Canberra-Goulburn magazine for May 2026

Posted on May 26, 2026 
Filed under Australian dioceses

The Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn has posted online their Anglican News magazine for May 2026.

Here’s Bishop Mark Short’s Reflection:

“Like many of you, I’ve been fascinated by talk of The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God or even The Quiet Revival, especially among younger people in the West.

The former is the title of a 2023 book by UK journalist Justin Brierley, in which he discusses the growing number of thought leaders who are displaying warmth towards Christianity or even declaring faith in Christ. Historian Tom Holland and former Muslim turned atheist Ayan Hirsi Ali are two such examples.

The latter was the title of a 2025 report published by the UK Bible Society, which found a fourfold increase in church attendance by young adults in just five years. Understandably this generated a great deal of discussion and excitement amongst Christians within and outside the UK.

Now for the letdown: two months ago the Bible Society withdrew The Quiet Revival report after being advised the data on which it was based could not be trusted. This prompted some soul-searching on the part of Christians but we need not be alarmed; we have nothing to fear from the truth and God does not need spin or selective statistics to advance His kingdom.

So, what is the good news in the aftermath of Easter?

Christ is risen, ascended and building His church! The most important realities cannot be captured through opinion polls. Nonetheless (and here I’m being tentative rather than definitive) there are signs that something significant is happening in the spiritual climate of Australia and other similar nations.

Earlier this month the Church of England released its attendance figures for 2025. They found that while average weekly church attendance had increased only marginally over the previous year, attendance at Easter was up by 8 per cent. This tallies with reports from a number of parishes in our own Diocese of substantially increased Easter attendance this year. In other contexts, I’ve suggested we might be seeing the re-appearance of the ‘fringe’ – people not yet fully connected with congregational life who find major festivals an ideal opportunity to take first steps.

Likewise, as I travel around the Diocese, I seem to be encountering a larger than usual number of people who have recently connected or reconnected with church. Some, but not all, are young men. If there are factors common to these newcomers they would seem to be some level of engagement with matters of faith online, a longing for spiritual grounding and an interest in liturgy and/or church history.

So what are to do and make of all this?

The first step is to trust God rather than our own prognostications. As Jesus reminds us in John 3, the life-transforming work of God’s Spirit is like wind: elusive, unpredictable yet unmistakeable in its impact. Second, we need to be ready to welcome and care for the people God sends us. Third, we need to cultivate healthy communities of faith. Some are being introduced online to toxic expressions of Christianity that are allied to patriarchy or extreme nationalism. A truly Christ-centred church is the best place for people to be formed into a generous and orthodox faith through the joys and the messiness of embodied relationships.

By God’s grace let’s keep sharing and being shaped by the Gospel of Jesus, the truest and best news there has ever been.”

– Read it online here. Or direct link to PDF file.