13. The Rev Hugh Cox asked -
Given that the National Church Life Survey has recently completed its questionnaire in Churches throughout Australia...
(a) How many Anglican Churches from the Diocese participated in the 1996 survey?
(b) What is the financial cost to the Diocese of supporting this initiative?
(c) Are there other ways that research is being encouraged on the contemporary culture, and if so, what is the total financial cost to the Diocese?
(d) Have any Commissions been set up or reports prepared over the past 10 years on the contemporary culture and how successful we are as a church in penetrating the culture with the Gospel?
To which the President replied -
I am advised that the answer to the questions are as follows -
(a) I assume the Questioner means "parishes" not "churches".
254 out of 271 parishes (93%) chose to be involved in the survey. Some parishes have not yet returned their forms and are encouraged to do so quickly.
(b) The NCLS Survey is managed by a joint agreement between the Anglican Home Mission Society and the Board of Mission of the Uniting Church In Australia in NSW. This agreement requires each of the sponsors to meet the salary costs of their respective staff members (that is 3 full time persons each sponsor). As a result this Diocese along with the Uniting Church in NSW now have the largest database on church life anywhere in the world.
For the data collection phase of the 1996 survey there is a budgeted expenditure of $213,457 which excludes the salary costs. Income in the Data Collection Phase is raised partly by sponsorship and partly by each denomination meeting a nominal charge for printing, handling and data entry of survey forms (approximately 20c per form).The Diocesan contribution for the Data Entry Phase was $8,847 which was met by the Anglican Home Mission Society.
In 1996 the Synod made a grant to the HMS of $90,000 for Planning and Research of which $50,000 was applied by the Society to the NCLS Project but a larger share of the cost is borne by the Anglican Home Mission Society.
(c) In addition to the 1991 and 1996 surveys the NCLS has recently entered into an agreement with Edith Cowan University in Perth to carry out a survey of community values, sources of meaning, attitudes to the Church and the impact of the Church in the community. The University is contributing funds to this project and the NCLS believe that this will be a valuable resource in better understanding contemporary culture and opportunities for the Church within that culture. No additional funding has been sought from Synod for this initiative.
(d) For its part the NCLS is seeking to encourage reflection by providing data as a starting point. Reports and publications have all been designed to help individual congregations and Diocesan leadership to reflect on the effectiveness of initiatives in place. To date the NCLS has produced:
(i) Demographic profiles for all parishes from National Census data.
(ii) Individual printouts for all congregations within parishes that participated in the survey.
(iii) Four major publications
First Look in the Mirror
Winds of Change
Mission Under the Microscope (Christian Book of the Year - 1995)
Views from the Pews(iv) Two special reports for Sydney Diocese.