In a new edition of the book, ‘Religious Bodies in
Australia’, authors Robert Humphreys and Rowland Ward supply data
which shows that about 2 million of Australia’s 18 million people
are in church on a typical Sunday. Nearly half of these are Catholics.
Those who attend the 40 or so different Pentecostal groupings
total about 183,000, over 20,000 more than the number who attend
the Uniting Church and not much less than those attending Anglican
churches.

This book provides a great deal of detailed information
on some 300 religious groups in Australia. For example: * only
a minority of Arabic-speakers in Australia are Muslim and the
majority are Christians; * most adherents of the Baha’i faith
come from Iran; * the first woman minister in the Churches of
Christ was ordained in 1931. And if you’ve ever wanted to know
how many Exclusive Brethren there are, the cost of Scientology
courses, or the size of the Serbian and Croatian communities,
this book will tell you. They even calculate a figure of 3,000
witches in 220 covens throughout Australia. Contact addresses
are given for most groups.

It’s a valuable resource for anyone interested in
Aus.religions. Comparing this volume with my copy of the 1988
edition (431 pages vs. 311 pages), a lot more data (and corrections)
have been added. It’s more professionally produced. The new book
also has some valuable statistical data (like Religion of Population
by Place of Birth etc.) in appendices drawing information from
the 1991 census.

In a subsequent post or two I’ll supply some snippets
to file under the heading ‘Australian religions: trivia you always
wanted to know but which won’t change your life one little bit!’

Available from Christian bookstores or from the publisher,
‘New Melbourne Press’, 358 Mountain Highway, Wantirna 3152 (Tel/fax
03 9720 4871) at $27.95.

Footnote: I asked for a review copy of this book,
and although I know my Christian-namesake personally, I have no
financial or other interest in its promotion, other than to encourage
Australians to ‘get their facts right’ when discussing religion.
This book is unique in that respect.

P.S. If you’d like to ‘phone Rowland Ward you’ll
find him an engaging fellow. He’s happy to talk about his data:
tell him I sent you!