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The Charismatic
Movement
Geoff Waugh
National Church data on the Pentecostal
(regular
church
attendees)
identified
with,
Charismatic
involvement
in, Pentecostalism
attend non-Pentecostal
187
in Australia
Renewal.2
and Protestant churches
in
A new
survey
has
recently
been
published
based on detailed research on the
Anglican
and Protestant churches of Australia.’ This
survey,
the
Life
Survey (NCLS)
of
1994, begun
in
1991,
includes 2
churches and on the Charismatic
Much of the
following
information comes from that
survey
which is more
precise
than the nominal
figures
of government census statistics.
The NCLS
report
indicates that 19% of all
practicing
Christians
in
Anglican
Australia were Pentecostal and a further 10%-20% were involved
in,
or
Renewal in denominational churches. Speaking
in tongues was taken as the measure of attitudes
toward,
and
and Charismatic Renewal.3 In
Australia, about one-half of all
Anglicans
and Protestants who
speak
in
tongues
churches,
and 30% of these church attendees in their twenties and thirties
speak
in
tongues.
that 9% of Australian Catholics
tongues,
which would indicate that 10%-20% of 4 Catholics there have had some
relationship
to Charismatic Renewal.4
The Charismatic movement is
essentially
a Pentecostal
existing
church traditions.
However,
unlike the
early revival,
which was basically rejected by
the
denominations,
variously tolerated, welcomed,
accommodated
Association also
report
The Christian Research
speak
in
revival within
this new movement has been
or
accepted, although
in
some cases it too has been
rejected.
The two most
polarized Renewal are the
Baptist disapproving
denominations
and the Churches and about 12%
speaking
in
tongues.’
in relation to Charismatic
of
Christ,
with 40%
The denomination
‘
Peter Kaldor, ed., Winds of Change (Sydney: Lancer Books, 1994).
Chapter 6 of Winds of Change, entitled “A Wind Shift Rocking the Churches,” treats the
Charismatic Movement in Australia
‘ Kaldor,
Winds of Change, 75. The
(74-90).
question used in the NCLS was worded as follows:
Q: What is your opinion of “speaking in tongues”? Choose the sentence which
is closest to
a.
your
Don’t know or have no opinion.
b. I
opinion. (32%)
generally disapprove of c. I speaking in tongues as it is practiced today. (31 %)
generally approve of speaking in tongues in most situations, but do not in speak
tongues myself. ( 17%) d. I
approve of and have spoken in e. tongues myself. (14%)
Speaking in tongues is ‘ An necessary for all Christians. (6%)
Australian Catholic book on Charismatic Renewal is Adrian
The
Commadeur,
Spirit in the Church (East Keilor: Comsoda Communications, 1992). Kaldor,
Winds of Change, 75. The
corresponding figures for Pentecostals are 94%
approve, 82% practice.
1
188
with the
highest
rate of
disapproval (85%).
Some
characterized
by high proportions glossolalia:
the Westminster Methodists
(64%),
the
Reformed Church
(54%).6
6 Church
of the smaller Protestant
Presbyterians
of the Nazarene
is the Seventh
Day
Adventists
denominations are also of attendees who
disapprove
of
(65%),
the
Wesleyan
(58%)
and the
Structuring of the
Charismatic Renewal
denominations,
conferences
and
teaching
By
the
early
1980s Charismatic
fellowships
had
emerged
in the
larger
each with its
publication,
seminars. The Catholic Renewal has had a
regular
national
7
magazine
while the
Anglican
Renewal Ministries of Australia
in most states. The
Uniting
Church
fellowships
The Lutherans
newsletter. The Churches of Christ Charismatic
Fire in the
Hearth,
the
Baptist fellowship published Spring Rain,
and a
since
1973,’
published
newsletters
also
published
state newsletters.’
national
magazine Renewing Australia,
The
Temple Renewal,
founded arranged many
published
a national Fellowship published
based in the
Uniting Church,
.
agency
for Charismatic minister,
Alan
Langstaff,
a
bimonthly
national conference
were all published nationally until the
early
1990s. The last three ceased publication by
1994 due to
high publishing
and
postal
costs.
Trust,
an
early
ecumenical
in 1972
by
Methodist
national conferences and
published
magazine
called Vision.9 Renamed Vision Ministries in
1979,
it held a
in
Sydney
that
year, attracting
1980,
Vision
magazine
was
merged
with
Impact,
the
publication
of the
15,000 people.
In
a Pentecostal New
Day,
body,
to form published
under
Christian Revival Crusade
(CRC), Australia’s New
Day,
later
simply Pentecostal
Charismatic service
organization Chant and Dennis
auspices by
the House of
Tabor,
a nondenominational
founded
by
two CRC
pastors, Barry
Slape.’°
New
Day,
“Serving
Life
which
appears monthly,
is
beginning
6 Kaldor, Winds of Change, 75-76.
7The first Catholic Charismatic
periodical
in Australia was the
Newsletter,
the Charismatic Renewal Throughout Australasia and Pacific” (1/1 dated October 1973); this was called the National Newsletter by the end of 1974, and New
Australia since July, 1975. All these were published from Brisbane, but when Brisbane ceased
publication,
Jesus is Alive was
published
from Melbourne
in 1990. Another Catholic Charismatic publication was Ruah from South Australia.
8 Further information on Charismatic Renewal in the Uniting Church can be found in Robert L. Bruce, ed., Streams of Renewal (n.p.; The Uniting Church Board of Mission, 1991), especially Chapter 2, “The Charismatic Stream,” 14-22. ‘ Issue no. 1 of Vision is dated January/February 1974.
10 more information on the
Temple Trust,
the House of Tabor and other Charismatic developments can be found in Barry Chant, Heart of Fire (Unley Park: The House of Tabor, 1984), 229-239.
2
Logos
Foundation
189
subtitled “For Charismatic
Revival and
Unity”
and caters to a
public similar to the one Charisma
serves in the United States.”. .
was started in 1969 in New Zealand
by
former Baptist
minister Howard Carter, who transferred to Australia in 1970. The foundation functioned actively into
the
early 1990s, during
which time it also established
local churches which still continue. In the
1980s, Logos
conducted
many
conferences and mailed over
11,000 copies
of
Restore.
The Full
Gospel
Business Men’s
Fellowship
International
(FGBMFI)
its free
magazine
established
chapters
in Australia
from
1960,
and is still
active
in all
states. The same is true for Youth
With A Mission. Since
1987,
John
Wimber
and the
Vineyard
teams
organization
Brisbane has established co-publishes
an
eighty-page
have attracted conferences of
an
independent
College
of
Ministry,
which
3,000-5,000 people, organized by
Kairos
Ministries,
founded
by Uniting
Church
minister,
Dan
Armstrong.
A consortium of Pentecostal and Charismatic
groups
and
colleges
in
the Brisbane
Renewal Journal twice a
year,
edited
by Geoff
Waugh.12
The Brisbane
College
of
Ministry
does not award degrees,
but acts as a voice and
negotiator
with
award-granting
and
denominations and those that are
is for smaller
groups
or
colleges
to become extension centers of
award-granting colleges
and universities
offering
courses or
on behalf of small
groups
development
degrees
in renewal studies.
bodies colleges,
both those within
independent.
The
present
By 1994,
Pentecostal and Charismatic
groups
have formed networks to facilitate communication and research. A
meeting
in
Sydney
in March 1994 established the National Christian Ministries Network to
for the
growing
numbers of within the
provide support
and
accountability independent
non-Pentecostal denominations. (as
with the
Baptists),
within the denomination. denominational
congregations Charismatic
fellowships.
assemblies and for the renewal
congregations
Where local churches have
autonomy
the Charismatic
However,
have chosen to become
The new
network,
consultation in July
1994,
is especially significant for these
groups.
congregations
tend to
stay recently
a number of
independent
which held a national
“New Day, P. 0. Box 564, Plympton, South Australia 5038, Australia. 12 Renewal Journal, GPO Box 674, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
3
