So I’ve mended my heathenish ways and started going back to church again. After last year’s less than happy encounter with low church Anglicanism, I found another church more to my liking, more traditional — so much so that I have joined the choir.
So far I am enjoying going to church more than I had expected I would. It is certainly helping to assuage my sense of loneliness and isolation. The people are genuinely nice and it’s comforting and familiar, going through the rituals I know so well in the company of others.
The company of others … and there is the catch. Because, in this part of Sydney at least, people don’t go to church. I’ve just come back from singing at evensong. As we walked, robes swishing, out of the church, one of the sopranos blurted out, “I made a bet that there would be more people in the choir than in the congregation this evening and I was right!” One of the men shushed her in case the worshippers inside overheard, but she had a point.
There were twelve of us in the choir, eleven in the congregation. It was the same on Ash Wednesday, traditionally an important service. (By way of contrast, my mother told me that at the service she sang at back in Joburg, people were queuing out the door.)
Is it this bad for the Catholics, the Uniting Church, the Presbyterians? Why don’t Australians, especially Anglican Australians, go to church? As in other first world countries, pentecostal churches such as Hillsong are showing rapid growth. At the same time, the number of Australians who claim no religious affiliation is growing. Not to mention the growth of other religions in line with increased immigration from Lebanon and Asia.
Australia is nominally Christian still. Private schools, many of them linked to various Christian denominations, are funded to the tune of many millions of dollars every year. Parliamentarians pray to God before every session. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is a regular churchgoer (Anglican). On the other hand, having tracked letters to the editor for almost a year, I’ve picked up what could be characterised as almost an aggressive secularism, a resentment of any perceived special treatment of religion.
Going to church here in Sydney is like being a member of a club that nobody else wants to belong to. If people here in one of Sydney’s wealthiest areas don’t go to church, where do the Anglicans get their money to fund the clergy from? How much longer will they be able to sustain their echoing churches, the remnants of a more God-fearing, conformist past?
Evidence of that past can be discerned in public holidays — so the fact that the NSW state government introduced laws last year banning trade on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day is oddly anachronistic.
A group of retailers including Bunnings, the chain of hardware stores, challenged the ban, and lost, prompting one reader of the Sydney Morning Herald to comment, “Why are Christians, who celebrate the renovation of their souls through the rise of a carpenter on Easter Sunday, so selfish as to deny the MacMansionites access to the Sacred Temple of Bunnings, that they may also worship their god(s) and raise a little carpentry in an act of renovation?”
Shopping, the new religion. And, in the wake of the GFC, one that has mocked the faith of those who believed in the dogma of more, more, more. Where will Australians find solace now?
The reason Sydneysiders don’t go to church is the same for millions of people all over the world: why waste an hour (or more) of your life fanning a preposterous delusion when you could better spend it with your family…or taking your dog for a walk on the beach etc etc!
I suspect, although I may be wrong, that societies that are exposed to various social problems such as crime, unemployment, low levels of education etc, are more likely follow religion as a way of bringing meaning to their lives. It may be that citizens of first world countries with a long history of civilization and good quality of life, have moved away from religion. Such as many European countries, for example Sweden. And this supports my claim: http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/burningpaper/2007/08/24/least-religious-countries-also-the-healthiest-says-survey/
Maybe Australia has reached that point as well? Please Sarah. Loneliness is not a good enough reason to believe in a lie.
Pretty much the same here in Canada. No doubt it’s more comfortable at home with all the 1st World distractions including, I hope, church services on cable. Church attendance is low and declining here, while claimed levels of atheism are on the up.It’s quite cool to be able to say that you don’t believe in any sort of god here, actually.By far the highest per capita church going occurs within the immigrant communities, so there you go…
Imagine a world without churches, where would we be today? most people (at least in South Africa) get married in churches,babies births are celebrated in church services and the end of a life is remembered and commemorated in a church building of some sort.As much as secular thinking has influenced our society and politics today, the opposite is also true, the church has influenced society and politics.Think of the influence Desmond Tutu has on South African politics (whether you like him or not) and where would he be if there were no churches? Some food for thought guys.
Sometimes your posts are too profound to comment on – any comment might sound insensitive.
George Carlin has said it all that needs to be said …. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o&feature=PlayList&p=9400A653D5BE706E&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4
………. BUT HE LOVES YOU!!
Remind you of Hillsong – or the big reamer (or is that rheemer) in Johannesburg – which as a profit line better than the ANC – and like the ANC – pays no taxes!
It is as he says – a major scam …….. but if it rings your chimes and get you friends that you can bring home without looking over your shoulder and worrying if the battery in your panic button is still fresh ….
Ah, the churches are funded to the tune of billions of dollars every year by the increasing numbers of Australians who are not believing in them and do not go to them.
The so-called faith schools are plundering the resources of the state and contributing very little in the way of equity to our community.
And all the time the churches demand more in the way of handouts, government business, tax free status, not paying rates, getting the wages of their ministers tax free as ‘fringe benefits’ and all sorts of rorting that equals ‘organised crime’ sanctioned by the state.
On top of all that, the Church has weasled its way into the minds of young children via state schools and religious instruction.
The reason many people are not in church is because of the people who are in the church.
The Bible talks about Christian identification, i.e by their FRUITS… And what fruits are we finding in the church? Well the same ones you find the world, fornication, greed, rape, misrepresentation of God for profit, slander, hyprocrisy etc.
So, when someone comes to church seeking refuge, they literally step into a den of vipers. Is it any wonder numbers have dropped?
When Christians begin to exhibit the PROPER identification and act according to the Word of God and not the whims and religiosity of men, then there’ll be a change.
Who is not attracted to what is good, sincere, loving, filled with light, hope and provides respite and guidance in tough times. That’s the role of the Church and Christianity as good intended not some the rubbish portrayed as Christianity.
Not too surprising. Without commenting on the basis for religious belief I think it’s ahuman nature thing. If times are good and safe, people would rather walk the dog etc. Let things become uncertain; an epidemic strike, war threaten etc and the churches will be full.
I think that life in Australia is to safe and “pristine”. I sometimes have the urge to send everyone here on a trip to a township – to understand what life is like for the majority of the world’s popoulation. Abject poverty makes one appreciate life more.
Easter and Christmas is the exception. on those days you struggle to get a seat in teh churches that I have been to
Sarah, what you have written is very true. I myself am a believer and a church attender. But on the whole, I believe the church has lost the plot.
Jesus is the model for every one of his believers. He walked in the power of God, bringing healing and deliverance to all around him. He loved people and related to all people, they loved him. The only ones he had words with were the religious folk who burdened people with legalism.
I guess people in first world countries do not need God, because we are comfortable and we have medical, psychological and entertainment resources.
I
t is sad because I know that when I met Jesus, it was not in church and it was the best day of my life and experiencing, yes experiencing his love and power in my life is wonderful. If only we could get back to the basics of loving God and each other in simplicity and see God for who he really is..