DECEMBER 2010 Volume 20 No.4

• Global Religious Trends – The religious trends occurring in Australia are not typical of the rest of the world. The Atlas of Global Christianity, a new book from the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity, plots the global trends.
• Lausanne Congress 2010 – October 2010 saw Australian Christians on the move. Just in front of me in the passport queue was a nun on her way to Rome to celebrate the canonisation of Sr Mary Mackillop. I was heading in a different direction: to Cape Town, South Africa, for the third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. Since 1974, the Lausanne movement has brought together Christians from around the world to focus on mission and evangelism. It has been a global movement of evangelicals, inspired by the world mission of Billy Graham and John Stott. The third Lausanne Congress involved around 4200 selected participants from around the globe.
• Attitudes to the Variety of Religions – The First European Settlers to Australia thought of Christianity as the only ‘civilised’ religion and had no interest in the religions of Chinese miners, Hindu peddlers or Islamic Afghan camel drivers. Since the 1970s, attitudes to other religions have changed markedly. The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (2009)
  provides the most recent perspective.
• Who Reads the Bible? – The Bible Society of South Australia, Scripture Union, YouthWorks, the Lutheran Church and The Salvation Army are currently sponsoring a study of Bible reading among young people. The CRA is currently visiting youth groups around Australia talking with young people about their attitudes to the Bible, their reading habits (if any), the catalysts and the hindrances for reading, and how they interpret the Bible. As a prelude to this study, the CRA re-visited the research
  it has done on young people in the Spirit of Generation Y Project (2002 to 2008) and the associated Schools Spirituality Project. It summarised the results of that earlier research in relation to Bible reading. The full report can be found on the CRA website. Here is a summary of the findings.
• Attitudes to Issues of Sexuality – In revising the materials for the 3rd edition of Australia’s Religious Communities CD-Rom, we discovered some interesting patterns in the changing attitudes to issues of sexuality amongst Australians.
  As might be expected, Australian adults have become more accepting of pre-material sex and homosexuality. However, in relation to extra-marital sex, Australians have become less accepting. This suggests that while Australians usually move into
  a de facto relationship before marriage, they take faithfulness in marriage very seriously.

SEPTEMBER 2010 Volume 20 No.3

Articles Include :

• 25th Anniversary Dinner Speech – 2 September 2010  Speech by Rev Dr Bruce Kaye
• CRA: Chair’s Report 2010 – Rob Steed, chair of the board of the Christian Research Association at the 25th Anniversary
  Dinner
• CRA: Staff Report 2010 – Philip Hughes, Senior Research Officer of the Christian Research Association speaking at the 25th Anniversary Dinner
• Shaping Australia’s Spirituality: the Conference – Between 31st August and 3rd September 2010, 140 people met in Glen Waverley, Victoria, to review the ministries of the churches in the contemporary context. Thirty-five people were involved in presenting research, and leading plenary and small group discussion on the various aspects of Australia’s ministry.
  Each of the four days examined a separate topic. The first day looked at the national picture of Australia’s spirituality and the ways in which the churches have a national impact. The second day focussed on children and young people, examining the churches’ ministries through church activities, schools and chaplaincies. The third day examined the scene in relation to family, workplace, community and health. The fourth day focussed on the spirituality of the churches. The following is a brief summary of some of the major themes in the discussion, arranged in terms of reflections on context and on ministry.
• How We Make Sense of Life Does Matter – Spirit Matters, by Peter Kaldor, Philip Hughes and Alan Black,was launched at the “Shaping Australia’s Spirituality” conference in Melbourne on 31 August 2010. Subtitled How Making Sense of Life Affects Wellbeing, it presents an in-depth analysis of national surveys undertaken in Australia on wellbeing, religion, spirituality and how we make sense of life. The book argues that there are significant links between how we make sense of life and our personal and societal wellbeing.
• Third Edition of Australia’s Religious Communities Launched – The Third Edition of the Australia’s Religious
  Communities CD-Rom (ISBN 978-1-87522369-5) was launched on at the CRA 25th anniversary dinner by Dr Trevor Batrouney, a researcher at the now defunct Bureau of Immigration, Multicultural and Population Research which originally commissioned the CRA to produce a series of 12 books on the major religions of Australia. The third edition has been fully revised. All statistics have been up-dated, using the latest Census and survey data. All the text has also been reviewed and
  up-dating has occurred throughout this encyclopedia of religion in Australia.

JUNE 2010 Volume 20 No.2

Articles Include:

• Are Australians ‘Losing Their Religion’? – New data, gathered late 2009, provides a new comprehensive picture of the religious faith and spirituality of Australians. The data is part of the International Social Science Survey (ISSP) program and involved surveys of 1718 adult Australians. It is the best picture we have had of the religious faith and spirituality of the Australian population since the Wellbeing and Security Survey of 2002 conducted by Edith Cowan University, Deakin University, Anglicare and NCLS Research. Indeed, this new survey repeats a range of questions asked in 1993 and 1999, giving us an excellent picture of changes over time.
• Factors in Declining Church Attendance – The number of Australians attending church services is declining. Data from the ISSP (International Social Survey Programme) shows that, between 1993 and 2009, the proportion of Australians attending a service of worship monthly or more often dropped from 23 per cent to 16 per cent. Occasional attendance (less than monthly) also dropped from 42 per cent to 36 per cent. In turn, the proportion claiming they never attend services of worship rose from 33 per cent to 43 per cent. What might be some of the underlying factors and transitions influencing these trends?
• Power and the Churches – In the 2009 International Social Science Program (ISSP) survey just released, 42 per cent of Australian respondents indicated that churches and religious organisations had ‘about the right amount of power’ and 37 per cent indicated they had ‘too much power’ or ‘far too much power’. In addition, 78 per cent ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ that religious leaders should not influence how people voted, and 71 per cent that religious leaders should not influence government. What implications does this have for Christianity’s underlying principles of social justic ? Do these figures suggest that churches and religious organisations the Australian public wants the churches to remain silent on issues?
• Is the End Nigh? Print based ReligiousPublications in Australia – In 1992, the CRA published a special section in the annual Yearbook for Australian Churches, which focused on religious periodicals. There were about 220 religious periodicals, including a handful from coordinating agencies of the major non-Christian religions. There is now a much wider diversity of periodical and web publications from Jewish, Islamic and Buddhist communities in particular, and also notably there has been development of inter-faith publications. A follow-up article in Pointers considered some of the issues facing the Christian press at the time, with five major points outlined.

MARCH 2010 Volume 20 No.1

Articles Include:

• Climate Change and the Human Spirit – Environmental problems, such as pollution and global warming, are seen as the greatest threat to the future of the world, according to young people surveyed in Australia, United Kingdom and Thailand. At the popular level, awareness of environmental issues has grown and there is widespread awareness that this threat is the most critical ever faced by human beings. It was also a major topic at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, held in Melbourne in December 2090. It  was noted that climate change and environmental pollution have their roots in the human spirit, and will not be solved simply by new technology or by spending a lot of money. The problem must also be addressed by the world’s religions as a spiritual concern.
• Sectarianism in Australia – A new book by the Anglican priest Dr. Benjamin Edwards, WASPS, Tykes and Ecumaniacs, sketches the long history of sectarianism in the Australian cultural scene. A brief survey of 1788 to 1947 notes the deep cleavage in colonial society between the Irish Catholic community and the mainstream British Protestant and Anglican society. This cleavage, as Edwards amply illustrates, lies deep in the memories of many older Australians (ch.1). Edwards also points out that it has been the theme of many novels, films, comedy sketches and television sitcoms, ensuring its enduring place in popular culture (ch.2).
• Review of Chaplaincy in State Schools – The first chaplain was appointed to a government school in 1955. Since that time, chaplaincy has become more common in State schools around Australia. However, chaplaincy in State schools has grown hugely in the last 3 years from around 650 to more than 1870 chaplains.
• Counselling and the Church – The client-based approach to counselling which emerged in the 1960s and 1970s was something of a threat to traditional religious establishments. It suggested that people would come to wholeness through inner reflection and self-direction rather than through the teaching of an external body. The tension between these two approaches was particularly strong in the Catholic Church, and is well illustrated in Opening Up: a History of the Institute of Counselling by David Bollen.
• Satanism – In the 1996 Census, 2091 people in Australia identified themselves as Satanists. In 2001, the number was down to about 1800, but rose again in the 2006 Census to 2248 people.
• Which Churches Use Email? – There have been extraordinary technological advances in the ways that people communicate with each other. Are there some churches that are more likely to  embrace these trends and use new electronic methods to communicate with attenders? In the 2006 National Church Life Survey churches were asked about their email and internet use.

Articles include:

Is the ‘New Atheism’ influencing Australians?
There is little evidence from surveys of the Australian population that the ‘New Atheists’ are having widespread impact on people becoming atheist.For a detail account of Australians belief in God, and the factors inhibiting belief, see the first article

Changes in Beliefs and Attitudes to Life Among Students
Responses to surveys of 4100 students in Catholic schools in 2011 can be compared with students responses to surveys conducted between 2005 and 2008.

Being Faithful in Diversity
A series of lectures by Gary Bouma, published by ATF Press in a small book Being Faithful in Diversity, explores the challenges of faith in a multi-faith society.

Celebrating the Canonisation of Mary MacKillop
In May 2011, CRA researchers interviewed 14 students who had travelled to Rome for the canonisation. Eight months on, the interviews found that the students remained very enthusiastic about the event.

Attitudes to Abortion and Approaches to Ethical Issues
15% of Australians say that abortion is always or almost always wrong. Younger people are more likely to accept abortion than older people. However, the views of those who attend church are vastly different with 56% of them saying that abortion is always or almost always wrong.

Pointers Vol.21-4 (December 2011)

Articles include:

Why Some Churches Decline While Others Grow. New research from England provides an explanation which fits, in part, with the Australian experience. Read more in this edition of Pointers.

Dropping Out of Church. Not many children attend church today compared with years gone by. Yet the drop-out rates have not changed greatly. For the details of this new research, see this edition of Pointers.

Social Networking. Social networking is widespread among young people. What are some of the challenges and pitfalls associated with it? Pointers looks at the latest data gathered from secondary school students in the last 6 months.

Faith and Film. The Christian use of film has had many ups and downs. Today, there are new opportunities for local churches to use visual media effectively. Some of the possibilities are outlined in this article in Pointers.

Factors in Church Giving. Some new research on financial giving to churches in the United States suggests why some churches thrive better financially than others. Find the details here.

Pointers, Vol.21-3. (September 2011)

Articles include:

• Religion and Youth: World Perspectives – an exploration of how young people are relating to religion around the world.
• Who’s Coming to School Today? – the attitudes of students, staff and parents to Catholic Schools in Queensland.
• Access and Values: Functions of Religion in Australian Society – what Australians regard as important functions of religion.

Pointers, Vol.21-2.  (June 2011)

Articles include:

• Global Trends in the Changing Context of Mission – Reflections on the 6th Lausanne Researchers
  Conference, Sao Paulo
• Researching the Church at the Local Level – While several papers at the 6th International Lausanne Researchers Conference focused on overall issues in Worldwide Christian mission, a number of researchers presented papers outlining issues in research at the local church level. Each of the papers presented a local context for church ministry: the vitality of local evangelical churches in Rio de Janeiro, alternative models of church development and planning in Germany, and the inclusiveness of churches to disabled people in
  Brazil.
• The Church and Family Life in Australia – The following paper was delivered by Stephen Reid at the 6th International Lausanne Researchers Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in April 2011. Whilst the paper looked at family life in the Australian context, comparisons to other countries was possible through analysis of data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and the World Values Surveys (WVS).
• Cross-Cultural Ministry Now and Then -
  
• Publications in the Religion-and-Film Field – In the tradition of Pointers 2008 (vol. 18, no. 3) and 2009 (vol. 19, no. 4), below is the third compilation of useful articles in the religionand- film field for your interest, enjoyment and edification.
• On-Line Religion – The Internet has become an increasingly
  important part of people’s social interactions as well as a means of accessing information. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2009), the proportion of Australian households with computers rose from 44 per cent to 78 per cent between 1998 and 2009. Access to the Internet has increased even more rapidly, from just 16 per cent of households in 1998 to 72 per cent in 2009. It is inevitable that the role of religion on the Internet would also increase over time. A recent edition of the Australian Religion Studies Review was dedicated to articles on religion and
  spirituality in cyberspace.

Pointers Vol.21-1. (March 2011)

Articles include:

• Possibilities of Leadership in Rural Catholic Parishes – With the declining number of priests available, many Catholic dioceses are investigating various ways of organising their parishes. The issue is similar to that faced by many denominations. Catholic parishes, however, have some issues not faced by some Protestant denominations in that priests have an irreplaceable role in celebrating the sacraments. Priests are central to parish life in the Catholic Church and there has not been a tradition of lay people as leaders of worship services. However, two case studies suggest that the patterns of leadership can change and may even strengthen parish life as they do so.
• Catholic Religious Institutes in Australia – In 2008, the National Council of Catholic Religious Australia commissioned the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Pastoral Research Office to
  survey all Catholic Institutes of Clerical Religious, Religious Brothers and Religious Sisters in Australia.The final report of the survey, ‘See, I am Doing a New Thing!’, was launched in Sydney in November 2010.
• Looking at Art Looking at Life – One way of understanding the culture that we inhabit is to consider how it is sustained in visual
  terms. This means looking at the visual shape of things as they are expressed through the images, signs and symbols of the world of hopes that make up contemporary consumer culture.
• Spirituality, Care and Wellbeing in Education – Late 2009, Springer Publishing House released a huge twovolume collection of essays on spirituality, care and wellbeing in education. The volume is timely as schools and other institutions increasingly find themselves grappling with issues of mental health and wellbeing. The first volume of essays focusses mainly on the psychology of religion and spirituality. The second volume is primarily about educational programs and environments in promoting holistic learning and wellbeing. This review will focus on the second volume.
• Demographics of a Nation: Australia and the Church – This article from NCLS Research presents a summary of Australian population, age, marital status, education, country of birth and religion. The Australian population is compared with church attenders using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and
  the 2006 National Church Life Survey.

For the majority of young people life is about enjoyment and making the best of it. However, fewer students in 2011 felt they had a sense of purpose in life when compared to students in 2005. Students who indicated they believe in God, or some sort of spirit or life force were more likely to state they had a sense of purpose in life, than those who did not believe in God or who did not know what to think.

Although fewer students said they were attending church services monthly or more often compared to students in 2005, the proportion of students attending services less frequently had increased significantly. Also significant was the increase from 2005 in the proportion of students who had attended church services other than Catholic.

Whilst there is wide diversity in students’ beliefs and attitudes, results showed that students are now more inclined to question the authority of the church, and are less inclined to just believe without questioning their own faith. The latest results suggest that students continue to construct their own beliefs and spirituality for life without necessarily adhering to the teachings of the church or school.

Stephen Reid

The idea of God has certainly become contentious in contemporary Australia. In 1949, there was little disagreement: a Gallup Poll reported that 95 per cent of Australians believed in God. Today, Australians hold a variety of views. The 2009 Survey of Australian Attitudes conducted by the Australian National University among 1718 adult Australians found that just under half the population (47%) believed in God. Among that 47 per cent, there was considerable variation in the levels of confidence. Just 25 per cent of the Australian population said they had no doubts that God exists. The remaining 22 per cent were somewhat tentative in their belief. Some said they had doubts, but generally believed. Others said they believed some of the time but not at others.

There is also a variety of attitudes among those who do not believe in God. Not all are atheists. Indeed, just 16 per cent of Australians said they believed there was no God or higher power. Another 15 per cent say they do not know whether there was a God. An additional 20 per cent said they did not believe there was a personal God, but they did believe there was a higher power.

While 60 per cent of Australians said they had not changed their belief in or rejection of God, another 20 per cent had changed what they believed and another 20 per cent were not sure if they had changed or not:

• 21% said they don’t believe in God now and never have;
• 16% say they don’t believe in God, but used to;
• 4% say they believe in God now, but didn’t used to;
• 39% say they believe in God and always have; and
• 20% said they could not choose or did not answer the question.

In other words, for every person who had moved from not believing to believing in God, four Australians had moved in the opposite direction.

Have the ‘New Atheists’ been a significant part of the story of change in belief in God? There are several reasons to believe they have not had much impact. The first is that there has been a relatively even decline in belief since 1993, well before they began their campaigns.

Further evidence for the lack of impact of ‘New Atheism’ is the fact that many of those who have given up belief in God have not adopted atheism as their stance, but indicate they believe now in some sort of higher power or life force. Atheism has increased over recent years, but only slightly.

The 2009 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes allows us to look at the impact of a range of factors influencing belief in God. Regression analysis, which compares the individual significance of a wide variety of factors, shows that the factors such as gender, age, level of education were not significant when one considered other factors.

Belief in God was strongest and most confident amongst those who prayed frequently and those who had high levels of confidence in the religious organisations. Another significant factor was the level of trust in science: those with less confidence in science were more likely to affirm belief in God. Having attended church as a child also made a significant difference. Finally, the link that people made between religious faith and conflict was significant. Together these factors accounted for about 60 per cent of the variance in confidence in belief in God.

In terms of the lack of confidence in the existence of God, the data suggests that this is related to:

• the decline in frequency of personal prayer;
• lack of confidence in the churches and religious organisations;
• trust in science;
• lack of attendance at church as a child; and
• the belief that religions bring conflict.

The idea that belief in God is fading rather dropping suddenly as the result of a dogmatic atheistic stance is supported by the fact that approximately half of all those who believe in God vacillate, believing sometimes and not at other times. It is easy to sit on the fence in regard to God in contemporary Australian society. In daily life, Australians do not often need to make decisions about whether they believe or not. In a culture in which few people pray or attend a church, the existence of God simply does not appear as an issue for most people.

The rejection of God is associated with the decline in confidence in the churches which has been fueled by cases of abuse and concerns about how such cases have been handled by church officials. It is also associated with the fact that people feel their behaviour and lifestyles are ‘judged’ by people within the churches. The rejection is also made possible by the alternative pictures of the world science provides in which there is no reference to God. The final factor is the association in the minds of many people between religion and war.

There is little evidence to suggest that the ‘New Atheism’ has had a measurable impact on Australians. There has been a decline in belief in God over several decades, and there is little sign that this decline has increased in recent years with the popularising of atheism by people such as Richard Dawkins. There remain similar levels of belief that there is ‘something beyond’ despite the new atheists contentions that there is nothing. Many of those who have turned away from belief in God continue to believe there is some sort of higher power.

For many Australians, the idea of God has simply faded into irrelevancy (Frame 2009, p.298). Most Australians do not think much about the question of God’s existence. It is not an issue which arises in everyday life. There are few private or public practices which keep the sense of God alive. Thus, the picture is not predominantly one of the dogmatic rejection of God, but rather a fading of the importance of thinking about the question. The question has no more significance for most Australians than the question ‘Is the Buddha Enlightened?’ When asked to respond in a survey, many indicate that they are unsure what to believe.

There are factors which are encouraging a culture in which the idea of God becomes contentious. The picture of the world provided by science, the association between religion and conflict and the perception of moral failure in the churches contribute to doubts.

All of this has important implications for Christian apologetics in contemporary Australia. Arguments with the ‘new atheists’ about the existence of God is likely to have little more impact than their arguments against God’s existence. However, the counter-arguments some denominations are highlighting (see, for example, the website of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne) is probably an encouragement to some Christians in maintaining their belief.

A bigger issue for most Australians is whether one needs to believe in God: whether God can make a difference to one’s life. The experiential approach that the Pentecostals have embraced is most likely to have an impact among young people today. If God can transform lives that are dysfunctional, then God is worth believing in!In our post-modern, post-traditional world, the personal stories of other trusted people counts for much.

While the ‘new atheism’ is having little measurable impact across the population, it has probably contributed to a culture in which it is assumed that belief in God is not necessary and even a little ‘unusual’. It may also offer a hard and protective shell for the increasing numbers who feel that the issue is not worth thinking about.
Philip Hughes

References:

Blackford, Russell, ‘Best of 2011: Atheists Against The New Atheism’, ABC Religion and Ethics. http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/01/16/3202269.htm (Accessed 19-01-2012).

Frame, T. (2009) Losing My Religion: Unbelief in Australia, UNSW Press, Sydney.

Hughes, P. (2010) ‘Are Australians ‘Losing their Religion’?’ Pointers, Vol.20-2, June 2010.

Data source: Evans, A. (2009) The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (computer file), Australian Social Science Data Archives, Canberra.

For the full article, see Pointers Vol. 22, no.1, March 2012. Pointers may be purchased from the CRA website for $6 and annual subscriptions for $20.

Go to https://www.cra.org.au/products-page/pointers/

Rev Dr Philip Hughes has been a senior research officer with the Christian Research Association since its foundation in 1985. He has postgraduate degrees in philosophy, theology and education, has undertaken many empirical studies in the areas of religion, values, and personal and communal wellbeing. For many years Philip Hughes was a research fellow at the Centre for Social Justice Research, Edith Cowan University. He is now an honorary research fellow at that university. He is also an honorary research fellow at the MCD University of Divinity.

One of the foci of his research has been the spirituality of young Australians. He was a member of the team which conducted the seminal ‘Spirit of Generation Y’ study between 2002 and 2008. He has been involved in various studies of young people in schools. In 2007, he wrote Putting Life Together: Findings from Australian Youth Spirituality Research. He conducted a large national study of chaplaincy in Australian government schools in 2009 and in 2010, a study of ‘Engaging the Bible’ with youth and youth leaders through Australia. He is currently conducting another round of surveys of students on youth spirituality.

Another focus has been the organisation and leadership in rural churches. Philip Hughes has led several projects on the rural churches in the Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, and Uniting congregations. Several of these studies have been published as ‘occasional papers’. A brief summary of some of the research, designed to assist leaders within the rural churches has been published as Sowing and Nurturing: Challenges and Possibilities for Rural Churches.

Philip Hughes has been involved in research internationally. Since completing his doctorate with the South East Asia School of Theology, he has continued to conduct research in Thailand. Recent studies have involved surveys of Buddhist, Muslim and Christian young people. One account of those studies was published in Social Compass, Vol.55, no.3, in 2008.

For approximately 20 years, Philip Hughes has been associated with the Lausanne Researchers International Network – a network of people around the world interested in church and mission related research. For several years, he chaired the committee which runs the Network. The Network holds conferences every three years. Philip Hughes organised the conference held in Geelong in 2008 and was highly involved in the organisation of the conference in Sao Paulo in 2011. Philip Hughes also regularly presents at other international conferences such as the International Society for the Sociology of Religion.

Amongst his other responsibilities, Philip Hughes is the chair of the Council of Kingswood College, a Uniting Church school. He is secretary of the Maroondah Interfaith Network, and he is a member of the Research Committee of the MCD University of Divinity.

Philip Hughes is ordained as a minister of religion within the Uniting Church in Australia. He has had 16 years pastoral experience in three churches: inner city, rural town, and suburban.

Philip Hughes

Day 4 of the Roundtable on ‘Shaping Australia’s Spirituality’ focussed on the spirituality of the Church. It was chaired by Pastor Rob Steed.

Rev Dr Philip Hughes began with the fact that there had been a significant decline in attendance in churches over the last generation with just 15 per cent of Australians now attending a church within a given month. The churches of list engagement with:

• 90% of younger people;
• 90% of business people;
• 90% of people who work more with their hands than with their minds; and
• 90% of second generation immigrants.

The problem is not largely the rejection of faith, but:

• cultural expressions within the church reflecting the 19^th century;
• lack of affirmation of the workplace and business values;
• high demands for literacy in expression;
• strong connections with ethnic cultures;
• not holistic in relation to life; and
• often seen as irrelevant to life and society.

Churches are build around organisations and require much effort in maintenance. They are often build on local communities which are largely irrelevant, and their activities centre on the repetition of tradition rather than addressing contemporary life and society. They are often more focussed on self-maintenance and mutual support than changing the community, society and the world.

The new forms of God’s activity include the faithfulness, goodwill and sacrificial service of many people. Much happens in small and informal groups of people. There needs to be a change from organisation to movement. This will involve the formation of task groups rather than organisations, and the development of networks rather than formal associations.

Churches need to focus on relationships rather than structures, about living in families in our fragmented communities, in the pluralistic, globalised society. It is about living justly and with care and compassion. The primary challenge of faith is ‘to love God and our neighbour’.

Dr Ruth Powell (NCLS Research) noted the evidence for ongoing erosion of beliefs and practices associated with Christianity. She noted that there is a large ‘messy middle’ of people who are neither religious nor non-religious, neither theists nor atheists. Yet, for four in ten Australians say that religious faith or spirituality is important in shaping their life’s decisions.

Dr Darren Cronshaw argued for a ‘church revolution’. He told of his experience of emerging and experiential churches. He spoke of networks which nurture the spirit, rather than being static organisations. He spoke of churches which allowed people to explore faith rather than requiring a certain level of belief.

Dr Cronshaw argued that there were two areas in which the emerging churches had a little more to learn:

1. Effective evangelism. While over time, the service component of these communities increased, the faith-sharing decreased.
2. Many of these churches had experienced high levels of change but many were not good at the on-going processing of change.

Dr Bob Dixon (Catholic Pastoral Research Office) spoke of the massive growth in Catholic population since 1950. One of the strengths of the Catholic Church is its ethnic diversity. However, 86% of all Catholics do not attend Mass on a typical Sunday.

In interviews with people who no longer attended church, it was found that many felt that the church had become irrelevant to daily life. Some were concerned about the abuse in the church. Some had experienced some conflict. Yet, for most of them, spirituality continued to be see seen as an important component in their lives. The research found that if people felt that they would be welcomed, some would return to the church.

For an audio file of these presentations, right-click here and save the mp3 file to your computer.

For more details of the research, see Philip Hughes, Shaping Australia’s Spirituality: A Review of Christian Ministry in the Australian Context, (Mosaic Press, Melbourne, 2010).

The following people were involved in discussion of the research and the presentation of their own observations of the development of church life and the training of people for ministry.

• Rev Dr Bruce Kaye (Anglican Church)
• Pastor Rob Steed (Seventh-day Adventist Church)
• Rev Tim Hein (Uniting Church)
• Rev Dr Brendon Roach (Principal, Harvest Bible College)

For an audio file of these reflections and observations, right-click here and save the mp3 file to your computer.