PASTOR LARRY KALAJAINAN (American Church in Paris): The French do not expect the church to be a place where they come into relationships that are horizontal with other people -- the relationship is more vertical between the worshipper and God. Americans go to church for all sorts of theological reasons that do involve a multitude of horizontal relationships.

MILLER: Pastor Kalajainan doesn't think attendance or the fact that Americans are more willing to declare their faith publicly, makes them more religious than the French.

PASTOR KALAJAINAN: I would say more overtly religious, again, partly because of the cultural differences in the comfort level with which people express their own beliefs. What's happening here now is people are expressing their spiritual needs much more on an individual level.

CANON GILL: The English are really not very ardent churchgoers -- but we aren't secularists either. So it's a minority who say they actually disbelieve.

RT. REVEREND GEORGE CAREY (Archbishop of Canterbury): A survey which has just come out in the United Kingdom is that 76 percent of those interviewed -- and there were many, many interviewed in this survey -- have had religious experiences, but they are not to be found in our churches.

MILLER: That phenomenon has produced something sociologists call belief without belonging.

MS. SALLY ANNISS: I sort of see myself as a Christian in my actions rather than that I must go to church every Sunday.

MILLER: Sally Anniss is a nurse in Birmingham in the English midlands and a pilgrim to Lourdes. She's been a dozen times in 10 years.

She goes with children with special needs and says pilgrimage is as much a lifestyle experience as a religious one.

MS. ANNISS: I think there is a spiritual component. I wouldn't say for me that it's a religious thing.

I think going to Lourdes, there's a huge community feeling just within our group. It's hugely difficult to say but I think it's the community spirit and the fact that you are doing something for somebody else.

MILLER: Sociologists say pilgrimage is both a metaphor for the spiritual journey many Europeans are on and a manifestation of their search.

PROFESSOR HERVIEU-LEGER: A person who is individually looking for its own way; persons who say I believe in something but I don't know exactly what, or I am looking for, I think there is something outside the material reality. I think there is perhaps a spirit, a force, a power.

MILLER: Many Europeans put together their own combinations of religious ideas, drawing on different faiths, creating what's known as patchwork religion, whether it's New Age or Christian.

RT. REVEREND CAREY: The Church is not engaging with the spirituality of ordinary men and women today. That's our challenge.

MILLER: The Anglican Church has had some success with what is known as the Alpha course of evangelical outreach. It offers an introduction to Christianity presented in sessions of meals, talks, and small group discussions. It started here at Holy Trinity Brompton Church in London and has spread rapidly to 7,000 churches in Britain and 16,000 worldwide.

MR. NICKY GUMBEL (Alpha Program Director): It's very low-key, it's non-threatening, it's non-pressurized, it's non-confrontational, it's a very accessible way to explore the Christian faith. What's happening is people are coming to faith in Christ. They are being filled with the holy spirit, they're getting excited about the person of Jesus and they are going out and telling their friends.

MILLER: Alpha may not change the larger picture, but it has led to increased attendance in many churches that use it. One reason may be the program's emphasis on community. Sociologists say many of those who practice patchwork religion are looking for the kind of community a church can offer.

The challenge for the Church of England, the Catholic Church in France, and other establishment religions may be to incorporate evangelical elements or otherwise engage people, so that those who believe will also belong. For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Paul Miller in Paris.