PRESTON GUILD

Is the carnival over for the churches or are they on the threshold to a new

generation?

BSA SOCREL CONFERENCE

DURHAM – April 2013

Greg Smith

Senior Research Fellow

William Temple Foundation

gregcity3@yahoo.co.uk

The Preston Guild -Unique in the UK Since the charter granted in 1179 Every 20 years (give or take a gap for wars

etc.) A formal guild court with a Guild Mayor for the

enrolment of burgesses, proclaimed on the first Monday after the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (the decollation of St John the Baptist) celebrated on 29 August

The passing on of trading rights to the next generation – a rite of passage for the town- a liminal / threshold ritual

But in recent times more of a carnival .. A celebration of civic identity, an arts festival, a party..and a commercial opportunity

With strong religious involvement

… Preston “priest town”..

The arms are the lamb of God Prince of Peace. …

Civic services in the parish church / Minster…

The Processions

Traditionally there have been

Trades Procession

Churches Processions

Torchlight Procession

From 1992 there has also been a community procession, for the voluntary sector, charities and local groups… (secularisation perhaps… )

Change over the last five Guilds

1922….non conformist,

CofE and RC separate

1952

RC & Protestant

1972 RC & Protestant

MOVIE 1972

1992United Ecumenical …

but two processions for different sides of the city

MOVIE 1992

The Processions as Carnival

Historically, Trinidad's Carnival has served as a social barometer of sorts, registering the ethos, fantasies, ideals, and contests of the society PATRICIA A. DE FREITAS (1999) - a paper discussing gender and disruption..

The Medieval Carnival was, at its heart, a revolutionary and alternative view of reality; a way of representing, if only for a short time, a new reality in which the present order was turned on its head in favour of those from the underside of history- the peasant, the poor, in short, the non-elite. As such, the Carnival represents a creative interplay between the way things are, that is, the present status quo- which for many of the time was harsh and oppressive- and the ways things could be…--- public carnival feasts were held to mimic civic ceremonies and ‘uncrown’ the gentry elite and ‘crown’ the peasant instead. Humour, satire, dramatic enactments, feasting and laughter were core elements of this time of festive revolutionary imagination. Carol Kingston-Smith (forthcoming)

2012 One ecumenical procession

Came out of a long ecumenical process

(see… http://www.wegather.co.uk/stories/Preston-Guild.cfm )

Features of Carnival..

• Colour

• Costume

• Artefacts such as masks, puppets, tableaux / stage sets / floats

• Music

• Dance

• FOOL- ISH behaviour

1909 by Arnold Van Gennep in his seminal work, Les rites de passage. Van Gennep described rites of passage such as coming-of-age rituals and marriage as having the following three-part structure:

separation liminal period reassimilation

The initiate (that is, the person undergoing the ritual) is first stripped of the social status that he or she possessed before the ritual, inducted into the liminal period of transition, and finally given his or her new status and reassimilated into society.

In “Liminality and Communitas,” Turner begins by defining liminal individuals or entities as “neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony” (1969: 95).

The 2012 procession….Is it a carnival?

Maybe in form…but not really in function…

The 2012 procession .. A ritual of liminality

A renegotiation of how the (changing) church finds a place in civic life…

A new generation of religious actors… and organisations…

Serve the city… a remerging welfare role… PCAN…Food bank…

Being a Proud Prestonian -- community cohesion – in a multi faith community

Movie 2012

THE CARNIVAL IS OVER