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From Settlement to Super-diversity: The Anglican Church and New Zealand’s Diversifying Population1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2016

Andrew Butcher
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Abstract

Anglicanism in New Zealand can be traced back to the beginning of New Zealand settlement itself. From its earliest days, the Anglican Church has deliberately set out to bridge divides between New Zealand’s indigenous population, Māori, and Europeans, though with mixed success. This article will illustrate that, even with this experience in bicultural engagement, the Anglican Church has not adapted well to the super-diverse multicultural New Zealand of the twenty-first century. Census data reveal that the Anglican Church has had a precipitous drop in numbers, and has a demographic profile that is much older and whiter than the general New Zealand, let alone Christian, population. This poses significant challenges for its ongoing sustainability. Given the common experience of super-diversity with other Western countries, this article provides a case study and a cautionary tale about the challenges and realities of the Anglican Church adjusting to a new multicultural society.

Keywords

AnglicanismAotearoaAsiacross-culturalmigrationNew Zealandsuper-diversity
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , May 2017 , pp. 108 - 129
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Copyright
© The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2016 

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Footnotes

1

I am grateful to Hugh Kemp of St John’s Theological College, Auckland who invited me to give the lecture on which this paper is based and to George Wieland of Carey Baptist College, Auckland, who provided useful critique on an earlier draft of this paper.

2

Andrew Butcher is an adjunct researcher in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University, New Zealand.

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