Ticking The ‘Anglican’ Box

Dear friends,

The Archbishop is urging us to think carefully about the religion question in the Census, which takes place next Tuesday (11th August). In particular that ticking the ‘Anglican’ box is helpful:

"There is a dedicated campaign (censusnotreligious.org.au) to manipulate the census results by persuading people to not tick one of the denomination / faith group labels on the census unless they are regular practicing members of that denomination or faith. This campaign misrepresents and distorts the intent of the religion question in the census.

According to ABS, the religion question is measuring religious affiliation, not religious practice. Religious affiliation is the faith group you associate with, even if that differs from your active practice or participation.

You can find out more in this special, short edition of The Pastor's Heart, featuring an interview with Bishop Stead and Mark McCrindle.

As they explain in the video, the campaign also seeks to steer religious people away from ticking (in our case) the 'Anglican' box and instead writing in a generic label such as 'Christian'. The effect of this is to understate the 'Anglican' numbers in the census. This matters because the government uses census data to make decisions about policy and resourcing matters, including, for example, Chaplaincy funding, on the basis of this information.

It would be ideal if every person attending a Sydney Anglican Church indicated on the census that they are Anglicans. Theologically, of course, we prioritise our identity as Christians. We rightly consider that ‘denomination’ is a secondary matter. But for the purposes of the census it is most helpful if people attending Anglican churches nominate Anglican, rather than inadvertently dilute this result by a non-specific indicator such as ‘Christian’."

Grace and peace,
Mark