Dear Yuyutsu

Thanks for your response. I saw in a different thread that you had said you did not respond to this census question, which piqued my interest in how many other people did not complete this question. It’s a lot!

I’m not sure that government does directly subsidise religious organisations. There were some religious organisations that did unjustifiably well out of jobkeeper, but that was a design flaw that benefitted other employers as well. And, there are some activities of religious organisations that are government funded or subsidised. But these tend to be charitable, educational or social services in which religious organisations are treated no differently to other not-for-profit (and sometimes for-profit) providers e.g. aged care, social housing, schools etc. I think there is a case against government subsidies for some of these activities (school chaplaincies would be on my list), and also a case that organisations receiving government funding should not be exempt from e.g. anti-discrimination laws.

I would agree though that government shouldn’t offer – and religious organisations should not accept – subsidies for everyday worship and similar activities.

The richest church in 'The Shire';

Scott Morrison’s church receives $110,000 government grant. The money headed for the PM's church will help pay for security cameras, video intercoms and a security guard. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced his government had allocated $55 million to community grants to upgrade security at places of worship around Australia. So we noted with interest the recipient of one such grant recently was Morrison’s own church, Horizon.

Dear Paul1405

As I understand it that was part of the Safer Communities Fund which was available to not-for-profit community organisations to improve security at their buildings. Eligibility was expanded to include places of worship after the Christchurch massacre.

State, federal and local governments all provide grants and concessions to community organisations for lots of reasons, some of which are questionable as we saw in the run-up to the last election, but most of which are well-meaning. I don’t think religious organisations should receive any more or less favourable treatment under these grants than other community organisations.

Everald,

<<Census 2022 now reveals that the Uniting Church (UC) has only 670,000 members.This means that the death of the Church is about a decade away. . . . This means that 1.8 million members have been lost over a period of half a century even though the population of Australia increased by more than 25% during that time.>>

There is a solution, but your article did not point to it. If you read the Book of Acts, you will find the solution to the UC's problems: (1) The early church was planted in an environment by apostles who had a high view of Scripture and (2) Most of all they were Gospel preaching churches. Restore these 2 elements and the UC will become a vibrant church, but I fear it has gone too far down the path of theological liberalism to recover.

A couple comes to my evangelical church who attended a nearby evangelical UC but 60 people left the church and scattered to various Bible-believing churches when the evangelical UC pastor was told by the UC hierarchy he could not preach in other UC churches. The solution is there if the UC would return to biblical basics.

<<I do openly and regularly raise the basis of my faith in speeches by saying, ‘I am a Partner of Jesus of Nazareth. We work together to make the world a better place.’ I welcome your company along the pilgrim way.>>

That will not change people's lives, but a personal relationship with Jesus, the Saviour, will.

OzSpen

If you look at the data, it doesn’t support your hypothesis. Of the Christian groups identified, the largest growth numerically was in “Christianity, nfd” – in other words, people who identify as Christian but with no strong affiliation to any denomination. The decline in people identifying as Roman Catholic was actually smaller (4%) than for Christians as a whole (9%), while the biggest numerical increase for a specific denomination was Eastern Orthodox. In percentage terms, the largest decline was for the Salvation Army.

In my own denomination, Anglicanism, total numbers fell by 20% but the most evangelical diocese, Sydney, fared little better than average, with a decline of 17%.

In short, there is little if any correlation between whether a church is predominantly evangelical, orthodox or progressive, and whether or by how much its numbers increased or decreased. The orthodox fared best, but I suspect that has more to do with migration than theology.

Dear OzSpen,

When you were having your personal relation with Jesus can you tell us what he said to you?