NSW DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING



ECUMENICAL AND MULTIFAITH DIVERSITY POST 1945

Terence Lovat

• Need to get the sweeping historical view on religion in Australia. Neither multi-faith nor non-Judaeo-Christian religious presence is new.

• Religion in Australia is a 40,000 year old tradition. It is a multicultural indigenous tradition, with commonalities mainly around Land spirituality. Hence, the foundation of the Australian religious experience is with the Land.

• Other traditions that touched, affected and were affected by the indigenous traditions were Buddhism and Islam. Buddhism influenced Aboriginal spirituality and Islam its ceremony and art.

• Where Buddhism and Islam connected with the indigenous traditions, the colonizing traditions of Judaism and Christianity tried to control them.

• By the 1851 census, Christianity had established itself as dominant to the extent of being 97% of the non-Aboriginal population. At the same time, there were greater proportions of Buddhists, Confucians, Muslims and Sikhs than there would be by 1901. By 1901, only a little over 1% of the non-Aboriginal population was non-Judaeo-Christian. With Federation, came the White Australia Policy that kept the non-Judaeo-Christian population to a minimum.

• By 1945, the non-Judaeo-Christian population was proportionally only about one-third of what it was in 1901. This did not change substantially until the 1970s, with the end of the White Australia Policy and the beginnings of immigration from non-Judaeo-Christian countries, firstly from the Asian world in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and, secondly from the Middle East. This brought with it large numbers of Buddhist, Islamic and Hindu peoples, in particular.

• Hence, from 1945, the Christian portion of Australia began to shrink from close to 90% to less than 70% of the whole by 2001, while the portion of non-Judaeo-Christian religions grew ten-fold in the same period. At the same time, those declaring that they have no religion began to sore, moving from 0.3% of the population to 15.5% by 2001. The era of secularism as a major ‘faith’ has arrived.

• During the same period, the shape and form of Christianity changed, with the virtual establishment Anglican Church going from its steady 40% of the total population to just a little over 20% by 2001, and the ‘convict’ Catholic Church moving from a steady 20% to 27%. The main factor in this change was the movement away from immigration from the British Isles to immigration from Catholic countries like Italy and Poland in the years immediately after the Second World War. The other factor was a general decline in the moral purchase of Christianity, evidenced by the steady decline in the total Christian portion during those years.

• Projections on the 2006 census anticipate that the Christian portion will be down to about 64% while the portion of non-Judaeo-Christian numbers will be up to about 7%, with Islam being the fastest growing and largest of these religions, possibly more than tripling in numbers since 1996, with Buddhism the second largest, growing only a little slower, and Hinduism having doubled since 1996.

• One obvious effect of the religious shifts since 1945 has been in collaboration across traditions, with much of the sectarianism of the past, both within and beyond Christianity, falling away in favour of dialogue and the taking of concerted positions on social issues.

• One of the first collaborative exercises in NSW Christianity was through the formation of the NSW Ecumenical Council, beginning in 1946 with 5 churches and now comprising 16 members, including the Catholic Church which was the most resistant to collaboration of this sort. Its major commitments are to shared theological reflection and standing together on major social justice issues.

• The NSW Ecumenical Council was reflective of international trends with the formation of the World Council of Churches in 1948, and national trends with the formation of the National Council of Churches in 1960. The National Council is a consortium of the State Councils. It has a legal structure and departments which identify its major work, including that of inter-denominational theological analysis and dialogue, social issues around the Aboriginal cause, gender, youth, social justice and missionary work generally.

• Inter-religious bodies have also been established to strengthen mutual understanding and collaboration among the various faiths. One such initiative coming from the Muslim population is Affinity Intercultural Foundation, centred at the Gallipoli Mosque in Auburn, Sydney. It was founded in 2001 as a voice for moderate and tolerant Islam. Its aims are to enhance interaction with the wider community, to improve Australians’ understanding of Islam, to counter the many negative images of Islam with positive ones and to promote education in the face of misinformation. Affinity sees dialogue as the key to redressing the negative effects of inter-religious rivalry. It is the human touch that makes the difference, it says. Affinity has been particularly active in its promotion of dialogue, especially around some of the thorny issues, such as the ‘Danish cartoons’ event. Instead of over-reacting, Affinity established a cross-religious dialogue to deal with the issue sensibly.

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