Roundup: Fresh expressions, church decline, spiritual not religious, church in the public square, animal cruelty

The next church

Looking for new ways to engage our community.

Statistics round up

Religion in decline around Europe and USA.

A history of the unaffiliated

How the ‘spiritual not religious’ gospel has spread.

What kind of religion is free in the public square?

The problem today is not simply a handful of secular voices who want to cleanse the public square of religion per se (or of some religions rather than others). Rather, a perhaps more pernicious problem is a set of modern assumptions that is making the public square conducive to only a certain kind of religion – a heavily privatised kind.

Awakening faith in an alternative future

According to 2011 census data, since 2001 the proportion of the population who belong to a Christian church fell from 68 to 61 per cent. Meanwhile, those reporting “no religion” increased markedly, from 15 to 22 per cent. Adrian Pyle analyses and addresses this problem for Australian Christianity.

Coles open the cage doors for its farm animals

Coles will stop selling company branded pork, ham and bacon from pigs kept in crammed stalls as well as company branded caged eggs from January, meeting a commitment by the company to phase out the factory farming practices a year early. The announcement comes as Animals Australia, the group that uncovered the cruelty to Australian cattle in Indonesian abattoirs last year, launches a campaign against the factory farming of animals. See also: The Church and animal cruelty.