Editorial Introduction
This inaugural edition of God’s Review is in response to several local and universal social conditions here in Hobart. Firstly, we recently heard in church that only 7% of Australia’s Christians go to church on any given Sunday, and only 4% of Tasmanians follow suit. Secondly, some churches are dying out in droves as their traditional parishioners get older and their progeny move away. Tides of Christians move between churches as they follow their own leanings towards a fuller experience of God. Tasmania being God’s own country, having a high proportion of churches, it also has a wide variety of churches - a veritable smorgasbord! Many of these churches already have their own publications, although they are a long way from objective, and are generally not recognized by other churches. We would like to approach our God-experiences from all areas of belief, while realizing that the Tasmanian religious population is dominantly Christian and that, for example Hare Krishna devotees may not have any choice at which temple to practice their religion in Hobart.
Who are we to dodge our duty to evangelise, when there are so many good churches out there to recommend? On the flipside, not all churches are perfect, and congregations may feel like they do not have a voice when they are all ears
This revue will feature personal profiles on some of Hobart’s favourite priests, ministers, lay preachers, and servants of God, while introducing readers to a different church every month. This will be an independent review of all God’s churches in the Greater Hobart area, in their various ministries and toils. This is not the place for revelations about which minister has been fiddling whom, nor will we publish your crush on that gorgeous youth leader, but we envisage a religious publication free from control by any one particular religious organization, including the Atheist Party.
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