Church In Australia Research Articles

Women, Leadership and the Orthodox Church in Australia: Always Second, Secondary or Seconded

Women, Leadership and the Orthodox Church in Australia: Always Second, Secondary or Seconded

“This Special Shell”: The Church Building and the Embodiment of Memory

Religious, congregational, individual, and community memories are embodied in church buildings. Under normal circumstances these memories sit harmoniously together. Once the church building is destined for closure, however, the equilibrium of the memory platforms is disrupted, often causing conflict. The value of associating memory with a building is questioned, especially when such attachments are seen to impede the rationalisation of church assets. Through the process of closure and afterwards, the memory patterns and associations are reorganised, redrawn, and reprioritised. This article examines these memory shifts in the context of Australian religious history from the 1970s to the present day. Special attention is given to the Uniting Church in Australia.

From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopacy in the Early Church (review)

Ancient From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopacy in the Early Church. By Francis A. Sullivan, SJ. (New York and Mahwali, New Jersey: The Newman Press. 2001. Pp. xi, 253. $28.95.) Father Sullivan's confessional allegiances are not unimportant in this book and neither, therefore, should mine be. I am an ordained minister of the Uniting Church in Australia (a union church of Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches formed in 1977); half my teachers during my foundational theological training in Melbourne in the late 1970's were Jesuits; I am Principal of the Uniting Church theological college in Brisbane, which is itself part of a highly integrated ecumenical consortium (the Brisbane College of Theology: Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Uniting), and with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane (John Bathersby) I am Co-Chair of a National Dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Uniting Churches. The basic question which Father Sullivan explores in this very well written book is whether the historic episcopate, particularly as understood by the Anglican, Orthodox, and Roman Catholic traditions, is of divine institution, an issue he properly describes as truly church splitting. In his own words,[t]he question that divides Catholics and Protestants is not whether, or how rapidly, the development from the local leadership of a college of presbyters to that of a single bishop took place, but whether the result of that development is rightly judged an element of the divinely willed structure of the church(p.viii). He acknowledges that none of the Apostles could be described as in the historic sense, that until the early part of the second century no single bishop presided over any Christian community, and that even then, apart from inAntioch and the Roman province of Asia, probably nowhere did they do so until the middle of that century. By the end of the century, however, and this would be agreed across confessional divides, in a development which can only be described as rapid, the structure of single bishop-presbyters-deacons had become the norm everywhere. This fact leads to a number of observations: first, that the traditional Roman Catholic claim that there is, as an integral part of the structure of the Church, an apostolic succession represented by an unbroken line of episcopal ordination from Christ through the apostles down through the centuries to the bishops of today1 is unsustainable as our author himself acknowledges; and second, that while the historical record alone will not support such a claim, the rapid emergence of the threefold ordering of the Church as normative does require, at the very least, the exploration of potential theological arguments arising out of that record. …

No Just War: Political Reflections on Australian Churches' Condemnation of the Iraq War

This paper analyses the potentially positive role churches can play in encouraging public debate and moral reasoning on security matters. In particular, it explores Australian churches' vocal condemnation of Australia's involvement in the Iraq war through examining responses of spokespersons from the three largest Christian churches in Australia, namely Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Churches. It examines three types of reasons given for the condemnation: legal explanations of the lack of a plausible justification for war without UN sanctions; religious and moral reasons that defend peace and reconciliation; and political reasons that a war led by the “Christian West” increases global enmity and the likelihood of terrorism. I situate this analysis within just war theory. I suggest that churches can play an important social role in fostering tolerance, inter-faith dialogue and peace.

Child Protection and the Anglican Church of Australia

ABSTRACTIn the last decade the sexual abuse of children by some clergy and church workers in the Anglican Church of Australia has become a serious public issue. There have been criminal convictions, civil litigation, inquiries, Church discipline and resignations. Initial responses in the 23 dioceses were reactive and inconsistent. Beginning in 2001 the General Synod took initiatives to develop national strategies to respond to this growing crisis. The culmination of these initiatives occurred at the 2004 General Synod. By the passing of several resolutions and canons the Church at a national level expressed a commitment to, and set out detailed comprehensive and uniform strategies for, the protection of children.

Language and Orthodox churches in Australia

Anya Woods: Medium or Message? Language and Faith in Ethnic Churches. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2004. xii + 219 pp. (Trevor Batrouney)

Recognizing All Members

SUMMARY In this article, we present a case study related to the New South Wales (NSW) Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA). We look at the gap between the official theology of the Church and its policy and practice, compare this to the Church's approach to other groups who have experienced barriers to Church participation, and outline a project which is attempting to move the Church forward to a more appropriate praxis.

Australian Anglicanism and Pluralism

ABSTRACTInitially the Church of England was the one recognized church in Australia. As other churches were established, it became the dominant church among a few others. Subsequently it became one Christian denomination among many. Now it finds itself, with other churches, among a plurality of other faiths. This evolution from singularity to plurality has raised such questions as whether truth is one or many, how unity relates to plurality and how a church conveys its message in a plural society. For Anglicans the intensity of these questions has been heightened by the plurality within Anglicanism itself. This article argues that plurality can contribute positively to a fuller perception of truth and that the pressure for unity continues in the face of pluralism, though it may be a unity obtained by excluding dissenting points of view or an inclusive unity which transcends plurality.

Iron in our blood. A history of the Presbyterian Church in NSW, 1788–2001. By Mark Hutchinson. Pp. xvi+534+24 plates. Sydney: Ferguson Publications/Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity, 2001. $40 (paper) plus $15 post and packing from Ferguson Memorial Library, Presbyterian Church of Australia, PO Box 2196, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012, Australia. 0 949197 90 4

<i>Iron in our blood. A history of the Presbyterian Church in NSW, 1788–2001</i>. By Mark Hutchinson. Pp. xvi+534+24 plates. Sydney: Ferguson Publications/Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity, 2001. $40 (paper) plus $15 post and packing from Ferguson Memorial Library, Presbyterian Church of Australia, PO Box 2196, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012, Australia. 0 949197 90 4

Legal and Ethical Matters Relevant to the Receipt of Financial Benefits by Ministers of Religion and Churches

This paper discusses some of the findings of a research project on the use of spiritual influence for financial gain, using the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) as a case study. The paper begins with the hypothesis that regulation is required with respect to the receipt of financial benefits by ministers of religion and religious bodies from those under their spiritual care. Current legal and ethical regulation is briefly outlined before the project’s findings are discussed. Semistructured interviews were conducted with leading players in the New South Wales Synod, who were asked to recount stories relating to the receipt of financial benefit that they perceived to constitute an abuse of spiritual influence for financial gain. It was found that at least two general scenarios existed which caused concern to interviewees but which were not regulated by law. The paper describes examples of these scenarios and considers whether they raise legal or ethical concerns.

Competing Claims for Justice: Sexuality and Race at the Eighth Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, 1997

Competing Claims for Justice: Sexuality and Race at the Eighth Assembly of the Uniting Church in Australia, 1997

'Not a Dictatorship of the Proletariat but a Comradeship of All': Methodism and the Newcastle Labour Movement

A number of historians have noted the importance of the Methodist Church (now part of the Uniting Church in Australia) for the British labour movement. This is especially the case for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The activities of those members of the labour movement who were also Methodists is an important topic for research. Methodism was important in a variety of locations as well as for certain professions and occupations in Australia as it was in Britain. Methodism had many core value systems that were co-extensive with what may be called craft unionism. These values were also widely held throughout professions such as finance, teaching, nursing, police and administration. Geographical areas where Methodists were a significant component of the overall population were often also key areas for the emergence of the values of Taborism' in Australia. Examples include the various coalfields of NSW and the copperbelt of South Australia. Newcastle with its coal miners provides one area where there is considerable evidence of this activity. These mines required skilled workers. Engine drivers, under managers, deputies and the contract miners had to be recruited from those areas in the UK where coalmining occurred. Among these were Durham and Northumberland, the very areas in the UK where the Methodist link was of greatest significance. Consequently Newcastle's religious affiliation was very different to NSW as a whole. The critical statistic is that, in 1891, Methodists made up 31.1 per cent of the Newcastle colliery district population compared to 10.1 per cent for the whole of NSW. For non-conformist potestants as a group (including similar denominations such as Congregationalists and Salvationists) the total was 52.8 per cent for Newcastle versus 25.9 per cent for the state.1 Given that Newcastle itself had administrative, business and port functions we can assume that the Methodist component was even stronger in the various mining centres. These townships included Lambton, Wallsend, Minmi, Adamstown, Dudley, West Wallsend, Kurri Kurri, Weston and Cessnock.

Hospitality as a Sign and Sacrament

This paper was prepared as a resource that responds to a hypothesis in the DMin Dissertation/Project Design: “People with disabilities not only constitute a community that makes space for God in the world, but by participating in the act of hospitality as sign and sacrament, will challenge the Church to be such a community by identifying with them.” This paper has been available as a resource to participants in education programs on disability awareness within the Uniting Church in Australia.

Budgetary incrementalism in a Christian bureaucracy

This paper presents the second stage of a field based case study focussed upon the planning and control concepts and processes employed by the central offices of the Victorian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. Its analysis is informed by grounded theory methodology and develops a micro-theoretical framework of that organization’s planning and control process. A reactive style of planning produces an incremental budgetary mélange that ultimately results in a form of control by compromise. The emergent findings are compared with a selection of relevant prior strategy and not-for-profit organization research. The study presents contextualized insights into the potential limits of ‘rational’ management system operation in such organizations, and the role of budgetary systems in organizational approaches to coping with a complex and dynamic environment.

What Does The Lord Require of Us? Child Sexual Abuse in the Churches

ABSTRACT This article reviews the evidence on the extent of child sexual abuse in church communities, and the reasons why churches are so vulnerable to this form of crime. There are particular factors in church life which give rise to the propensity for abuse and which provide the opportunity for abuse. The article goes on to evaluate the different models for responding to victims of child abuse, using as examples the protocols and procedures of churches in Australia. The three models are the disciplinary procedure model, the mediation model and the restoration model. All of them begin from a premise of wanting to offer a response to victims, but only the restoration model is both victim-focused and fulfils the Church's responsibility for the protection of those in its congregations.

Anglicanism and National Identity in Australia Since 1962

This paper examines the way in which the Anglican church in Australia adapted itself to the social and cultural changes that occurred in Australia after 1962. In that year the church gained a new constitution which freed it from longstanding constraints arising from the legal ties binding it to the church in England. This freedom was used by the church to become more Australian and to reposition itself on issues relating to race, multiculturalism, and gender. By this means it incorporated within its own life changes arising in Australia from the emergence of a plural society in which women and the indigenous people came to play an important role. The concept of national identity was broadened to incorporate these developments and in altering its own stance the church brought itself into line with this new sense of identity, thus strengthening its position.

Reactive planning in a Christian Bureaucracy

This paper is drawn from a field-based case study of the approach to planning and control and their environmental conditioners in the central offices of the Victorian Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. Its analysis is informed by grounded theory methodology and this first of two papers develops an understanding of this organization’s context, structure, management processes and planning orientation. Key external and internal environmental drivers: a community oriented culture, a consultative bureaucracy, a compliance oriented accounting system and increasing pressures upon organizational resources are identified and examined. These are found to produce a reactive style of planning which is primarily short term and resources oriented. The implications of an apparent strategic planning vacuum in such a not-for-profit organization are considered.

Whatever Happened in Torres Strait?: Interpreting the Anglican split of 1998

Recent movements within world Anglicanism towards a more democratic representation of the church are in contrast to Torres Strait Islanders' assertion of their own male-led conservative and hierarchical body. These characteristics have marked Torres Strait Island Anglicanism for many years. On the surface, the various strands leading to a conflict over a choice of leader in 1997 focused upon discordant relationships and faulty decision-making procedures, especially the surrender of the diocese of Carpentaria to the adjacent diocese of North Queensland and a subsequent choice of a bishop where Torres Strait clergy claimed that the terms of the surrender had been dishonoured. Yet below the surface, the cleavage between Island and European leadership was also a sign of the ideological shift which was occurring in the Anglican Church of Australia. Supported by European elements within that church opposed to the ordination of women, Islander clergy charged that the mainland body was deserting the faith and order of the 'church of the fathers'. With the Islanders newly empowered, as they perceived it, by the Mabo judgement of the High Court of Australia in 1992, their perception appears to have been that, in spirit, the mainland church denied what the High Court's decision recognised: the ultimate control by Islanders over their own affairs.

Catholic Religious Identity and Social Integration in Interwar New Zealand

Comparing the history of the Catholic Church in Australia and the United States, John Tracy Ellis noted, both communities an environment unfriendly to their religious faith nurtured a separatist spirit which varied according to time and place but which in general bred a so-called mentality.1 The Catholic ghetto was sustained to a considerable extent by the establishment of denominationally-based organizations and institutions which reinforced the Catholic worldview and reduced the need for Catholics to associate with non-Catholics in their daily lives. Moreover, as Martin Marty has pointed out, it was not only Catholics who developed intellectual ghettos and denominational institutions which distinguished them from the dominant culture of the United States= Similar patterns developed in central and north-western Europe, finding their most extreme expression in the pillarization (verzuiling) of Belgium and the Netherlands. From the later nineteenth century until the 1960's, Catholics, Protestants, and Socialists developed more or less self sufficient parallel societies orpillars. Each pillar maintained its own cultural associations, sports clubs, educational institutions, social security organizations, trade unions, political parties, newspapers, and broadcasting networks. Collectively, the pillars were thought of as supporting the nation, and governments encouraged their development (for example, by subsidizing denominational schools) because it was assumed that minimizing the contact between antagonistic communities like Catholics and Calvinists was necessary to avoid social conflict.3 New Zealand Catholics, as a minority group, needed to maintain their religious integrity without unduly antagonizing the Protestant majority At 164,133 in 1921 and 195,261 in 1936, Catholics made up just over thirteen percent of the non-Maori population of interwar New Zealand. In 1921 seventy-six per cent of the population were either Anglicans, Presbyterians, or Methodists.4 Catholics' religious beliefs and practices, based on the evolving patterns of contemporary European (and North American) Catholic spirituality, marked them out as quite different from Protestants, including Anglicans whose church was overwhelmingly evangelical in tone. Moreover, the Catholic population as a whole was neither wealthy nor well-educated although some Catholics achieved prominence in business or politics, including Sir Joseph Ward (Prime Minister, 1906-1912, 1928-1930) and Michael Joseph Savage (Prime Minister, 1935-1940), who died in office, having recently returned to the faith of his childhood. As in other countries, the maintenance of Catholic identity by means of numerous lay organizations and religious institutions, especially during the interwar years, constitutes a prima-facie case for supposing that there was at least a Catholic in New Zealand. Catholics in Timaru, for example, had a particularly well-organized parish of 2,350 souls in 1926.5 Lay organizations listed in 1928 included the Children of Mary, the Sacred Heart Sodality (for women), St. Anne's Guild (a women's charitable society), an Altar Society, the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society, a Girls' Club for former pupils of the school, a choir, and the Catholic Club. Affiliated to the latter were St. John's Tennis Club, the Celtic Cricket and Football Club, St. Patrick's Rifle Club, the Catholic Choral Society the Literary and Debating Club, the Dramatic Club, and the Swimming Club.6 A review by B. J. Barnao of Catholic organizations in Wellington in 1936-when the Catholic population was 22,679'-discussed a number of pious and charitable associations: the Holy Name Society, the Children of Mary Sodality, the Sacred Heart Sodality for women at St. Joseph's parish, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Seamen's Institute, the Third Order of St. Francis, and the Third Order of Mary. Barnao also referred to Catholic Scouting, the Hibernian Benefit Society, the Catholic Readers' Club, the Catholic Sociology classes, and the Catholic Students' Guild. …

That Year 2000

That Year 2000