Print
this page
Email
this page Newsletters - Urban Families
Australia; City of Newcastle
Most Australians live in the great suburban sprawl that surrounds the cities with a lifestyle defined by a quarter acre block of land, a motor mower, a brick veneer bungalow and a family car.[1] Standards of living are now generally high, and the former mix of rich outer and poor inner suburbs has been changed into a mix of suburb and gentrified inner cities.
For the most part, the multicultural experiment has been effective, but riots in 2005 showed that racial and ethnic tensions remain, despite an overt policy of multiculturalism. As in other places, the tension between integration and retention of cultural identity is drawn at different points by different people: what one perceives as a ‘ghetto’ is, for another, a crucial way of maintaining religious and/or cultural identity. This discussion can take place in what have been monocultures where understanding of each other’s faith and culture are needed, so the churches became involved in projects like Project Abraham which acknowledges and celebrates the long history of local cultural diversity in the city of Newcastle and provides a unique opportunity to come to a deeper understanding of other traditions and build bridges for the future.
2007 saw the celebration of 40 years of the granting of civil rights and basic human dignity to Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders, after years of discrimination under the White Australia policy. Yet, the urban landscape is not an even playing field: reports suggest that the living standards of Aboriginal Australians in the cities have declined compared to their neighbours. Over the decade since 1991, it appears indigenous people have comprised a progressively rising share of the total population in the lowest status neighbourhoods and (since 1996) a falling share in middle-ranked neighbourhoods.[2]
There is thus a need for churches to involve themselves in two distinct areas: the immediate alleviation of the effects of poverty; and addressing the structural issues which contribute to this without being paternalistic. There is an underlying difficulty in aboriginal affairs, analogous to discussions in the global north about slavery and its legacy: Christians may have yet to come to terms with their own – or their ancestors’ – involvement in the mistreatment of indigenous people, and this can lead to a paralysis or denial in addressing aboriginal issues.
Within the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle, work on poverty alleviation is assisted by the Samaritans, a church parastatal which works on issues of advocacy with disadvantaged groups of all kinds, tackling the immediate effects of poverty through a number of care and housing programmes, assisting with education and training, and dealing with consciousness-raising within the church and local communities. Having had an enduring relationship with the indigenous community, Samaritans is entering a partnership with others in the delivery of an early intervention programme seeking to support vulnerable children from both white and indigenous backgrounds.
The Anglican Diocese is also aware of a new phenomenon: the need to assist refugees allocated to the area to settle in. A programme provides language and other skills for refugee families, and a Sudanese Chaplain has recently been appointed to work full-time with that community.
But what of the mainstream suburban landscape described at the beginning? In many ways the suburban ideal is proving more elusive: if the suburbs are Eden, there are snakes lurking in the bushes. Recent studies suggest it is getting harder for people to own their own property, and the dream comes with a huge burden of debt. It has been pointed out that, "They have to buy a house a long way away from their work, they've become home purchasers but they've spent half their lives transiting from work to home and from home to work, which obviously has a significant disruption to family life."[3]
The quality of family life suffers as commuting time increases and both parents work. The burden spins out onto grandparents who provide a vast and often unacknowledged pool of child care and support. Quality time gets compressed into weekends and evenings, and churches find themselves increasingly in competition with sports and leisure activities. Many urban and suburban churches try to cater for families by the provision of services either during the week or at weekend evenings, allowing people time for leisure and worship. These services are often ‘contemporary’ in nature using music styles and formats familiar from CDs and satellite television. Supply and demand forces Anglican churches to examine whether their tendency (“we’ve always done it this way”) is an adequate response to the changes in society, or merely a recipe for slow death and decline. And this can be painful and unsettling for those fond of traditional types of worship.
Many of those traditional worshippers are nearing retirement or are already retired. They also face financial stresses as pensions and home ownership both have an impact on their retirement funds. Such issues also are significant for the church: fixed incomes among the retired mean less income for parishes trying to support their running costs, which often include those for stipendiary clergy. Some dioceses, including the diocese of Newcastle, are exploring alternative forms of ministry in which there will be less dependence on a stipendiary priesthood, and more opportunities for local lay and ordained non-stipendiary leadership and ministry teams.
1. Chris Baker, Contemporary Australia 5, Sydney or the Bush? National Centre for Australian Studies, Monash University, 2005
2. “Aborigines in Cities worse off”, Australian 17 July 2006
3. Dr Tim Seelig, ABC news, 5 July 2007
Top
