SOME say – and you might feel a bit this way yourself – that while most people are spiritual, many prefer not to be religious. . . or so the legend has it!

People point to the varied signs of this deep-rooted spirituality: l Bookshops, with many shelves loaded with books on the subject; l So-called ‘New Age’ stuff is all around: crystals and auras, and therapies various; and l Festivals and retreats – wickermen, winter solstices and fire festivals in Edinburgh – and, yes, you can register as a Druid or a Jedi Knight at the next census!

Clearly, something’s afoot! Something is going on inside people’s heads – inside their souls – but whatever it is, religion in general, and formal religion in particular – and organised religion definitely – misses the mark.

People apparently are happy to be spiritual, but they are not happy with religion. They see spirituality as personal, soft-centred with rounded edges. Spirituality is private and that private inner journey is bolstered by tools to encourage the pilgrim, signs and symbols and actions and movement – little disciplines of the spirit, nothing too in your face or demanding, in its place, of its time.

Spirituality is not evangelical, out to win converts. It’s just there as a resource, no evangelical zeal required, still less encouraged – you can have it if you want, but no pressure.

If that’s how it really is with people, then that’s a great place for religions various to start. There is in all of us a spiritual dimension to tune into, to connect with, to relate to, to harness.

Perhaps it’s possible to be both – spiritual and religious? And possible, too, that each may enhance and enrich the other? Perhaps left to itself, spirituality floats off into the ether and becomes nothing more than a vague notion, an idea that makes no difference to our lives and how we live them. Good religion will never allow us that luxury, for it wants to make a difference to us, in us, and through us, to the world.

Just a thought!