Author Identifier
Pieter-Jan Bezemer
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2006-9959
Sten Langmann
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3148-4653
Document Type
Report
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
Place of Publication
Perth, Western Australia
School
School of Business and Law
Abstract
Christian churches have played a pivotal role in the social and economic fabric of many Western countries over centuries. However, in many of these countries national censuses have revealed significant declines in the number of people that associate themselves with Christianity. For example, the latest census of the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that in 2021 less than half of the population was still affiliated with Christianity. This gradual but steady decline has had a significant impact on churches, as it has become more challenging to maintain church communities and church buildings, and serve the wider community. Early in 2020, in the middle of this challenging context for many Australian churches, church leaders were confronted with the Covid-19 pandemic. They suddenly had to close the doors of their church buildings, adopt new forms of worship and engagement with their church community due to government mandates, while facing financial, human resource, and personal hardships. Anecdotal evidence so far suggests that some church leaders successfully responded to these challenges while others faced significant difficulty or are still struggling to fully bounce back from this time. This aims of this research report are twofold. Our first aim is to map how church leaders experienced the pandemic, how they responded, how they took decisions, and the impact this had on their churches during coronatide. Our second aim is to reflect on what might be learned from church leaders’ experiences during this time. While some research has been broadly conducted in this space and some regarding specific denominations in Australia, the big picture of what has happened across denominations and Australian states and territories is still missing. This research report intends to fill this gap, based on 65 in- depth interviews with church leaders from all across Australia. The interviews uncovered the complex and multifaceted impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Australian churches. They revealed the personal difficulties and hardships that church leaders experienced, yet also how new opportunities emerged during coronatide and how church leaders developed personally, and gained confidence in their vocation.
DOI
10.25958/vqmz-xt26
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Comments
Bezemer, P.-J., & Langmann, S. (2023). Australian churches during coronatide: lessons & opportunities. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/VQMZ-XT26