SOUTH AUSTRALIAN QUAKERS AND UNITARIANS:
A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN MODERNITY
by Jenny Norris-Green (BA Hons)
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Deakin University
March 2018
====
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It would have been impossible to finish my thesis without the guidance of my supervisors, and support from my family, friends, fellow students and the staff of Deakin University.
I would like to express heart-felt gratitude to my principal supervisor, A/Prof
Rohan Bastin, who patiently supported me and guided me throughout my research. Special thanks goes to my second supervisor, Dr Tanya King, who provided advice and encouragement; particularly in the early days of my research when I was totally lost.
I would also like to thank my partner, family and friends for their timely wisdom and unwavering support through what must have seemed like an interminable process.
Special thanks must also go to the members of the South Australian Quaker and
Unitarian communities who have always supported me, shown considerable interest, offered assistance and encouraged me with their best wishes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Figures and Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………...........vi
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………..……….vii
Introduction......................................................…...1
1. Introduction
2. Background to the Study.
2.1 Choice of Location
2.2 Choice of Research Groups
3. Objective and Scope of Study
4. Rationale and Significance
5. Research Questions
5.1 The main research question
5.2 Subsidiary questions
6. Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
7. Review of Literature
8. The Concept of Modernity
8.1 Overview
8.2 Holism and Individualism/Non-Modern and Modern
8.3 The Christian Roots of Modern Individualism
8.4 Variants in Modern Ideology
9. Methodology
9.1 Fieldwork
9.2 Interviews
9.3 Other Resources
10. Insider/Outsider Research
11. Unintended Consequences of Comparative Fieldwork
12. Definitions
13. Structure of Thesis
Chapter 1: The Colony of South Australia, Quakers and Unitarians: An Historical Perspective……………………………………………………………………………………48
1. Introduction
2. Historical Background – Quakerism
3. Historical Background - Unitarianism
4. The Colony of South Australia
5. Unitarian Settlers
5.1 The Adelaide community
5.2 Adelaide Hills Unitarians
5.3 Sesquicentenary Celebrations for Shady Grove
6. Quaker Settlers
6.1 Adelaide and Hills community
6.2 Eastern Suburbs Meeting 40th year celebration and reminiscences
7. Responses to World War One, Military Training and Conscription
8. Conclusion
Chapter 2: Research Setting and Design ……………….88
1. Introduction
2. The character of Australian Religion and Spirituality
3. Types of Religious Organisation
3.1 Australian Quakers
3.1.1 Australian Quaker Organizational Structure
3.2 Australian Unitarians
3.2.1 Australian Unitarian Organizational Structure
4. Profile of the Quaker and Unitarian communities
5. Anthropological Analysis of Communities of Practice
5.1 Luhrmann’s Approach
5.2 Csordas’s Approach
5.3 Engelke’s Approach
5.4 Collins’s Approach
6. Conclusion
Chapter 3: Quaker Worship Practices. .............. 122
1. Introduction
2. Meetings for Worship
2.1 Friends Meeting House
2.2 Other Meetings
3. Meetings for Worship for Business
4. Marriage and Committed Relationships
4.1 Historical Background
4.2 A Contemporary Quaker Wedding
5. Practices on the Death of a Member
5.1 The Funeral
5.2 The Memorial Meeting
5.3 Internment of Ashes at the Quaker Cemetery
5.4 Life Testimonies
6. Conclusion
Page iv
Chapter 4: Unitarian Ritual…………………………………………………………………153
1. Introduction
2. Services of Worship
2.1 The Adelaide Unitarian Church
2.1.1 Sunday Morning Service at the Unitarian Meeting House
2.1.2 Flower Communion
2.1.3 Water Communion/Ingathering Service
2.1.4 AGM Sunday
2.1.5 All Heretics Day
2.1.6 Mid-Winter Solstice Service
2.2 Shady Grove Chapel
2.2.1 Vesper Services
2.2.2 Joint Services
3. Rites of Passage
3.1 The Wedding
3.2 Welcoming New Members
3.3 Welcome Service for new Pastor
3.4 Baby Naming Ceremony
3.5 Practices on Death of Member
3.5.1Funeral Services
3.5.2 Memorial Services
3.5.3 Unmarked Graves Ritual
4. Conclusion
Chapter 5: Ritual Theory and Analysis ………………………………………..188
1. Introduction
2. Ritual as a form of Communicative Action
2.1 Rappaport’s Approach
2.2 Unitarian Practice
2.3 Quaker Practice
3. Ritual as a Strategic Device
3.1 Bell’s Approach
3.2 Quaker Practice
3.3 Unitarian Practice
Page v
4. Ritual as a Dynamic Process
4.1 Handelman’s Approach
4.2 Kapferer’s Approach
4.3 Quaker Practice
4.4 Unitarian Practice
5. Practising Modern Ideology
5.1 Quaker Ideas and Practice
5.2 Unitarian Ideas and Practice
6. South Australian Quakers and Unitarians: Variants on a Modern Theme 7. Conclusion
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………236
1. Introduction
2. Research Questions
2.1 The main research question
2.2 Subsidiary questions
3. Thesis Review
3.1The colony of South Australia
3.2 Quaker and Unitarian settlers
3.3 Research setting and design
3.4 Description of Quaker Practices
3.5 Description of Unitarian Practices
4. Research Findings
5. Future Directions for Research
6. The Significance of the Research
Appendices……………………………………………………………………253
A. 1. Rajah Quilt
2. Quaker Shop
3. Quaker Meeting House
B. 1. Unitarian Church, Wakefield St., Adelaide.
2. Unitarian Meeting House, Norwood.
3. John Dowie Painting in Meeting House
4. Shady Grove Chapel
Congregational Addresses……………………………………………………………………………………………………………259
References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………260
Page vi
LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 1.1 Catherine Helen Spence ……………………………………………
Figure 1.2 May family panel for the Quaker Tapestry Project…....................
Figure 1.3 WW1 Government Poster…………………………………………..
Table 2.1 Australian Religious Affiliation……………………………………
Table 2.2 Quaker Worshipping Groups within Regional Meetings………...
Table 2.3 Unitarian Universalist Communities in Australia……..................
Table 2.4 Comparison of Population of States and Territories……………..
Table 2.5 Older Persons, Proportion of Population………………................
Table 2.6 Comparison of Congregants - A…………………………………... Table 2.7 Comparison of Congregants - B…………………………………...
Figure 6.1 Australian Values Statement……………………………………….
Figure 6.2 Image from Quaker Oats Website………………………………... Figure 6.3 Quaker Media Release ……………..................................................
Figure 6.4 Panel from the Quaker Exhibition ……………………………….
Figure 6.5 Panel from the Quaker Exhibition………………………………..
Figure 6.6 Australian Government Exhibition ……………………………….
Appendix A
Figure A.1 The Rajah Quilt……………………………………………………..
Figure A.2 The Quaker Shop……………………………………………………
Figure A.3 The Quaker Meeting House………………………………………...
Appendix B
Figure B.1 The Original Unitarian Church……………………………………. Figure B.2 The Unitarian Meeting House……………………………………...
Figure B.3 John Dowie Painting………………………………………………... Figure B.4 Shady Grove Chapel………………………………………………... Figure B.5 Adelaide Unitarians and Marriage Equality………………………
Page vii
ABSTRACT
This thesis provided a framework for a comparative enquiry into the cultural life worlds of South Australian Quakers and Unitarians. The stated broad objective of the research was to determine how Quakers and Unitarians negotiated their religious lives within a South Australian context. In doing so, it asked whether the values espoused by these two communities resonated with those embraced by Australia as a modern, secular State. The research, therefore, had three focuses: the location of South Australia, the practices of Quakers and Unitarians, and the values of modernity.
The colonial settlement of South Australia was heralded as a new convict-free experiment which promised a supposedly morally superior environment, freedom of worship and religious equality. Importantly, it was promoted as being sympathetic to dissenters—a factor which attracted several British Unitarian and Quaker settler families to its shores.
Quaker and Unitarian worshipping practices are demonstrably different in form and content: particularly in their respective use of sound. Whereas Quakers are comfortable with the sound of silence, Unitarians are much more comfortable with an abundant use of words, in addition to the use of sound in music and song. These rituals, however, must be understood mainly in terms of their transformative potential—an attribute which is made possible by the internal dynamics within the rituals themselves.
Through their rituals and other practices, adherents are encouraged to pursue personal and societal transformation. In both communities, the individual is given high value; a notion which is commonly associated with, and characteristic of, modernity. This insight led to consideration of the values espoused by Quakers and Unitarians and those characteristic of modern secular Australian society.
Quaker and Unitarian individualisms, in effect, could be considered variants within modern ideology—one resulting from a faith based more on Luther’s notions of spiritual equality and liberty, and the other based more on socio-political notions emanating from the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. In a similar way, South Australia, with its colonial beginnings firmly situating it as a utopian experiment in modernity, can also be described as a variant relative to other Australian states.
===
1. INTRODUCTION
“For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1841
Thomas More’s 1516 tale Utopia about an imaginary island where religious tolerance and a shared way of life exist, was written at a time when the Roman Catholic Church had been the established Church in England for nearly a millennium. However, the winds of unrest were blowing and More’s tale stands as something of a commentary on some of the new ideas. Within a few years, the religious and political turmoil of the Protestant Reformation resulted in the separation of the Church of England from Rome and ultimately to More’s demise. From 1549, the Parliament’s Acts of Uniformity enforced the use of The Book of Common Prayer in churches throughout England, Wales and the dominions.[1] The clergy faced imprisonment for nonconformity with this legislation which entrenched the Church of England as the established Church. However, there was a significant group of Puritan, Calvinist and lesser known Protestant sects, all of which dissented from the views of the established Church of England.
By the nineteenth century, the term “nonconformist” was commonly used to describe those religious organisations which dissented. These included Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Unitarians and Quakers. [2] According to British sociologist, Linda Woodhead, these religions can be called “old-style”, because they were formed in the emerging nation-states of the sixteenth century and are now in decline in the West. She compares these religious organisations with the rise of alternative forms of contemporary spirituality which she calls “new-style.” She maintains that these religious organisations emerged in the late nineteenth century and flourished in post-Cold War market-based societies. According to Woodhead, these religious organisations draw on their own resources to provide their followers with religious teachings, welfare, education, entertainment and healing. In doing so, they demonstrate an openness to opportunities provided by globalisation and information technology, and reliance on business-oriented decision-making processes (2015:72-74). And yet, old-style religion, persists.
The theme of the research presented in this thesis involves the mapping of two oldstyle Australian religious organisations. In particular, it examines the ideas and practices of two communities that have historically belonged to the broad Protestant tradition, but dissented from its dominant theologies and practices. As non-conformists and rational dissenters, these religious organisations have always placed strong emphasis on social reform, peace issues and scientific inquiry. More specifically, this is a comparative study of how certain religious organisations confront the changing religious complexity of the contemporary world and maintain their legitimacy through their ability to convey their ideal of the autonomy of the individual—the keystone value of modernity itself. However, they do so in different ways, indicating articulation of variant forms.
2. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
2.1 Choice of Location
More’s utopian tale imagined a good place where new ideas were explored. South Australia was established as an experiment in free settler colonization which was linked to the processes of modernity. In many ways it fits the vision of a new world where new social alternatives were explored. It was a utopian experiment which offered large tracts of land for wealthy investors, free transport for labourers and religious freedom for dissenters. No doubt this vision of a self-supporting free colony has contributed to a feeling among its population that it is different in some way from other parts of Australia. Perhaps this perceived difference was what attracted many immigrants during the post-war period (1947 to 1965). South Australia had an influx of more than two hundred and fifteen thousand British and European immigrants during this time. My parents, too, decided to immigrate to Australia during this period, persuaded by the images of South Australia as a family-oriented, sunny land of opportunity, promoted in South Australia House, London.[3]
In the mid-1960s, according to historian Susan Blackburn (2012:12), more than half of Adelaide’s children were enrolled in Protestant and Anglican Sunday Schools; an enrolment record befitting a city known as the City of Churches. Also, South Australia at that time had a higher proportion of British immigrants than the eastern states. It was governed from the beginning of the Second World War to the mid-1960s by the Liberal Country Party, which was led by Tom Playford who was known for his puritanical views. At the same time, he played a pivotal role in opening up South Australia to a wave of British economic migrants and the transformation of the state’s rural economy to one which relied much more heavily on secondary industries.
In the decades that followed the Playford era, successive governments implemented significant social reform and offered support for the arts. Adelaide, in particular, became known for its more progressive social policies and artistic and cultural life which seemed at odds with its “City of Churches” image; but despite this, many South Australians still believed that they were, in some way, different from other Australians. Certainly, South Australia retains the distinctive attribute of having a higher percentage of Protestants per capita when compared with the Australian average, [4] and as such, has proved to be a suitable site for researching nonconformist practices.
2.2 Choice of Research Groups
I experienced Quaker worship at an early age. Several years after immigrating, my parents began attending Quaker meetings for worship at the North Adelaide Meeting House; sometimes sporadically, but at other times regularly over a period of years. As a small child, I found the experience daunting. It was also somewhat intriguing. During meetings for worship, it was difficult to be silent and still; and yet, it was compelling. In my eyes, some elderly Quakers spoke with much wisdom and had an almost saintly demeanour. Their ministry was often evocative.
As a young adult, I resumed attendance and became a member, then gradually drifted away from the Quaker community over time. Nevertheless, I maintained continuing and close friendships with some of its members. I wondered what had prompted Quaker settlers to come to the colony of South Australia in the nineteenth century and how such a small community was able to survive from colonial times into the twenty first century.
Later, when studying anthropology, my thoughts again turned to the South Australian Quaker community. Firstly, when reading Weber’s renowned book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, I was struck by the number of references he made to Quakers. Weber was concerned to outline the influence of Puritan and Calvinist religious ideas on the development of an “economic spirit.” He believed (2009: xxxix, 54, 95) there was a connection between this spirit and the rational ethics of ascetic Protestantism and listed four important forms of ascetic Protestantism: Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism and sects (including the Quakers) arising out of the Baptist movement.
Having personally experienced the silence of Quaker meetings for worship, I was drawn to the relevance of Weber’s (2009:97) comment that God speaks only when the flesh is silent and wanted to centre my research on modernity around this aspect. However, because of my previous involvement with this community, it seemed prudent to conduct a comparative study with another community of practice in order to get more perspective. Both would be considered old-style. Nevertheless, as I demonstrate, old-style contains many possibilities. The group chosen for this comparison was the South Australian Unitarian community as both Quakers and Unitarians have been regarded as dissenters from mainstream Christian practices and notions. I was drawn to them because their practices are different from each other in ways that suggest variant aspects of modern individualism as these were discussed by Louis Dumont in his final work German Ideology. I discuss Dumont’s argument in more detail below.
3. OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF STUDY
The broad, overall objective of this study is to conduct a comparative enquiry into South Australian Quakers and Unitarians. This enquiry encompasses their membership and compares and contrasts their forms of practice, while investigating how they set about confronting the changing religious complexity of the contemporary world.
4. RATIONALE AND SIGNIFICANCE
Quakers and Unitarians are both little studied groups and there appears to be no anthropological studies done on either Quakers or Unitarians in Australia. Much of the scholarship on Western Christian traditions has understandably been conducted under the rubric of religious studies and theology but there have also been sociological studies. Gary Bouma, for example, has studied various aspects of religious life in Australia and his work is of particular relevance for this study. Several of his edited volumes, published by the Christian Research Association, cover both the changing religious profile of Australia over the past fifty years and the religious settlement pattern in Australia (Bouma 1999, 1996). Additionally, a more recent publication (Bouma 2006) suggests that there is a characteristically
Australian form of spirituality. These ideas are discussed in more depth in Chapter Two.
There is a recent burgeoning of literature in the Anthropology of Christianity, covering both Western and non-Western contexts, but primarily addressing the latter. John and Jean Comaroff (1985, 1991), Engleke (2007), and Fernandez write on Africa; Mosse, Stirrat, Caplan, Howell and Cannell write on Southeast Asia; Tomlinson and Robbins write on the Pacific; and Pace (1998), Nagle (1997) and
French (2007) have explored South America, mainly its Liberation Theology.
Some of these authors (e.g., Engelke and Cannell) have subsequently studied Western settings and thereby addressed other works such as Csordas (1994, 1997) and Luhrmann (2012). They reflect a growing trend for an anthropology at home that, as Robbins (2004:32) notes, remains focused on the pentecostal and charismatic branches of Christianity as these align with the spirit-filled rituals anthropologists have traditionally studied. At the same time, charismatic, pentecostal and fundamentalist Christianities are the most actively expanding in the world which makes their scholarly prevalence understandable. Recently though, there has been a willingness to broaden research interests to cover a wider range of Christianities in ways that will hopefully address Hann’s (2007:405) accusation that there has been a failure to engage with the full spectrum of Christian ideas.[5] This study, therefore, is an attempt to engage with a wider range of Christianities by considering its non-conformist elements. Significantly, I contend that conducting fieldwork in Adelaide in a deliberately comparative framework of Quakers and Unitarians, provides a particularly suitable contrast for examining the kind of variants of modern individualism that Louis Dumont (1994) has identified in his study of modernity.
5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
5.1 The main research question
Dumont’s ideas about variants of modern individualism were associated with the milieu of industrial capitalism and relative homogeneity of modern Western Europe. This milieu is vastly different from the more heterogeneous cultural environment of current Australian society. Notwithstanding this, Dumont’s notions are still pertinent in an assessment of how certain types of religious organisation confront Australia’s contemporary religious complexity and this is indicated by their practices which are actively constitutive of value.
5.2 Subsidiary questions
Why did Quakers and Unitarians come to South Australia? What is the significance of South Australia in this study?
What are the similarities and differences between the religious practices and ideas of South Australian Quakers and Unitarians?
What is it to be a South Australian Quaker or a Unitarian and do the values they espouse resonate with the values embraced by Australia as a modern, secular state?
Are South Australian Quakers and Unitarians still dissenting groups; and if so, how does this manifest itself in their practices and in their engagement with contemporary Australian society?
6. THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
In her article ‘The Christianity of Anthropology’ (2005), Fenella Cannell reviews how Christianity has been construed by anthropologists, arguing that this construction has been too narrow. Other anthropologists concerned with focusing on Christianity have also reported intra-discipline hostility. Harding, for example, states that Western Christian fundamentalists are seen as a “repugnant cultural other” with the implication that it is Christianity rather than fundamentalism which is problematic (1991:375). Another response has been, “You’ll never convince me that those people are really Christians!” As a result, Cannell argues (2005:339340) that the model of Christianity that anthropology has preferred is overselective.
I accept Cannell’s argument and will further extend her boundaries of the Anthropology of Christianity to incorporate those churches whose historical basis is firmly entrenched within the Christian tradition, although their membership may no longer identify as Christian. One of these is the Unitarian Church in South
Australia which removed “Christian” from its name in 1977. Many of its congregants no longer define themselves as such, instead embracing a variety of beliefs. Another example is The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) which is still Christian in orientation but many of its members also no longer define themselves as Christian and a variety of beliefs is tolerated. However, the practices of, and theological notions held, by both the Unitarian Church and the Religious
Society of Friends (Quakers) have more in common with those of liberal
Christianity than with any other type of religious affiliation. Therefore, I believe that my comparative study of the practices of Quakers and Unitarians in South Australia will quite properly build on the growing body of knowledge surrounding the Anthropology of Christianity. It is thus a contribution to the study of Christianity and spirituality in contemporary Australia.
7. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
There is a growing interest among anthropologists in new Christianities in the Global North; particularly in the following categories: embodied practice and globalized religion. Csordas (1994a), for example, criticizes what he believes to be the tendency for anthropologists to be more concerned with representation than “being-in-the-world” and advocates that embodiment provides a better standpoint to view the nature of being human. He, therefore, suggests that the self, experience and the body should be central to analysis. To this end, Csordas develops a psychological approach which is heavily influenced by phenomenology in formulating a theory of the “sacred self”, in which the self is conceived as the capacity to engage or become oriented in the world (1994b:5). He believes that perception and practice are central to the process of self-creativity and relies on Merleau-Ponty’s (1962) concept of the pre-reflective to examine the embodied process of perception, and Bourdieu’s emphasis on practice, to investigate the synthesizing of ways of acting and environment.
Approaching embodiment from the psychological viewpoint as well, Luhrmann’s research on evangelical Christianity led her to contend that a new emphasis on bodily and trance experience is shaping contemporary North American religion. She describes (2004:518, 523) the learning process through which evangelical congregants come to use language and bodily experiences and determines that it is through this process that congregants seek to build what they interpret as intimate relationships with God.
In addition to the literature on embodiment, globalization of religion has shaped up as another topic for anthropological research. Coleman (2000), for example, analyses how charismatic Protestants negotiate their own interpretations of global, and other processes of modernity, by using websites as a way of reaching out to potential converts and believers around the world. Continuing with the theme of globalization, two recent publications by Csordas (2007 & 2009) discuss the relationship between religion and globalization and explain how this has become a central concern for the social sciences and religious studies with a growing awareness of the implications of pentecostalism as a global social movement.
Although anthropological research into new Christianities of the Global North has developed much more over the past two decades, prior to this, in the 1980s and 1990s, anthropologists were more concerned with the consequences of Christianity and the influences of colonization in the Global South.[6] More recently, studies have focused on issues connected to globalization, such as understandings of how Christianity can be seen as locally specific and globally inter-related at the same time.[7]
Questions of meaning are the focus of many anthropological studies. Tomlinson and Engelke’s edited volume, for example, explores questions of meaning through studies of Christian communities, concentrating on cases of failure including the following: sermons that do not inspire, prophets who are marginal, members of the congregation who fall asleep from boredom, and converts who describe their previous religious beliefs as “meaningless”. In so doing, their volume addresses whether meaning is a concern of Christianity, and therefore, if issues of meaning are processes which have a more uncertain potential (2006:14-15).
Focusing on the topic “change and continuity” and issues of the inner life and morality, Robbins’s (2004) study of the Urapmin people of Papua New Guinea explains how this community adopted Christianity and why they live their lives largely defined by it. His purpose is to find a theory of culture change which is able to explain how this community is so easily able to grasp the logic of the new, without losing the coherence of its previous beliefs. Importantly, Robbins’s analysis is applied to the situation where people are converted to Christianity from indigenous belief systems and the difficulties this conversion then posed for them.
According to Robbins (2004:227), the core notion of Urapmin Christian ethical thinking is the inner condition of “a peaceful heart” which entails following the guidance of the Spirit and living a passive existence. People fail because the demands of their social life conflict with those of Christian morality and so they inevitably are seen as “sinfully exercising their wills.” As the Urapmin Christian ethical system concentrates on the inner life of congregants, there is no provision for the mediation of contradictions that inevitably arise from such a conflict. Robbins (2004:249) concludes that this leads people to believe they have failed morally and are, therefore, sinners.
Robbins’s study is an important contribution to the Anthropology of Christianity but focuses heavily on the state of human sinfulness which is not a concern for
Quakers and Unitarians who concentrate more on the quality of human inherent goodness.
Another theme which has run solidly through much of the literature is conversion as a process of identity development. Buckser and Glazier’s edited volume investigates the insights that an examination of religious conversion can offer, concentrating on the small scale dynamics of conversion (2003: xiii). Changing religions, according to Buckser and Glazier, can be seen as a shift in the basic assumptions on which self and others are understood, involving an individual process of changing world-view and social relationships. Continuing with this line of thought, Austin-Broos (2003:1-2) believes that conversion can be seen as a form of passage, a “turning from and to” that is neither incorporation nor absolute alienation, but is a deliberate change of direction which requires re-identification and learning. Therefore, it can be seen as a continuous transformation, and a quest for human belonging which involves continuous embedding of ritual practices and dispositions. Glazier (2003:149), on the other hand, indicates that many Spiritual Baptists and Rastafarians on the Caribbean island of Trinidad understand conversion more as a reawakening of pre-existing beliefs.
In an entirely different setting, Norris (2003:173-175) considers conversion practices within a variety of faiths in New England, focusing on the continuities between the old faith and the adopted faith. She explains how one informant stated that Sufism was “inside me, waiting to be uncovered or released…it’s just there”, and one person who had converted from one Christian practice to another stated, “I feel comfortable, as though this is where I should have been.” So the new religion corresponded to something that already existed and concurred with pre-established viewpoints.
The reason that converts adopt only those elements of a new religion that correspond to pre-established viewpoints is, Norris believes, informed by Western cultural ideals of independence and freedom of choice, and explains how notions of one religion can be combined with that of others, for example, yoga and Zen Buddhism can be practised by someone identifying as a Christian. Norris
(2003:175) calls this “individualized modular spirituality.” Her findings are relevant to a study of independently-minded non-conformist Quakers and Unitarians and borne out by an article in the journal, Quaker Studies,[8] which examines British “Quagans” (Quaker Pagans) and outlines how they are able to negotiate dual religious identification.
Importantly, not much research has been conducted on South Australian Quakers or Unitarians apart from local histories done by members. 9 It is necessary, therefore, to look to international sources for more insight. An historical anthropological study was undertaken by Bauman (1983), for example, which explores the role of speaking and silence in Quaker ideology and action in seventeenth century England. His interest is in the use of speech in discourse and social interaction. He maintains (1983:22) that Quaker ways of speaking were their most distinctive and identifying features and that speaking and silence were key symbols in the early movement and continue to be so. Furthermore, he states (1983:25-30) that early Quakers believed that silence was important for encountering a direct personal experience with God. God spoke to, and through, believers so that there was communication of “Truth” within individuals, and between them, without the need for outward speech. Bauman’s study, though, is undeniably historical in nature and focuses heavily on language and communication rather than Quaker ritual process which, as I will demonstrate, is a priority in my study.
Dandelion’s[9] edited volume The Creation of Quaker Theory: Insider Perspectives (2004), points to the growth in Quaker academic research undertaken by British Quakers. The book reflects on the nature of these studies which are substantially historical, but offer insights into the notions of “holiness” and sites of “alternate order.” For example, Pilgrim uses the concept of “heterotopia”[10] to explain why there is still unity within contemporary British Quaker groups who have embraced a diversity of religious views from newcomers. She states that this concept not only provides an explanation for the contemporary situation but also a continuing thread with early Quakers. The heterotopic space, she believes, must be both marginal and embedded in the surrounding social milieu, in juxtaposition. Early Quakers, she argues (2004:209-212), set up heterotopic spaces because they gathered in silence in ordinary homes and domestic barns rather than churches. But I contend that this argument can also be applied to other religious groups. For example, it can also apply to early British Unitarians, and others, who gathered in ordinary homes to listen to dissenting sermons.
Pilgrim also states (2004:216) that the campaign British Quakers carried out objecting to participation in the First World War demonstrated their alternate ordering and it could be claimed that without the threat posed by this conflict, and the elevation of the Quaker peace testimony as a central organizing motif in response, the survival of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain may have been threatened.[11] She argues that conscientious objection restored a space that offered opportunities for protest and transgression and a space where it was possible to imagine, and attempt to create, utopia. It provided an opportunity to live out God’s vision of the world and could be seen as a liminal rite of passage for Quakers.[12] She further argues (2004:216) that British Quaker unity now rests mainly on the heterotopic stance as an alternate ordering.
Although I do not doubt Pilgrim’s claims, there are some points that need to be made. Firstly, this is a study of British Quakers. Secondly, there appears to be too much emphasis given to the importance of a common belief system and too little recognition given to the importance placed by Quakers on their practice of meeting for worship. However, in a more recent edited volume (Dandelion & Collins 2007), contributors do point to shared practices rather than beliefs as being most important to British Quakers. In particular, there is further exploration of aspects of identity, Quaker habitus, embodied practice, and heterotopic space raised in Dandelion’s earlier volume.[13]
Dandelion gives more prominence to Quaker ritual when he applies the term “liturgy” to Quaker practice and looks at how meanings are conveyed through external structures of worship such as silence, using the themes of “time” and “intimacy” in his analysis. He takes the view that although the un-programmed worship practices of Quakers in Britain look the same as those in the seventeenth century, the basic understandings of the liturgical form in terms of how they relate to the above themes are totally different (2005:123).
Undoubtedly, the anthropological work which is most pertinent to my study has been conducted by Peter Collins, a British anthropologist whose research interests include British Quakerism. His article, ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Ritual’ (2005), examines the perspectives of Quaker participants in meeting for worship and compares, and contrasts, their views against theoretical views of ritual. He also enquires (2005:324-328) as to whether the negotiation of the meaning of a meeting for worship among its participants is critical in the formation of Quaker identity, noting that no single interpretation is able to account for the practice of Quaker worship.
Collins offers further insights into Quaker worship in Britain by drawing on Victor
Turner’s concepts of “communitas” and “liminality.” He describes Quaker ritual as being liminal and generating communitas by means of binary opposition. This opposition, he suggests (2005:327), is implicit in Quaker discourse on worship practice. In his fieldwork, Collins notes, for example, how participants continually compared and contrasted their own practices with those of other religious groups, and he believes that this was a salient point in their maintenance of identity. This tendency, noted by Collins, forms part of their dissenting view; and in my fieldwork, I have found that it is different from the dissenting views of Unitarian congregants who are more likely to contrast, and compare, theologies, rather than practices.
Collins is drawn to the embodied nature of Quaker ritual. He notes (2005:328329) the arrangement of the seating and how adherents avoid disturbance by minimizing shuffling. He suggests that there are particular ways of sitting, standing and speaking. I have also observed similar characteristics to those that capture Collins’s attention. Although Collins does not mention it, there are also ways of listening, which adds further credence to the notion of the embodied nature of Quaker ritual. Collins also collaborates with Coleman (2000) in research which compares British Quakers with Swedish Charismatic Protestants. The researchers were intrigued by the similarities they found and argue that among these two groups that the practice of formal ritual and everyday life are not always distinguishable. In particular, they examine the habitual expression of religious identity in everyday life and how both groups dissolve boundaries between religious practices and ritually informed quotidian experiences (2000:317-318).
Coleman and Collins’s usage of the term “ritualization” follows the approach taken by Csordas (1997) as referring to the process that facilitates the disappearance of boundaries between church and the every day. Continuing to follow Csordas, they utilize Bourdieu’s notion of habitus to demonstrate that religious practices can become embodied dispositions that remain even after the congregant leaves the place of worship. In addition, their research finds that both of these groups display experiential aesthetics.
The Quaker aesthetic is described by Collins (2000:318,321) as being “the plain” and, in his view, underlying this aesthetic is a theory of the self. Even more pertinent, from my point of view, is his suggestion (2005:335-337) that Quaker worship has transformative aspects for its participants, and it is this particular characteristic of their practice which will be explored more fully within this thesis.
As I have demonstrated, there has been some valuable sociological/anthropological research done on Quakers outside Australia, particularly with British Quakers, but there has been a paucity of Unitarian research. Most of the Quaker research appears to have been conducted by Quakers themselves and tends to be theological and historical in nature. The bi-annual journal Quaker Studies provides a forum for academic discussion on various Quaker-related topics — six recent examples of which are the Quaker Peace Testimony,[14] the history of shifting Quaker attitudes to art,[15] Quaker language,[16] Quakers and racial justice,[17] a seventeenth century letter sent by George Fox to the Governor of Barbados,[18] and the authority of scripture among early Quakers.[19]
The aforementioned topics indicate the self-examining nature of Quaker research. Much theological and historical research into Unitarianism, on the other hand, appears to be more academic in nature. An academic journal produced by the Unitarian Historical Society, Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society, focuses on aspects of the history of UK Unitarianism, whereas the Journal of Unitarian Universalist History published annually by the Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society concentrates on Unitarian Universalist and other liberal religious traditions mainly within the context of North America. An article on the ministry of Universalist minister, Orestes Brownson (1803-1876), is representative of this scholarship.[20]
In addition, journal articles have been written that use sociological surveys to determine the theological ideas of Unitarian Universalist members [21] and their character traits [22] , and that analyse the political participation of Unitarian
Universalist ministers. This participation is considered to be a “liberal dynamo” in American politics. [23] Additionally, there are journal articles which discuss the pluralistic nature of Unitarian Universalism[24] and the problems associated with cherry-picking rituals from other religious traditions. [25] Although sociological insights are referenced within the thesis, there is a paucity of sociological research into Unitarians. Furthermore, Unitarians have been considered as having little anthropological interest. This study will seek to correct this perception.
Moreover, theoretically my study will also be situated in the literature on ritual because although sociological studies and interviewing participants are important, it is only through analysing practices that proper understanding can be reached. Thomas,[26] for example, examines the practice of Quaker pilgrimage which seems to have started in the twentieth century. She notes that the pilgrimage appears to be multi-sited and visits are directed mainly to the “1652 Country” in Britain which was travelled by George Fox as he preached to gathered followers during the seventeenth century. She observes (1999:21) that Quakers who embark on this pilgrimage do not believe that these sites are sacred. Instead, there is an understanding that these sites provide an excellent opportunity for self-reflection and fellowship with other Quakers who are undertaking the journey.
Also, of particular relevance to my study which examines, among other things, silence within the context of Quaker worshipping practice, is the literature on ritual dynamics and practice. I agree with Handelman’s suggestion that there should not be a presumption that the phenomenon of ritual is representative of its sociocultural milieu. He proposes (2004:1-4) that ritual’s internal dynamics and practice need to be examined autonomously of the surrounding environment.
Further considering ritual’s internal dynamics and practice, Kapferer notes (2004:36) the effects of ritual practice on its participants, and builds on Victor
Turner’s insights by using the concepts of “virtuality” and “dynamics” to investigate how ritual changes, or intervenes in, ordinary realities. The insights of both Handelman and Kapferer will be given further consideration in the analysis of Quaker and Unitarian practices within the body of this document.
Although there has been a growing number of studies in the Anthropology of Christianity, this interest has mainly involved the increasingly numerous evangelical or pentecostal Christianities which are considered more worthy of academic interest. I have observed that there is much less research conducted on the rational dissenting old-style Protestant traditions, however, there is much to be gained by doing so. This study, for example, focuses on two non-conformist religious organisations and their practices because they offer a unique opportunity to explore certain aspects of modernity. However, in order to do this, consideration must be given to the concept of modernity itself. This discussion is necessary because it lays the foundation for the central point of the thesis which is to consider the relevance of Dumont’s contrast between variant individualisms.
8. THE CONCEPT OF MODERNITY
8.1 Overview
One of the foundations of modern ideology is the concept of equality which is no better inscribed than in Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man:
All men are born equal, and with equal natural right… every child born into the world must be considered as deriving its existence from God. The world is as new to him as it was to the first man
that existed, and his natural right in it is of the same kind… Civil rights are those which appertain to man in right of his being a member of society… and has for its foundation some natural right pre-existing in the individual…[27]
I begin here because Paine has been described by some as being a Quaker. His critics though labelled him a Unitarian after he stated that he didn’t abide by any Church creed and that “his own mind was his church.”[28] Paine is considered by some to be the Father of the American Revolution, and along with several other Founding Fathers of the United States of America, appears to have been influenced by non-conformist views.
Emile Durkheim, the founder of the French school of sociology, on the other hand, was more concerned with conformity to social norms rather than non-conformist religious ideas. Rawls (2012:351) correctly asserts that Durkheim believed that his view of sociology was able to explain how an orderly and peaceful modern social life was possible. Durkheim’s ideas on modern social life were set out by him in The Division of Labour in Society, which outlined his perception of the relationship between the individual and society; and in particular, the division of labour and its relationship to the development of modernity.
In so doing, Durkheim perceived two forms of social solidarity: mechanical and organic. The first form, in his opinion, occurred in collective type societies with an organized totality of beliefs and understandings common to all members. The second form of social solidarity was described by him as being “a system of different, special functions which definite relations unite” ([1893] 1964:129). Durkheim’s main point here is that the mechanical form of social solidarity is not viable in industrialised, urban societies; whereas, the organic form has more viability because it is derived from the division of labour.
Durkheim’s views on the relationship between the individual and society were refined in his later work where he suggested, among other things, a new religion of secular morality which was based on individualism as the core value. He defined this as being the “cult of the individual”; a moral individualism which was collectively created by society but which focused attention on values such as universal human rights and justice, dignity and equality for the individual. Marske further asserts (1987:3-6, 10-11) that Durkheim envisaged that this relationship between the individual and society would provide the future foundation for social solidarity.[29]
Durkheim, Marx and Weber explored the relationship between economy and modern society. Where Durkheim associates the emergence of modern society with industrialisation, the division of labour and its associated organic solidarity, Marx (1867, 1885, 1894) connects it mainly with the development of a class– based economy associated with capitalism. Weber is also concerned with capitalism and the development of modernity, but links its unfolding to aspects of Protestantism—a factor which makes his work particularly relevant to my study.
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism sets out what Weber believes was distinctive about modern capitalism, promulgating that interest in wealth accumulation could co-exist with disinterest in worldly pursuits. In particular, Weber is interested in the this-worldly asceticism of Puritanism and the concept of “the calling” because, in his view, there was an unusual display of self-control and frugality associated with the development of rational capitalism.[30] In effect, Weber (2009:xix) argues that certain religious ideas have transformative force.
The views of Puritan leader, Richard Baxter,[31] appear to epitomise Weber’s ideas about Puritanism and the importance of work. Baxter’s writings on Christian ethics in 1673 certainly consider “the calling” and the importance of labour (for those who are able) as paramount to ethical living. And yet, Richard Baxter was also very much opposed to the ideas of other dissenter movements. [32] He stated, “no Christian, or reasonable man, should be a Quaker, or approve of, or excuse their way.” Moreover, Baxter (1673:2-4) accused Quakers of heresies and perverting the doctrine of justification. His accusations demonstrate that there was substantial disagreement among dissenting groups on some theological matters.
Quaker theologian, Robert Barclay,[33] set out some of the early Quaker beliefs which included the following notions: continuous revelation through the testimony of the Spirit, the priesthood of all believers, universal redemption, privileging individual conscience, and regeneration and justification through receipt of the inner light. In Barclay’s view, it was the receipt of the inner light (or Christ) which produced the effect in works. The influence of Calvinism, Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Puritanism, and the Baptist movement can be detected in these Quaker beliefs; but Quakerism cannot be reduced to any one of these influences.
In effect, Weber posits that modernity arose out of a particular way of thinking— a rational calculation that he associated with Calvinist Protestantism. He also carefully differentiates between ideal types of religious attitude; and in particular, inner-worldly asceticism and world-rejecting asceticism. Inner-worldly asceticism involved the religious duty to engage with, and transform, the world in accordance with the ideals of the group and was an important part of his argument concerning the spirit of capitalism and the Protestant work ethic. In particular, he maintains (2009:479,542) that beliefs about predestination predisposed Calvinist groups to shift towards a rational meaning of economic gain in which worldly success became seen as a sign of salvation. Formal rationalism, for Weber, was associated with a structured bureaucracy which required a division of labour. Disenchantment, technology and bureaucracy were thus central features of modernity.
Undoubtedly, secularity is also commonly associated with the concept of modernity. In his book, A Secular Age (2007), Charles Taylor describes how in premodern societies political organization was in some way connected with beliefs in ultimate reality (or God), whereas in modern western societies this is not the case.
In Taylor’s understanding, an aspect of secularity is that churches are separate from political structures. In early pre-modern societies, distinctions between religious, political, economic and political spheres were not made. Notwithstanding this point, Taylor (2007:3-4) notes that in the United States, which separated Church from state earlier than most societies, there is a high level of religious belief and practice. This indicates, he believes, that in a secular society there is not necessarily a reduction of religious belief and practice.
For Taylor, the most convincing interpretation of the notion of the “secular age” recognizes that the shift to secularity in modernity entails a move away from an unchallenged belief in God to a view that this is one option among others. He differentiates (2007:3-4) between what he calls believers and unbelievers.
Unbelievers, he states, are those who do not believe in an after-life and salvation. Instead they believe that the purpose of life is human flourishing, i.e., to live life well and fully. He calls this a “self-sufficient humanism” which is, according to him, at the heart of modern secularity (2007:7-8).
Contemporary Australian society certainly displays these features of modern secularity and it also values individualism and its associated values of egalitarianism and freedom. The rise to prominence of these values undoubtedly has had particular historical roots. The principal author on these roots of modern individualism; where the individual is the paramount value, is Louis Dumont. [34]
Dumont was an eminent sociologist and Indologist influenced partly by Weber, but more directly, by the ideas of Durkheim and Mauss within the French tradition of structuralism. Dumont (1977, 1986, 1994) departs though from the view of Durkheim, Marx and Weber that modernity is part of an inevitable progression because he contends that an earlier predisposition to holism, although repressed, does not actually go away.
More particularly, my comparison of Quakers and Unitarians suggests that a discussion of Dumont’s ideas is essential because of the contrast he makes between extroverted and introverted individualisms. In order to do this, his major works are discussed under three headings: Holism and Individualism/Non-modern and the Modern; the Christian roots of Modern Individualism; and Variants in Modern Ideology.
8.2 Holism and Individualism/Non-Modern and Modern
In interpreting the nature of the caste system, Dumont sought to understand the nature of non-modern hierarchical holism as a social value. In so doing, he argues (1980:184-185) that in non-modern societies such as ancient India, individuals are defined by the whole (society). He compares this with the situation which pertains in modern societies, in which society is seen as the sum of the parts (individuals).
Importantly, Dumont builds on Weber’s distinction between inworldly and outworldly individualism in order to better understand the relationship between the caste system and renunciation.
In Weber’s analysis of religions, he contrasts two ways asceticism may be practised which relate to the way the adherent interacted with the world. He characterises asceticism as abstaining from worldly pleasures in order to pursue spiritual goals. He argues that asceticism can be termed inworldly or otherworldly. The latter practice involves withdrawal from the world in order to live an ascetic existence; for example, hermits or monks. On the other hand, inworldly asceticism, according to Weber (2009:150), does not require withdrawal from the world but the living of an ascetic lifestyle in the world.
Dumont (1980:185) argues that withdrawal from the world involves renouncing societal roles such as membership of a particular caste or familial responsibilities, in order to adopt the lifestyle of a renouncer—a role which has no equivalent in society. The renouncer[35] still has some relationships with members of society but, at the same time, rejects the network of interdependence required when adhering to social roles. The renouncer lives an ascetic existence which can be described as an outworldly form of individualism which does not actually call into question the holistic society. As such, it is very different from the inworldly individualism of Western modernity.
Another important point made by Dumont is that in hierarchical systems, religion encompasses the mutually interdependent relation between politics and economics. The Varna ideology, for example, articulates this relation. Furthermore, Dumont (1980:66) determines that Indian society is characterized by its adherence to hierarchy as the paramount value and maintains that an examination of this social principle, as it applies within the caste system, can facilitate an understanding of the modern Western social principle of egalitarianism.
Importantly, in modernity, economy became disentwined from politics and religion and perceived as self-determining. In From Mandeville to Marx, Dumont describes the history of this development and argues that the notion of “economy as a value” is independent of religion and politics. The modern notion of economy concludes that a commodity’s use value determines its exchange value; a view which can be contrasted with Mauss’s (1925[1969]) earlier observations that exchanges involving non-modern commodities of total prestation cannot be reduced to economic, legal, religious, and political aspects. Whereas, in contrast, the modern contract between individuals can be imagined in that way.
Dumont outlines the progression of economic thought and new ideas about wealth in his further examination of how the individual became increasingly valued historically. He indicates (1977:5-6) that an important factor in development of modern ideology is that modern societies encouraged the development of a new conception of wealth which resulted in relations between humans and things becoming more important than relations between humans themselves. With this development of a new conception of wealth in mind, Dumont examines the beginnings of economic thought from the seventeenth century and its continuing growth toward economic liberalism; a form within which individualistic ideology is directly expressed. He anchors this progression toward economic liberalism through the themes of several chosen texts: Locke’s Two Treatises, Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees, Adam Smith’s Theory of Value, and the early texts of Marx (1977:30).
In Dumont’s view, the central theme of the influential Theory of Value is the notion that self-love works for the common good. This notion follows from Mandeville’s assertion that people live in society in order to satisfy their individual material needs. Ideas such as these, according to Dumont (1977:63-67), have played a significant role in modern ideology as they encourage the view that the relation between humans and material needs must take precedence over the relations between humans. In Dumont’s understanding (1977:113), this way of looking at the world places considerable value on the individual. Consequently, associated with modernity is the notion of valuing the individual as a stand-alone category in economy. Therefore, the modern human being is an economic being and fundamentally the same as every other human being. That being the case, it follows that modern individualism is characteristically egalitarian.
8.3 The Christian Roots of Modern Individualism
Essays on Individualism seeks to identify further the key moments in the development of modernity. In Dumont’s view, the trend towards an individualistic view of life began before the Protestant Reformation; and consequently, he believes that the modern individual as an ideal value developed over a much longer time frame than Weber envisaged.
Undoubtedly, Dumont follows Mauss’s argument (1985:1-25) that the notion of the “person” can be traced to Roman and Stoic ideas in the pre-Christian era. As Dumont states (1986:17-19), the Romans believed that their free citizens were independent entities and this concept was further developed by Stoic thought which valued equality based on endowment with reason and an ethical personhood which was “conscious, independent, autonomous, free and responsible.”
Nevertheless, in Dumont’s view (1986: 95, 111-112), there were developments within Christianity which inevitably led to ordinary adherents becoming more oriented towards the world themselves. This was an important step in the historical transition to the conception of humans as individuals who were inworldly and bearers of the paramount value. He asserts that the early Christians conceived of humans as being “individuals-in-relation-to-God”, i.e., outworldly; but he also points out (1986:113-114) that at the same time, one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE), believed that matters of the state should be judged from the perspective of the presumed relationship between God and the Church/humanity.
Dumont contends (1986:39) that Augustine’s stance was a step towards influential Church leaders imposing outworldly values to inworldly matters. As the number of converts to Christianity increased, the Church not only faced internal theological disagreements; but more importantly for Dumont’s (1986:106-107) argument, it also had to re-imagine its own role with emerging Christian states and their political leaders, whose views often conflicted with those of the Church. [36] These developments, in Dumont’s view inevitably led to ordinary adherents becoming more inworldly.
Another significant factor was the theological debate concerning God’s grace and the doctrine of justification—a debate which was important to the development of Protestant ideas. For Augustine, the removal of sin occurred through God’s grace, the receipt of which is predestined. As pointed out by Ramos (2014:34-38), the human desire to live a good life was, therefore, dependent on the inspiration of God. Clearly, these views on grace and justification are salient because they informed the ideas of two key figures of the 16th century Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther and John Calvin.
Dumont (1986:115) follows Weber’s argument that it is through the ideas of these key figures that the passage to the in-worldly individual is achieved. For Luther, salvation depended on the grace of God which was freely given. Faith alone, rather than merit, enabled a person to be restored to righteousness in the eyes of God.
Faith in Christ removed the sinner’s guilt and this meant that good works were likely to follow. God was accessible to all individuals and this indicated that religious specialists were no longer needed as intermediaries. This meant that all believers had equal responsibility for their own, and others’, salvation—as expressed in the term “priesthood of all believers.” Unquestionably, Luther’s notion that religious specialists were no longer needed as mediators was pivotal in the development of Quaker ideas and practice.
Calvinism was one of the principal forms of ascetic Protestantism noted by Weber (2009:53). The other forms he mentioned were Pietism, Methodism, and diverse religious groups ensuing from the Baptist movement. In Weber’s view, Calvinism’s most important doctrine was that of predestination which stated that only some people were destined to have everlasting life. The chosen ones were given renewed will and an ability to discern that which is good. In this way, the living of a good life was the outcome of God’s grace working in the life of the believer—a point also made by Ramos (2014:35).
The elect, according to Dumont (1986:55), were charged with the responsibility to work for God’s glorification and this was considered proof of their election. Here
Dumont follows Weber’s understanding (2009:59, 64) of Calvin’s claim that the Church’s sacraments were not a means for attaining grace but for glorifying God. As the social world also existed for God’s glorification, even mundane labour had a useful purpose. In Calvin’s view, although good works did not bring salvation, it was proof that the person was one of the elect. Importantly, these good works had to be done regularly and this meant that there had to be a particular code of conduct. This way of thinking, according to Weber (2009:71), gave Calvinism its ascetic tendency.
Weber suggests (2009:74) there were two sources of Protestant asceticism: good works which evidenced being one of the elect, and the doctrine put forward by the Baptist movement that only those who have personally found faith can be baptized. This faith was available to any individual who waited for the Spirit and resisted worldly attachments, and it privileged quiet self-control. Furthermore, he maintains (2009: 94-96) that belief in waiting for the Spirit was developed more substantially by the Quakers. This was due to their notions of the “inner light” and the “inner testimony of the Spirit in reason and conscience” which led to the silent expectant waiting for the Spirit.
The Quakers, according to Weber (2009:96-97), made the doctrine of salvation through the Church’s mediation less relevant, because they eschewed its sacraments. Instead, signs of spiritual rebirth manifested as being consciencedriven together with avoidance of worldly pursuits. The notion that “God only speaks when the flesh is silent”, in his view, meant that there was an added inducement for Quakers to weigh up alternative courses of action in terms of individual conscience in dealing with the dilemmas faced in daily life. So although they were disqualified from accepting political office because of their refusal to bear arms or swear on oath, this did not stop members weighing up alternative forms of political activism, as evidenced by their involvement with the colonial experiment in Pennsylvania.
Furthermore, Weber observes that Quakers were also conscience-driven in their daily business relationships. He believes that they developed an attitude towards their callings which became associated with moderation, conscientiousness and honesty in business dealings, and this, according to him (2009:98), was a significant factor in the development of the spirit of capitalism. As Cole (1956:51) also points out, by the end of the seventeenth century, Quakers were highly involved in the outside world and became successful pioneers in new financial and industrial approaches.[37]
Dumont clearly follows Weber’s argument that Luther and Calvin facilitated the passage to the in-worldly individual. Calvin, he notes, further articulated Luther’s concepts with notions that put added emphasis on the human will. Dumont states (1986:116) that with Calvin “the individual is now in the world, and the individualist value rules without restriction or limitation. The in-worldly individual is before us.” As outlined earlier, Weber considered that the concept of the economic was a pure activity in itself —a calling; however, I contend that Dumont gives more consideration to the further implications of Luther and Calvin’s ideas, including their egalitarian aspects.
In early Christian thought, notions of equality were premised on equality before
God, not social equality. Augustine of Hippo’s greater stress on this notion can be discerned in the following excerpt from City of God:
(God) has not willed the rational creature made in his own image to have dominion over any but irrational creatures, not man over man, but man over beasts (cattle)…[38]
Dumont (1986:78) points out that Luther asserted that all believers—priests and laypersons— had equal authority in spiritual matters. Equality, therefore, was not just an internal condition. According to Dumont (1986:80), equalitarianism further expanded from the religious sphere to the political sphere in the mid seventeenth century; and most particularly, during the period of the English Civil War and interregnum. He attributes the idea of equality before the law as being due to the
Levellers’ assertion of universal rights of man. Instead of all Christians being free and equal, it was asserted that all men are born free and equal.
During the English Civil War, the Levellers were considered to be a radical political movement using Christian and biblical teachings as inspiration for their political dissent. They used the term “freeborn rights” to distinguish between rights that all men had by birth as opposed to rights bestowed by legislation. Members of the this group produced a document known as The Agreement of the Free People of England[39] which advocated the following civil rights: universal suffrage for men over twenty-one,[40] annual parliamentary elections, trials by jury, abolishment of tithes, abolition of military conscription and equality of all persons before the law.
Dumont doesn’t mention that there was a connection between the Levellers and the Quakers; however, many early Quakers were small traders and handicraftsmen who came into contact with Levellers in the course of their trade and some were sympathetic to the views held by members of this movement. When the Levellers were suppressed as an organized political force, some joined the Quaker movement. As mentioned by Cole (1956:39), one of the Levellers who converted to Quakerism was libertarian John Lilburne, who was the principal architect of the above manifesto.[41]
Dumont (1986:94) observes a further important expansion of equalitarianism from the religious to the political sphere in the ideas of Thomas Paine,[42] the author of The Rights of Man, who influenced the American call for independence and took part in the French Revolution. He was also a member of the Commission appointed to prepare the French Republican Constitution in 1793.
Having argued that modernity is associated with egalitarian individualism, in his later work it became more evident that Dumont has come to understand that blanket characterisations of societies as either non-modern or modern are not entirely accurate. He also understood that the passage of non-modern to modern is not as straightforward as he had previously thought. Dumont’s third publication, German Ideology, which forms part of his articulation of the “set of ideas and values characteristic of modernity” (1994: vii), is his corrective to such characterisations.[43]
8.4 Variants in Modern Ideology
Dumont (1994:4) maintains that from the seventeenth century onward there has been a common ideology held in England, France and Germany which not only values the individual foremost; but also, stresses the importance of equality and liberty. However, he also argues that the extent to which they stress certain aspects of this ideology is varied. According to Dumont, “each national pattern can be taken as a variant of the common ideology” (1994: 8).
Furthermore, Dumont posits that these differences manifested in the varying ways non-modern elements coexisted with modern elements and in the rate of change which occurred within different social environments. He asserts (1994:18) that the passage from hierarchical holism (the non-modern) to egalitarian individualism (the modern) was not straightforward because there were recursive loops. The two categories were not mutually exclusive but overlapped, blurring boundaries. This meant that there were earlier non-modern elements within the modern (and vice versa). [44] He argues also that this process was not uniform within different subcultural environments and as a result of this, these loops or folds created regional variations in modern ideology.
To explore these variations, Dumont (1994:50-53) notes that in France, the Revolution was against the socio-political hierarchy and the hereditary division of labour. The individual as a citizen was deemed to be equal to all other individual citizens, but not distinct from other individuals. Individualism, in this understanding, is at the political level and involves the Rights of Man, subordinating the religious level and the inner life of believers.
In the German instance, on the other hand, Dumont believes (1994: 19-21) that there was a decidedly inner development of individuality which originated with
Luther’s ideas that the Christian believer’s relationship with God was paramount. Whereas French individualism took a decidedly political turn, the German variant was more religious and thus open to other possibilities. From the mid eighteenth century, political events, including those of the French Revolution, were channelled through this pre-existing introspective religious disposition enabling a particular German reaction to the later socio-political individualism which was evident in French culture and the Revolution.
Particularly relevant for Dumont’s argument concerning German distinctiveness, was the apparent surge in German intellectual and artistic ideas[45] and values from the late eighteenth until the mid-nineteenth century. These ideas, according to him (1994:18-19), diverged from that of other modern European countries, and in so doing, began a process of cultural estrangement between Germany and other modern European countries which started at the time of the Enlightenment. For example, the eighteenth century German philosopher and theologian, Johann Herder, believed that the history of humanity is comprised of the interplay between different cultures. Herder had a holistic perception of man, according to Dumont, which was “unmistakably German.” As Dumont points out (1994:9-10), Herder stated that all cultures have equal value, transferring the notion of “equality” from the individual person to the individual culture.
German ideology, according to Dumont (1994:20-21), developed from a combination of community holism, whereby there was identification with a cultural community (Gemeinshaft) rather than society (Gesellschaft); and self-cultivating individualism (Bildung), which developed from religious ideas about the inner self.[46] This form of individualism initially was resistant to the development of socio-political individualism and, in Dumont’s view (1994:44), had two characteristics: an outworldly inner self and a propensity for cultural self-education or self-cultivation which was at the level of cultural belonging or community rather than at the level of society.
Dumont (1994:24) also noted two other features of German ideology: the prevalence of holism and a belief in the universal sovereignty of German culture. The prevalence of holism resulted in an adaptation through a movement of thought which produced a combination of elements of individualism and holism, both of which are implicitly identified with the other. The concept of Bildung, in Dumont’s understanding (1994:25), permeated German literature from Goethe to Thomas Mann— lauding the development of human potential in the pursuit of knowledge. This pursuit was for its own sake and for its contribution to society. It was not undertaken in order to further employment prospects, but instead, indicated a profound commitment to knowledge itself. Many intellectuals were dedicated to the development of this concept, including Kant, Goethe, Schiller and Mann. As explained by Kolata (2016:1-10), this dedication to Bildung was exemplified by the comment of the celebrated German writer and statesman, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe, who considered its pursuit to be “an exemplary human goal.”
It is understandable, therefore, that Dumont (1994:82) chose to use the concept of Bildung as representative of German culture. This concept was an ethical ideal which arose initially out of theological ideas. Its original meaning was to educate a child. During the 18th century, its meaning was broadened and it became a value encompassing culture—characterized by literature and the arts.[47] According to Dumont (1986:152), German writers of the period 1770-1830 became “mediators between German culture and the external world.”
Thomas Mann’s Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man confirmed Dumont’s belief that the German idea of an individualism which was internal to the person did not affect membership in the national community.[48] For Mann, being a German implied introspectiveness and deepening and perfecting one’s own personality. Under this way of thinking, the political was profane. According to Dumont (1994:54), the line of thought from Luther to pietism and Bildung explained Mann’s connection between inwardness and disdain for the political sphere.
Undoubtedly, in Dumont’s view (1994:179-183), the literature most associated with the concept of Bildung is that of Goethe. Pietistic introspection was basic to the development of the individual accompanied by an inner contentment which was conducive to having a harmonious relationship between the self and the community. Each person is considered unique in this understanding of individualism. The incomparability of each person is seen in Goethe’s writing and is in contrast with the French idea of an individualism of equality and sameness. Goethe, according to Dumont (1994:187,193), had played a part in the transition from the Western Enlightenment idea of the individual to the German view which insisted on an introspective focus on self-development.
Dumont (1994:92) suggests that borrowing ideas from other cultures entails an inner predisposition and what is borrowed is in response to a need which is preexisting. What is borrowed is necessarily changed to meet that need. For example, German classical writers idealized Ancient Greece but this idealization involved a
German interpretation in which the individual was seen as undeveloped and incomplete until transformed by self-cultivation. The individual of the Enlightenment in the German interpretation had to be transformed similarly. The goals of the French Revolution are, therefore, modified within the German milieu.
Dumont (1994:187) states that “individualism receives a curvature, which sends it back to the community.” In Goethe’s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre,[49] the main character who is involved with his own self-development is brought back into the community. Dumont (1994:188) maintains that there is a curvature in Wilhelm’s introspective individualism, when he is admitted into a distinguished circle at the completion of his development. In Dumont’s understanding, this loop allows a non-modern holistic orientation to the community to survive in modern times.
Another important factor within the German milieu is the way that religion and politics were intertwined in the period between the late 18th and early 19th centuries when activists were agitating for reform and unification of the German states. The three hundred year anniversary of the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther became symbols of German reason, virtue and freedom. Landry (2014:5) suggests that a view emerged in Prussia that a unified German nation could only occur if this unification was based on a shared Christian religion. Landry calls that view an “ecumenical German nationalism.”
A National Assembly was convened to begin the process of creating a German nation state and a Constitution was adopted in 1849 to establish a unified state with a hereditary emperor as head of state. However, the King of Prussia declined his election and invoked the grace of God as the sole source of monarchical legitimacy.[50] The king then called for a unification of the Reformed and Lutheran Churches in Prussia and proclaimed a Prussian Union on the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation initiated by Martin Luther. [51] As stated by Landry (2014:30), ecumenical groups backed the king’s idea of uniting separate Churches and considered it a requirement for German national unification. The German unification was, therefore, enabled not by the political solution of the National Assembly but by the politico-religious intervention of the King of Prussia. There was, therefore, a decidedly religious element to the German Revolutionary Period (1830-1870s) and the subsequent unification of German states. This element was absent in the French Revolutionary period.
In the French view, the individualism of equality is a formal principle; and moreover, according to Dumont (1994:189), it is “externally applicable to take exception to any holism in political and social life.” This is a more political individualism. The German view, which is the individualism of difference, is internally applicable as it corresponds to the inner feeling of the believer, or subject of Bildung. Self-cultivation is asserted on the assumption of difference of inner selves. This is relevant because it conceives of an individualism which is unique to each person; and as a consequence, there is a duty to develop and nurture that difference. This is a less political form of individualism.
Although French and English culture exerted the most influence on modern European thought until the end of the 18th century, the development of German philosophy and literature, in turn, affected French and English thought.[52] Dumont (1994:225) maintains that elements which are predominant in one ideological framework are submerged in other sub-cultural environments where they may be seen to emerge in a subordinate model. The French model of universalist individualism, for example, subordinated the holistic perception of a specific historical community, which is usually the view of traditionalists. As a result of his comparative analysis, Dumont concludes that Germany is more religious and introverted; whereas France is more secular and extraverted. Through this document I will be arguing that Quakers are more religious and introverted; whereas Unitarians are more secular and extraverted. These differences though are not absolute; they are relative differences. And notwithstanding this, Unitarians are still religious and Quakers are still very much secular. It is in the comparison between the two that the relative differences are able to be noted.
Having explained the relevance of Dumont’s contrast between introverted and extraverted individualism—a differentiation which will be examined further in connection with Quaker and Unitarian practices later in this document, I now set out the approach that I have adopted during the research process.
9. METHODOLOGY
9.1 Fieldwork
Rambo (2003:213) points to an important characteristic of anthropological research when he states that “anthropological researchers have attempted to fit their theories to the data, not force the data to fit their theories.” The approach adopted here takes this aspect into account. Importantly, this comparative study lends itself to the methodology of participant observation, but conducting anthropological and sociological research within the Australian setting does not allow much opportunity to observe and participate in everyday activities as peoples’ daily lives are widely dispersed and less accessible to a researcher.
Anthropologists who have done research on communities of practice in Western societies have sought to address this difficulty in several ways. Csordas concentrated on interviews and observation of ritual rather than everyday activities, contending that interviews, narratives and observation gave access to experience because language communicates the existential situation of others. He then used a theory of embodiment to abstract from experience (1994: xvii, 282). Luhrmann’s methodology included attending services and rituals for one year and reading various books and other sources of information provided by the groups. She interviewed the leaders of the groups and ten of their congregants as well as drawing on data from casual conversations (2004:520).
My approach was similar to that proposed by those two researchers. Also, it was similar to that of Collins, who used anthropological, ritual, historical and sociological insights in his analyses of British Quakerism.[53]
Prior to commencement of fieldwork, I informally approached both communities with the intention of ascertaining whether there was any receptivity among members of the congregations to a proposed study. I first contacted several members of the Quaker community whom I knew and received a favourable response to the proposal. I then attended Sunday morning service in the Adelaide Unitarian Church and spoke to the minister afterwards. She was very receptive to the idea and introduced me to a few members of the congregation. I explained to everyone I met in the Unitarian community that I was not a new convert but was interested in conducting a comparative study. Everyone was very curious about it and interested to know just what I intended to do. Unitarians were chosen as a comparative group rather than (say) a pentecostal church because I wanted to look at similar old-style non-conformist religious organisations which allowed me to study small differences.
After making this initial contact, notices were placed in both groups’ newsletters explaining to the congregations what was intended to be done and details of the intended study were sent to the major decision-making groups of both bodies for approval. Once approval was given, fieldwork commenced. At that time, there were approximately one hundred and twenty members in each community, and it was apparent that there was a preponderance of older congregants, which immediately raised the question of how these groups were able to maintain their populations when there were so few young families.
Each fieldwork site (church or meeting house) was visited on average twice a month during regular worship for two years, and then intermittently for a further four years. The major goal was to learn about these two communities of practice in South Australia through directly observing their gatherings at their times of worship and on various other social occasions. This enabled relationships to be
Note 54 cont’d See Page 35. Collins has written a substantial number of articles and book chapters regarding British Quakers from 1996 onwards. The following work is representative of his scholarship.
Collins, P.J. 1996. ‘Plaining: The Social and Cognitive Practice of Symbolisation in the Religious Society of Friends’.Journal of Contemporary Religion 11(3): 277-288.
Collins, P.J. 2005. ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Ritual’. Journal of Contemporary Religion 20(3): 323-342.
Collins, P.J. & Dandelion, P. 2008. ‘Introduction’. In The Quaker Condition: the Sociology of a Liberal Religion. Collins, P.J. & Dandelion, P., Cambridge Scholars Press, Newcastle.pp.1-21.
Collins, P.J. 2010. Quakers and Quakerism in Bolton, Lancashire 1650-1995: The History of a Religious Community. Lampeter Edwin Mellen.
built with congregants and provided opportunity for informal discussions on matters pertinent to the study. Fortuitously, both communities had major anniversary celebrations within weeks of commencement, which meant that there were opportunities to socialize with congregants from the outset.
In both groups, I was not only observing but actually participating as much as I could in their rituals. For Unitarians, this meant participating in, and experiencing, church services rather than observing and taking notes. I sat with the congregation and sang the hymns, listened to the minister’s address and participated in the order of service along with the rest of the congregation. This participation involved regular attendance at Sunday services and chatting with members of the congregation both before, and after, worship.
To situate the Sunday service within a larger context, it was also necessary to attend other activities organized by the congregation. This involved congregational lunches and dinners, fund-raising events, and various church group activities. I found that in the smaller informal gatherings it was easier to interact with congregants. I also attended and participated in a course run by the minister for congregants over a period of eight weeks.
For Quakers, fieldwork involved primarily attending and participating in meetings for worship and meetings for worship for business. I also attended weddings and funerals and various informal social gatherings and tried to broaden my knowledge of Quakerism by participating in a course run by local Adelaide Quakers over a period of twelve weeks. Additionally, I also participated in two Australian Yearly Meeting gatherings, one held in Canberra and another in Adelaide, and a mid-year residential retreat held in the Adelaide Hills.
Anthropologists have noted the difficulties with recording data in some worship environments. Engelke (2007:35), for example, found that no instruments for recording such as pens, notebooks and audio recorders, were tolerated within the space of worship of the Masowe Friday Apostolics. A similar situation applied in my fieldwork, because a Quaker meeting for worship is conducted mainly in silence. It seemed inappropriate to be taking notes and unnecessary to make an audio recording. Any field-notes from these occasions were made from recollections after the meeting was finished.
The Quaker community requested that I give an informal talk to members as they were interested in how the study was progressing and wanted to know if any difficulties were being encountered. The question arose about a researcher taking notes. It was generally agreed that taking notes during a meeting for worship might be distracting to participants. It was considered appropriate for me to note later what ministry there had been but not to mention names of people or be too specific about what people said.
Although it would have been possible to sit at the back of the Unitarian Church and take notes during a service, this was not a practice that I used. As notes were not taken during Quaker meetings, Unitarian services were treated similarly. The intention was to attend, experience, observe and participate respectfully in both groups’ worshipping activities, rather than just to observe. Any field-notes made were done from recollections after the Unitarian service of worship was finished. As soon as I left the church, I quickly made a few brief notes and within a short time of returning home used these notes to assist in recollecting and recording as much information as I could. Some sermons were downloaded by the church’s organisers onto the website and this also proved to be a useful source of data.
Using these sources, a substantial amount of fieldwork data was obtained, noted and transcribed. Quaker researcher, Peter Collins (2010:14) believes that memory can also play an important role in fieldwork as not all experiences in the field can be recorded and some information is stored as memory to be drawn upon as a future resource. This is undoubtedly the case.
9.2 Interviews
In addition to fieldwork observation and participation, fifteen members of each congregation were interviewed.[54] Interviewees were between the ages of 40-90 which was representative of the congregational structure at that time. My focus was on learning from participants and so I was particularly keen to interview those people who had long-term involvement with the communities, as they were the most likely participants to throw light on social phenomena and processes.
I commenced each interview by asking the interviewee how they came to be a Quaker/Unitarian. All people interviewed were very comfortable with this question and sometimes launched into very lengthy explanations. Although some members were born into Quaker or Unitarian families and were proud to relate long-standing multi-generational involvement, the majority of congregants either had not attended any church regularly before, or were “converts” from other churches. They had become members through conviction. Those that came from other church backgrounds said that they found the Quaker or Unitarian worshipping environment allows more flexibility in spiritual growth. It was apparent that there were noticeable similarities between the two groups of interviewees here because both Quakerism and Unitarianism are religions of becoming rather than being. Both believe in the possibility of continuing revelation rather than revelation through sacred texts such as the Bible, and this approach to spirituality requires ongoing personal discernment.
Enquiring how they came into membership often led to discussion on other matters that I had not intended to raise; but nevertheless, were important to the interviewees. People became much more relaxed after this as they realized that this was not a test of their knowledge. Several people were worried that their knowledge of the other group was not good enough. They had assumed that as this was a comparative study that they would be expected to know about the other group as well. They were relieved when they found out that this was not required.
Those congregants who were willing to participate were given the opportunity of explaining the importance to them of attending services/meetings for worship and the value of forms of worship such as silence and ministry. Participants were asked about the importance of rites of passage and celebrations, and how religious practices have influenced their daily lives and affected their sense of identity. Interviews were at least an hour long and semi-structured but everyone was given the opportunity to talk about what was relevant to their situation rather than being constrained by answering specific questions.
Although I had a prepared set of questions, I often didn’t get answers to all questions as people talked about other things which were more important to them. I allowed the interview to develop in this way with people giving scant attention to some questions but expanding at length on others. On one occasion, I did not get a chance to ask any questions as the interviewee spoke very informatively, without prompting, for the entire interview time. So although there was some structure to the interview, each interview developed in its own way.[55]
With each participant’s permission, all personal interviews were recorded and later transcribed for content analysis. Some participants asked for transcripts of their interviews which were provided to them. Transcribing interviews was an extremely time-consuming process but had a lot of merit because it meant that what was said during the interviews remained in my memory and I was easily able to recall contents of the interviews without constantly referring to my notes.
9.3 Other Resources
Both groups have their own websites. The Quaker website contains news of interest for the Quaker community but its main objective is to introduce Quakers to outsiders. The meetings which form part of South Australia and Northern Territory Regional Meeting are listed, along with addresses and times of meetings for worship. There are links to local Quaker publications as well as information about the Adelaide Quaker opportunity shop. Links are also provided to Australian Quaker websites and information on overseas Quaker Yearly Meetings.
The Unitarian Church has recently redesigned its website in an attempt to make it more appealing to a wider range of people, and in particular, to young families. Its
Home Page is headed “Open Hearts, Open Minds”. Visitors to the website are given a range of information, including details of the church’s history, famous Adelaide Unitarians, principles of Unitarian-Universalism, and the minister’s theology/philosophy. In addition, there are particulars of services, children’s activities, social justice projects, community outreach, and a link to a podcast site with recordings of selected addresses given by ministers of the church.
The websites are a useful source of information as they provide a snapshot of how
Quakers and Unitarians in South Australia represent themselves to the wider South Australian community. In addition, a considerable amount of information is produced by the groups themselves. Regular newsletters are circulated with details of services, meetings, and social activities; in addition to news of members and other items of interest to the communities. Quakers, in particular, circulate items of interest to members regularly by email. There are also pamphlets and publications on display in the foyers of the Quaker Meeting House and the Unitarian Church.
10. INSIDER/OUTSIDER RESEARCH
Although I was attending the Unitarian Church as a newcomer who was intending to do a study, it was inevitably going to be more complicated with Quakers. I have had a long association with the group, although I had not attended meetings for worship for many years. This meant that a few people knew me well but some people, who had been attending for many years themselves, did not know me at all or only slightly; therefore, I was a returning long-term member to some and a newcomer to others. In the same way, some people who had been attending for many years were newcomers to me. On top of all this, it was confusing to all concerned that I was also intending to do a comparative study.
My first fieldwork attendance with the Quaker community was at the meeting for worship at Eastern Suburbs Meeting. The techniques of self required for sitting and waiting in stillness and silence during periods of worship were familiar to me, although after such a long period of absence, I found it was quite difficult to do. Afterwards, I was able to chat with a few people who then expressed interest in assisting me with interviews later.
Because so much time had passed since I had close involvement with the meeting, those people who were the most prominent in the meeting ten years or so earlier were now taking more of a back-seat, and more recent members were now much more evident. I noticed that there were no children present in the meeting at that stage of fieldwork, which was quite different from earlier times when children (and some adults) sometimes played a game of cricket after meeting. I would agree with Quaker researcher, Peter Collins (2010:10), that the fact that you are a fieldworker is in itself enough to create a sense of difference even if there are shared remembrances with some members of the community of times past. This shared sense was only with a few members of the community of Quakers. With the majority of the community, I was a lapsed member doing a study who perhaps was returning to the fold.
With the Unitarian community I was an outsider who was doing an academic study. I did not hide the fact that I had come from a Quaker background which resulted in me being referred to sometimes as the “Quaker lady”, but this name seemed to disappear over time. By attending services regularly, I soon become part of the congregation. So much so, that during interviews and informal meetings, participants made comments indicating that I was considered a potential Unitarian. In fact, several members of the congregation were genuinely shocked that I had not become a member of the church. People made comments such as, “You fit in so well here, why don’t you become a member?”
The importance of the study was more urgently felt among the Unitarians who expressed more interest. They often asked how my research was progressing and many people said they would be interested in reading the thesis. One congregant said that he would be willing to pay for whatever I wrote! Others were interested in knowing whether I wrote down everything I heard, and saw, each time I attended the church. Quakers were definitely more reserved at the start, but as fieldwork progressed, people said that that they thought that I had a compelling study ahead of me. Therefore, it has surprised me on several occasions when Quakers have enquired as to whether I have made up my mind as to whether I am going to become a Unitarian. There is some misunderstanding because I have been attending the Unitarian Church that it must mean that I am interested in becoming a member of that church, even though it was known that I was undertaking a comparative study.
According to Quaker sociologist, P. Dandelion (2004:234), the majority of research into Quakers is actually done by Quaker scholars. This does not seem to be so evident with social research into Unitarians. However the nature of Unitarian worship is that reference is often made to social scientific views during sermons. These factors seem to point to the suitability of the characterisation of Quakers and
Unitarians along Dumontian lines of introverted and extroverted individualisms. Dandelion also speculates that the large amount of research done by Quaker scholars themselves may be partly because there is limited access given to nonQuaker researchers. There is no doubt that it is easier to be an insider researcher as far as access is concerned, but perhaps this is the case with most groups and not just Quakers.
Insider research does also pose ethical dilemmas. Information that is gained through membership of a group is not necessarily meant for outsiders. There may be an expectation that certain information will not be divulged outside the group. It is also hard to draw boundaries between personal religious experience and the study. When is it a private experience and when is it an academic pursuit? When I attended the annual Australia-wide gathering of Quakers, I was asked by one member of the group whether I was attending for my study or because I was a Quaker. It was a difficult question to answer. I felt somewhat guilty. In effect, the reasons were two-fold: I was attending as a Quaker because I had never attended an Australia-wide Quaker gathering before and I was curious, but I was also attending because I believed it would give me valuable insights into Australian Quakers which would be useful for my study.
In Meyerhof’s (1978) study of a community of elderly Jewish people, Turner’s foreword mentions “thrice-born” anthropologists who return to their nation of birth declaring that anthropology’s “long-term program has always included the movement of return, the purified look at ourselves.” Nesbitt (2002:134-5) though notes that an insider/outsider dichotomy is complicated by geographical, social and generational distances between individuals and groups; and in addition, the beliefs and practices of both the ethnographer and those in the field are constantly changing over time.
Recollection of personal experiences is associated with introspection and reflexivity, and cannot be totally excluded from ethnography. As Collins states,
“experience is unique and able to give a ‘peculiar purchase’ on the field” (2010:11). Collins (1994: 38) also mentions that continuous reflection on Quakerism, i.e., reflexivity, is intrinsic to being a Quaker, and this leads him to ponder whether being a Quaker and being an ethnographer involve similar skills.
Collins (2002) approached the difficulties posed by insider research by writing his research chapters in three parts: Quaker conversations at the meeting house, his reflections on these conversations as an insider of the meeting, and interpretation of this data as an anthropologist/outsider. I have not attempted this approach, because I was pursuing a comparative analysis. Instead, all fieldwork notes on Quaker and Unitarian practices were written from the viewpoint of a researcher, albeit one who also happened to have some insider knowledge.
The data collected from the fieldwork process were analysed and interpreted using the insights of anthropological, sociological and ritual theorists. Fieldwork notes written after attendances at services or meeting for worship, interviews with church members and information produced by each group were carefully perused and then analysed into various categories such as rites of passage, ritual, history and theology. This was done individually for each group. These files were then further divided into sub-files which dealt with various aspects of rites of passage, ritual, history and theology. This information was then used to write ethnographies which form the basic data of this study.
11. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF COMPARATIVE FIELDWORK
There have been unintended consequences arising from the experience of fieldwork, such as areas of cross-fertilization occurring between the two groups, so that I have sometimes felt like a bridge between the two groups. Inevitably, I have frequently been asked by members of each community about the beliefs and practices of the other group. Possibly this has had some unintended influence on some changing allegiances when congregants have switched membership and/or attendance from one group to another.
It is also possible that the presence of a researcher has inadvertently encouraged reference to Quakerism during Unitarian services, an address on Quakers being delivered during a service, a Quaker giving information on Quakerism during a Unitarian service, and a Unitarian approach to the Quaker community regarding the possibility of holding joint activities.
Collins notes (2010: 16) that the self of the anthropologist might also be a resource for others. This may explain why several addresses by ministers given during services of worship at the Unitarian Church mentioned anthropology, sociology and sociological concepts such as habitus. Although it is possible this would have occurred had I not been doing fieldwork at the church, it seems likely that the anthropological presence has influenced the choice of wording in ministerial addresses to the congregation on some occasions.
Regardless of these consequences, undoubtedly this focus on reflexivity and the self of the individual ethnographer is a product of late Western modernity and its thinking, which means that this study should be seen as very firmly rooted in the concepts of late modernity and its apparent need for greater transparency.
12. DEFINITIONS
The following definitions and explanations are offered to clarify some of the terms used in this document.
Attenders
Quakers call non-members who are part of their meetings for worship “attenders” rather than “attendees.”
Communities of Practice
My understanding of “communities of practice” here follows that used by Engelke as an “aggregate of people who come together around mutual engagement in an endeavour” (2007:174). Engelke was quoting from Eckert & McConnell-Ginet (1992),
Quakers/Friends
Australian Quakers are members of The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in
Australia Inc. The names “Quakers” and “Friends” are used interchangeably, officially and in conversation, although members themselves usually refer to each other as Friends.
Unitarians
The Unitarian Church of South Australia, Inc. is affiliated with the Unitarian and Unitarian-Universalist movement and a member of the Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association. The most recent South Australian Website is headed “SA Unitarians.”[56] Although Unitarian-Universalist in orientation, the South Australian Church has not yet changed its name to indicate this.
Utopian
The definition of “Utopian”[57] used in this thesis refers to a person, or group of people who hope for, or actively work towards, bringing about an ideal society, i.e. a society which embraces their particular values. The usage of this term is in no way meant to be derogatory.
13. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
This Introduction has outlined the broad field of study and the justification for a comparative anthropological/sociological study of the South Australian Quaker and Unitarian communities. The literature review identified the research issues and demonstrated the links between the research question and the wider body of knowledge, including the important insights of Louis Dumont on the comparative study of modern ideology. In summary, this chapter has laid out the foundations for the thesis, the structure of which is now outlined.
The first chapter begins with the historical development of Quakerism and Unitarianism prior to the mid-nineteenth century and the European settlement of South Australia. The research area is then described through a history of the colony of South Australia, which was an experiment in free settler colonization, and is followed by a history of Quakers and Unitarians in that milieu.
The second chapter describes how Quakers and Unitarians fit into the contemporary Australian religious environment. It examines the difference between religion and spirituality, and compares how these religious groups are organised, both within South Australia and nationally. In order to do this, insights from sociologists and anthropologists who have studied religious organisations within western societies are called upon, with specific reference to the research into Australian religious organisations conducted by Gary Bouma.
The next two chapters contain detailed ethnographic descriptions of the current worshipping activities of Quakers and Unitarians in South Australia, highlighting the centrality of these activities in the lives of members of these communities.
These descriptions will assist in understanding how these groups embrace contemporary spirituality and what they add to the mix of the current Australian religious/spiritual environment.
The fifth chapter considers what is meant by the term “ritual” and contrasts different approaches to the anthropology of ritual. In order to do this, I draw upon the insights of four ritual theorists: Roy Rappaport, Bruce Kapferer, Don Handelman and Catherine Bell. Following this analysis, I argue that ritual’s transformational and constitutive aspects are particularly relevant with respect to the contrasting phenomena observed within the South Australian Quaker and Unitarian communities and this suggests that their rituals are not just representational; but also, actively constitutive of particular value.
====
CHAPTER 1
THE COLONY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA, QUAKERS AND UNITARIANS: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
William Penn might, with reason, boast of having brought down upon earth the Golden Age, which in all probability, never had any real existence but in his dominions. Voltaire[58]
1. Introduction
Although Quakers and Unitarians have been in South Australia since its colonial foundation, the history of both movements reaches back much further. This longer history is very important to some members of these communities who have family connections which stretch over many generations. The following comment made by a member of the Unitarian congregation illustrates this point:
I was born of Unitarian families on both sides. My father’s family was Unitarian for generations…I grew up knowing the history of Unitarianism in England because it was our history.[59]
This chapter describes two religious organisations in South Australia through their histories and is divided into several sections. The first part examines the historical background of the Quaker movement in England and North America. This is followed by an exploration of the historical background of Unitarianism which can be traced back to early Christianity. The third section sets out the colonial history of South Australia noting some of its unique features. The final two sections discuss how the Unitarian and Quaker communities developed within their South Australian milieux.
2. Historical Background - Quakerism
The Quaker movement began during the political turmoil of the twenty year period of the English Civil Wars and Interregnum in the mid-seventeenth century. It formed part of the wider English Puritan movement that was comprised of disparate religious groups advocating reform of the Church of England.
There were many notable Quakers through the history of the movement but the most influential was its charismatic founder and leader, George Fox, who was born in Leicestershire in 1624. It was said that as a child he was religious, inward, still, solid and observing beyond his years.[60] His father was a weaver and known for his religious ways, so much so that his neighbours called him “Righteous Christer” (Nickalls 1952:1). In his youth, George Fox was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but became restless and began to search for answers to religious questions. In his Journal, Fox explained (Nickalls 1952:7, 20) that he came to the conclusion that formal education qualifications did not equip people for the ministry. Instead, he believed that all people had an inner teacher and he was convinced that he was commanded by God to turn people inward in order to know their own salvation.
Fox frequently interrupted church services, telling those present that God did not dwell in temples. His outbursts were not welcomed and he reportedly encountered much resistance:
The people fell upon me with their fists, books, and without compassion or mercy beat me down in the steeplehouse and almost smothered me.
(Nickalls 1952: 44)
Fox did, however, convince his followers that they were to be at the forefront of an inward “Second Coming” of Christ in which heaven was to be created on Earth. He advocated an inward form of worship which he maintained enabled a personal relationship with God. This inward form of worship occurred within the meeting for worship (Dandelion 2005:4).
Fox travelled afar and spread his message to all those who would listen. He first journeyed through the north of England sharing his insights with religious seekers. Victor Turner (1969:198) described Fox’s teachings as: “life-crisis liminality as the path of salvation” and suggested that this style involved plain living and high thinking. Fox’s followers called themselves “Friends of the Truth” or “Friends” but the name “Quaker” also came to be used very early in the movement’s history.[61]
The first generation of Quakers was zealous and on a mission to spread Fox’s message throughout England. By 1660, it is estimated that there were sixty thousand followers throughout England.[62] Bauman states (1983:7) that Quakers were considered trouble-makers and many were arrested for their public preaching and disruption of church services. According to Mack (1992:1), in the middle of the seventeenth century there were up to three hundred “visionary women”—most of whom were Quakers—who preached and prophesized in churches and public places. Indeed, Quaker women were sometimes very conspicuous even when silent. The following account, related by Mack, demonstrates this point:
(She) sewed a full-length coat of sackcloth, which she put on with no other clothing save shoes, her hair hanging loose and smeared with ashes; on seven different days she walked through the streets and stood silently in front of the high cross before the marketplace as a sign against the pride of the city of Bristol (1992:168).
There was also great disquiet at the manner of worship of Quakers. Fox states in his Journal: “the priests and professors of all sorts were much against Friends’ silent meetings; and when they saw a hundred or two hundred people all silent, waiting upon the Lord, they would break out into a wondering and despising” (Nickalls 1952:446). He documented the predicament of English Quakers in letters sent to followers who had immigrated to the Maryland, Carolina, Virginia and New England colonies to escape the problems faced by dissenters under Charles II:
We are here under great persecution, betwixt thirteen and fourteen hundred in prison, an account of which hath lately been delivered to the King, besides the great spoil and havoc which is made of Friends’ goods by informers….many are imprisoned and praemunired for not swearing allegiance…And many are fined and cast into prison as rioters for meeting to worship God….and many are cast into prison because they cannot pay the priests’ tithes (Cadbury 1952: 738).
As a further response to this persecution, Quakers established a weekly Meeting for Sufferings in London and followers were cautioned to engage in ministry within the Quaker meeting house itself to avoid being subject to arrest for preaching in public spaces (Mack 1992: 274).
Early Quakers set themselves apart from others in society by wearing plain clothing with no superfluous trimmings and by refusing to show deference to those in authority or in a socially superior position. Quakers were thought rude because they did not “doff the hat” or use polite greetings, titles or pronouns. Their plain speech was seen as lacking in respect and designed to destroy correct social interaction (Bauman 1983:54-56). It was customary to use “thee” and “thou” when conversing with persons of lower social position, and to use “you” when conversing with others; however, according to Vipont Brown (1921:43), Friends deliberately did not observe these customs because they disagreed with social distinctions.
Quaker theology and practices also set them apart. They did not believe that individuals were inherently sinful. Instead, they favoured the view that God’s grace was universal and rejected Calvin’s view that God had pre-determined an individual’s destiny. They did not have christening and communion as a means to salvation and continuing revelation of the Inner Light was the means by which they preferred to discern “The Truth” (Weber 2009: 106,135-6).
The Quaker movement inevitably had internal disputes and the leadership of George Fox was challenged. One of his challengers was James Nayler. Although George Fox is considered the founder of Quakerism, Nayler vied for the position of being one of the most prominent, and controversial, Quakers of the mid seventeenth century. He was a charismatic Quaker leader who was well known for the spirited way in which he presented Quaker beliefs to the public, but his manner brought accusations of being “ensnared by flatterers” who lacked restraint. According to Sheeran (1983:9), Nayler entered Bristol on horseback in the midst of followers who sang “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Israel.” This was considered blasphemous and caused public outrage. Many onlookers called for the death penalty. After the Parliament had debated Naylor’s actions for six weeks, he was imprisoned and severely tortured. Many Quakers, including Fox, also abandoned him or publicly decried his actions.[63]
William Penn was less controversial, but very influential, among Quakers in the late seventeenth century. He was the son of a British naval commander, and as a child, his interest in Quakerism was sparked after his father invited Thomas Loe, a Quaker preacher, to speak at the family home. Later Penn started attending Quaker meetings for worship and was then disowned by his family.[64] However, despite this, Penn was an entrepreneur and philosopher who became a leading advocate of religious tolerance in England. He mounted legal challenges against oppressive government policies and used his family connections to have many Quakers released from gaol. He became known as a defender of religious liberty and his public talks attracted thousands of people. After visiting Quakers in Holland he became interested in forming a new community based on freedom. He believed this was not able to be done in England and approached Charles II for permission to establish an American colony.[65]
Penn is now best known for his founding of the Province of Pennsylvania. Many Quakers migrated to the new American colonies in order to escape persecution and they found refuge in Pennsylvania where Penn had established a settlement on land that had been granted to him by King Charles II in satisfaction of the payment of a debt. This utopian Quaker colonial settlement became known as “The Holy
Experiment” as it was motivated by Quaker values, and had the approval of George Fox. Many Quakers, and other migrants, settled in areas around, or in, Philadelphia where land was being sold at low prices to attract new settlers. According to Henretta et al. (1997:72), the ethnic and religious diversity of these new settlers and the milieu of religious freedom soon gave the colony a reputation of being the most open and democratic of all the Restoration colonies.
Although initially successful, the dreams of a holy experiment did not eventuate.
The colony struggled financially as settlers did not want to pay rent or taxes to support the government of the colony. Conflict ensued, and schisms soon emerged, within the Quaker community itself. In addition, there was a new English monarch on the throne who was angered by Pennsylvania’s refusal to participate in the defence of the colonies. The colony was seized, Penn was imprisoned and the king set up his own government. According to Bronner (1954:105), most settlers acquiesced to the king’s demands in exchange for retaining some of their political liberties.
Partly in response to the failure of Penn’s utopian experiment, the period between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries is frequently referred to as the “Quietist period” in Quaker history. Certainly, various practices including the formalization of plain style dress, upholding of plain speech, and the use of numbers instead of names for days and months, became more widely encouraged within the movement. At the same time, adherents were discouraged from participation in the arts or other “frivolous” pursuits. The practice of disownment also increased. As Dandelion states (2005:49-52), these notions and practices created a sense of separation from the world; and yet, Quakers were still actively involved in the world. In Britain, Quaker inventors, scientists and philosophers met regularly with like-minded people to discuss innovative ideas which impacted upon British society.
On the other hand, in North America, Quakers became more detached from worldly pursuits and more inward-looking, but over time, this introspection led to a growing concern for those who were oppressed or despised by others. Well-known Quakers such as John Woolman devoted their lives to alleviating the oppression suffered by
African slaves and denounced slave-owning (Kelley 1986: 259,269). Woolman’s Journal[66] tells his life story and his concern for equality and justice and the plight of those who were oppressed. In it, he was described as being a humble man and poor in appearance, wearing simple clothing which contrasted with the rich apparel worn by the representatives of commerce and plantation interests (1922:8).
According to Dorsey (1998:397) through the actions of Quakers such as Woolman, the Society of Friends became one of the more prominent reforming and benevolent groups in North America by the end of the eighteenth century.
Quakers were also involved in benevolent works in Britain. Elizabeth Fry was of particular interest to early Australian Quakers because she was concerned for the welfare of women convicts who were being transported to Australia. She formed a group called “the British Ladies Society for the Reformation of Female Prisoners.” Among other things, the group offered women convicts needlework supplies to keep them occupied during their transportation and imprisonment. In return, prisoners on board the convict ship The Rajah produced a quilt which became known as the “Rajah Quilt.”[67]
By the nineteenth century, Quakers were involved in more worldly pursuits. In her book, which details the one hundred and fifty year rivalry between the world’s chocolate makers, Deborah Cadbury states: “4000 Quaker families ran 74 Quaker
British banks and more than 200 Quaker companies.” Quaker ownership also included the highly successfully chocolate factories of Cadbury, Rowntree and Fry (2010: xi). These family-owned businesses were run by Quakers who believed that wealth creation was not just for personal gain but also for the benefit of the workers, local community and society.[68] It is notable, for example, that when Cadbury wanted to build its first factory outside of the UK, Claremont in Tasmania was chosen rather than Melbourne or Sydney, as the company reportedly wanted an “idyllic setting” for the factory.[69]
3. Historical Background - Unitarianism
The origins of Unitarianism can be traced to early Christianity, and in particular, to the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. It was then that Arius, a presbyter from Alexandria, questioned the view that Christ was divine. However, it was many centuries later before this way of thinking gained more widespread acceptance.
Undoubtedly, Luther’s disputations with the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches emboldened reformers such as Michael Servetus whose views inspired those who later founded Unitarian churches in parts of Eastern Europe. In 1531, after writing On the Errors of the Trinity, he was found guilty of heresy charges and was executed on the orders of Calvin (Scholefield 1954:32).
Despite persecution, Unitarian movements continued to slowly develop in different parts of Europe; and more particularly, in Hungary, Poland and Transylvania. The name “Unitarian” gained currency in Hungary where it was used to describe the followers of the mid-sixteenth century religious reformer, Francis David, who died whilst imprisoned for heresy. Another influential religious reformer, Faustus Socinus, was an Italian theologian who founded a non-Trinitarian school of thought known as Socinianism, which was embraced by the Unitarian Church in Transylvania (Scholefield 1954:32, 33).[70]
By the seventeenth century, these ideas started to gain ground in Britain. The first influential person in this regard was John Biddle, who was an Oxford graduate and headmaster of a Grammar School. Biddle has been called the father of English Unitarianism.[71] After publishing his theological views, he was persecuted and imprisoned for expressing heretical sentiments. His followers, according to Scott (1980:4), became known as “Biddelians” or “Socinians.”
Whereas Quakerism developed as an independent sect, British Unitarianism grew primarily out of a movement of dissenting thought within the existing Anglican and Presbyterian traditions. Dissenting chapels were few in number and restricted to more remote locations but dissenters overcame these difficulties by meeting secretly in private houses or barns to escape persecution. After the passing of the Toleration Act of 1689, they were able to meet without persecution and by the end of the seventeenth century, plain style meeting houses were common throughout Britain.
Hague maintains (1986:9) that by the early eighteenth century, there were nearly one thousand plain style meeting houses erected in Britain. Some of the leaders of these dissenting congregations undoubtedly favoured a Unitarian interpretation of Christianity. This interpretation was not legalized in Britain until the nineteenth century,[72] although according to Hague (1986:22), this did not deter dissenters engaging in political and theological debate nor did it prohibit the first London Unitarian congregation being formed.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, groups of inventors, scientists and philosophers, many of whom held dissenting or Unitarian views, met regularly to discuss innovative ideas. [73] Some ministers also ran schools or dissenting academies to supplement their income. Influential Unitarians including scientist, Joseph Priestley, were educated at these academies as dissenters were unable to attend Oxford and Cambridge Universities (Hague 1986:52). Priestley was a theologian and Unitarian minister in addition to being a scientist. He objected to social privilege in England and openly supported the aims of the French Revolution; a stance which, according to Hague (1986:52) was unpopular and led to Priestley’s property being destroyed in the anti-French riots of 1791.
The nineteenth century was a period of consolidation and growth for Unitarianism. The British movement successfully attracted disaffected Anglicans, Presbyterians and Baptists. Ex-Anglican priests, in turn, influenced the Unitarian liturgy. Other groups such as the Free Christians, General Baptists and Christian Brethren also joined with the Unitarians to form a General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches. Unitarians were now accepted at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, and became more involved in politics and civic life, where they were keen to promote better standards of education and health care in society.
The Parliament of 1832, as pointed out by Hague (1986:71) included six Unitarians and wealthy Unitarians were increasingly being accepted as part of the British Establishment. With their new-found status in society, Unitarians turned their attention to worshipping in more elaborate surroundings. According to Hague, it was the influence of Martineau, [74] whose ideas were shaped by the romantic German style, which led to the building of neo-gothic style Unitarian churches in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Stained glass windows designed by artisans, he added (1986:55), became a “mark of success” for these Unitarian congregations.
The first non-conformist chapel in this style was the Upper Brook Street Chapel in Manchester opened by James Martineau in 1839. This meant that British Unitarianism during the nineteenth century had two major theological influences: the rationalism favoured by Priestley and the more liberal Christianity based on individual conscience promoted by Martineau (Hague 1986: 74).
Unitarianism developed quite differently in North America. In the early seventeenth century Puritans migrated to the West Indies and Massachusetts Bay, establishing settlements which they hoped would develop into a reformed Christian society. Their intention was to reform the Church of England by instituting a simplified church structure which was controlled by the congregation itself (Henretta et al. 1997:71). This structure, according to Baltrell (1982:363), appealed to some of the leading families in Boston who were in the forefront of this reform movement.
North American Unitarianism evolved from within the milieu of these New England Congregational Churches, attracting those who were seeking a rational, liberal form of Christianity. Unitarians offered an alternative view to the prevailing Calvinist theology and the increased religious enthusiasm following the first of the
“Great Awakenings”; a movement which began in the eighteenth century. By the time Priestley had arrived in America, therefore, many New England
Congregational Churches, including the influential King’s Chapel in Boston, had revised their liturgies to accommodate Unitarian beliefs (Scholefield 1954:34-5).
Quakerism, on the other hand, did not evolve from existing North American Protestant congregations but was introduced to the colonies by English Quaker settlers and missionaries.
The nineteenth century heralded a period of growth and establishment for North American Unitarians and the movement spread from its stronghold in New England to many other areas throughout the United States. It attracted prominent politicians, educators and theologians, and as a result, became known as a religion of the educated and the elite. Tocqueville, for example, reportedly met with the most prominent Unitarian minister of that era, William Ellery Channing, to discuss aspects of Unitarianism and his personal assessment afterwards was that Unitarians
were Christian in name only.76
Channing’s sermons encouraged the use of reason in religious matters. In 1819, he reportedly delivered a sermon on Unitarian Christianity at an ordination and urged his followers to honour their own minds rather than rely on scriptural authority (Scholefield 1954:37). Channing not only encouraged the use of reason in religious matters, according to Wach (1991:444), he also exhorted recently ordained Boston ministers to seek the friendless, the forsaken, the despondent and the lost.
Undoubtedly, one of the most influential Unitarians of the nineteenth century was the American poet, lecturer and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson followed in Channing’s footsteps but added emotional and aesthetic dimensions to
Unitarianism so that sermons became more crafted productions (von Frank 1989:23). Emerson was a leading figure in the Transcendentalist movement and a champion of individualism. His essay Self-Reliance is considered influential in this regard (Lee 1995:382). Emerson was also greatly influenced by his personal experience of Quakerism, believing that self-reliance, individualism and reliance
76 Tocqueville’s views on Unitarianism are apparent in the contents of this letter:
On the confines of Protestantism is a sect which is Christian only in name, the Unitarians. Among the Unitarians, that is to say among those who deny the Trinity and recognize only one God, there are some who see in Jesus Christ only an angel, others a prophet, others, lastly, a philosopher like Socrates. They are pure Deists. They speak of the Bible because they do not wish to shock public opinion, still entirely Christian, too deeply… (They) read verses of Dryden or other English poets on the existence of God and the immortality of the soul.
A discourse is made on some point of morality, and it’s done…it converts in the high ranks of society.
(Excerpt from Tocqueville and Beaumont in America by G W Pierson ‘Extracted from letter, Toc. To L., de Kergolay, Yonkers, 29 June 1831. (YT, quoted in part, O.C., V.312-319)”.
on individual conscience were similar focuses of both Quakerism and Unitarianism.
This is an observation on Emerson’s ideas which is also made by Baltrell (1982: 453-4). In 1838, Emerson delivered an address to the Harvard Divinity School, which was considered a turning point for Unitarian thought.[75]
Inevitably, differences of opinion arose within North American Unitarianism as to how the movement’s future should proceed. The American Unitarian Association favoured a more conservative approach and its leading figures encouraged adherence to the rules of good conduct and good taste (Burkholder 1986:8). Andrew Norton, who was an influential Unitarian in Massachusetts, even equated the new school of Unitarians with social upheaval. Norton stated:
They announce themselves as prophets and priests of a new future, in which all is to be changed, all old opinions done away, and all present forms of society abolished. But by what process this joyful revolution is to be effected we are not told (Burkholder 1986:2).
Nevertheless, social issues such as abolitionism, women’s rights and temperance were hotly debated in cities across North America in the first half of the nineteenth century. There were also a number of utopian communities which were developing their own vision of a new society. The Shakers were the most successful group; however, others were also intent on changing society, including social reformer and Unitarian minister, George Ripley, who founded the ill-fated communal living experiment known as “Brook Farm” which was inspired by the philosophy of transcendentalism (Preucel & Pendery 2006:6).
Reformers such as Theodore Parker, who was an abolitionist, built on the insights of Channing and Emerson. His interest in transcendentalism led him to believe that inspiration should not be confined to Christian revelation. This, according to Scholefield (1954:39), added an additional dimension to Unitarian theological thought which led to a range of theologies and notions which further influenced Unitarianism in the nineteenth century and beyond; including atheism, deism, Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism.[76]
The writings and ideas of prominent North American Unitarians were undoubtedly hotly debated among British middle-class Unitarians. In Wach’s view, Unitarians were a small, but nevertheless, important and influential group within cities such as Manchester in the early nineteenth century. Their chapels were, according to Wach (1991:427), not only places of worship for bankers, merchants, and professionals; but also, a milieu for the recruitment of civic leadership.
Wach also claims (1991:444) that nineteenth century Manchester provided an environment in which dissenters enjoyed a degree of respectability and this engendered a growing concern among them to promote their religious values and morality among the poor, and to this end, they established the Manchester Domestic Mission. Undoubtedly, Wach envisages Unitarians as positioned on the margins of the newly industrialized British society; often wealthy, well-educated and accomplished members of the elite, but also adherents of a form of Christianity which was disputed and resented. They were, he says, “at once privileged and precarious” (1991:428).
The longer-term histories of the Quaker and Unitarian movements have been set out to provide context for the sometimes privileged, and often precarious, future faced by Quaker and Unitarian families after immigrating to a new colony in the nineteenth century.
4. The Colony of South Australia
Bound for South Australia
Chorus
Heave away, you rolling king Heave away, haul away
Heave away, oh hear me sing
We’re bound for South Australia[77]
Havemann argues convincingly that colonization is a key feature of modernity and then goes on to say that settlers were “surplus people transported from Europe and dumped into the colonies” (2005:59). The settlers were, in this view, human waste created by modernity. This perspective of early Australian settler society downplays any utopian aspirations which could also be considered a key feature of modernity. In particular, this view of early Australian settler society appears to be challenged by the notions and events surrounding colonization within the South Australian context.
Ironically, a major architect of the utopian plans for the new colony was an inmate at Newgate prison. During his incarceration, he produced a study of systematic colonization which was printed in 1829 as a “Sketch for a Proposal for Colonizing Australasia” (Foster & Nettelbeck 2012:14). The prisoner concerned was Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a well-educated man from a Quaker family, who had been
sentenced to prison for abducting, and eloping with, a fifteen year old girl.
Wakefield contended that the problems which had arisen in the Australian colonies were mainly due to two factors: land had been given too freely to settlers and there had been over reliance on convict labour. Initially, these points were not received enthusiastically, either in England or in the penal colonies. However, Wakefield’s solution to the problems were persuasive. He put forward a plan for a particular kind of non-penal colony that allowed land to be sold at a price which would attract middle-class capitalists, but would be too expensive for the working class to purchase. He proposed that a percentage from the sale of land should be placed in a fund to assist the emigration of working class families who would provide the labour for the middle class capitalists of new colony.80
80 ‘Arrival of the Utopia with Government Immigrants’ Article in South Australian Register, 9 Feb 1864. The article states that the immigrants are “selected with care” and the captain and surgeon bear testimony to “their good conduct and willingness to conform to the rules and regulations” during the voyage. The immigrants were classified in the article as:
agricultural labourers 36, brick-makers 3, labourers 45, carpenters 7, bonnet maker 1, domestic servants 19, housemaids 9, general servants 15, confectioners 3, dairymaid 1, smiths 5, baker 1, grocer 1, ploughmen 11, shopman 1, plasterers 2, coach smith 1, butcher 1, cooper 1, brewer 1, gunsmith 1, gardeners 3, masons 3, sawyer 1, miners 5, wheelwright 1, shoemakers 3, porter 1, carver 1, painter 1, mining engineer 1, machinist 1, female farm servants 3,laundry maid 1, schoolmistress 1, nursemaids 3, cooks 2, matron 1. “National selection” was described as English 198, Irish 18, and Scotch 108. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/39115956. Accessed 31/8/17.
Foster and Nettelbeck state (2012:14) that it was fortuitous that Wakefield’s plan coincided with the news of further European exploration of the Murray, which was the subject of much interest in England. This interest meant that Wakefield’s ideas were given due consideration and this led to the dissemination of promotional pamphlets on the proposed new colony of South Australia. Robert Gouger assisted Wakefield in the organisation of those people who were interested in the scheme, and following the promotion of the colony, The South Australian Colonisation Act was passed by the British parliament which provided for the foundation of the colony.81
The Proclamation of South Australia took place two years later in 1836 when the first colonial settlers arrived.82 Within a few years of the establishment of the colony, it became apparent that the leading colonists preferred to live in the growing township of Adelaide, rather than outlying areas. This allowed them to be involved with its early politics and to enjoy membership of its exclusive clubs. They lived in Adelaide and it was from there that they also ran commercial enterprises which included grain growing, farming and grazing pursuits. Consequently, it was soon reported that “no capital city dominated its colony as Adelaide did South Australia” (Prest et al. 2001:257-8).
81 The Act described the land as “waste and unoccupied”. No mention was made of its indigenous inhabitants. The Kaurna people are the traditional owners of the Adelaide plains. Their land extends north to Crystal Brook and south to Cape Jervis and is bounded by the Mt Lofty Ranges. Others who inhabited South Australia prior to European colonization include the Adnyamathanha, Arabana, Dieri, Narungga, Ngarrindjeri and Pitjantjatjara peoples.
State Library of South Australia Website http://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/Aboriginal_peopleSA/Arabana. Accessed 31/8/17.
82 Excerpts from the Proclamation of South Australia demonstrate its utopian (see definition Page 46) intent:
In announcing to the Colonists of His Majesty’s Province of South Australia, the establishment of the Government, I hereby call upon them to conduct themselves on all occasions with order and quietness, duly to respect the laws, and by a course of industry and sobriety, by the practice of sound morality and a strict observance of the Ordinances of Religion, to prove themselves worthy to be the Founders of a great and free Colony.
It is also, at this time especially, my duty to apprize the Colonists of my resolution, to take every lawful means for extending the same protection to the Native Population… who are to be considered as much under the Safeguard of the law as the Colonists themselves, and equally entitled to the privileges of British Subjects. I trust therefore, with confidence to the exercise of moderation and forbearance by all Classes, in their intercourse with the Native Inhabitants, and that they will omit no opportunity of assisting me to fulfil His Majesty’s most gracious and benevolent intentions toward them, by promoting their advancement in civilization, and ultimately, under the blessing of Divine Providence, their conversion to the Christian Faith. (Excerpts from South Australia’s Proclamation signed by the Colonial Secretary in 1836 http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au/subjects/the-proclamation).
Adelaide has been described as the most English of the capital cities.83 Its old mansions were said to be “marvellous colonial extravaganzas exuberant with Adelaide Lace: as over-dressed and over-decorated as the ladies of a wealthy family of the 1880s” (Page 1986:115-116). Adelaide has also been described as the “city of churches”. The first time the description was used is unclear but English novelist, Anthony Trollope, referred to it in 1872, and it was used in a letter to the editor of the South Australian Register on 15 March 1867.84 One explanation for this designation could be that from the earliest days of European settlement, churches seemed to dominate Adelaide’s landscape. The city’s oldest buildings are churches, one of which is the Quaker Meeting House; and this inspired local Quaker, John Whitehead, to publish a book called Adelaide, city of churches (1986) which showcased the varied architecture of Adelaide’s churches.
Regardless of the veracity of claims that Adelaide has more churches per capita than other Australian cities, there is no doubt that there is a feeling among its population that Adelaide is different in some way from other parts of Australia. Undoubtedly, one of the major reasons that South Australia was considered a different Australian colony was that convicts were never transported to its shores. Paradoxically, the colony was not opposed to transporting its own. By 1850, over two hundred criminals sentenced by the colony’s courts were transported to neighbouring colonies (Hamilton 2010:10).
The colony’s promoters were keen to develop a particular image in order to attract capital and labour, and to this end, artists were commissioned to illustrate its attractions (Finnimore 1998:6). Surveyor, Colonel William Light, was appointed to plan a well ordered city which was to be surrounded by parklands, arranged not
83 A Scottish visitor to South Australia in 1845 commented on the colonial character of the settlement:
It is the very want of colonial character in South Australia that constitutes this peculiar feature of the province, and
to our taste, English society, manners, language and habits have been successfully transferred; and most heartily ashamed and sorry should we be if the children of our colonists were ever to degenerate into the variety of animal which has occasionally exhibited itself in our streets in all the vulgarity of rings, red hair and tawdry waistcoats, as the young ‘currency’ of the neighbouring colonies (quoted from Gazette and Register 9-viii-1845 in Pike 1957:496).
84 Letter to the Editor, South Australian Register on 15 March 1867. http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/ (accessed 1/3/16).
only for convenience, but also “beauty and salubrity” (Somerling & McDougall 2006:7). In 1840, when the first road in the colony was built (from Adelaide to Port Adelaide) it was estimated that over one third of the population came to its opening, [78] which indicates the level of interest and pride in the new colony displayed by the city’s settler inhabitants.
The biggest buyer of land was the newly formed South Australian Company headed by George Angas. Along with Robert Gouger, Angas was enthused by the land scheme because he stood to make substantial financial gain. However, the new colony was not just a capitalist experiment; there was an expectation that it would provide civic and religious freedom (Kwan 1987:12). In particular, the colony was assumed to appeal to dissenters.[79]
South Australia was, according to Pike (1967:21), the site for a utopian social experiment in colonization driven by an idea of a virtuous capitalist prosperity, but also, with a concern for particular religious and civic freedoms. To this end, the emigration of German settlers[80] was also supported by a director of the South Australian Company. This small group of rural workers had a large impact on the pattern of early colonial settlement in South Australia as they brought with them their own traditions and style of architecture which they adapted for the new environment. They also began much needed market gardens in the new settlement.
These immigrants thrived in the South Australian environment and by the beginning of the twentieth century comprised about ten per cent of its population (Young 1985:43-44). However, most of the colonists who arrived in South Australia were from England, with only 30% (10% each) coming from Germany, Scotland and Ireland. This mix of immigrants is quite different from that of other Australian states. In New South Wales, for example, there was nearly double the number of Irish settlers.
By 1841, the population of South Australia was estimated to be more than fifteen thousand people[81] but prosperity proved elusive for many settlers. There was concern because public expenditure greatly exceeded public revenue. As a result, public expenditure was cut and unemployment rose. As pointed out by Finnimore (1998:13), economic depression hit the nascent colony hard; and accordingly, the assisted migration scheme was suspended. The population of the city of Adelaide dropped substantially during this recession.
Fortuitously, the discovery of copper in the mid-north, as well as gold, silver and minerals in other parts of the new colony, assisted financial recovery. Immigration numbers increased substantially, including some Irish orphans who, as victims of the famine, were given assisted passages to fill the demand for servants (Somerling & McDougall 2006:10). However, the discovery of gold in Victoria in the mid nineteenth century, and subsequent discoveries throughout Australia, adversely affected the new colony. Many South Australian settlers went to Victoria to find their fortune. According to Pike (1967:444), except for women and children, Adelaide was “deserted” during the gold rushes. As a consequence, within a few years Victoria’s population had grown to four times that of South Australia.
However, Protestant dissenters were attracted not only by the promise of prosperity, but also, by the prospect of civic and religious freedom. In 1825, British dissenters still could not legally marry in their own chapels. Quakers were exempted from these requirements, but other dissenters were not. Burials of dissenters still had to be done according to rites of the Church of England Book of Common Prayer; and records of baptisms, burials and marriages kept at a dissenting chapel were inadmissible as evidence in courts of law.
As Pike states (1967:21-27) British dissenters still did not have religious equality. Those who immigrated were, therefore, keen to ensure that the new colony would deliver religious freedom; and accordingly, the colony became the first in the British Empire to reject the institution of a national church, which meant that the Church of England did not enjoy special status within South Australia (Hamilton 2010:8).
Hamilton’s account of early colonial South Australia suggests that the new colony was the most modern of the Australian colonies and one of the earliest modern democracies. His use of the term “modern” here refers to the level of citizen participation in government. In 1840, a polling booth was erected to elect
Adelaide’s first councillors and mayor. This was, Hamilton maintains (2010:1), the first democratic election held in Australia. By 1856, the early colonists had the secret ballot, adult male franchise and religious freedom; and a year later, selfgovernment by an elected parliament. Hamilton points out (2010: viii, 2) that no other significant mid nineteenth century British colony could offer all these things to its citizens.
There was also a suggestion that the new colony exuded an air of moral superiority. This is demonstrated in the following correspondence from a Congregational minister, who tendered a plan for religious instruction on “Congregational principles”, and recommended the new colony as a suitable place for settlement:
Incomparably superior in physical features to the old convict colonies of the great Australasia, South Australia will also, I think, maintain a superiority morally, socially and religiously, being the chosen home of many of the good and free upon this earth…[82]
South Australia did not have an upper level of naval and military officers and most of its leading colonists were used to an urban environment. They were, according to Pike (1967:499-502), “consciously striving to be English provincials”, and to this end, they built large villas and planted European trees. In Pike’s opinion, this meant that South Australia’s leading colonists relied to some extent on the established colonies to supply personnel to assist them in ways to deal with the harsh environment.
In reality, South Australia could not isolate itself from other Australian colonies. Although convicts were never transported directly to South Australia, it is very likely that South Australia was used as a safe haven for escapees from the penal settlements in the eastern states, and some may have risen to hold prominent positions in the new settlement, whilst hiding evidence of their convict past. In addition, emancipated convicts may have travelled to South Australia. Regardless of whether these events occurred to any extent, after transportation was ended,
South Australia’s colonists were no longer able to boast about being the only nonpenal colony. Pike maintains that despite this, the colony still retained its uniqueness with many in the colony seeing their new home as an outlying English province which had its own national song and commemoration day. Its parochialism, according to Pike (1967:495), was “almost exclusive.”
In 1899, a contingent of one hundred and twenty five volunteers was sent to the Boer War. A parade was held in the heart of the city which was witnessed by thousands of citizens. It was a dramatic display of South Australian patriotism to the British Empire (Somerling & Vines 2006:118).
Despite loyalty to Britain, South Australians were at the forefront in preparations for federation and the drafting of Australia’s Constitution. Although the primary draftsman of the 1891 Constitution was Queenslander, Sir Samuel Griffith, he was highly influenced by the drafts provided by fellow members of the drafting committee at the 1891 Convention, including former South Australian AttorneyGeneral, Charles Cameron Kingston (Bannon 2013:15-20).
By1910, South Australia’s population had risen to more than a third of a million people, the vast majority of which (75%) were born in South Australia. Only 5% had been born in the former penal colonies. Pike states (1967:496) that this suggests that differences between South Australia and the other states persisted to some extent until the twentieth century. This sense of difference was due mainly to its policy against transportation of convicts, planned systematic colonization, and its establishment upon liberal ideals of democracy and religious freedom.
As a result of its planned colonization process, the colony of South Australia’s immigrant population had a distinctive religious make up. Hilliard (2005:38-3) believes that for the first one hundred and twenty years after the colony’s foundation, it retained that distinctiveness. He explains that in the census of 1901, over fifty per cent of South Australians described themselves as Protestant (not Anglican), and this can be compared to thirty nine per cent in Victoria and only twenty five per cent in New South Wales. Responders identifying as Methodist in South Australia were higher than the eastern states, but those identifying as Anglican or Roman Catholic were much lower.
According to Bouma (2006:39), Australia’s orientation towards religion was established in the early years of its colonization (between 1788 and 1840) because its convicts and free settlers during that period were religiously inarticulate. By making this statement, he indicates that both convicts and free settlers were not adherents of organized religion prior to arrival in Australia, and remained so, following transportation. Although his research is undoubtedly correct in its findings, there were exceptions.
One notable exception, Thomas Fyshe Palmer, a Unitarian minister and political reformer, was convicted on a charge of seditious practices and sentenced to seven years’ transportation to the colony of New South Wales in 1793. He was allowed a certain degree of freedom in the colony and engaged in several enterprises, but his views on politics and religion continued to raise suspicion with authorities until he left the penal colony at the end of his sentence.[83]
Another exception was the Clark family, who were free settlers in early Hobart.
Andrew Inglis Clark was a barrister and judge, specializing in constitutional law.
He was an influential citizen of Hobart, born in the era of convict transportation to
Tasmania, who later became part of the committee charged with drafting the Australian Constitution. His drafting is said to have reflected his strong Unitarian and republican views. Clark’s parents immigrated to Hobart as free settlers in 1832 and his mother was a founding member of the Tasmanian Baptist Church.[84] The Clark family could not be described as religiously inarticulate.
More particularly, the promoters of the planned settlement of South Australia openly courted dissenters, many of whom would be considered religiously articulate. Among those dissenters were several Unitarian and Quaker families who arrived in the early years of European settlement.
5. Unitarian Settlers
5.1 The Adelaide community
A glass window situated at the back of the nave of the current Unitarian Church commemorates two English Unitarian families who immigrated to the colony of South Australia in 1851 aboard the “Anglia” in order to escape discrimination against dissenters.[85] Just three years later, according to McCallum et al. (1994:1), there were enough interested persons to hold a public meeting in which a resolution was passed to form a congregation and to raise a subscription to pay a salary to a minister for three years.
The first minister of the Adelaide Church was the Reverend Crawford Woods, who was sent out by the British and Foreign Unitarian Association at the request of Adelaide Unitarians. He arrived in 1855 and his services of worship were held in the homes of the members of his congregation. The number of people attending grew too large for this to continue and his first public service was held at an Adelaide auction house with several hundred people present. As pointed out by McCallum et al. (1994:1), buoyed by this level of interest, a decision was made by the congregation to build a church in the heart of the city.
Adelaide’s first Unitarian Church was built in the following year. It was a bluestone church with an octagonal tower, said to be adorned with stucco trim and ornamentation.[86] The style of its architecture followed that which was common in
Britain in the nineteenth century, i.e., the Gothic revival style of architecture during the period 1840 to 1915. This style, according to Hague (1986:11), reflected the practices and notions of the British Unitarian Church at that time.
The Reverend Crawford Woods was minister at the church until 1889. His preaching style, according to Scott (1980:34), appealed to liberal minded, educated and well to do people; as a result, the Unitarian community had a visible presence in Adelaide. The congregation, therefore, included prominent leaders in business, education, and politics. In addition, as pointed out by Scott, by the end of that century, the church had produced seven members of parliament.
The Unitarian Church of South Australia’s most famous congregant though was Catherine Helen Spence, who became a member in 1856. Spence is well- known nationally as the first woman political candidate in Australia, and as an active campaigner for electoral reform and the rights of women and children. According to McCallum et al. (1994:7-8), she was also known among the Adelaide Unitarian community for the quality of her addresses from the pulpit. The current Unitarian Meeting House has a room dedicated to her memory as the Unitarian community is proud of her contribution to Australian society.[87]
Figure 1.1 Catherine Helen Spence
Image of Catherine Helen Spence displayed on Australian five dollar note.[88]
In the nineteenth century, members of the Unitarian community actively worked for reforms which were seen as achieving betterment of the individual and society.
The South Australian Institute, and a Mechanics’ Institute for the educational and moral enlightenment of workers, were established by members. In addition, Caroline Emily Clark and Catherine Helen Spence were instrumental in the establishment of the Boarding Out Society, which organized foster families for neglected children to prevent institutionalization (Prest et al. 2001:500). Also, as stated by Scott (1980:69), one of the Church’s congregants, William Everard, was appointed Minister for Education in the South Australian government in 1876.
The city’s Unitarian Church flourished in the nineteenth century and in 1901 a new organ was purchased, and this, along with the stained glass windows and architecture of the building, symbolized the success of the congregation. [89]
Regardless of this early success, in the early twentieth century, the church’s membership started to decline. This decline was probably because other Protestant denominations were also becoming more liberal in their views, and so there was more choice available for liberal-minded Christians. Nevertheless, the Adelaide church was still well attended up until the period of the Second World War and there appeared to be a number of young attendees. One member of the congregation remembered the Wakefield Street Church when it was decorated for a Sunday school anniversary in the early 1930s:
It was very pleasant but fairly austere, I think. I can remember when it had gas lighting so that there were brass posts along the pews. There were two aisles and it was quite a sight at Sunday school anniversary.
They went completely mad with the flowers which had to be white. The pulpit was decked out in Arum Lilies and there was bridal creeper or asparagus fern entwined up these vast pillars and there were window boxes which were full of flowers….[90]
The Wakefield Street church was used until 1971 when it was sold because of the rising costs of maintenance. The proceeds from the sale were used to purchase land in the suburb of Norwood in order to build a more modern meeting house/church with a garden courtyard and adjoining manse. The organ and five stained glass memorial windows were transferred from the original church to the new church.[91] The Unitarian community’s history has been shaped by the members of the congregation, but most importantly, by its ministers, who have been very influential in the development of the church. The congregational attendance records rise and fall according to how the members respond to the personality of successive ministers, the style and content of their addresses, and the ideas they have about the future direction the church should embrace. Two plaques in the current church are in remembrance of its two longest serving ministers: the Reverend J Crawford Woods and the Reverend George Hale. One congregant explains the fondness felt for prior ministers of the church:
I find it good to be able to look out of the large western window of the church to see on the wall the brass plate to the Reverend George Hale who married my parents so many years ago.99
Together, Woods and Hale gave fifty eight years’ service to the church. Both men were known for the quality of their addresses, providing charming oratory or giving sermons that were considered thoughtful and well-presented. Moreover, the length of their service to the church brought stability to the Unitarian community. In addition, Woods commenced a Mutual Improvement Society at the church. This was an in-reach activity partly for social purposes but also to sharpen the minds of members of the congregation. Hale also introduced a bible class, and an optimists’ group, as well as drama classes and a reading club. Furthermore, his activities as an adult education lecturer and appearances on radio programmes attracted people to the church, and during his time as minister, according to McCallum et al. (1994:12-15), attendances rose substantially.
There have been many special interest groups attached to the church including the
Unitarian Christian group, Women’s Friday Night group, circle meals held in members’ homes and the Social Justice Concerns group. The Adelaide Unitarian Women’s League is a particularly important group because of its longevity and the completeness of its records, which provide insight into some of the activities and concerns of the church, and its membership, during the twentieth century.
The Women’s League was formed in Adelaide in 1912 after the British League of Unitarian and other Liberal Christian Women suggested that the formation of branches around the world would be a good way to link Unitarian churches in different countries. Its original aims were social service and facilitating a closer cooperation and friendship between liberal Christian women in South Australia. Its members, according to Kowalick (2007:1-8) were fiercely Unitarian in their theological views. In 1964, the group withdrew its membership from the Women’s United Church Association, and two years later, from the Women’s World Day of Prayer Committee, refusing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as “God and Saviour.”
The members of the League were staunchly patriotic. During the First World War, they raised funds, made garments and sent food parcels and blankets to Britain and Europe. Kowalick also maintains (2007:1-8) that during the Second World War, as a show of support for Britain and the royal family, each meeting of the Women’s League was begun with the National Anthem and parcels were sent overseas for the war effort.
Kowalick (2007:1-8) also reports on the other activities of the League. In 1920, for example, in an attempt to extend the influence of Liberal Christian Churches, members of the League printed an article called “A Commonsense View of the Bible” in twelve Australian newspapers. A year later, the League became affiliated with the Travellers Aid Society with the aim of keeping in touch with Unitarians travelling to Adelaide from other States and from overseas. This role expanded to greeting non-Unitarian travellers and providing them with advice and assistance. Also, for many years, donations were sent to the Kharang Rural Centre in the Khasi Hills in India—a project initiated by British Unitarian, the Reverend Margaret Barr, and supported by various branches of the Unitarian Women’s League.
From the middle of the twentieth century though, attendance at the League’s meetings decreased as the congregation reduced in size, married women in the congregation returned to the workforce, and due to changing attitudes within the membership itself. During the fieldwork period, the decision was made to disband the group and it has recently been replaced by a seniors group.
5.2 Adelaide Hills Unitarians
In the first few years after the establishment of the colony, two Unitarian families were granted land in the Adelaide hills on two adjoining properties, and together they founded a small Unitarian community. According to Duffield et al. (1989:1720), these settlers were quite isolated. The nearest school was four miles away and this was considered too far for young children to travel and so the families erected a school building on their land, which they called “Shady Grove”. The school building was completed in 1858. When the building was no longer needed as a school, it was opened for worship by the Reverend Crawford Woods; and reportedly, became one of the few places in the colony to have a chimney place and fire for the comfort of worshippers. It provided a perfect venue to hold Sunday services for the two families as it was too far to travel to attend the newly established Unitarian church in Adelaide.
Duffield et al. (1989:29-30) claim that the two families were intent on building an active spiritual community at Shady Grove. The property was referred to as “Tadmor in the Wilderness” by early settlers who saw its potential as an oasis of Unitarian ideas. These ideas, it was hoped, would flourish in that hills community and then spread to other parts of South Australia and beyond. To this end, Francis Duffield published and circulated his sermons in an effort to attract more attendees, but it was difficult as local settlement was too sparse (McCallum et al. 1994:3). Nevertheless, Francis Duffield conducted services for seventeen years, followed by the Reverend F C Smith100 who conducted services for at least another twenty five years.
100 A self-published historical account of the Smith family and its connections to the Shady Grove Unitarian Church includes a photo (taken at the beginning of the twentieth century) of the chapel and its congregation of about twenty people. The book explains that the name “Shady Grove” has become part of the Smith family history because of the involvement of members of the family with the chapel and the links with the other founding families: the Monks and the Duffields (Mundy & Soroka 1986). Members of these founding families are buried in the bushland cemetery near the chapel.
The surviving members of the families continued to form a large part of the Shady Grove congregation over the years, although their numbers decreased as younger family members left the district. The chapel is now classified by the National Trust as a building of historical interest and is cared for by the Adelaide Unitarian Church.
5. 3 Sesquicentenary Celebrations for Shady Grove
In 2008, South Australian Unitarians celebrated the one hundred and fifty year anniversary of the founding of Shady Grove. The celebrations began at a hall in a nearby country town. Descendants and friends of the founding families as well as many members of the Shady Grove and Adelaide congregations were present for the celebrations.
After a generous morning tea, everyone was ushered into the old-fashioned country hall. There was a clock on one wall which had been stopped at 11am and there was a sign across it saying “Lest We Forget”. A chalk written notice on one side of the stage said “Next Dance 18th October” and small chandeliers hung from the ceiling. At the back of the hall was a small alcove where souvenir mugs with Tadmor in the Wilderness printed on them were being sold, and orders for souvenir bottles of wine were being taken. The hall was totally full with about two hundred people present.
A member of the church, who is a direct descendant of one of the founders of Shady Grove Church, was the master of ceremonies. Proceedings started with a reenactment of the first day at school in the nineteenth century Monks School House. The minister then gave a talk to those gathered on the history of Unitarian thought, and explained how Unitarian ideals were applicable universally. The history of Shady Grove from its earliest times as a schoolhouse, and its subsequent use as a chapel, was retold. Members of the Adelaide congregation recollected family trips to Shady Grove Chapel in their youth. It was considered a “day in the bush” and they remembered, among other things, the wild flowers around the church and the sumptuous afternoon teas provided. Others remembered staying overnight in the hostel, hikes in the bush, and ghost stories being told in the cemetery at night.
The South Australian Unitarian community has much fondness for Shady Grove. A descendant of one of the pioneer families said that it was a sacred place. The long drive leading to the grounds, it was said, led to that sacred place and divided it from the secular world. It was an opening to the divine and within the boundary of that sacred space was the cemetery, the hostel and the chapel.[92]
After the reminiscences, a commemorative plaque was unveiled to mark the occasion and then a service was held in the historic chapel, attended by about one hundred people. During the service, a nineteenth century hymn, “Where Ancient
Forests Round Us Spread” added to the sense of occasion. In her address, the minister said that Shady Grove could be considered the sacred trinity for South Australian Unitarians. This was an allusion to the anti-Trinitarian stance of Unitarians. The sacred trinity here was: the chapel, the cemetery, and the hostel.
The Unitarian Church in South Australia has inevitably been shaped historically by its imposing presence in the earliest days of the colony and the utopian views of its adherents which fitted in well with the modernist project of the colony. It has also been shaped by its ministers, the influence of its more well-known congregants, and the family connections within its membership. Another factor in its history has been the congenial relationship which exists between the two congregations.
For several years, a “Unitarian Pilgrimage” was held which consisted of a thirty kilometre walking route from Shady Grove to the Unitarian Meeting House in Adelaide to acknowledge the difficulties the settler families faced in travelling from the hills to the city. This walk has now been abandoned due to risk of injury of participants, and the considerable effort needed to organize such an event; however, it does demonstrate the closeness of the relationship between the two congregations, both historically and currently.
6. Quaker Settlers
Similarly to the Unitarian community, some South Australian Quakers have family connections with the movement which stretches over many generations. Even among those members who have no family history of Quakerism, there is familiarity with the history of Quaker thought as it is encapsulated within Quaker Faith & Practice. However, the first Quaker to set foot on Australian soil was not a South Australian settler. It was Sydney Parkinson, an artist assisting botanist
Joseph Banks, who accompanied James Cook in 1770. His work, and the concern of Elizabeth Fry for women prisoners during their transportation to the colonies,[93] meant that English Quakers were well aware of Australian conditions. In addition, English Quaker missionaries, Backhouse and Walker, visited the Australian colonies between 1832 and 1838 to provide support to Friends who had settled in the colonies and to report to English Quakers on the treatment of Aborigines and convicts (Oats 1985:195).
Quakers arrived in South Australia not long after its foundation. Many were attracted by the prospect of a colony which offered the granting of land and the promise of prosperity, in addition to the potential for more religious freedom. Some even hoped that the new colony might provide the environment for a Quaker stronghold which would develop into a Pennsylvania of the South. According to Oats (1985:214), most were already committed Quakers who immigrated to the new colony with the blessing of their English Meetings.
6.1 Adelaide and Hills Community
The first Quaker meeting for worship in South Australia was held in 1837 at the home of the Hack family[94] who were the first Quaker settlers in Adelaide (Prest et al. 2001:454). The family also owned a large farming estate in the Adelaide hills which was considered by some to be the showplace of the colony. Hack proudly wrote to his relatives in England about his estate:
…the showplace of the colony [with fruit trees and vines] of which there are 1200 planted…and 5000 ready to plant out this winter…As no one else has done gardening we shall command the market for two years to come and in consequence I shall recover my outlay…which has been very large.
Letter from John Hack to his mother Maria Hack at Southampton, 30 April 1842, SSL: M, PRG 456, 1/12 reproduced in Finnimore (1998:11).
Hack was soon appointed chairman of the Chamber of Commerce. Prior to emigrating from England, he had been the owner of leather works and his family was involved in mercantile and banking interests. According to Finnimore
(1998:12), Hack was typical of many of the colony’s early settlers who aspired to becoming “landed gentry.” Importantly, Hack was one of the leaders of the new Quaker community and played a role in persuading other English Quakers to emigrate, and even provided assistance on their settlement.
As Oats states (1985:195), although a few Quaker settlers had farming backgrounds, there was also substantial reliance on the influential Hack family. Some settlers, such as the large May family,[95][96] had no prior experience of rural life as this description indicates:
(They were a) Quaker family of the olden time, and had brought with them from the old country the language, manners and principles and to some extent the dress of the early Friends, and here they began their colonial life, farming, gardening and dairying, all putting their shoulders to the wheel, even the little girls helping. And what a life it was. The work was all new to them, for they were town, not country people.[97]
FIGURE 1.2 MAY FAMILY PANEL FOR THE QUAKER TAPESTRY PROJECT
English Quakers offered assistance to the newly arrived Quakers, and to this end, shipped a prefabricated building to provide a meeting house for the new colony. According to Prest et al. (2001:237), the building materials arrived in 69 packages aboard a sailing ship from England.
The building was originally intended to be erected in the Adelaide hills where several Quaker families had settled; however, the transportation difficulties proved to be insurmountable. In Stevenson’s opinion (1987:3-5), this caused anxiety among the settlers and temporarily affected relations with their English supporters. Eventually, it was decided to erect the building on urban land owned by Hack which had earlier been set aside as a Quaker burial ground. However, as Stevenson observes (1987:10), the Adelaide hills area remained an important centre for early Quaker settlers and another meeting house was built a few years later in Mt Barker[98] with further financial assistance from English Quakers.
Unfortunately, in 1841, the young colony suffered a serious financial crisis that caused severe cash shortages and property values to crash. The Quaker community was hit hard in this crisis because Hack was forced to sell his properties in an effort to pay creditors.[99] When he was made bankrupt in 1845, the South Australian Quaker community was devastated and several members were ruined because of their financial entanglement with Hack. Some returned to England, but as Prest et al. (2001:454) state, most stayed and tried to repair the damage done to their reputations. Quakers historically have guarded their reputation for honesty and fair business dealings, so this crisis severely tested the cohesion and survival of the small community.
There were other difficulties in addition to the financial crisis, including apparent breaches of Quaker procedure and discipline. Members of Hobart Quaker Meeting were sent to report on what was happening in South Australia following concerns that some Quakers in more isolated areas were attending other churches because they were too far away from any established meetings for worship. These members subsequently suffered admonishment for neglecting their responsibilities to the South Australian Quaker community (Oats 1985:21-29, Stevenson 1987:14, 21). In addition, younger members were often unable to find suitable marriage partners within the small Quaker population. As Oats (1985:222-223) states, this meant that some young members “married out”; and consequently, were disowned by the Meeting.108 Concerns about all these matters, as well as falling numbers, led to the focus of the Quaker community eventually moving from the hills to Adelaide itself.
By the end of the nineteenth century, an evangelical turn in religious activities started to attract more young families to Protestant churches. This also affected the Quaker community to a limited extent, and numbers rose sufficiently for a Sunday School to be established. As Stevenson (1987: 14, 17) points out, the group’s focus was now located in the city and this enabled its members to reach out more to the wider community. As a result, Quakers also became involved with local mission work activities, temperance and other social concerns.
Although the focus was located in Adelaide, some Quakers still lived in the hills. One member, who was interested in preserving native flora and fauna, built up a large collection of plants on his land and then sub-divided adjoining land, which he advertised as “Eden in the Hills.” The Adelaide suburb of Eden Hills, as it was later called, was thus Quaker founded. A meeting house was erected nearby which was attended by local Quakers until it was irreparably damaged in an earthquake in 1953. It was set in grounds covered by native plants, and according to South
Australian Quaker historian, Charles Stevenson, had been envisaged as a “place of vision of a great people to be gathered” (1987:43-44).109
108 This was still common practice at that time.
109 One member remembered attending this meeting house in her childhood:
My first memory of coming to Meeting was at the Meeting House at Eden Hills… my elder sister and I used to count the ants that were walking across the floor. It was a lovely meeting house because the windows opened wide and
butterflies flew in through the window and you looked out over the top of gum trees and you could see right down to the sea…. (Interview notes November 2009).
Although this prediction of a Quaker utopia did not eventuate, by the beginning of the twentieth century, South Australian Quakers were feeling much more settled. The isolation they had felt earlier began to lessen and the bonds between members in different parts of Australia were strengthening. According to Stevenson (1987:19), two visiting Quakers from Britain were instrumental in forming Young
Friends’ Camps which strengthened networks between young members and reinvigorated Australian Quakerism. A prominent South Australian Quaker at that time stated:
Now we Friends have the opportunity of our life time. It is given to us, now to determine what the future of Quakerism in Australia will be (Stevenson 1987:27).
In Stevenson’s view (1987:27), the future of Australian Quakerism was closely involved with its continuing commitment to peace and anti-violence. In the twentieth century, Australian Quakers were very active in social movements advocating non-violence, peace, anti-war, anti-conscription, the abolition of capital punishment and draft resistance. In the 1970s, Lynn Arnold, a committed young South Australian Quaker, led the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign. This was a highly controversial campaign involving three demonstrations; one of which led to dramatic scenes as demonstrators and police clashed in the heart of the city of Adelaide (McDougall & Vines 2006:113).[100]
The Vietnam war years were important for South Australian Quakers. The stance taken by Quakers attracted many young people so there was an increased attendance at meetings for worship which caused difficulties for the small community. The problems associated with this, as well as other disagreements among members, led to a decision to start a second Quaker worshipping group, which became known as Eastern Suburbs Local Meeting. Stevenson claims
(1987:76) that this was a controversial decision at the time, and a major
development for South Australian Quakers. Until recently, there was still some disquiet over this decision.
6.2 Eastern Suburbs Meeting 40th year celebration and reminiscences
When the Eastern Suburbs Meeting had its 40th year celebration in 2008, about fifty people attended and five of the thirteen original attendees were present for the celebration. A meeting for worship was held and this was followed by shared lunch and talks by past and present members of the meeting, with much reminiscing about the previous forty years. This celebration was quite different from the Unitarian Shady Grove Sesquicentenary celebration, which was an event for the whole Unitarian community in South Australia, and for the descendants of the pioneer Unitarian families who arrived in the early years of the colony. It was an opportunity also to showcase the Unitarian heritage and its ideals. The Quaker celebration, on the other hand, was held for the people who attended this meeting for worship, both in the past and currently, and did not encompass a wider audience.
Perhaps with their interest in history sparked by this event, individual Quakers on other occasions recalled the community’s history and achievements. At one social gathering, a member gave a talk about the previous fifty years of South Australian Quaker history from his own recollections. He titled his talk: “The more things change the more it is the same.” He said that the past fifty years had contained many ordinary events and challenges but there were constraints because there were insufficient members with the time and energy to devote to the group. This led him to note that Quakerism is not an easy option. Some of the events that had, in his opinion, shaped the South Australian Quaker community over that fifty year period, included the opening of the Quaker shop and the establishment of regional worshipping groups.
At another social gathering, one member retold how in the post Second World War period, her family had welcomed Japanese sailors arriving into South Australian ports. These sailors were scorned by most Australians but they received a warm welcome by this family who boarded the ships, with the approval of the Japanese captains, in order to offer the crew friendship and hospitality. [101]
Quakers often hold opinions which are at variance with those commonly held in Australian society, particularly on matters related to the military, and would have been highly concerned when a government poster was circulated encouraging South Australians to enlist.
FIGURE 1.3 WW1 GOVERNMENT POSTER[102]
7. Responses to World War One, Military Training and Conscription
The response of Australian Quakers to the nation’s involvement in the First World War and related military matters made them highly visible. Their stance can be demonstrated by the pivotal role they played in the campaign against the introduction of compulsory military training for boys aged between 14 and 17. This provision was made under the 1909 Defence Act which was due to come into effect in 1911.
Quaker opposition to this legislation was driven by their belief that their actions were for the betterment of society. According to Stevenson (1987:28-35), the AntiMilitary Service League (which became the Australian Freedom League) was formed during a public meeting held in the North Adelaide Quaker Meeting House and during the ensuing campaign, local Quakers distributed leaflets, made placards and addressed rallies in South Australian country towns.
The League opened branches in other states but was always most active in South Australia and Victoria. It is claimed that more than a million pamphlets were distributed by members of the League throughout Australia in their campaign against compulsory military training. 113 Quakers were publicly vocal in their opposition to war, military training and conscription, and were widely condemned in the media for their stance.114 Stevenson notes (1991:165) that in 1915, one Adelaide Friend, John Hills, was nearly thrown into the river by a hostile crowd when he was making a speech against the war. At that time, anti-war views were banned by military censorship as it was thought that they might prejudice recruiting.
Although Quakers received condemnation for their opposition to war and conscription, in the 1920s, the Quaker War Victims’ Relief Committee received favourable coverage in the Adelaide press and this encouraged support from a group of influential Adelaide citizens who formed a public appeal organisation in support of this relief. Much work was done in sending food and provisions to
113 An extract of minutes taken at an Adelaide Quaker Business Meeting in 1914 demonstrates that community’s commitment to conscientious objection:
At this time we have considered the case of Herbert Ambrose Ingle, son of William Ingle and a member of this meeting, and our hearts go out in sympathy to both boy and parents. We deeply deplore the fact that through fear of continued persecution of their sons for conscience sake, under the Defence Act, the family have been driven out of this country and return to England. We give thanks to our heavenly Father that both father and son were enabled to stand firm to their conscientious convictions against all war, the father suffering 14 days hard labour in the Adelaide gaol and the son 15 days at Fort Largs Detention Camp, during which time he obeyed no order under the military and did no drill although he was given practically solitary confinement in a cell with a bread diet for two days.
(Extracted from Minute 12 of Two Months Meeting of Friends in Adelaide, Second Month 1914 and reproduced in Walking Cheerfully May 2013 Editor Charles Stevenson)
114 An editorial in The Advertiser told its readers:
Those peace-at-any-price people have been greater enemies to the real welfare of the Empire than all the host of German spies in England... Quakers whose voice is ‘heard shrieking still against conscription’ by the tactless advocacy of their views frequently cause just the embittered feeling and the bellicose actions which they deprecate (Quoted in Stevenson 1991:166-167).
Europe, Russia and Armenia. Stevenson maintains (1991:167) that as a result of this effort, South Australian Quakers became more respectable in the eyes of Adelaide citizens and the media.
The Unitarian response to World War One and military commitment was quite different from the Quaker reaction. The congregation and its minister would have been strongly influenced by the attitudes of British Unitarians at that time. Ruston notes (1998:269-277), for example, that many British Unitarian ministers were initially quite ardent in their support of the war, using it as an opportunity to preach righteousness, and the sweeping away of a wayward society. These ministers believed that a new moral order would emerge after the defeat of Germany.
British Unitarianism, according to Ruston (1998:277), had never been so committed to government policy, particularly policy which did not accord with its traditional principles. Reverend Joseph Wood, retired Unitarian minister of the
Old Meeting House, Birmingham, called it a holy war that involved “freedom and justice and righteous dealing between nations.” Notwithstanding this, Ruston notes that many Unitarians had their faith tested because of their belief in universal human goodness and their insistence on individual, civic and religious freedom. Increasingly, the duties required of the state did not sit well with some ministers, and the members of their congregations. As a result, Ruston reports that the Unitarian Peace Fellowship was founded in Britain in 1916 to witness for peace and against the futility of war.
The Rev. Wilfred Harris was the minister of the South Australian Unitarian congregation during the First World War and it would appear that members of his congregation were generally supportive of the war effort. 115 The Unitarian
Women’s League certainly was staunchly patriotic towards Britain, but this view may not have been representative of all the members of the Adelaide Unitarian Church, some of whom may have had quite different views.
115 On the 14th July 1917, the Adelaide press noted that the diamond jubilee of the Unitarian Christian Church was celebrated with a special service (Article in The Mail 17/7/17, p.13 www.trove.nla.gov.au/ Accessed 12/3/16.
The 63rd annual meeting of members of the church was reported in an article in The Register of 8 November 1918 (p.5). It
noted that the church would erect a roll of honour containing more than forty names, six of whom paid “the supreme sacrifice” and six of whom have been welcomed back after faithful service (www.trove.nla.gov.au/ Accessed 12/3/16.
War has always been a contentious subject for South Australian Unitarians. During the Second World War, the minister of the Adelaide Unitarian Church was the Reverend George Hale, who was noted for his pacifism, and this was considered highly controversial. Members of the church have estimated that nearly half the congregation left the church in response to his stance.[103] Also, during the Vietnam War, the views of the minister at that time caused similar consternation among members of the congregation, which again highlights the differences between South Australian Quakers and Unitarians on matters of public policy.
8. CONCLUSION
The history of Quakers and Unitarians spans several centuries in Britain, Europe and North America, but in the early nineteenth century, a few Quakers and Unitarians joined other emigrants from Britain and Germany who were prepared to endure the arduous sea voyage to South Australia in search of a better life.
The new colony of South Australia was undoubtedly a planned, modernist colonial project which courted non-conformists and dissenters, and this was a factor in South Australia retaining a distinctive religious character over a long period of time. Quaker and Unitarian settlers had utopian social visions which accorded with the new colony’s modernist agenda of proposed free settlement, promises of prosperity and land grants, and the prospect of religious freedom and democratic reforms.
The settlers had differing experiences in the early days of the new colony. The Unitarian community thrived from the outset, and had people of influence within their membership; however, Quakers had internal difficulties to overcome in the first fifty years of colonial settlement. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the surviving Quaker community was more emboldened and this was evident in its response to the Australian government’s emphasis on military considerations prior to, and during, the First World War. Undoubtedly, the two communities’ dissimilar responses to those circumstances demonstrated their different imaginings of how a better society might be brought about.
I have demonstrated that a grasp of the utopian nature of the colonial settlement of South Australia is important for understanding why Quakers and Unitarians settled there in the nineteenth century and, in doing so, have provided the historical context for the study of contemporary South Australian Quakers and Unitarians. The next chapter considers how these two communities fit within the current Australian religious and spiritual milieu.
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH SETTING AND DESIGN
Understanding the nature and operation of Australian religion and spirituality is important to an understanding of Australian society.
G Bouma (2006:xv).
1. Introduction
Calhoun and Modood (2015) argue that religion has taken on a renewed role in global public debate. In making their case, they cite the political influence of the religious right in the USA and Pope Francis’s criticism of world leaders for their failure to address problems associated with climate change. Similar debates are also evident in the Australian context. Bouma (2006:161), for example, suggests that in Australia there is religiously structured social interaction and involvement with political reform in order to shape society according to religious principles.[104] Religious ideas, such as proper stewardship of the Earth, are now considered in a much wider socio-political context and religious language is often used in political rhetoric. An article by Sherlock (2013) for instance, notes that the Australian Prime Minister called upon the Labor Party to “repent of its introduction of the carbon tax.” Additionally, according to Bouma (2006:145), there has been a renewed interest in religion and spirituality since the mid-1980s, led by a rise in the number of new spiritualities, global religious revitalization movements and fundamentalisms, including the Protestant “religious right” and Pentecostal Christian churches.
The aforesaid factors contribute to the view that an awareness of the characteristics of religion and spirituality is important to an understanding of contemporary Australian society. Gary Bouma[105] would concur with this perspective because he has extensively studied aspects of Australian religious and spiritual life in its increasing diversity and in its movement away from organised religion.
In order to examine the nature and operation of Australian religion and spirituality and to determine how Quakers and Unitarians fit into this understanding, this chapter is divided into four sections. The first section considers the character of Australian religion and spirituality, drawing upon Bouma’s insights. The second section examines the types of religious organisation found in Australia, drawing on Bouma’s understandings of religious authority and organisation.
These observations are then compared with how Quakers and Unitarians formally organise their structures. In the third section, Quaker and Unitarian memberships are profiled, and in order to give further insight into the membership of the congregations, vignettes describe some of the reasons people were drawn to join, and become involved with, these religious organisations. Finally, the thoughts of Luhrmann, Csordas, Engelke and Collins will be outlined to add anthropological insights into the research design in order to further understand these two South Australian communities and their practices.
2. The character of Australian Religion and Spirituality
Durkheim defined religion as foundationally social:
a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden—beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them (1912:62).
This definition of religion can be compared with that of William James, whose influences came more from the disciplines of physiology, psychology and philosophy, and is inherently individual:
the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine (1960:50).
The Australian Bureau of Statistics, on the other hand, defines religion according to the 1983 ruling of the High Court, which states:
For the purposes of the law, the criteria of religion are twofold: first, belief in a Supernatural Being, Thing or Principle; and second, the acceptance of canons of conduct in order to give effect to that belief…119
119 Quoted in Bouma, 2017b, ‘’No religion’ and Jedi Knight find their place in Australian identity’, The Conversation
23/8/17, pp.1-4. http://theconversation.com/no-religion-and-jedi-knight-find-their-place-in -australian-identity-8. Accessed 30/9/17,
In Bouma’s view (2006:12), religion refers to organised or structured ways of being spiritual. The term “spiritual”, on the other hand, refers to personal experiences of perceived encounters or relationships with forces or beings beyond the scope of everyday life. It can be seen that Bouma broadly follows Durkheim’s definition whereas his usage of the term “spirituality” stems from William James’s more psychological and philosophic view of religion. These terms are often used interchangeably within Australian society but there does seem to be consensus that religion is more organised; whereas spiritual practices may be more free-form and can be undertaken either alone or as part of a group. What is particularly relevant is that Bouma (2006:2) believes that Australians have a distinct approach to religion and spirituality.
Bouma contends that Australians are circumspect in accepting a faith which is too certain of its own tenets and are often happier with the questions raised than with answers provided. Australian spirituality is also, according to Bouma (2006:2), grounded in its physical surroundings and held tenderly as a “shy hope in the heart.” [106] There is discomfort, he believes, at intense religious fervour, but nevertheless he maintains that religious and spiritual life in Australia is thriving. The Australian approach to religion as outlined by Bouma can be seen as quite different from that favoured by the following American sportsman:
Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has polarised American audiences with his on-field displays of religious fervour. Think singing psalms on the field, thanking God in press conferences...Tebow’s penchant for the on-field stop-and-pray has even spawned peculiar phenomenon known as Tebowing: a kind of planking, for Christians with cameras (L Rosewarne 21/11/2011).[107]
In her article (21/11/11), Rosewarne confesses that she found Tebow’s affirmation of faith confronting and disconcerting. Most Australians would share her discomfort at such an open display of religiosity and her response appears to confirm the validity of Bouma’s characterisation of Australian religious and spiritual life as being more tentative.
Bouma (2017a:2) notes that there are many ways of being religious or spiritual. Firstly, there are adherents who are associated formally with religious organisations and this affiliation not only informs their way of life; but also, how they seek to reshape the lives of others. Secondly, there are diverse ways of belonging to a particular religious group, with varying degrees of commitment to tenets. Thirdly, there are those who are not affiliated with any organised group but consider themselves to be spiritual, and may be actively involved in enhancing their own and others’ wellbeing. As Bouma points out, although these people may not be affiliated with organised religious groups, they are still organised and networked.
Australian society has a set of norms that determines religious practice and belief, relationships between religious groups and how they deal with religious diversity.
These norms, in Bouma’s view (1999:10), set the context within which any
Australian religious institution operates. He points out, for example, that the United States has higher norms of church attendance so rates of attendance there would be expected to be higher than in Australia. Nonetheless, he notes that a surprisingly high number[108] of Australians attend Christian forms of worship each year. Although this figure could be considered somewhat misleading as much involvement could be minimal.
Bouma’s research has led him to conclude that Australia is a particular postmodern, secular and multicultural society which also has a rich Aboriginal heritage. In addition, he notes (2006:3) the considerable religious influences from Britain, Europe, North America and Asia. All of these factors, he believes, provide a unique context for the study of religious practice and spirituality. The international influences he mentions, which followed from the ending of the White Australia
Policy, are also indicated in the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ data on religious affiliation with substantial increases in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, as well as in the categories of “Other Religions” and “Other Christian.” [109]
Bouma observes (2006:211) that in Australia there has been a shift from depending on rational meaning in religion to a religious life characterized by occasional church attendance and less commitment, and adherence to experiential spiritual practices where elements are drawn from many different spiritual sources.
Focusing on a comparison between Australia’s multi-cultural society and that of Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, Bouma argues (1999:7) that the emergence of multiculturalism in the late twentieth century has seen a rise in institutions of religious diversity.[110] He maintains (2007:1-2) that this has meant that the nature of religion in Australia has changed considerably in the past fifty years due to the increasing number of people who are affiliated with non-Christian religions.
One of the predominant movements of the twentieth century which has shaped the norms and expectations of Western modernity’s institutions of religious diversity is ecumenism. This movement emerged in the late nineteenth century as a way to manage religious diversity in respect of Christian doctrine and practice. After World War I, an international fellowship of churches was suggested. Following on from this suggestion, after World War II, the World Council of Churches was formed. Member Churches of this organisation included the Quakers but not the Unitarians.[111] The Australian committee for the World Council was previously known as the Australian Council of Churches and, in 1994, it was renamed the National Council of Churches in Australia. Currently, there are twenty one churches which are members of the Council.[112]
Bouma (1999:16) points out that this interdenominational movement has been influential within Australia since its inception. Its promotion of Christian unity and co-operation has attempted to re-shape the institution of religious diversity in Australia by minimising differences. Initially these differences were between liberal Protestant denominations, but later this was extended to the unity of all Christian groups. According to Bouma (1999:86), despite the attempt to minimize differences between member churches in the ecumenical movement, nationally there is a high level of religious identification. The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the following figures which show a comparative view of Australian religious affiliation before, and after, the beginning of the third millennium.
TABLE 2.1 AUSTRALIAN
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1996
|
|
|
|
2001
|
|
|
2016
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
000's
|
|
%
|
|
000's
|
|
%
|
|
000's
|
%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Christian
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anglican
|
|
|
|
3903.3
|
|
22.0
|
|
3881.2
|
|
20.7
|
|
3101.2
|
|
13.3
|
|
Catholic
|
|
|
|
4799.0
|
|
27.0
|
|
5001.6
|
|
26.6
|
|
5291.8
|
|
22.6
|
|
Baptist
|
|
|
|
295.2
|
|
1.7
|
|
309.2
|
|
1.6
|
|
345.1
|
|
1.5
|
|
Churches of Christ
|
|
|
|
75.0
|
|
0.4
|
|
61.3
|
|
0.3
|
|
39.6
|
|
0.1
|
|
Jehovah's Witness
|
|
|
|
83.4
|
|
0.5
|
|
81.1
|
|
0.4
|
|
82.5
|
|
0.4
|
|
Lutheran
|
|
|
|
250.0
|
|
1.4
|
|
250.4
|
|
1.3
|
|
174.0
|
|
0.7
|
|
Orthodox
|
|
|
|
497.0
|
|
2.8
|
|
529.4
|
|
2.8
|
|
553.8
|
|
2.4
|
|
Pentecostal & Apostolic
|
|
|
|
174.7
|
|
1.0
|
|
194.6
|
|
1.00
|
|
872.9
|
|
3.7
|
|
Presbyterian
|
|
|
|
675.5
|
|
3.8
|
|
637.5
|
|
3.4
|
|
526.7
|
|
2.2
|
|
Salvation Army
|
|
|
|
74.1
|
|
0.4
|
|
71.4
|
|
0.4
|
|
48.9
|
|
0.2
|
|
Uniting Church
|
|
|
|
1334.9
|
|
7.5
|
|
1248.7
|
|
6.7
|
|
870.1
|
|
3.7
|
|
Other Christian
|
|
|
|
420.6
|
|
2.4
|
|
497.9
|
|
2.7
|
|
295.0
|
1.3
|
|
Buddhism
|
|
|
|
199.8
|
|
1.1
|
|
357.8
|
|
1.9
|
|
563.7
|
2.4
|
|
Hinduism
|
|
|
|
67.3
|
|
0.4
|
|
95.5
|
|
0.5
|
|
440.3
|
1.9
|
|
Islam
|
|
|
|
200.9
|
|
1.1
|
|
281.6
|
|
1.5
|
|
604.2
|
2.6
|
|
Judaism
|
|
|
|
79.8
|
|
0.4
|
|
84.0
|
|
0.4
|
|
91.0
|
0.4
|
|
Other Religions
|
|
|
|
68.6
|
|
0.4
|
|
92.4
|
|
0.5
|
|
221.6
|
0.9
|
|
No Religion
|
|
|
|
2948.9
|
|
16.6
|
|
2906.0
|
|
15.5
|
|
7040.7
|
30.1
|
|
Not Stated
|
|
|
|
1604.8
|
|
9.1
|
|
2187.7
|
|
11.8
|
|
2238.8
|
9.6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
17752.8
|
|
100.00
|
|
18769.2
|
100.00
|
23401.9 100.00
|
|
Source:
ABS 1996, 2001 and 2016 Censuses of Population and Housing. ABS Website http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs. (Accessed 25/11/15 and 8/6/18).
Also, analysis from Bouma and
Halafoff (2017:131)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The data indicate that an increasing percentage of the census population either did not wish to reveal, or did not have, any religious affiliation. Of those who did reveal their affiliation, 39.6% indicated identification with the Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Church in the 2016 figures. This identification has dropped from 54% in the 2001 figures. The statistics reveal that there is a strong trend away from affiliation with some established Protestant churches, but an increase in pentecostal, charismatic and emerging churches. These churches have been combined into one category, as suggested by Bouma & Halafoff (2017:132). Additionally, the data seem to suggest that although there is a trend away from mainstream churches, the majority of Australians who do affiliate with a religious group, still identify as being Christian.
Although pentecostal churches and charismatic streams within mainstream churches have increased their congregations substantially since the mid twentieth century, a surprisingly small percentage of the Australian population appears to identify with them. An Australian Broadcasting Commission news report on the rise of pentecostalism makes the point though, that despite the small numbers of pentecostalists and charismatics compared with the adherents of mainstream Christian churches; the level and frequency of attendance at these churches is much greater than with the mainstream churches.[113]
This observation indicates, among other things, that identification with a religious tradition is not the same thing as participation or commitment. This is a point also made by Gary Bouma (1992:86) when he suggests that religious identification refers to the answer to the question, “What is your religion?” It does not, he believes, indicate belief or participation or commitment. It is the religion with which the person chooses to identify and there could be differing explanations for that identification.
Statistical data may also be misleading because they represent how respondents identify themselves vis-à-vis the Australian state. This may result in a more respectable identification rather than a potentially more dynamic one which may be fluid and more responsive to changing personal circumstances. Also, the data do not reflect the situation of affiliation to more than one religious group. Religious identification is a variable in its own right rather than being used to show adherence to belief or practice, which is a point also made by Bouma (1992:86).
3. Types of Religious Organisation
Bouma (1992:68) names the three commonly used types of Christian religious organisation as episcopal, presbyterian and congregational, and states that these organisational types fit with Weber’s three types of authority: traditional, rational and charismatic. Bouma notes that religious groups can use all types of authority, but he stresses that each type of organization relies on one type of authority more than the others.
Episcopal-type churches include the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church and the Anglican Church. This type of organisation is deemed traditional and vests ultimate authority in bishops. With presbyteriantype organisation, on the other hand, the ultimate authority is rational-legal and there is a regional body consisting of members of the clergy and delegates from their congregations. Decisions are made by majority vote. Bouma states (1992:7880) that under this second type of authority, the regional body owns property, chooses the clergy and determines correct interpretation of theology. There is also particular emphasis on the sermon, including its content and delivery. Clergy are respected for their ability to argue church doctrine; therefore, heresy is a breach of faith. Recourse tends to be made to the scriptures and the interpretation of creed and church members are expected to concur with generally accepted beliefs.
The third type of authority, according to Bouma, is charismatic. Charismatic leaders, in his view, can earn respect for evoking both emotions and trust among members. This kind of response is enhanced in worship through the use of music, sound systems, lighting and presentation. The stage, vocalists and musical instruments are all considered important. In Bouma’s opinion, this type of authority fits with the congregational organisational form, in which the congregation is the basic governing unit and centre of decision-making, retaining the right to determine its own worshipping framework, the terms of employment of its pastor, and control over its own property. Bouma maintains (1992:78) that under this structure, any association between the local congregation and regional or national bodies is not necessarily binding which means that the congregation retains a degree of autonomy.
3.1 Australian Quakers
How the Religious Society of Friends in Australia formally organises its structure is now set out, and compared with, Bouma’s assertions regarding religious authority and organisation. Australian Quakers estimate that there are about 338,000 Quakers world-wide although some sources put the figure at closer to 500,000. [114] In Australia, there are approximately one thousand Quakers in membership and the same number of regular attenders who are not in membership (Farrall 2000:549).
Most Quakers around the world attend programmed or semi-programmed worship led by a pastor; however, meetings for worship in Australia are not programmed or led by a pastor and are based on silence. These two different worshipping styles, programmed and un-programmed, are partly reconciled through international Quaker organisations which stress Friends’ common heritage and bring different traditions and experiences together.
Quakers have always placed emphasis on the importance of education. Australian Quakers, for example, have a Retreat and Conference Centre known as “Silver
Wattle Quaker Centre” and a Friends’ School. Silver Wattle is situated near Canberra and provides spiritual guidance through workshops, silent retreats and short courses promoting peace, social justice, and care for the environment. Its vision is to build an intentional and transformational community, engaged with environmental and cultural renewal, inter-faith and inter-cultural understanding, and communal sharing and support.[115]
The Friends’ School in Hobart is the only Quaker school in Australia and the largest in the world. It has students from Kindergarten to Year 12. Its students are not necessarily from Quaker families. It was originally founded in 1887 by British and Australian Friends with the intention of providing education for spiritual and intellectual growth. The school’s motto is “No-one is born for self alone” and it encourages a commitment to service among its students. The Board of Governors of the School includes members from Tasmania Regional Meeting and the Presiding Clerk of Australia Yearly Meeting is an ex Officio Member.130 The school is run independently from, but closely connected to, the Society of Friends.
3.1.1 Australian Quaker Organisational Structure
Each country has its own autonomous internal organisational structure and membership, which is called a Yearly Meeting. Australian Friends did not have their own independent Yearly Meeting until 1964. Prior to this, there was a General Meeting for Australia which formed part of London Yearly Meeting.
Australian Quakers have a well-organised national structure. “Yearly Meeting” is the term which describes that structure but, at the same time, it is also the name used for the annual gathering of Australian Quakers. Every Quaker in Australia is a member of the Australia Yearly Meeting structure and also a member of a regional meeting, depending on which State or Territory the member lives. Each regional meeting is financially separate but contributes funds to Australia Yearly Meeting based on its membership.
There are Quaker meetings for worship held in every Australian state and territory. Some of these meetings are very small and held in members’ homes and many are held only once or twice a month.131
130 The Friends School Website http://www.friends.tas.edu.au/school/quakerism/ Accessed 15/12/15.
George Fox reportedly set up the first Quaker school in 1668. The oldest continuously operating Quaker school is the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia which was founded in 1689. There are Quaker schools throughout the world, mostly located in the United States, the Americas, Africa and in the Middle East. Quakers in the World Website http://www.quakersintheworldorg/. Accessed 15/12/15.
131 See Table 2.2 on Page 98.
TABLE 2.2
Numbers of Quaker Worship Groups within Regional Meetings in 2009
|
Regional
Meeting
|
Worshipping Groups
|
Recognised Meetings
|
Local Meetings
|
|
Canberra
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
|
New South Wales
|
3
|
3
|
4
|
|
Queensland
|
2
|
4
|
1
|
|
South Australia
|
3
|
3
|
2
|
|
Tasmania
|
6
|
0
|
1
|
|
Victoria
|
5
|
2
|
3
|
|
West Australia
|
3
|
4
|
0
|
|
TOTAL
|
26
|
17
|
12
|
Source:
Extracted from the
Handbook of Practice and Procedure (2011:2.1.0),
Quakers Australia Website http://h-pandp.quakers.org.au/#2.1.0.
Accessed 12/12/15).
Yearly Meeting provides a number of services to Australian Quakers, such as Quaker Learning Australia, which is a committee set up under the auspices of Yearly Meeting which provides information and study courses on Quaker spiritual practice. In conjunction with Quaker Learning Australia, Meeting for Learning provides twelve Australian Quaker participants each year with guidance and support for a year of living intentionally “in the spirit”.
Yearly Meeting has a presiding Clerk and the currently serving Clerk is a member of South Australian Regional Meeting. Each regional meeting has many functions. It supports the various worship meetings within its area and represents its region at the annual gathering of Australian Quakers, and at Standing Committee. This committee is convened between annual gatherings in order to follow up decisions made at the annual gathering, as well as dealing with many administrative matters. Representatives from each regional meeting attend this committee meeting and then report back to their own regional meeting. Various regional meetings also are responsible for hosting Meeting for Learning. South Australia & Northern Territory Regional Meeting was the host during part of the fieldwork period.
Each Quaker also is a member of a worship meeting. There are three types of worship meetings: worshipping groups, recognized meetings and local meetings. Worshipping groups consist of a few people who meet together informally in their homes—possibly only meeting occasionally—whereas recognized meetings hold meetings for worship regularly. Recognized meetings are larger worshipping groups, in which at least one participant is familiar with Quaker procedure and worship practice. Both these types of worship meetings maintain contact with their local meeting and regional meeting. Local meetings differ from worshipping groups and recognized meetings because they are larger and have their own officeholders and committees; and as a result, they are able to offer a range of activities to their members. Members are usually deeply committed to their local meeting which generally offers them weekly meetings for worship, regular business meetings, and arranges any weddings or funerals as required for members.
At the time of commencement of fieldwork, there were seven Quaker meetings for worship which were under the wing of South Australia and Northern Territory Regional Meeting. [116] There are two major meetings held in metropolitan Adelaide: Adelaide Local Meeting and Eastern Suburbs Local Meeting. The Hills Recognised Meeting meets in private homes, and the Fleurieu worshipping group meets in Council Chambers on the Fleurieu Peninsula.
The two local meetings are responsible for providing pastoral care and social gatherings for their members, encouraging their members to attend regional meeting, providing encouragement and assistance to worshipping groups and recognized meetings, and producing the local meeting’s annual activities report for the purposes of Yearly Meeting. If a member feels strongly about a social justice or other matter, it can be brought to the local meeting. If it is considered a religiously valid concern, it is carried forward to be considered at regional meeting and possibly forwarded to Yearly Meeting.
Also under the wing of South Australian Regional Meeting, and unique to South Australia, is the Quaker shop which sells donated clothing, books and bric-a-brac to members of the public and is run by volunteers from within, and outside, the Quaker community. Money raised is sent to Quaker Service Australia (QSA), which is the aid and development agency of Australian Quakers. Funds are distributed to recipients in Australia, Africa and Asia in support of economically and environmentally sustainable projects.
All members are entitled and encouraged to attend the week-long annual gathering of Australian Quakers (Yearly Meeting). Non-members who are interested and have attended for some time are also encouraged to participate. More than two hundred people gathered from various parts of Australia for the 2015 Yearly Meeting which demonstrates a high level of commitment from adherents. The location for holding the annual gathering also changes each year so that different regional meetings have the opportunity of hosting the event.
The agenda for Yearly Meeting (which is mainly a business meeting but also provides sessions on spiritual matters, and opportunities for socializing) is circulated in advance to the various regional meetings throughout Australia. All Quakers have an opportunity to provide input into any matters that arise from items on the agenda through their regional meetings.133
A participant explained why Yearly Meeting was important to her:
Yearly Meeting serves several purposes. I suppose it is a chance for corporate decision-making. I think it is also a chance for people to get together and talk again with a wider group of people and they may not be someone in your Meeting… (Also) children like to be involved in Young Friends or Junior Young Friends.134
133 All procedures relating to business meetings are set out within the Handbook of Practice and Procedure (2011), available on the Quakers Australia Website http://h-pandp.quakers.org.au/#2. (Accessed 12/12/15).
134 Extracted from fieldwork notes.
Younger Australian Quakers are divided into the following age groups: Junior Friends (up to age 12), Junior Young Friends (aged 12-16) and Young Friend (aged 16-30). Programs are held at annual gatherings for those under sixteen and Young Friends hold camps for themselves at Easter, and prior to, Yearly Meetings.
Australian Quakers have a sophisticated national organisational structure. This raises the question of whether this structure fits within Bouma’s sociological typology. Quakers clearly do not have an episcopal or presbyterian organisation. The third type of authority, according to Bouma (1992:78), is charismatic and the organisation which he suggests embraces it, is congregational. Charismatic leaders, in his view, can earn respect for evoking both emotions and trust among the congregation. His description of charismatic leaders and emotional response is not applicable or representative of current Quaker practice. However, I agree with his contention that the silence of a Quaker meeting can convey the same emotional potential as a pentecostal service which arouses response not by silence but through the use of music and sound effects.
Under Bouma’s model, the local congregation is the basic governing unit and locus of decision-making. Although this is characteristic of Quaker structure in some ways, it does not give a full assessment of Quaker organisational framework which is altogether much more complex. There are no pastors employed and the relationship between regions and each succeeding level of decision-making has been carefully ordered nationally in order to allow small meetings to retain some control locally and also nationally. One Quaker described the organisational structure as being like a web:
A web that links every meeting so each meeting is not a little thing in itself
…there is a strong horizontal web or network and when you turn up at another meeting there is usually a very warm reception….It is like you are visiting a member of the extended family and that is not the same as visiting your own immediate family and it is the people in your Local Meeting to whom you are very deeply connected. [117]
More specifically, Bouma states (1992:78) that in Australia, Quaker organisational structure is congregational and relies on charismatic authority. He includes pentecostal groups and Quakers as part of those he considers are grounded in charismatic authority. He correctly includes Quakers because they have no set liturgy or formal creed and rely on the authority of the inner workings of the spirit. That being said, there are substantial differences between a pentecostal service and a Quaker meeting for worship which are not captured by the typology.
3.2 Australian Unitarians
How Unitarians in South Australia formally organise their structures is now set out and compared with Bouma’s assertions regarding religious authority and organisation; and also, compared with the structure used by Australian Quakers. Similarly to Australian Quakers, Unitarians have an affiliation with several international organisations, one of which is the International Council of Unitarians and Universalists (ICUU) which builds relationships between various Unitarian and Unitarian Universalists through the world and nurtures spiritual growth. This organisation reports that there is a worldwide membership of about 350,000 which is similar to international Quaker membership figures; although there appears to be about 500,000 people who identify as Unitarians.[118] This is also comparable to the number of people world-wide who identify as Quakers.
Unitarian adult membership is particularly concentrated in North America (62%) and Transylvania (27%). Unitarians flourished in the North American milieu and their numbers increased substantially after the amalgamation with the Universalists. Some North American Unitarian Universalist churches have quite large congregations by Australian standards. One Adelaide congregant explained how she first experienced a Unitarian service of worship when her family moved temporarily to the United States. The family was looking for a church to attend and the Unitarian church happened to be the closest to where they lived. She explained her experience of North American Unitarian worship:
It was so huge a church in term of its physical size and in terms of the number of people there. There were three or four hundred people there in winter because Tucson was where the “snow-birders” come from the northern states to enjoy the wintering in the warmth... So hundreds of people would be there for six months and then they would return to their Unitarian churches where they had their summer homes.
There were about 5 classes for Sunday School….The minister was like a CEO. He had a Sunday School Director and a Music Director….[119]
Attending a Unitarian Church in Australia, therefore, provides a different experience from the North American setting where Unitarians have a higher profile and are better known. In contrast with the American situation, there are much smaller numbers of Australians who call themselves Unitarians and the general population is largely unaware of the church’s existence.
3.2.1 Unitarian Organisational Structure
The Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association (ANZUUA) was established in 1974. It succeeded an earlier organisation called the Australian Assembly of Unitarian and Liberal Christian Churches. The organisation reports a combined membership of about five hundred people. This combined membership figure is half that of Australia Quakers. So it has a much smaller population of adherents.
TABLE 2.3 UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST COMMUNITIES IN AUSTRALIA
AND NEW ZEALAND
|
LOCATION
|
NSW
|
VIC
|
SA
|
WA
|
QLD
|
ACT
AND
NT
|
NZ
|
|
UNITARIAN COMMUNITIES
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
4
|
(Figures extracted from http://www.anzuua.com, Accessed 3/1/16)
There is no Unitarian equivalent of Australian Yearly Meeting and no expectation among members concerning national decision-making processes. ANZUUA is a collective of churches and fellowships from Australian and New Zealand which assists in the founding and growth of congregations and fellowships in both countries, promoting co-operation between congregations and sharing communication and joint social justice initiatives.[120] The organisation publishes a quarterly journal and organises a biennial conference where Unitarians can meet and share ideas.
The theme of the 2015 conference was “The Church and Social Justice.” This conference produced social justice statements on inequality, peace, environment and refugees which it believes that Unitarians in Australia and New Zealand will be happy to agree upon, so that they can be used by the member churches to collaborate with other groups interested in social justice and in the media.[121] A long-term member of the Adelaide Unitarian congregation serves as the church’s representative on the ANZUUA Committee.
All the Unitarian communities in Australia are in urban areas. Several of the communities are quite small and meet once or twice a month. Many services are led by members of the congregation or visitors to the church. The Adelaide community appears to be the only group which employs a professionally trained minister although several other groups have ministers leading services on a regular basis. One congregant described the Adelaide church as being “the wealthiest small church in South Australia and possibly in Australia”. Although this may not be the case, it does indicate the perception that congregants have regarding the financial position of their church.
The Unitarian Church of South Australia states that it is a non-profit church affiliated with the world-wide Unitarian and Unitarian-Universalist free church movements and it is independent and self-governed.[122] Each Unitarian Church or Fellowship in Australia is likewise autonomous and governs its own affairs.
The business affairs of the Adelaide Church are managed by its Committee of Management which consists of six members and meets monthly. The minister is on this committee but has no voting rights. A summary of what has been discussed by committee members is noted in the church newsletter and full minutes posted on the church’s notice board. Most matters discussed relate to maintenance of the church, bookings by other organizations to use the church’s facilities, and matters relating to the minister. A finance subcommittee and a worship subcommittee meet separately.
The church allows its premises to be used for various outreach activities, some associated with the congregation, and others not. The church’s outreach program allows the members of the congregation to interact with the wider community in various ways, such as volunteering for St Vincent de Paul, or the ruggers group which meets regularly to produce hand-knitted rugs for families in need. Also, a few programs are sponsored by the church, such as a hospital program working with mothers and babies, and the Terrace Singers; a group of women singers mostly from outside the church community which is led, and conducted by, a member of the church.
Committee members are elected at the annual general meeting of the church for a three year term. Any financial member of the church of at least twelve months’ standing is eligible for appointment to the committee. The committee is responsible for electing the president and vice-president of the church and appointing sub-committees to deal with specific issues. An annual general meeting of the members of the church is held every 12 months when the annual report of the church and the president’s and treasurer’s reports are endorsed. At the meeting, committee members and office-bearers are elected and the auditor is appointed. Contentious matters are discussed at length and if a vote of members is necessary, it is done by secret ballot.
In his analysis of religious organisation, Bouma mentions two organisational structures in addition to the congregational organisation. The first is episcopal organisation which vests ultimate authority in bishops and clearly this is not the form of organisation used by South Australian Unitarians. The second form mentioned by Bouma (1992:78) is presbyterian where the ultimate authority is rational-legal. There are clear differences though between this type of church and the Unitarian model. Although Unitarian authority is most certainly reason, the type of government they use is congregational as the local congregation is the basic governing unit. Unitarians certainly prefer a properly trained minister and the central element in worship is the sermon; and consequently, the pulpit is its focus.
The minister can be charismatic, and emotional response is often aroused through the use of music. On the other hand, the minister doesn’t teach doctrine and there is no assent expected to orthodox beliefs. The source of salvation is not correct belief. Clearly, Unitarian organisation and practice does not fit neatly within Bouma’s typology.
However, the Unitarian organisational structure is similar to many small non-profit organisations and sporting clubs in that it has a president, treasurer, honorary auditor, sub-committees, etc., and members vote on various matters at an annual general meeting. In many ways its formal structure is secular in nature, including a division between “operations” and “governance” whereby the minister is unable to vote at committee level. I mention this because the Unitarian structure is very different from the Quaker model which is much more egalitarian and loosely structured at a local decision-making level.
4. Profile of the Quaker and Unitarian communities
Bouma (2006:73,79) asserts that those people who are most likely to participate in, and attend, mainstream Christian churches in Australia are the people he labels the educated middle classes, and these regular attendees tend to be older (with more than a third being over 60) and more than 60% are female. This poses the question of whether a similar situation applies to communities of practice that are not considered part of the mainstream, such as the Quaker and Unitarian communities.
When I first commenced fieldwork, there were 116 members of the Adelaide Unitarian Church and attendances of between 40 and 60. There were a few younger families but most of the congregation was middle aged or older. Similarly, there were 118 adult Quakers in South Australia and most of them attended worship at the two Adelaide locations.
A random sample of twenty congregants (ten male and ten female members)[123] from each community revealed the following data. [124]
Table 2.6 Comparison of Congregants – A
|
Community
|
Prior family connections
with
community
|
Prior
affiliations with other Churches
|
Tertiary
Education
|
Affiliated with Teaching
Profession
|
Affiliated with Health
Professions
|
Av Age
|
|
Quaker
|
15%
|
80%
|
80%
|
55%
|
20%
|
High 60s
|
|
Unitarian
|
30%
|
55%
|
75%
|
45%
|
30%
|
Low
60s
|
Clearly, much of the data for the sample populations are quite similar. Bouma’s statement (2006: 73,79) on the relationship between participation in religion and spirituality and the Australian educated middle classes, is borne out in the data set out in Table 2.6, which indicate a high percentage of tertiary-educated congregants who are affiliated with teaching and health related professions currently, or prior to, retirement.
Both the Quaker and Unitarian communities have a high average age and both consistently have a higher number of female congregants attending church. A perusal of the financial membership records of the Unitarian Church for 2012-13 indicated that 60-65% of the membership was female. A similar situation applies to the Quaker membership. These figures tie in with the older South Australian population shown in Table 2.5 and are similar to the experiences of mainstream Christian churches noted by Bouma (2006:73).
Bouma maintains that there is a distinctive Australian approach to religion and spirituality which he describes as being, amongst other things, tentative and questioning, and which offers “a shy hope in the heart” (2006: 1-2). Seemingly contrary to Bouma’s view of the Australian approach to religion, members of the congregations who were interviewed were not at all tentative and did not seem to harbour a shy hope. Instead they were keen to retell how they originally became involved with their religious communities. Unitarians, in particular, were very open about their spiritual journeys. They were not, however, fervent in their religiosity. In addition, although there was much questioning of Christian doctrine, there was certainty regarding the need for social justice.
Using the same random sample of twenty congregants (ten male and ten female members) from each community, the question of why that congregant originally was drawn to that particular religious group was posed. This sample group of congregants had previously disclosed many similarities, [125] but this question uncovered much more distinction between the communities, as is now revealed in the data shown in Table 2.7.
Comparison of Congregants – B
TABLE 2.7
|
Community
|
Drawn by
spiritual
practice and philosophy
|
Drawn
by commitment to social
issues/conscientious
objection
|
Brought up
in family
with ties
to
community
|
Drawn by
liberal
‘sensible’
theology
and freedom of religious views
|
Drawn by
Service of
Worship,
Hymn
singing,
etc.
|
Drawn by
need for support group and being part
of
community
|
|
Quaker
|
40%
|
45%
|
15%
|
0%-
|
N/A -
|
0%-
|
|
Unitarian
|
0% -
|
15%
|
15%
|
49%
|
14%
|
7%
|
Quakers who were interviewed were drawn by the form of worship, i.e., silent waiting, and by commitment to social issues; whereas Unitarians were more drawn by the liberal theology and freedom of religious views that the church offered.[126]
However, there are many reasons why a person might be drawn to join a particular religious organisation. The following vignettes give a greater indication of some of the people who have attended worshipping activities on a regular basis during the period of fieldwork.
FIRST VIGNETTE - A QUAKER
B was born in 1921. She was an extrovert and loved to talk about her life experiences. She came from a well-off family and her grandparents were, according to her, very religious Cornish Wesleyans. Her father had been traumatized by his experiences in the First World War and left the family to live in Canada. Her mother brought her up within an extended family situation and B’s childhood was happily spent in a very large house near Crystal Palace, London, where she, her mother, siblings, grandparents, and an unmarried uncle and aunt all lived together.
The family was very loyal to the Crown and as a small child B was taken to the public mourning ceremonies after the death of George V1. In her youth, her world had revolved around dancing and the stage. Her sister had been a professional dancer who knew many of London’s stage actors and had taught her to dance. When she left school she worked at the bank and then in the office of a company manufacturing RAF component parts during the Second World War. She was also part of a concert party which entertained the troops. B explained, “Well, I wasn’t a pacifist then, I didn’t know anything about it.”
After the war, B’s life changed when she met a young insurance assessor who had spent some time in prison because he was a conscientious objector. She learnt that he had just joined the Quakers and she told him that the only thing she knew about Quakers was what she had learnt from an Edwardian musical comedy called The Quaker Girl. After a while, they became close friends and he explained that he thought Quakerism involved living a particular way of life. B became curious and she attended a Meeting for Worship with him. She stated that this experience was a “real eye-opener”.
Within a short time, they decided to get married and did so “in the manner of Friends” at the Meeting House in London. She said that her family had never attended a Quaker wedding before and didn’t know what to make of it. Many members of the Meeting attended their wedding though because the groom was held in high regard for being a conscientious objector. She described him as being a real pacifist.
After they were married, they immigrated to South Australia in the post-war period. Soon after they arrived they went to the Peace Pledge Union which held their meetings in the Friends Meeting House, and before long, they started attending meetings for worship. The family soon became an important, and much loved, part of the South Australian Quaker community. They were very actively involved in many social justice issues and also worked for many years with the local United Nations Association and UNICEF groups. Along with several other Quakers, they were instrumental in the setting up of the second largest Quaker group in Adelaide in the late 1960s. B had a very great attachment to the people who attended her local meeting and described them as being like a family. After her husband’s death, she continued to be involved in the Quaker community and was interested in peace issues into old age.
SECOND VIGNETTE - A UNITARIAN
A was born in South Australia in 1917. There were Unitarians on both sides of her family. Her mother’s family had become Unitarians after they arrived in Australia but her father’s family had been Unitarians for generations. She explained, “My father’s great-grandfather was a Unitarian minister at the time of Wesley in Yarmouth, I think it was, and there was this splendid story of him having a brawl with Wesley, who referred to him as that boisterous young man who has become a rank Socinian.”
A’s great-grandfather had a factory in London which burnt down, and he was not insured. His cousins lent him the money to come out to Australia. However, A believed he would have heard of it as a place for dissenting migrants. She said, “It was certainly part of the reason that a lot of people came to South Australia as it was really very different from the rest of Australia in as much it was founded in an atmosphere of idealism rather than a convenient place to put convicts and so on.”
A had a privileged upbringing and thought that due to the influence of the church she was given more intellectual freedom to make her own choices in life. She said that religion was not discussed at home particularly but the family went to church as a matter of course and she
and her five siblings all went to Sunday School. As the
extended family was mostly Unitarian, she said that it was an opportunity to also hob-nob with their cousins.
During her life, A had worked as a physiotherapist and had been in the army at some stage. She was an active member of the University of
Adelaide community for more than sixty years and a well-known
philanthropist. In her leisure time, she loved to go fly fishing, even when she was quite elderly.
A was a committed Unitarian. In her youth she taught at the Sunday School and regularly attended church all her life. She said that one of the defining things about being a Unitarian was that they are critical of what they hear. The Sunday sermon was very important to her. She said “I’ve never sat under a minister who I didn’t criticize.” She thought of herself as a sensible Christian whose beliefs were tempered by what she thought was reasonable or possible.
THIRD VIGNETTE - A UNITARIAN AND A QUAKER
C was torn between being a Quaker and a Unitarian. He had a long history of Unitarians on his mother’s father’s side going back five generations. His mother had explained to him when he was about six years old what Unitarianism was all about and had emphasised that
Unitarians believed that Jesus was not divine and was just a very good man. C said that his mother’s explanation remained the essence of his belief all his life but he didn’t take much interest in religion until he was about 40.
C felt that the Church was important to society because it was “keeping the flag flying” and represented values that were important in society. He thought it was good for his children when they were young and so his family attended the local Protestant church. When the children had
grown up, he became disillusioned with that church and made the decision to find out about Quakers. He began attending the nearest meeting for worship, and after a while, his wife agreed to accompany him. This led to regular attendance at, and commitment, to Quaker meetings in England, and later in Australia. This commitment continued for thirty five years.
A recent disagreement between local Quakers over what was proper process led to C’s disillusionment. He stated, “Now the Quaker concept is very wonderful. I will never betray that. I mean I have always said to myself that I may have to walk out of this meeting but I will never resign from the Quaker movement. I think that is no longer true and I may have to resign. But I will only have to resign because of local circumstances and I’m not prepared to belong to two churches at once.”
C was finding it difficult to break from Quakers after such a long association but decided to return to his roots and attend a Unitarian church. I was present one day when he attended. He recognised me but had forgotten I was doing research and asked me whether I was also a “refugee” from the Quaker group.
C felt that Unitarians were less religious than the Quakers. He explained that one of his ancestors was a Unitarian missionary in the nineteenth century. He had a book of his sermons, the content of which he maintained bore no relationship to current Unitarianism which he believed was “free and easy humanist.” Unitarianism in his view had changed very profoundly and more so than Quakerism.
C was fulsome in his praise of the current minister’s sermons and was particularly impressed with one on climate change which he felt was secular and not much to do with religion. He felt that Unitarian services generally were very charming – noting the performance of a piece of Bach in a recent service. He missed the silence of the meeting for worship though. He also missed Quaker literature and he said, “With Quakerism we have these wonderful books. We’ve got Quaker Faith and Practice which has evolved over the years. And we’ve got the wonderful Advices and Queries. The Unitarians haven’t got anything like that. So that’s a loss, in my opinion, thinking in terms of going from one to another. I’ve been at the Quakers for 35 years. It’s a terribly painful business.”
C had come to the conclusion that the common factor between Quakers and Unitarians was the emphasis on right conduct. He felt that the Unitarians had made a bigger break with conventional religion. He also concluded, “I think that there is a bit more feeling in the Quaker version of this sort of humanist religion. I may be quite wrong about that. That is my initial impression and it is going to take me weeks and months before I get to grips with it.”[127]
It is evident from these vignettes that these members have a very high commitment to their religious organisations. Bouma maintains that the children of such regular attendees often maintain an interest in religion and spirituality in adulthood but the majority do not continue attending their parents’ churches, preferring instead nondenominational, pentecostal and mega-churches which offer what they consider to be a more family-friendly environment for themselves and their children. These churches, Bouma asserts (2006:73-73, 97), are well-organized and concentrate on providing activities for the members of young families; and at the same time, offer a different experience, including a more emotionally charged worship style.
Although the adult children of Quakers and Unitarians often do not continue attending their parents’ churches, I have not noticed a particular preference among them for pentecostal and mega-churches either. However, Bouma’s assertion would appear to be correct for many other churches as Adelaide has a growing number of pentecostal churches, particularly in the outer suburbs. These churches often have young couples as lead pastors and a lot of the activities they offer are family-oriented.146
The more established churches which have smaller congregations, such as the Quakers and Unitarians, cannot offer these kinds of activities. Sometimes they have quite a few children in the congregations and at other times none. Notwithstanding this, both communities whole-heartedly welcome children and offer planned activities to encourage young families to participate. During the period of doing fieldwork, both communities had begun to attract some younger members and families, so although both groups have changed, they do not appear to have changed significantly in relation to the other group. Both have attempted to accommodate the needs of younger members. The Unitarian community now has a Young Unitarians Group which meets informally, in addition to having a crèche and Sunday Club for children during worship times. One Quaker Local Meeting, which earlier had no children attending, now has some regularly attending, and holds an All Ages Meeting several times a year, in which activities are mostly directed by the children.
When asked whether they thought that there were any differences between South Australian congregations and those elsewhere, participants expressed different viewpoints. Quakers considered that they could attend any un-programmed meeting for worship anywhere in the world and feel at home, although they thought that each regional meeting had a slightly different “flavour.” Notwithstanding that, there was a feeling among some South Australian Quakers that perhaps their local community was rather inward looking.[128]
A member of the Adelaide Unitarian community, on the other hand, felt that the
Adelaide church group was more conservative than Unitarian groups elsewhere.[129] At a Unitarian social event, discussion turned to what was special about Adelaide. Those present felt fortunate to be living in Australia, and Adelaide, in particular.
There was a general belief that Adelaideans were more refined than those living in the eastern states. Similar sentiments were expressed by one congregant during an interview:
Sydney has the oldest Unitarian Church in Australia and was formed a couple of years before Adelaide but Adelaide does have this establishment… People in the eastern states hate it if you say, “Well in South Australia we are a bit different because we didn’t have the convict background – free settlers” … but I do think it makes a difference even though there would be people from all over the place in Adelaide. There is this sense of rootedness…[130]
Although there are differences between the communities studied and Quaker and Unitarian communities in other parts of Australia, there are many more differences between the religious practices of the two communities themselves which must be explored with recourse to anthropological insights. Whereas Bouma’s analysis derived mainly from Durkheim’s sociological definition of religion, the ways that anthropologists have researched the religious practices of Christian religious groups provide different understandings. With that in mind, anthropological approaches to the study of religious practices are now considered.
5. Anthropological Analysis of Communities of Practice
Luhrmann, Csordas, Collins and Engelke have special interest in the research area of the Anthropology of Christianity. Their insights are outlined in order to give further understanding to the content of chapters three and four which describe Quaker and Unitarian practice in South Australia.
5.1 Luhrmann’s Approach
Luhrmann (2004:519) points out that the New Age Movement, and evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity have expanded rapidly since the 1970s. Although her research and comments refer to the North American context, a similar increase in attendance at evangelical and fundamentalist Christian churches is apparent in Australia. This trend can be seen in the attendance at one Adelaide Assembly of God Church which rose from several hundred in the 1970s to reportedly the fifth largest church in Australia. The church describes itself as being a multi-site mega church ministering to many thousands of people every weekend. Adelaide is one of its major hubs for recruitment of leaders and for initiating the establishment of new churches. The church’s vision is to influence people towards greater connection with God.[131]
Luhrmann’s research among congregants of a North American evangelical Christian church convinced her that ritual practices and psychological techniques are central to adherents’ spirituality. Luhrmann’s viewpoint (2004:522) follows
William James’s approach to religion in terms of feelings, acts and experiences and is undeniably psychological in orientation. Relying on this approach, she determined that among that church group, exposure to the Gospel message was important for conversion and congregants felt the need to experience that message in an intensely physical way to make it relevant for them personally.
Importantly, Luhrmann maintains that members of that congregation learnt to utilise language and physical experiences in order to build what they believed to be intimate relationships with God. This was done through a learning process which she named cognitive/linguistic, metakinetic and relational. Converts, Luhrmann explains (2004:522), learn to use phrases such as “to walk with God” and “Word of God” to describe the way they have incorporated God into their lives and to use these phrases as a personal narrative to describe their commitment to their faith.
Luhrmann employs the term “metakinesis”[132] to portray bodily and emotional states experienced by members of the congregation. She believes that these spiritual experiences, which are considered possible through the conduit of prayer, are central to adherents’ perceived relationship with God (2004:518). Her main point is that the congregants she interviewed during fieldwork were learning in the church environment to create a personal relationship with God and to recognize divine presence. She maintains (2004: 522, 525) that congregants’ emotional states and uncontrolled movements were interpreted by them as evidence of divine presence. Congregants, for example, who had answered the altar call found it overpowering emotionally and reported a loss of control as God seemingly pushed them up to the altar.
Furthermore, Luhrmann suggests (2004:527) that attendances at evangelical and fundamentalist Christian churches have increased because technological advances with music, virtual reality and communications have altered people’s perception generally. This fits in with Bouma’s contention (1992:78) concerning dynamic presentations made by charismatic leaders within the congregational form of church organisation. What Luhrmann’s analysis adds, is that this milieu provides adherents with the means to build what they believe to be an intimate relationship with God, in which there is an imagined sense of participation and interaction.
5.2 Csordas’s Approach
Csordas researched the development of the North American Catholic Charismatic Renewal religious movement. In his research, he follows the view of William James in taking a psychological approach. Csordas (1990) is also influenced by phenomenology and relies on a paradigm of embodiment which he derives from
Merleu-Ponty’s (1962) ideas on perception, combined with Bourdieu’s (1977, 1984) ideas on practice. These perspectives are evident in his comprehensive research into the Catholic Charismatic Renewal’s rituals and, in particular, their healing rituals. His research leads him to conclude that Charismatic ritual healing is about the “self” (1994: vii-viii); however, he is also convinced that there is no self as such, only self processes. These self-processes as detailed in the Catholic Charismatic healing system are, he believes, different from those self processes encountered outside this milieu and yet are still clearly recognisable in the context of North American culture (1994:276).
Csordas takes a phenomenological approach to defining “self” in terms of what he calls “orientational processes” such as imagination, memory, language and emotion (1994:ix). These processes, he maintains (1994:24) manifest themselves through psychocultural themes such as spontaneity, control and intimacy which he believes are important themes for participants who are living in the North American milieu. As is the case with Luhrmann, bodily experience is paramount in his understanding.
For Csordas (1994: vii), the practice of Charismatic healing provides the means for a discourse about the self. He suggests (1994:24) that the self is sacred as it is oriented in the world and defines what it means to be human in terms of “the other than human.” Furthermore, adherents believe that it is possible to understand that “other” through participation in the ritual process as it creates the environment in which participants are able to embody dispositions which allow the sacred self to come into being.
There are, in Csordas’s view, three main types of rituals within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement: prayer meetings, initiation ceremonies, and healing services. He states that spiritual growth is believed to be hampered by temptations of the flesh and original sin. Belief in these notions, according to Csordas, means that everyone is considered to be in need of healing. So, in his understanding, ritual healing requires the self to have the following abilities: the potential to be broken, the possibility of being healed by divine power, and the capacity for spiritual growth (1994:21, 26).
According to Csordas (1994:32), the term “resting in the Spirit” refers to a sacred swoon in which the adherent is believed to be overwhelmed by divine power which enters the body. Divine presence is evidenced when there is a sense of being loved, nurtured, communicated with, and healed. The act of falling backwards, claims Csordas (1994:247, 261), is believed to be conducive to receiving divine power because bodily control is perceived as being in the hands of divine intervention. Any physical displays of discomfort or changes in facial expression are indicative that the healing process has begun. So the presence of divine power is highly visible to other congregants through such physical display.
How members of charismatic Christian churches in western societies recognise, and react to, perceived signs of divine presence has been considered in the work of
Luhrmann and Csordas. Engelke’s work (2007) examines the dilemma posed by divine absence.
5.3 Engelke’s Approach
Engelke researched the members of the Friday Masowe Church in Zimbabwe in order to understand how their particular practices facilitate dealing with the theological dilemma posed by divine absence. In his analysis he relies mainly on insights derived from semiotic anthropology in his investigation of language as a medium for accessing and experiencing the divine. In particular, he argues (2007:11) that semiotic ideology underpins the Masowe apostolic faith which insists that the Bible, as an object, cannot be a sign of the divine.
Engelke (2007:2-3, 8) points out that this group is distinguished from other apostolic Christians in a number of ways. Firstly, its members recognize Friday as the Sabbath. Secondly, they are distinct because they do not read the Bible. Thirdly, they believe that material things are a barrier to faith; therefore, they place no importance on the written word. They prefer to rely on the “Word of God” which they perceive as being able to be received directly from the Holy Spirit. As they feel no need for material objects in order for this receipt to occur, they meet to pray in the fields with no liturgy or hymn books, removing their shoes and jewellery and leaving material possessions behind.
Although members of the Friday Masowe Church do not rely on the written word, they do have a set of unwritten guidelines, called Mutemo, to which adherents are expected to strictly adhere. These guidelines attend to the basics of their faith and practice including food taboos, times for prayer, and testifying about sins. Engelke
(2007:8) calls these guidelines a set of unwritten laws which involve “a way of knowing and a process of becoming.”
More broadly, Engelke believes that one of the central quandaries for all Christians is how to understand God’s simultaneous presence and absence. He states that the language used by Christians often sets out the comfort that can be found in the perceived closeness of divine presence. This presence may be perceived in sacraments, through the Holy Spirit, Inner Light or grace, within the Bible; or as Engelke (2007:16) points out, through live and direct faith. The ritual process for the Masowe Apostolics, therefore, involves listening to sermons which are believed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. The most important medium through which the problem of presence is overcome for them is through words, spoken or unspoken.
Engelke’s research (2007:180) reveals that there are ways of speaking which indicate particular proximity to the divine, for example, speaking in ancient languages. Engelke explains that Masowe Apostolics use some words of ancient Hebrew frequently but only their prophets are competent speakers and can reveal the meaning. This ability is an important measure of the proximity of the divine presence.
Moreover, Engelke (2007:2-3) proposes that the specificities of live and direct faith which he encountered during his fieldwork among apostolic Christians in Zimbabwe, can be compared with the more liberal forms of Protestantism, such as Quakerism. He suggests that this is because Quakers do not rely on sacred texts such as the Bible and favour an experiential, unmediated faith. Certainly Quakers value silence and the inner voice. The spoken word is also used for expressing religious ideas. Quakers value guidelines for current practice and procedure, but unlike the Masowe Apostolics, these procedures are all recorded through the medium of the written text and used as guiding principles for present experience.
5.4 Collins’s Approach
Collins’s ideas are relevant to sociological or anthropological studies of Quaker communities. Although his analysis of Quaker ritual is restricted to Britain, Australian Quakerism has developed from the same source, and so there are considerable similarities. In the Introduction, it was noted that Collins has done substantial research relating to British Quaker identity and aspects of practice and ritual.[133] He notes that Quaker identity is sociologically problematic because Quakerism has managed to survive since the seventeenth century even though it has no creed. He believes that it has been able to do so because of three concepts: narrative, plaining and habitus (2008:38). These are three concepts which he returns to through much of his research.
In Collins’s view, Quaker worship cannot be fully understood in terms of one overarching theory and this leads him to prefer a multi-perspectival approach to ritual which represents the attitude of the participating group. He maintains
(2005:338) that there are many possible ways of understanding any particular ritual and states that the way Quakers make sense of their meeting for worship may overlap with anthropological or sociological approaches. He also notes that a Quaker meeting for worship has many attributes, for example, it has three phases of worship: the greeting when members arrive at the door, closure by a handshake between two elders, and the after-meeting gathering for refreshments and chatter (2005:325-328).[134]
The most important attribute though for the purpose of this study is that meeting for worship has the potential to transform its participants. It is this aspect which is explored further within the thesis.
6. Conclusion
I have set out Bouma’s insights regarding the characteristics of Australian religious and spiritual life, and his modelling of types of church authority and organisational structure. I have extended his analysis by concentrating on two religious communities that structure their respective organisations and practices somewhat differently; therefore, their models of church authority and organisational structure do not fit neatly within his sociological and analytical design.
Anthropologists have tended to favour the study of charismatic and pentecostal Christianities. Often, their insights are unhelpful, or of limited use, for an anthropological study involving mainstream religious groups or non-conformists such as the Unitarians or Quakers. I have included vignettes of the experiences of members of both communities to provide information on their religious/spiritual lives. In doing so, I demonstrate the differences, not only between Quakers and Unitarians, but also between these groups and the Christianities which are usually the subject of anthropological study. The vignettes also highlight the variety of spiritualities in contemporary Australian society.
Bouma posits that Australia, as a particular postmodern, secular and multicultural society provides a unique context for the study of religious practice. I have extended his analysis by concentrating on South Australia, and Adelaide in particular, which historically had a perceivably different colonial environment which encouraged those attracted to nonconformist Christian religions. Arguably, this setting also provides a unique milieu for the study of religious practices, particularly those which do not fit into the category of mainstream Christian religion.
Importantly, Quakers and Unitarians confront the idea of ecumenicalism through their history of non-conformism. In the Introduction, I demonstrated how Quakers refuse to engage politically and Unitarians confront the idea through their embrace of secularism and nationalism. Nevertheless, both accept aspects of nondenominational world religions in their experience of contemporary religion in multicultural Australia where Asian religions are major growth areas due to changing immigration policies.
Bouma notes a move away from organised religion to spirituality—a label which can be applied to this new diversity of world religions. He contends that the usage of the term “spiritual” rather than “religious” as a form of personal identification has become more acceptable in Australia in late modernity, and undoubtedly, contemporary Quakers and Unitarians are more comfortable with describing themselves as such. Quakers and Unitarians, through their practices, endorse this multiplicity whereas more mainstream religious traditions are only able to advocate tolerance. This endorsement will be demonstrated in the ethnographic descriptions of both groups’ practices, rituals, and celebrations. These descriptions, and the subsequent investigation of this data, form the majority of this comparative study.
CHAPTER 3
[1] Extracted from http://www.parliament.uk, Act of Uniformity 1549, (Act was subsequently revised in 1552, 1559 &1662). Accessed 20/4/17. The Book of Common Prayer included biblical readings and forms of service for daily and Sunday worship, Holy Communion, baptism, confirmation, marriage and funerals.
[2] The term came to be used retrospectively to include dissenters who did not conform to Acts of Uniformity of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
[3] The government of S.A. still maintains an office in London headed by the Agent-General of South Australia. Its purpose is to increase awareness of South Australia internationally.
[4] As per Australian Bureau of Statistics Data 2016. Note though that South Australia has a lower percentage of Anglicans and Roman Catholics than the Australian average.
[5] Hann argues that there has been scant anthropological interest in the religious ideas and practices of Orthodox Christians. He notes that there are some two hundred million people in this category and states that it is remarkable that there should be such a lack of academic interest.
[6] During the 1980s and early 1990s, a rich body of work was developed by anthropologists on the consequences of colonialism, post-colonialism and missionary influence, including work by Fernandez (1982), Comaroff (1985 & 1991), Caplan (1988), Stirrat (1992), Mosse (1994 & 1996).
[7] For example, Howell (2003) focused on four congregations of Baptists in the Philippines which identified fully as part of their local milieu although they also considered themselves a part of the larger global Baptist Church.
[8] Vincent, G. 2009. ‘Quagans: Fusing Quakerism with Contemporary Paganism’, Quaker Studies, Issue 13/2, pp.220-237. 9 One historical study has also been done on the Melbourne Unitarian Church by a local Quaker (Scott 1980).
[9] Pink Dandelion is a British sociologist and Quaker academic.
[10] In Foucault’s essay, ‘Of Other Spaces’ (Diacritics 16 (Spring 1986), pp. 22-27), he discusses “utopias” and “heterotopias.” Whereas utopia is defined by Foucault as a site with no real place, he uses the concept of heterotopia to describe those spaces that unsettle or disturb—a counter site. This notion is appropriated by Hetherington (1997) who defines it as the space of an “alternate ordering” (1997:67). Building on these insights, Pilgrim uses the concept to describe those spaces where other ways of living and ordering can be explored and practised.
[11] A recent issue of Quaker Studies (December 2016, Vol 21 Issue 2) is devoted to the question of British Quakers and their reaction to the First World War. It covers topics such as ‘Conscription, Conscience and Controversy: The Friends’ Ambulance Unit and the ‘Middle Course’ in the First World War’ (R, Wynter, p.213-233), ‘Quakers in Wales and the First World War’ (O.G. Evans, p.193-212), ‘A Body Divided: British Quakers, Patriotism and War, 1899-1919’ (T.C. Kennedy, pp. 159-167) and ‘John William Graham and the Evolution of Peace: A Quaker View of Conflict before and during the First World War’ (J. Dales, pp.169-192).
[12] According to Pilgrim (2006:206), early Quakers’ conversion experiences were transforming and this inward experience combined with the persecution they suffered, was a liminal rite of passage.
[13] In another recent article (2014), Collins and Dandelion consider whether Quaker belief in continuous revelation can be understood in terms of what Zygmunt Bauman (2000) describes as “liquid modernity.”
[14] Lampen, J. 2015. ‘The Quaker Peace Testimony in Twentieth-Century Education’, Quaker Studies Vol 19, No. 2, pp. 295-304.
[15] Homan, R. 2014. ‘The Inward And The Outward Eye: Quaker Attitudes to Visual Culture’, George Richardson Lecture 2013, Quaker Studies Vol 18, No. 2, pp. 139-150.
[16] Grant, R. 2014. ‘Understanding Quaker Religious Language in its Community Context’, Quaker Studies Vol 18, No. 2, pp. 260-276.
[17] Genovese, H. ‘Not a Myth: Quakers and Racial Justice’, Quaker Studies, Vol 18, No. 2, pp. 243-259.
[18] Angell, S.W. ‘An Early Version of George Fox’s ‘Letter to the Governor of Barbados’ ‘, Quaker Studies, Vol 18, No. 2, pp. 277-294.
[19] Angell, S.W. ‘Richard Farnworth, Samuel Fisher, and the Authority of Scripture Among Early Quakers’, Quaker Studies, Vol.18, No. 2, pp. 207-228.
[20] Hughes, L.G. 2008. ‘Orestes A. Brownson’s This-Worldly Universalism’, The Journal of Unitarian Universalist History, Vol.32, pp.1-20.
[21] Casebolt, J. & Niekro, T. 2005. ‘Some UUs are more U than U: Theological Self-descriptors chosen by Unitarian Universalists’ Review of Religious Research Vol. 46, No. 3, pp.235-242.
[22] Miller, R.1976. ‘The Religious Value System of Unitarian Universalists’, Review of Religious Research, Vol.17, No.3, pp.189-208.
[23] Green, J.C. 2003. ‘A Liberal Dynamo: The Political Activism of the Unitarian-Universalist Clergy’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp.577-590.
[24] Lee, R.W. 1995. ‘Strained Bedfellows: Pagans, New Agers, and Starchy Humanists in Unitarian Universalism’, Sociology of Religion, Vol 56, No.4, pp.379-396.
[25] Levenson, J.D. 1997. ‘The Problem with Salad Bowl Religion’, First Things, No. 78 (Dec), pp.10-12.
[26] Thomas, K. 1999. ‘Post-Modern Pilgrimage: A Quaker Ritual’, Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, Issue 30/1, pp.21-34.
[27] Rights of Man by Thomas Paine, 1791. Reproduced on Internet Sacred Text Archive Site http://sacredtexts.com/aor/paine/aor/aor03.htm.
[28] The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine, 1794. Chapter 1 – The Author’s Profession of Faith reproduced on Internet Sacred Text Archive Site http://sacred-texts.com/aor/paine/aor/aor03.htm.
[29] Lee also notes that Durkheim observed mainstream religion’s apparent displacement by the following contemporary notions: secularity, individualism and pluralism. He extracted from this observation that such diversity of views required a shift from traditional beliefs to a secular and ethical religion of the rights and dignity of the individual. This leads Lee (1995:379, 381) to postulate that Unitarian Universalism, through its major strand of humanism, embodies Emile Durkheim’s cult of the individual.
[30] This development, according to Weber, was characterised by the existence of a disciplined labour force and the investment of capital (2009: x-xii).
[31] Baxter, R. 1673. A Body of Practical Divinity, or A Christian Directory, Volume 2. ‘Directions for the Government of the Body’, Chapter X. Para. 5.
http://www.digitalpuritan.net/Digital%20Puritan%20Resources/Baxter,%20Richard/A%20Body%20of%20Divinity%20(vol. 2)%20Individual%20Files/Governing%20the%20Body.pdf
[32] One Sheet against the Quakers, Pamphlet written by Richard Baxter. Printed by Robert White, for Nevil Simmons, Book-seller, in Kederminster, Anno Dom. 1657.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A26979.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext.
[33] An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, being an Explanation and Vindication of the Principles and Doctrines of the People called Quakers, by Robert Barclay (first published in Latin in Amsterdam in 1676, and two years later translated into English by the author).
[34] 35 Dumont sets out two contrasting concepts of the “individual”. The first involves the individual who is the subject of speech, thought and will—found within all societies. The second concept, involves the independent, autonomous being who, according to Dumont (1986:94), is the carrier of paramount values and its attendant ideals of equality and liberty.
[35] In Appendix B ‘World Renunciation in Indian Religions’, Homo Hierarchicus, Dumont sets out his understanding of a renouncer as someone who “leaves the world behind in order to devote himself to his own liberation...He thinks as an individual…But while for us the individual is in the world, here he is found only outside the world” (1980:275). In Essays on Individualism, Dumont further explains the relationship between holism/individualism and inworldly/outworldly distinctions. He states that outworldly individualism is hierarchically opposed to holism: superior to society, it leaves society standing, while inworldly individualism negates, destroys the holistic society and replaces it or pretends to do so (1986:57).
[36] William Penn’s “holy experiment” was an attempt at re-imagining the role of early Quakerism with the Crown and the emerging seventeenth century colony of Pennsylvania.
[37] In the eighteenth century, British Quakers were involved in the development of the iron industry, porcelain manufacturing, chocolate making, banking and other innovations including the use of railway timetables and tickets. Quakers in the World Website http://www.quakersintheworld.org/. Accessed 31/8/17.
[38] City of God was written by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century CE. Quoted in Dumont (1986:41).
[39] This manifesto was produced by John Lilburne (also known as “Freeborn John”) in conjunction with William Walwyn, Thomas Prince and Richard Overton—all of whom were Levellers or sympathisers with that movement. It was smuggled out of the Tower of London in 1649 by Levellers. See the website of the Constitution Society, http://www.constitution.org/eng/agreepeo.htm.
[40] Universal suffrage did not extend to women, servants, beggars and Royalists.
[41] This document was also significant in the wording of political principles set out in the American Declaration of Independence.
[42] Paine’s Common Sense was influential on the push for independence from Britain and the American Revolution and in the wording of the US Constitution, his Rights of Man defended the French Revolution, whereas The Age of Reason dealt with the place of religion in society.
[43] As a further corrective to Dumont’s comparative understanding of modern ideology, Kapferer (2011:8-9) argues that it may be that hierarchical elements are possibilities within the practice of egalitarianism itself and not based on a transformation of hierarchy. It is also important, in Kapferer’s view, not to deny the “great liberating ideals that are a feature of many egalitarian ideologies and also of hierarchical ideologies.”
[44] This is also a post-modern point. See Dumont (1986:19).
[45] The Sturm and Drang literary movement, for example, privileged feeling over rationalism in the late 18th century.
[46] Luther insists that a Christian should be an out-worldly individual, i.e. a Christian was an individual as far as the inner self was concerned. In addition, an individual’s inner life requires devotion to self-development (Bildung) (Dumont 1994:19-20).
[47] This concept became widely influential not only in Germany but eventually throughout Europe and North America and informing the ideas of religious groups such as the Unitarians and Transcendentalists in the 19th century.
[48] Thomas Mann, Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man was first published in German in 1918. An English version translated by W.D. Morris was published in 1983.
[49] This was Goethe’s second novel published in 1795-96.
[50] ‘Revolution and the National Assembly in Frankfurt am Main 1848/1849’, Website of the Deutscher Bundestag, https://www.bundestag.de/en/parliament/history/parliamentarism/1848. Accessed 31/10/17.
[51] The king marginalised Old Lutherans who refused to join the Prussian Union and this persecution had particular implications for South Australia. Although Old Lutherans emigrated from Prussia because they were seeking greater religious freedom, they were also trying to escape the politics of the German Revolutionary Period which was linked inextricably to religious difference. See Chapter One for further information of Lutheran settlement in South Australia.
[52] The impact of Marxist ideology is one such example of influence on thought in the twentieth century.
[53] See Page 36.
[54] This figure represented approximately ten percent of the congregations at that stage
[55] One Quaker interviewee remarked that this was a very ‘Quakerly’ way of doing things.
[56] Accessed 19/1/17
[57] The term “utopia” originally derived from the book Utopia by Thomas More in 1516, Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, third edition by Simon Blackburn. 2008. Oxford University Press. Current online edition 2016. www.oxfordreference.com. The term “utopia” has come to mean an imagined “good society.”
[58] Quoted in ‘William Penn, America’s First Great Champion for Liberty and Peace’ by Jim Powell, and reprinted on www.quaker.org. Accessed 31/8/17.
[59] Quote extracted from interview notes.
[60] Extracted from William Penn’s Preface to the Original Edition of George Fox’s Journal, 1694, reproduced in Nickalls, J. L. (ed.), 1952. The Journal of George Fox, Revised Edition with an Epilogue by H J Cadbury and an Introduction by G F Nuttall, Religious Society of Friends, London.
[61] George Fox stated that it was: “Justice Bennet of Derby that first called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God” (Nickalls 1952:58).
[62] Some of Fox’s followers became missionaries who subsequently travelled to other locations including New England, the American colonies, Caribbean Islands, Turkey, Malta, and Ireland (Mack 1992:1).
[63] Nayler was eventually reconciled with Fox and died within a year of his release from prison. Website of ‘The
Postmodern Quaker’ https://postmodernquaker.wordpress.com/2014/03/08/the-power-of-suffering-love-james-nayler-and-robert-rich/. Accessed 31/8/17.
[64] http://www.quaker.org/wmpenn.html. Accessed 1/9/17.
[65] http://www.quaker.org/wmpenn.html. Accessed 1/9/17.
[66] The Journal of John Woolman, an autobiography written by John Woolman and first published in 1774 after his death by J Crukshank, Philadelphia. Republished in 1922 by The Macmillan Company, New York. Available online in the Christian Classics Ethereal Library http://www.ccel.org/w/woolman/journal/cache/journal.pdf. Accessed 1/9/17.
[67] This work is now held in the National Gallery of Australia’s textiles collection. See Appendix A for more details of the quilt.
[68] The establishment of Bournville, on the outskirts of Birmingham, is an illustration of this public-spiritedness. This community was founded by the Cadbury family to create improved living conditions for their factory workers. It was to be a “model village”. Current residents say that they want to “preserve the Cadbury brothers’ vision for the perfect community.” http://bournvillevillage.com/about-2/. Accessed 15/2/17.
[69] ABC Radio Hobart story by C Raabus. ‘Why did Cadbury chose Tasmania as the site for its first chocolate factory outside the UK?” http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-23/history-of-cadbury-chocolate-factory-in-hobart/9275224. Accessed 31/12/17.
[70] The Unitarian church still exists in Transylvania, but unlike other Unitarian Churches, it does not have a congregational structure and is administrated by a Bishop.
[71] Encyclopaedia Britannica Website, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Biddle. Accessed 12/9/17.
[72] Unitarianism was not legalized in Britain until 1813 with the passing of the Trinity Act.
[73] Uglow (2002) explains how dissenters including Watt, Boulton, Wedgwood, Darwin and Priestley formed a club to meet on the Sunday nearest the full moon for philosophical and scientific discussion.
[74] James Martineau was a Unitarian minister and an influential religious philosopher and educator.
[75] An article by C Walsh in the Harvard Gazette (16/2/2012) argues that Emerson’s Address was a “turning point” for Unitarianism – transforming it from a liberal form of Christianity to a form of religious liberalism independent of specific historic traditions. https://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/02/when-religion-turned-inward/. Accessed 31/8/17.
[76] This widening of the theological base eventually encouraged the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and Universalist Church of America in the mid twentieth century and many Unitarians world-wide now identify as Unitarian Universalists.
[77] This is an English sea shanty which became an Australian folk song. It was originally part of a compilation by Laura
Smith and published in The Music of the Waters in 1888 and was believed to been collected from sailors’ songs in Tyneside, England. It has been recorded by many different artists since. http://boundforsouthaustralia.com.au/historicalbackground/bound-for-south-australia-the-song.html. Accessed 31/8/17.
[78] State Library of South Australia. Website http: //www.slsa.sa.gov.au. Accessed 28/10/17.
[79] An appeal was made directly to dissenters by George Angas who sought support for the new colony in a letter written in 1836:
We appeal to the Dissenters more particularly because those of their body who may settle in this new colony will have the full enjoyment of civil and religious liberty whatever may be their peculiar opinions, since no one sect or denomination will be put in possession of any exclusive advantage; all classes of Christians being placed in an equality. It therefore follows of course that the more numerous and intelligent the body of Christians are who shall emigrate to South Australia, and who understand the true nature of civil and religious liberty the greater will be the security, for the perpetuation of those…blessings which are now guaranteed to them by the act of Parliament on which the Colony is founded…(G. F. Angas, letter to Thomas Dick, or the editor of a journal or paper, probably mid-1836, from Angas family papers, SSLM,PRG 174/1/1518/19, Quoted in Kwan 1987:12-13).
[80] These German immigrants were “Old Lutherans” who had been suffering persecution in their homeland (Young 1985:43). South Australian towns such as Lobethal (also known as “Praise Valley”) were settled by Prussian Old Lutherans the first of whom arrived in Port Adelaide in 1838. Two pastors: Fritzsche and Kavel were instrumental in securing emigration from Germany for themselves and their congregations. Kavel had met George Fife Angas in London who offered financial assistance for Kavel’s congregation to immigrate to South Australia. Pastor Fritzsche’s congregation could not raise the funds for immigration and were assisted with loans from British Quakers who had heard of their plight. http://www.lobethal.sa.au/history/european-history/. Accessed 31/8/17.
[81] Finnimore (1987:13).
[82] E Baker to J J Freeman, 24 Aug. 1850, LMS Aust., 4/6/B.111.Quoted in Lockley (2001:167).
[83] Australian Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/palmer-thomas-fyshe-2535. Accessed 30/9/17.
[84] Australian Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/clark-andrew-inglis-9752. Accessed 30/9/17.
[85] South Australian Unitarians Website http://unitariansa.org.au. Accessed 25/2/16.
[86] http://www.salife.com.au and see Figure 1 Appendix B. Accessed 30/9/16.
[87] Catherine Helen Spence became known as “The Grand Old Woman of Australia”, and public memorials to her include a statue in Adelaide’s central business district, and the five-dollar note issued in 2000 to commemorate her life and work (Prest et al. 2001:510).
[88] Extracted from the South Australian Unitarian Website, http://www.adelaideunitarians.org.au/. Accessed 25/2/16.
[89] An extract from the South Australian newspaper The Register (6th August 1901) describes the newly purchased church organ:-
The new organ, which with its richly illuminated pipe front forms a handsome addition to the decoration and furniture of the church, is a moderately large instrument of splendid resources. Though containing only 16 speaking stops which are distributed over two manuals and pedal, it affords a large variety of striking solo effects, and its full power is rich and pervading without any suspicion of screeching or hoarseness. (Extract from The Register (6/8/1901), quoted on the Unitarian Church of SA Inc.’s. Website, http://users.picknowl.com.au/~unitariansa/).
[90] Interview notes.
[91] The Unitarian Church of South Australia website http://unitariansa.org.au. Accessed 26/2/16. 99 Interview Notes.
[92] Fieldwork notes.
[93] See Appendix A for details of Elizabeth Fry and the Rajah Quilt.
[94] Hack family correspondence demonstrates their middle-class background:
We have been here three months and have all English comforts about us… Our little parlour is the pride of the colony. It looks so neat and cheerful now that the pictures are up and the ornaments on the chimney piece, and indeed, I believe it is the only chimney piece in the colony; it is a very handsome one of cedar. We have today a white tablecloth for the first time and the luxury of silver spoons is great indeed. It is delightful to have teacups and glass tumblers to drink out of once more (JB Hack 9-iii-1837 (H Watson: op.cit. p.13) quoted in Pike (1967:497).
[95] The May family is remembered by the current Quaker community in a panel completed for the Quaker Tapestry Project which is dedicated to them.
May family panel for the Quaker Tapestry Project. Designer: Christine Collins. Reproduced in Walking Cheerfully, Newsletter of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) South Australia - Northern Territory Regional Meeting. June
[96] . http://sant.quakers.org.au/walkingcheerfully/2013/2013_06.pdf Accessed 22/2/16.
[97] Extracted from Walking Cheerfully, June 2013. Newsletter of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), S.A. & N.T http://sant.quakers.org.au/walkingcheerfully/2013/2013. 06. Pdf.
[98] See Fig 1.2 Page 78.
[99] An elderly Unitarian interviewee, whose Unitarian forebears arrived in the early days of the colony, was keen to recall an entry that she had found in her great grandfather’s papers mentioning Hack’s financial situation:
He mentioned that Barton Hack went bankrupt and all his stuff had to be sold but some things didn’t come into the auction which my great grandfather commented on rather wryly, “Not the behaviour of Quakers!” The Quaker emphasis on absolute honesty is less emphasized in Unitarianism. That was always what I was brought up to admire in Quakers. (Extracted from Interview Notes October 2008).
[100] McDougall & Vines, Conservation and Heritage Consultants, 2006. The City of Adelaide: A Thematic History, p. 113. https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/assets/documents/city_of_adelaide_thematic_history.pdf, pp. 1-156. Accessed 31/3/17. Arnold subsequent became Premier of South Australia in 1992-3. Whilst serving as Premier, Arnold officiated at the launch of the first Collins class submarine built at Port Adelaide. The submarine project caused disquiet among South Australian Friends, and this caused a rift in his relationship with the Quaker community for many years. This rift has since healed and Arnold is now an Anglican priest.
[101] Extracted from fieldwork notes.
[102] First World War government poster. Contributed by State library Government of S.A. SA Memory, ‘South Australians at War’ Poster, http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?c=4712&mode=singleImage. Accessed 12/3/16.
[103] Extracted from fieldwork notes.
[104] An example of religiously structured social interaction can be seen in a Quaker media release (23/1/13) when Australian Quakers called on political leaders to take climate change into the next federal election as a key plank of their party’s platform for action. Australian Quaker Website https://www.quakersaustralia.org.au/. Accessed 31/8/17.
[105] See Bouma (1999, 2006 and 2017). Gary Bouma AM is the UNESCO Chair in Intercultural and Interreligious Relations – Asia Pacific, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Monash University. He is the author or co-author of more than 30 books and 360 articles. He is also an Associate Anglican Priest. http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/gary-bouma/. Accessed 28/12/17.
[106] Manning Clark (1915) described a key characteristic of the Anzac Spirit as “a whisper in the mind and a shy hope in the heart”. Bouma (2006:2) has used the phrase “a shy hope in the heart” to express the nature of Australian religion and spirituality.
[107] Rosewarne, L. 2011. ‘One quarterback under God: what Tim Tebow taught an Australian about America’ in The Conversation, December 21, 2011.
[108] Bouma states (1999:5) that a study of Australian religious life at the end of the twentieth century indicated that 78% of Australians were involved in some form of Christian worship each year.
[109] See Table 2.1
[110] Bouma differentiates between “religious institutions” and “religious organisations”. He states that institutions are sets of norms governing aspects of social life; whereas, organisations are structures of relationships set up to accomplish some end (1999:9).
[111] In 2013, the Moravian and Historic Peace Churches (Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers) decided to be represented jointly as one body within the World Council. World Council of Churches Website, http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches. Accessed 1/9/17.
[112] The twenty one members include the Anglican Church, Greek Orthodox Church, Lutheran Church, the Uniting Church, the Roman Catholic Church, The Salvation Army, Churches of Christ, Congregational Federation, and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). National Council of Churches in Australia Website, http://www.ncca.org.au/about/memberchurches. Accessed 1/9/17.
[113] ‘The Rise of Pentecostalism’ an ABC News Report (31/7/2011) by A Simmons, ABC News. Accessed 26/11/15 (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-29/pentecostal-background-growth-and-attendance/2815456).
[114] http://www.quakers.org.au. Nearly 50% of Quakers are in Africa; 35% in North America, the Caribbean and Latin America; and the balance in Britain, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-West Pacific region. Un-programmed worship is also still used by Quakers in Britain, Europe, parts of North America and in former British colonies. Accessed 31/8/17.
[115] Silver Wattle Website http://www.silverwattle,org.au. Accessed 15/12/15.
[116] There are two meetings for worship in the Northern Territory: Darwin Recognised Meeting and Alice Springs Recognised Meeting.
[117] Extracted from interview notes.
[118] International Council of Unitarians and Universalists Website http://www.icuu.net/ Accessed 15/12/15.
[119] Extracted from Interview Notes.
[120] Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association Website http://www.anzuua.com, Accessed 20/1/16.
[121] An upcoming 2017 conference is themed ‘Unitarianism in our Region – Flourishing in the 21st Century’ which is to be hosted by the South Australian congregation. The keynote speaker is Hugh Mackay (social researcher, sociologist and psychologist).
[122] SA Unitarian Church Website, http://unitariansa.org.au/. Accessed 21/12/15.
[123] Collated from Interview Notes.
[124] See Table 2.6 on Page 107.
[125] See Table 2.6.
[126] These tables were drawn from data collected at the time of interviewing participants and this was early in the fieldwork period. In any group of people, there are inevitable changes over time. This was evident during the fieldwork period, as over time, long-term members died or became too incapacitated to continue involvement with the community. On the other hand, newcomers sometimes rapidly gained influence within the communities.
[127] Fieldwork notes 146 The C3 Church in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, for example, offers groups for women and “blokes” as well as “Nxt Gen”— a once a month night “the church is turned into a fun zone for all the kids…dancing, games, food, prizes and much more.” http://www.c3oh.org.au. Accessed 16/1/16.
[128] I think South Australian Quakers are very comfortable and very inward looking and parochial. I think it might always have been like that. I think that there are fewer South Australian Friends per capita that attend Yearly Meeting. Extracted from Quaker interview notes.
[129] This congregation is extremely atypical. Unitarianism in Australia is atypical. There are only a couple of hundred of us in Australia and New Zealand. Unitarians, particularly in Australia, are less engaged on the civic front than their counterparts in the USA and Canada…The Melbourne group is quite socially engaged to the exclusion of religious practice... Our congregation tends to be very Church-centred. Extracted from Unitarian interview notes.
[130] Extracted from Interview Notes.
[131] Influencers Church Website, http://influencers.church/paradise/. Accessed 30/8/17.
[132] This term was coined by dance critic, John Martin, in his 1936 book, America Dancing, to describe the way dancers convey emotion through expressive gestures.
[133] In addition, Collins has examined the historical codification of Quaker practice (2002a) and aspects of political resistance and dissent among 17th century Quakers (2009b).
[134] Other attributes mentioned by Collins include commitment, meaningfulness, playfulness and the ability to be selfreferential, storied, confessional, performative, ideological and moral (2005:332-337). See Pages 13-14, & 221-223 for further discussion of Collins’s ideas.
