard News Service
Thomas Hargrove is a reporter for Scripps Howard News Service. Guido H. Stempel III is director of the Scripps Survey Research Center.

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Study affirms family influence on faith of young

A Christian Research Association survey has found that family is a much bigger influence on teenagers than peers, and that the militant secularism of 30 years ago has given way to a new openness to spirituality among young people.

However, The Age reports that the survey also found that most do not rank religion as important, according to the association's chief researcher, Dr Philip Hughes (pictured).

"What surprised me was the high proportion of people who just don't know. Well over a third say 'we are just unsure'. Most young people (almost three-quarters) think there's something out there, some sort of greater force," Dr Hughes said yesterday.

Many teenagers were surer when they were younger, but as they moved through high school the degree of uncertainty about belief increased.

The survey of 809 teenagers builds on a study last year of more then 3600 American teenagers, who are considerably more religious in their personal belief and church attendance.

It also finds that family is a much bigger influence on teenagers than peers. Hannah Day, a year 9 student at Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar School, says her parents and grandparents are Christian.

"It's something I grew up with and accepted till I could understand what it was. Then I completely accepted and believed in it, and it's a big part of my life," she said.

Year 10 student Mark-Henry Decrausaz believes in a higher power but does not go to church. He thinks religious prejudice has been "wrung out" of his generation, but fears they can be left bereft when trouble strikes.

Dr Hughes agrees. "There's been a decline in clarity about belief in God," he says, and it is linked to a postmodern loss of confidence in the idea of truth. "These beliefs do affect how people live, the way they deal with crises. To the extent that there's a great deal of vagueness and uncertainty, it doesn't give people much to stand on when life is difficult."

He believes religious education needs to help the young develop a "spiritual literacy" so they can think through issues.

The survey also rejected the common assumption that young people are interested in spirituality rather than traditional religion. Spirituality ranked with riches at the bottom of what was important, with deep friendships and an exciting life at the top.

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Religion makes a comeback on college campuses

It's hard to laugh about religion in Northern Ireland, but Oxford theologian Alister McGrath likes to tell the following joke that hints at the challenges he faced as a young skeptic in that troubled land.

While visiting Belfast, an Englishman was cornered by three thugs. The leader asked one question: "Are you a Protestant or are you a Catholic?" After a diplomatic pause, the Englishman said: "I am an atheist."

Confused, his attacker asked: "Are you a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?"

The tough religion questions continued when McGrath entered Oxford University, where he became the rare student who traded his Marxist atheism for Christianity while studying science. He would eventually earn two doctorates _ in molecular biology and theology.

Today, McGrath teaches at his alma mater and is admired by academic leaders around the world who are tired of being cornered and asked: Are you a Christian or are you an intellectual? This was a big question during the 1960s when some secular educators believed that "religion was evil" and "on the way out," said McGrath, speaking last week in Grapevine, Texas, at a global forum sponsored by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

According to the "received wisdom" of that era, a "new secular age was about to dawn," he said. "The future was all about a godless culture and the church would just have to adapt to it and that was that."

These days, even the most skeptical of scholars admit that traditional forms of religion are on the rise and that millions of spiritually hungry students are questioning the chilly, strictly rational creeds of secular modernity. Faith is making a comeback and the high priests of mainstream academia cannot understand why, said McGrath. Thus, many are getting angry and, on occasion, shrill.

These tensions are even beginning to affect the bottom line.

A small wave of mainstream news reports have noted that enrollments are up 70.6 percent during the past 14 years at the 102 schools in the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, the mostly evangelical Protestant network in which I teach journalism. Over the same period of time, enrollments rose 28 percent at secular private colleges and 12.8 percent at public colleges and universities.

Meanwhile, a national survey conducted by UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute found that four in five students said they are interested in spiritual issues and 75 percent said they are searching for the meaning or purpose of life.

In this environment, said McGrath, it is crucial for leaders of religious colleges to know that they have two objectives instead of one. They must help students grow in their faith while also growing intellectually.

Failure on either side of this equation is failure in the whole process. This is tricky, because many educators believe that any affirmation of orthodoxy equals fundamentalism. Meanwhile, parents often question efforts to debate religious issues.

The goal, said McGrath, is to help young roots go deeper. Christian educators have a God-given responsibility to help the plants grow.

"We are not simply reassuring students that their faith is right, that it makes sense, ... that it connects up with reality," he told the forum. "One of the big distinctives between a more secular education and what you offer is the mirroring of this love of God for every individual, of helping them to dream dreams, to see visions of where they might be, of what God might do in them and through them."

This means that professors must accept that Christianity has, over the centuries, built up an unavoidable tradition of history, art, philosophy, ethics and theology that has implications all of life. Thus, McGrath stressed that education affects both the head and the heart and that it is unwise to create two zones on campus _ one spiritual and one academic.

In other words, the Christian faith has intellectual content that cannot be locked inside the chapel.

"We need a generation of economists, of lawyers, of politicians who intentionally set out to connect their faith and what they will be doing in the world, not doing it by accident or an afterthought, but rather seeing this as a God-given calling," said McGrath. Professors want their students to ask, "If I were to enter politics, how could my values and beliefs be reflected in what I say and do? And likewise with chemistry, biology, psychology, you name it."

By TERRY MATTINGLY
Scripps Howard News Service
05-APR-06
(Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities.)

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Monday, April 03, 2006

Try before you die: teens test religions

YOUNG Australians are more likely to chop and change faiths than ever before because of an increased uncertainty about their beliefs, a Christian Research Association survey shows.

"What surprised me was the high proportion of people who just don't know," the association's chief researcher, Philip Hughes, said yesterday. "Well over a third say 'We are just unsure'. Most young people [almost three-quarters] think there's something out there, some sort of greater force."

Many teenagers were more sure of religious beliefs when they were younger, but as they moved through high school the degree of uncertainty increased about all sorts of belief.

"Accompanying that is the sense that it doesn't matter much anyway, what I call 'whateverism'," Dr Hughes said. "Whether you believe or you don't believe is no big deal either way, and you can change your mind from one minute to the next, whatever."

The survey of 809 teenagers builds on a study last year of more then 3600 American teenagers, who are considerably more religious in their personal beliefs and church attendance.

It also finds that family, including siblings, is a much bigger influence on teenagers than peers.

"There's been a decline in clarity about belief in God," Dr Hughes said, and it was linked to a postmodern loss of confidence in the idea of truth. "These beliefs do affect how people live, the way they deal with crises. To the extent that there's a great deal of vagueness and uncertainty, it doesn't give people much to stand on when life is difficult."

Religious education needed to help young people develop a "spiritual literacy" so they could think through issues, he said.

The survey also found that more young people believe there may be life after death (76 per cent) than believe that there may be a God.

The report says Australians are more likely than Americans to accept other paranormal beliefs such as reincarnation, astrology, psychics and communication with the dead.

It also counters the common assumption that young people are interested in spirituality rather than traditional religion. Spirituality ranks with riches at the bottom of what is important to them, with deep friendships and an exciting life at the top.

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The gospel according to U2 and Bono

BONO has declared that he is not a man of the cloth, "unless that cloth is leather". But the words of the charismatic U2 front man are nevertheless ringing out from pulpits across the United States.

The Irish rock band's songs and lyrics are being used by the Episcopal Church in so-called "U2 Eucharists" as a means of attracting young people who relate to the group's social activism.

Earlier attempts by churches to connect to youth culture have usually involved ministers in open-toed sandals strumming acoustic guitars and singing Kumbaya to the general embarrassment of all. Yet, in parishes from California to Maine, worshippers are flocking to hear U2 classics such as Beautiful Day, Pride and Peace on Earth rolled into a service of prayer.

However, ear plugs are passed out with the Bibles and hymn sheets for those who prefer organ music.

The U2 Eucharist was devised by the Rev Paige Blair, a parish priest in York Harbor, Maine, and it has since spread through word-of-mouth and on clerical websites.

At All Saints' Church in Atlanta, Georgia, organisers had planned for 300 worshippers, and instead had to contend with 500, while at the Grace Episcopal Church in Providence, Rhode Island, as many people turned up for a Friday night U2 Eucharist as normally turn up on a Sunday morning.

She came up with the idea after a sermon about the One Campaign, the Bono-backed initiative designed to alleviate global poverty and fight AIDS. She quoted equally from Bono and the Bible and included the lead singer's line: "Where you live should not determine whether you live or die."

Instead of a hymn, the service began with one of U2's earliest hits, Pride (In the Name of Love). As the music played, pictures of famous believers, including Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, flashed on a 10ft by 4ft screen behind the altar.

Other songs included in the service were Peace on Earth, which was inspired by a fatal bombing in Northern Ireland and which questions why God does not halt human suffering; during it, Bono sings: "Jesus, can you take the time to throw a drowning man a line." Also played was 40, in which Bono echoes the 40th Psalm, singing: "I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined and heard my cry."

STEPHEN MCGINTY