As Christmas comes around again, we will discover that Australia is no longer a Christian country. According to the most recent census in 2021, Christianity is not a majority faith here and, of its denominations, none has declined more rapidly than Anglicanism – which has lost more than a third of its declared adherents since the turn of this century.
Meanwhile, steadily growing non-Christian faiths are headed by Islam, which claimed over 3 per cent of Australians in 2021. Muslims in Australia now outnumber Jews by more than eight to one. Furthermore, the main Anglican and Catholic denominations are more C and E – Christmas and Easter – than C of E, as their adherents mostly are no longer churchgoers. For many, even their affiliation with the Church is little more than a nominal flag of convenience. Australia’s immigration trends favour Asian and African arrivals over the traditional sources of Britain, Ireland and Europe.
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