Posted on 07/01/2009 9:37:11 PM PDT by pobeda1945
Warrnambool, Australia – On the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the 1st Eccumenical council, the Russian Orthodox community in the Australian city of Warrnambool celebrated their Parish feast day and a 10 year jubilee since the day the parish was converted from a historical Anglican Church to a thriving Russian Orthodox Parish. In mark of this event, Protopriest Michael Protopopov gives an interview to www.pravoslavie.ru to discuss the reasons why Catholics, Protestants and Anglicans are deserting their churches.
(Excerpt) Read more at pravoslavie.ru ...
Sorry, I have posted the wrong link.
Here is the corect one: http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/30915.htm
It has been known for some time that Australia (and of course western Europe) are some of the most “unchurched” populations in the world. There are actually missionary groups that are sending folks to these places because it is an area that has the greatest to be gained by a reinstitution of Christianity.
It is odd, but many areas of Africa have populations that are far more “Christian” than either of these locations. Europe has some rather grand churches/cathedrals, but they’re empty. Examples of architecture, rather than houses of worship. At least it’s nice to have some of these buildings used for some type of religious purpose, instead of turning them into “museums”.
It seems like a pretty universal trend- as a country gets more economically developed, two things happen: religion becomes less prevalent and fertility rates drop. The US is an outlier on one end of this trend: we are more religious and have a higher fertility rate than most developed nations (though both of these statistics have been trending down). Japan is on the other end of the curve when it comes to developed nations- it is a society with almost no religion and it also has a very low fertility. Most developed nations fall somewhere in between.
Many Asian and African countries (including South Korea, Philippines, Kenya and Nigeria) have been sending missionaries to the USA for a long time.
An excellent point. There is certainly nothing wrong with seeing to salvation of others, and it is really unimportant where the missionary comes from. Christianity ebbs and flows. It is ever lost, and found on another shore. While alarming when it flows out, it seems that it reestablishes itself continuously.
I like that.
I think you have a large part of the puzzle, but the piece you are missing is the role of govt. The more socialized the political system the lower the fertility rate and decline of religion. Is it triggered by economic success? Not always, the communist take over of Russia was largely due to economic problems.
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