The Archbishop has encouraged me to write to you about the religion question in the Census, which takes place next Tuesday (11 Aug).

There is a dedicated campaign to manipulate the census results by persuading people to not to tick one of the denomination / faith group labels on the census unless they are regular practicing members of that denomination or faith. 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’. This matters because the government uses census data to make decisions about policy and resourcing matters, including, for example, Chaplaincy funding.

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.

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’.

Yours in Christ,

Ben

More info here: https://www.thepastorsheart.net/podcast/filling-in-census-accurately

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