POINTERS 34-4 December 2024 (Hard copy)

Description

Inside this issue . . .

Attitudes to Religion and Social Cohesion in Australia
Every year, the Scanlon Foundation, in conjunction with the Australian National University and the Australian Multicultural Foundation, measures the levels of social cohesion in Australia. The report for 2024 has just been released and contains some important findings.

Mass Attendance in the Catholic Church in Australia
The National Centre for Pastoral Research (NCPR), the research agency of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, has recently released a national report on Catholic Mass attendance in Australia.The report, primarily based on data collected in 2021, adds to previous systematic data collections by the NCPR (and its previous iterations) in 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016. The NCPR also calculated estimates for 1996, meaning reliable national and diocesan data can be compared for the past 25 years.

An Update on Homelessness in Australia
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimated that at the time of the Census, in August 2021, across Australia, there were around 122,500 people who were experiencing ‘homelessness’. It is important to note that being homeless does not always imply not having a roof over one’s head. Rather, according to the definition by the ABS, a person is considered homeless if their current living arrangement is in an inadequate dwelling, they do not have a tenure or the tenure is short or not extendable, or their living arrangement does not allow for social relations (ABS, March 2023).

Research Resources of the Christian Research Association
The research capabilities of the Christian Research Association are extensive. They include undertaking major research projects with other research organisations and universities, carrying out commissioned or contract research for churches, denominational bodies, schools, welfare or community groups and other church related organisations, and analysing and interpreting social science data for dissemination to the broader community. But as well as undertaking a variety of research projects, the CRA also produces a wealth of resources, many of which are free of charge from the CRA website and can be used for your church, school or organisation.

Remembering Nicaea: A Contested History, ANZATS Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 13 July 2025
The CRA are partnering with The Australian and New Zealand Association of Theological Studies (ANZATS), and the Australasian Centre for Wesleyan Research (ACWR) to host in Melbourne, Australia, a conference marking the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, 325 CE. Formed in 1968, ANZATS is an ecumenical organisation committed to discussion and discovery between the many theological institutions of Australia and New Zealand. The ACWR is a diverse and multidisciplinary community of established and emerging scholars fostering and promoting research and scholarship from a Wesleyan perspective.