Posted on: 9th July 2026

In the last few days I have been busy with “collective effervescences”! On Sunday morning it was “Flag Sunday” at the New Testament Church of God where flags and costumes from dozens of different nationalities brought colour and beauty to an act of collective worship. On Sunday afternoon we hummed along to orchestral classics with thousands at the Roundhay Festival. On Sunday evening we sat in a sold-out theatre marvelling at the vitality of the Vibe Performing Arts Academy production of “He Lives In You”. Then on Monday (on catch-up) we felt effervescence as England overcame Mexico in the Azteca Stadium. Now I am in recovery!

Emile Durkheim (the French sociologist) coined the term collective effervescence to describe the way “a community or society at times comes together and simultaneously communicates the same thought or participates in the same action. Such events cause collective effervescence, which excites individuals and serves to unify the group.” (Wikipedia).

There’s a school of thought that in these exciting “moments” we Brits may find our mislaid identity. Our understanding of who we are as individuals has also begun to coalesce around such feelings, experiences and choices.

Some of our culture leaders:

• Gareth Southgate in his 2021 Dear England letter;
• James Graham in his recent Love Letter To England (read exquisitely by Sir Ian McKellan);
• the Together Coalition’s National Conversation;
• our politicians, poets and the fans on the terraces; are all asking,

“Who are ya? Who are ya?”.

Is the answer simply found in our combined collective effervescences?
Many of us did indeed feel we were very “Leeds” as we celebrated United’s promotion back to the Premier League last year. And in our church lives we experience special moments of togetherness sharing sacraments (communion, baptisms, weddings, funerals). We have precious community in worship, prayer and contemplation. All of these help us understand more about who we are.

But the starting point of knowing who we are is not with us and our communal experiences, however fizzy and sparkly they may be, but with the One who gives us our very being. The God who creates us, names us, calls us, saves us and welcomes us home - He is the One who knows who we are - and He tells us.

• Paul writes: “God has said: ‘I will live with them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’”
• God walked with Adam & Eve in the garden calling them by name;
• He demanded that Pharaoh “let my people go” and brought about a cosmic-level moment of collective effervescence with the Exodus;
• Holy Spirit came at Pentecost forming the church which Peter later described as being made up of people “chosen by God, a people belonging to God – once you were not a people but now you are the people of God”;
• John gives us a revelation of heavenly collective effervescence, “after this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”;
• and the scriptures finish with the promise that Jesus’ grace will be with God’s people.

[Genesis 3:8; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Exodus 5:1; Acts 2; 1 Peter 2:4-9; Revelation 7:9; 22:21]

So, “Who are ya?”
The collective effervescences of today are not who we are any more than an Instagram selfie is who you are. They may “excite individuals and serve to unify the group”. They may bring colour and joy, sometimes loss and sorrow. But they do not define us or tell us who we are.

Dear reader, “who are ya”? You are a child of God, known, loved and named by Him and invited into His family.
Christians of Leeds, “who are ya”? You are the people of God formed into the beloved community where we worship the One who walks among us.