Set in Sydney during WWI, Seven Poor Men of Sydney (one of Christina Stead's better-known novels), offers a collage of characters in various states of emotional crisis. These include, of course, ‘seven men’, but also the rebellious character of Catherine Baguenault (sister to two of the seven men of the title). Much to her mother’s mortification, Catherine would parade through respectable inner-Sydney neighbourhoods soliciting support for her leftist political ideals and, most worrisome of all, wearing torn stockings. Now, to a post-modern society which has already traversed the heights of punk and grunge fashion, the image of Catherine Baguenault donning torn stockings while she collects flowers to sell at the local Labour Party bazaar is quite mild. Yet in her cultural context, it was considered a deliberate affront to social conventions. After all, a woman should be decent and in order.
Outside of the literary world there have been other women who also were willing to confront the social conventions of their day, though perhaps not in the same rebellious spirit as Catherine. The pioneering ministry of women was a distinctive feature of the first twenty years of Australian Pentecostalism.1 Like Catherine Baguenault, they were willing to wear torn stockings for their cause.2 The impetus for public ministry in these formative years was the revival spirit, the belief that in the last days the Holy Spirit would commission both men and women to service. Ordination was not restricted to gender, but rather related to in this early ‘charismatic’ period (in the Weberian sense) to giftedness.3 As Barry Chant asserts, 'Rather than wait for official benediction, they simply went ahead. Recognition usually followed, rather than preceded, active ministry.'4 Considering women could not even open a bank account without their husband's permission, opening up new fields of ministry was certainly not considered a woman's domain. Yet, these female pioneers metaphorically donned their torn stockings as they planted churches and established itinerant ministries across the country.
By 1925, eleven of the eighteen Pentecostal churches planted in Australia were founded by women. By 1930, twenty of the thirty-seven churches (for which information is available) were initiated by women.5 Then, in 1937 the fellowship of the Australian Assemblies of God (AOG) was born, a movement which the majority of these churches would join. Officially the eligibility of women for leadership within the new movement was recognised, particularly within its constitution.6 However, while the women pioneers were catalysts to initiating fellowships, they found it difficult to establish themselves as ministers over the long-term. The broader cultural pattern of male leadership7 which emerged in subsequent years has dominated the fellowship ever since, producing an ongoing tension between ideology and practice. On a national level, women currently comprise 16.8 percent of credentialed ministers, and only 3.7 percent of senior pastors. Torn stockings were appropriate in the harvest field, but could they be mended to match the senior pastors' suit?
Prophets and Priests
The sociological shift of the American AOG8 from its sect-like status to respectable denomination has been the subject of a massive study by Margaret Poloma.9 The routinization of charisma and subsequent institutionalization of the movement is particularly reflected in the declining numbers of women in ministerial roles. According to Poloma, '...women are rarely able to make inroads into this relatively affluent and increasingly male profession' (author's italics).10 Poloma draws upon the observations of Weber, who notes that the first stage of formation of a religious community (the 'prophetic stage') tends to be receptive of the ministry of women, an emphasis which then begins to subside.11 In applying the Weberian hypothesis to American Pentecostalism, Poloma (following, Barfoot and Sheppard) notes the reaction against women ministers in the institutional ascent (the 'priestly stage') of the American AOG. According to Weber, when this routinization sets in, pneumatic manifestations among women come to be regarded as dishonourable.12 In 1983, 14 percent of pastors in the American AOG were women, yet just over half (7.4 percent) were 'pastors of churches in their own right'.13 Poloma asserts, 'It is my thesis that as prophetic Pentecostalism increasingly lost ground to its priestly cousin, women had to overcome institutional obstacles and unequal allocation of resources in order to demonstrate the fruits of a genuine 'call'.'14 Janet James also comments, '...where the sects coalesced into organized churches, women's leadership and influence dwindled...the Pentecostal Assemblies of God ruled that female evangelists could no longer administer the sacrament, and many were diverted into the secondary role of teachers and missionaries.'15
Poloma's study is based on a survey conducted among 246 American AOG ministers, of whom 240 were male. The results of her study reflect the inconsistencies between ideology and practice. 'Although there is verbal support for an official position of allowing women in the Assemblies of God to pastor, such a practice is uncommon in reality.'16 Of the data collected, the most significant demographic characteristic was the age of the pastor; it revealed pastors over the age of 50 were more likely to show strong support of women in ministerial roles. This reflects a vicious circle: the expansion of ministers since World War II meant that fewer have experienced women in ministry as de-mobilized men flooded back into the ministry, which in turn reinforced the view the women’s ministry was and is ‘unusual’, and so perhaps undesirable. A relationship was also revealed between the scores of pastors on 'women in ministry' and 'mores' (r= -0.24). Poloma records, 'The data suggests that those who are more likely to uphold the taboos against alcoholic beverages, social dancing, and movies are less likely to be opposed to women in ministerial roles.'17 As younger ministers embrace evangelicalism (a core cultural marker in the USA) and the charismatic foundations and holiness traditions of earlier Pentecostalism decline, so does support for women ministers. 'The very success of the Assemblies has paradoxically made it more difficult for charisma to flow - particularly should the Spirit choose to rest on women.'18
Although there are significant parallels between the development of the AOG in the two countries (Australian and the USA), including the routinization of charisma and emerging professional male clergy, there are also significant differences. Unlike the AOG in America, which began among the urban and the working classes, the movement in Australia originated among middle-class and rural groups. According to Barry Chant, '...in Australia, its origins were among people of relatively comfortable socio-economic status.'19 Chant demonstrates the middle-class beginnings of Pentecostalism by a comparative study of occupations, which '...shows that the percentage of Pentecostals involved in professional occupations in the 1930s was roughly double that of the community while the percentage of labourers was approximately half.'20 However, the shift to denominational status of the AOG on both continents has been marked by a move from prophetic to priestly stages, as reflected by the decline of ministerial roles among women. This decline is more marked in Australian Pentecostalism which has not produced the sort of continuous female leadership seen in such North American figures as Aimee Semple Macpherson and Marie Burgess Brown. The increased nominalization of Australian Pentecostal membership, as suggested by the National Church Life Survey (NCLS), reinforces this picture of increasing institutionalization within the denomination.21
On the Horizon
It is the thesis of this paper that, coupled with this trend of institutionalisation within the Australian AOG, these developments reflect significant processes of enculturation among adherents, particularly regarding women's roles and behaviour. The religious tradition of the Australian AOG that supports women's ministry doctrinally, does not support it culturally. This is evident when comparing the roots of the fellowship to its present condition, and is the explanation offered for the tension between the ideology and practice of the movement. The oft-noted pragmatism of the movement works hand-in-glove with this process of enculturation. As one female pastor writes, 'In fact, more often, I have heard Pentecostals speak with pride about the fact that its articles openly allow for women to minister and lead churches. However, culturally it is unacceptable. There is actually an underlying perception that women simply cannot minister effectively.'22 Rather, the underlying culture of the AOG supports submission and separate ministerial roles for men and women, contrary to its theological position. The dominant cultural expectations are reflected in the exclusive language of the local constitution of the NSW AOG which states, 'The Senior Minister shall be responsible to conduct himself
with godliness and dignity befitting his position and to be an example. He shall give himself to prayer and the Word of God to be effective in preaching and administering the sacraments. (italics added)23
And in the case of women ministers, this cultural perception is more influential than the doctrinal lip service given to equality. Torn stockings were tolerated in the initial formation of the Movement but have become inappropriate amid growing Australian Pentecostal respectability.
The historical case study of Mrs Pauline Heath (sister Joy) in South Australia readily illustrates this pattern of enculturation. Sister Joy became the leader of a Pentecostal Church which had previously split. One faction linked with Richmond Temple, the other was eventually led by Sister Joy from 1927 until 1933.24 She had remained in charge until, as the newspaper of the congregation The Apostolic News records, 'a woman is not permitted to be a pastor according to the Scriptures [so Sister Joy] who has humbly, under God, led this work for some years, laid down that title nearly a year ago, and took instead the title of evangelist.'25 This congregation was to join the AOG fellowship in the late 1940s. The dominant cultural practice, which affected Sister Joy's resignation, preceded the doctrinal position. The cultural expectations of early Pentecostalism influenced the actions of Sister Joy before any theological stance was articulated. Although the official articles of the Australian AOG endorse women's ministry (though without specifying the type of ministry), the current statistics of women pastors does not reflect its official rhetoric. As Poloma notes of the American AOG, '...what the institution may say is not what it does.'26 It is a corollary of this hypothesis then, that women ministers in the AoG should be found to be more readily influenced by the underlying cultural forces that perform this ideological maintenance, and so that the nature of spirituality for women pastors of the Australian AOG falls more in the moral sphere than in the theological.
The Turn of the Screw
This attempt to analyze the social and theological forces that influence Australian AOG women in ministry began from a final year undergraduate research project at Southern Cross College (the national training college for the AOG in Australia). My experience and observations as a female (non- credentialed) AOG Chaplain at Sydney University for almost four years, formed the foundation of my interest in this subject. Although concurrent studies regarding attitudes to women in ministry within the Australian AOG are being conducted by Jim Reiher of Tabor College, there has been little research and interest in the sociological factors and personal struggles of women ministers in the AOG.
My research design has been based upon a survey instrument in which all women ministers in the AOG with Ordained Ministers Credentials (OMC) and Probationary Ministers Credentials (PMC) were invited to participate. Of the OMC and PMC female ministers, approximately 220 agreed to participate of which 87 (or about 40 percent) actually completed and returned the survey. By focusing on credentialed ministers, the survey is obviously not representative of all women ministering within the AOG movement. However, it offers insight into the patterns of authorized ministry which can potentially be utilized to assist future women leaders.
The survey questions were based largely on the work of Margaret Poloma, so as to facilitate the comparison of trends in Australia with her previous findings. The data collected from the surveys falls into three basic areas: demographic factors, sociological factors, and theological and moral mores. The demographic characteristics included age, marital status, education, language, country and religious origins, and income. The sociological factors included the perceived social class of the subjects, employment opportunities before and after ordination, their official role within the church and (if married) their relationship to their husbands within the local church. The theological and moral mores followed Poloma in concentrating on the acceptability of gambling, alcoholic beverages and social dancing, as well as views on tongues as initial evidence, submission and the role of men and women.27 The variables were then correlated to see what relationships existed between the different responses.
The Portrait of A Lady
The corporate portrait drawn from the many individual participants, suggest a credentialed woman pastor in the Australian AOG is more likely to be older (rather than younger). Although 57.7 percent were between the ages of 30 and 49, it is more likely they are at the older edge of the scale as 34.6 percent of respondents were above 49 years and none were younger than 30. Most of these women have only been credentialed in the last 6 - 10 years. The mature age of accreditation suggests women either enter ministry later in life, or have been active unofficially for the majority of their ministry years. Like the early Pentecostal pioneers, they have simply gone ahead without recognition. Considering that some (5.1 percent) have been ministering in their church for over 26 years, yet none have been credentialed for that length of time, suggests that a long apprenticeship of unofficial activity is normal before women take up credentials. As one of the qualifications of accreditation is a commitment to a life-long call of ministry, it is interesting to note that ministry credentials for many women are simply a recognition of previous faithful service rather than an endorsement for future ministry. Even if a participant evidenced a commitment from a young age, their ministerial activity is still mostly unofficial.
According to the survey, women pastors were more likely to have been born in Australia (67.9 percent), with a greater number of women likely to originate from Europe than the community average (see Table 2), and speak English as their native language (81.18 percent). Yet, of all the demographic characteristics, the most significant is the marital status of women pastors. Considering the holiness tradition of Pentecostalism and the current emphasis on team (i.e. married) ministry, the percentage of married women ministers in the Australian AOG is remarkably high. Some 87.2 percent are married, it is much higher than the community average (52.16 percent) - even considering the 10.59 percent of divorced or separated women in the community and the 8.5 percent of those included under 20 years of age (which still totals only 71.25 percent of women). Likewise, the proportion of single women (9.0 percent) is far below the community average of women never married (27.0). The implications of this finding for ministry will be discussed below. Conversely, the educational levels of AOG women ministers are not lower than community averages. This shows that lack of higher education has not hindered opportunities for women in ministry in the AOG,28 but a significant proportion view ongoing education as crucial by the high levels of women pastors with post-graduate qualifications.
The results of the sociological data presented interesting yet mixed findings. According to the survey, most AOG women pastors viewed their church adherents as 'suburban' (37.2 percent) and 'middle-class' (51.3 percent). This move in AOG away from its rural origins is most probably a shift mirrored in the wider community as country populations continue to decrease due to high levels of unemployment and urban drift. It may also reflect the move from its holiness tradition roots.
AoG: Community Average: Women based on statistics of ABS Age: Overall female population: Birthplace: Australia 67.9 0.05 New Zealand 3.8 12.04 Pacific Islands 2.6 0.016 Total: 74.3 Asia 2.6 0.004 Europe 20.5 Africa 1.3 North America South America Language: Education: Less than School Certificate School Certificate 33.3 18.95 (undergrad dip assoc dip) 4,999 or under 10.3 Most pastors viewed their churches as 'multicultural' (47.4 percent), yet only 5.1 percent conducted services in a language other than English. This absorption of fringe elements into a dominant culture, is also reflected in the survey results of the moral and theological mores. The demographic data of religious origins is particularly significant in the light of the religious history of respondents. Of all the women pastors surveyed 28.2 percent were raised in an AOG church. The correlation of salvation to denomination of origin (r= 0.39) also confirms that a participant raised in the AOG is more likely to be converted in the AOG. This reflects a growing realization of a coherent Pentecostal tradition (the corollary of which is the rising nominalization noted by the NCLS), and the subsequent transfer of culture to the second generation of church-goers. It is an underlying culture readily absorbed by transfers. The 39.7 percent of pastors that were actually converted in an AOG church, reflects the growth of the Australian AOG through transfer rather than conversion (a trend also reflected in the findings of the NCLS).29 It also means women pastors transferring from churches with their own traditions are swiftly adopting the behaviour and values of their new culture. The fact that the median group of AOG women pastors were raised in an Anglican church (28.2 percent), this trend of transfer growth in (both church adherents and) ministers has significant theological implications (as detected in the tendency away from fixed attitudes to initial evidence), but little detectable cultural influence. This corroborates the analyses of Hutchinson (1999), Kydd (1996), and others, who have noted the impact of the charismatic influx into classical Pentecostal churches. Normativity is decreasingly theological and increasingly cultural. In the light of the religious backgrounds of the women ministers surveyed, survey results reflecting traditional holiness-Pentecostal mores are quite remarkable. Responses show a softening on doctrinal issues, particularly the touchstone of classical Pentecostalism - tongues as initial evidence of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Only 50 percent of those surveyed strongly agreed and 34.6 percent agreed that tongues constituted the initial evidence. Considering the survey results of Poloma revealed women adherents in the American AOG were more likely to score higher in the area of charismatic experience30 than men, it can only be surmised that a survey of male pastors would produce even more alarming results to those staunch traditionalists within the movement.31 Yet, these findings confirm the NCLS results that while 26 percent of AOG adherents believe speaking in tongues is necessary for all, only 56 percent approve and speak in tongues, while a remarkable 12 percent approve but don't speak. In the minds of these women pastors, doctrinal statements of the church are not paramount, but hold equivalent status and importance with (or at least significant co-variance with) the issues of submission and roles permissible for women (r= 0.52). This reflects the impact of underlying cultural expectations upon the attitudes and behaviour of women in ministry. Like the theological shift, there also appears to be an ongoing shift from the Pentecostal tradition of holiness and segregation from expressions of worldliness, including social dancing, movies, drinking (alcoholic beverages) and gambling. Although the issue of gambling resulted in the most decisive responses from the participants, it is also a prominent issue in current Australian media reports. Of those surveyed, 89.7 strongly disapproved of Christians engaging in gambling, while only 10.3 percent strongly disapproved of them consuming alcoholic beverages. Yet, correlation trends show that a participant strongly opposed to gambling was more likely to be opposed to other taboos, especially drinking. Some 42.3 percent strongly approved of Christians attending movies while 35.9 percent strongly approved of engaging in social dancing. The most significant relationship to participants personal demographic measures, was the pastors age. Older women pastors were more likely to be opposed to modern cultural mores, while younger pastors were less likely to not find them acceptable (r= -0.35). Likewise older ministers were more likely to be opposed to Christians attending movies (r= -0.36). However, while it may appear that younger women pastors are expressing opposition to moral traditionalism, there is a correlation with the length of accreditation, regardless of the age of the pastor. The opposition to movies was held not only by older pastors, but also those longer accredited with the AOG (r= -0.36); the two naturally overlap, but are not identical. Therefore the longer a woman pastor has been ministering in the denomination (regardless of age, denomination saved or religious origins), the more likely she is to adopt traditional codes of practice as represented by the taboos. Likewise, if a pastor was raised in the AOG, then she is also more likely to think social dancing is not acceptable (r= 0.31). This suggests it is not only an issue of age, but of values adopted by the women pastors that are both conditioned and maintained by the enculturation process. Yet as the strongest correlations exist between moral variables as opposed to doctrinal ones, it suggests that although the denomination may espouse a particular theological stance, what the culture of the movement endorses is more influential than its doctrine. This is particularly true of the ideology and practice of women's role in ministry. Yet, the erosion of the holiness ethic is a double-edged sword. While it may suggest a reaction against the Pentecostal tradition, and a ray of hope for egalitarianism, it also has negative implications for women in ministry. While the demise of holiness traditions among women potentially counteracts the enculturation process, it cannot be assumed that this equates with egalitarianism in the minds of male pastors. The holiness movement originally propagated the rights of women, so to erode its ethic may also erode the revival spirit that originally propelled women in ministry, however short-lived it proved to be. The relationship between length of accredited ministry and age was found to be similar strength to the correlation seen between roles of men and women and the taboo on ‘movies’. If a participant was opposed to movies, then they also tended to support different roles for men and women (r= 0.33). It is interesting to note then, that younger women and/or those more recent to the denomination are less likely to support such systematic differentiation between the sexes. However, as they are enculturated by role pressures into the movement, this attitude is more likely to change. The general trend among those accredited longer suggests an inflexibility to any cultural challenge, including attitudes towards women's ministry. As Bouma asserts, 'It appears that church involvement promotes traditional femininity and socializes women to seek traditional roles of dependency, submissiveness and service when looking for a way to meet religious needs.'32 The question of submission was also a more impassioned subject for women than other moral issues. While 42.3 percent strongly agreed women should be in submission to their husbands, 41 percent agreed, while only 1.3 percent strongly disagreed. However, just as the length of ministry revealed the culturalisation process, so do employment trends tend to influence a participant’s attitude to submission. The survey suggested that the less full-time employment a pastor has within the church the less likely they are to agree with submission. Therefore, the more a woman pastor has experience of full-time employment in a church, the more likely she is to agree with submission. However, a woman employed full-time is also more likely to have a husband who is a pastor. The emphasis on team ministry, in this context, seems to support the traditional submissive role of women. A form of ideological maintenance is performed by AOG churches, in adopting cultural attitudes similar to the doctrinal attitudes of conservative evangelical denominations. As 51 percent of women pastors are married to male pastors, the agreement of women to submit to their husbands has ramifications for their professional relationships to colleagues and possible employers. The theological and cultural impact of women in ministry is also mediated by the non-formal domestic reality of economic need. The relationship between the level of income and position of the woman's pastor-husband in the church is startling. The higher the income earned by the female pastor, the more likely it is that her husband is not a senior pastor. One reading of this result may be the implication that women married to associate pastors are going to work, or working longer hours to sustain their husbands' ministry. This is not an indictment, just a social and economic reality; due to their autonomous local status and lack of ‘establishment’ among traditional wealth, most AOG churches rely heavily on women's financial support for ministry below senior pastoral positions. The minimal average income levels could not support a purely covetous motive for joining the church as a salaried worker. However, the economic need and humility of a team ministry such as the survey suggests, reinforces the enculturation processes active in the movement. The economic role of women in ministry is an area of study requiring urgent attention before any rounded understanding of the place of women in Pentecostal ministry can be achieved. The tendency among women pastors to equate personal moral convictions with doctrinal issues is an important consideration for the future of women's ministry. It not only reflects the cultural and social nature of women's spirituality, but also suggests the immense influence cultural forces within a denomination have on its female ministers and members. Women ministers raised in the denomination or longer accredited within the AOG, show a demonstrable tendency to be socialized to a dominant, mainly masculine, AOG culture. These cultural forces work outside the doctrinal and official arenas, through the personal convictions of women pastors. In a sense, this underlying culture is more important than the holiness traditions or the female legacy of the AOG pioneers, or even its egalitarian articles, since it is this culture which predicts occupational decisions within the movement. And these attitudes say women must be in submission to their husbands (and to their senior pastor, since the senior pastor usually is the husband as well). It also says women must have different roles to men. For a single woman, this means she must adopt a role similar to that of a married woman, though she is not married. For a newcomer, she must also adopt the role of the other women, whether she agrees in doctrine or not. The opportunities for future women leaders who do not ascribe to the cultural patterns of the Australian AOG seem limited. Unless a woman pastor is willing to subscribe to the enculturation process, in addition to doctrinal and moral standards, she is unlikely to be able to translate her vocation into full-time occupation. This may represent the difference between the called and the chosen, but it is more likely to reflect the central ambivalence of the AOG in Australia to cultural conformity. So, what will become of the torn stockings? It is interesting to note that while Catherine Baguenault exalted in her (fashion) statement of torn stockings, and the Australian AOG sanctions women in ministerial positions ‘appropriate’ to their gender, the concept of not actually wearing any stockings at all never seems to enter the equation. Why encounter the derisive smile at torn stockings when you can enjoy the social shock of wearing no stockings at all -especially as a protest to social evils such as the Melbourne Cup! To not only fly in the face of rigid, yet eroding, social conventions such as mandatory stockings or female subordination, but to live outside the box. Perhaps it is by overcoming these enculturation processes the theological and social implications of the Australian AOG constitution for the right and privilege for those called and gifted to minister, can be outworked in the local congregations of the movement. 1. B. Chant, 'The Spirit of Pentecost: Origins and Development of the Pentecostal movement in Australia, 1870-1939', Thesis for Ph D, Macquarie University, 1999, 39. 2. The concept of torn stockings also suggests the economic poverty some of the early pioneers, both male and female, willingly encountered. 3. Chant, 428. 4. Chant, 428. 5. Chant, 428. 6. The first conference of the AOG in Australia adopted the following article into its constitution, 'Believing that in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in this dispensation of grace the Lord has made no distinction in pouring out His Spirit both upon His handmaidens as well as His brethren, we recognize the right and privilege of those so called and gifted to minister, whether they be brethren or sisters in the Lord.' D.Cartledge, The Apostolic Revolution, (Sydney: Paraclete, 2000), 294. This experiential formulation of classical Pentecostalism raises questions about how the ‘text’ sets internal markers for the state of the Church should experience and ‘charisma’ decline. The decline of charisma in the church leads to a continuing need to fix obedience against an objective standard - the result being either an attempt to regain lost charisma (e.g. the Toronto Blessing), the rise of the Word (classical American AG evangelicalism), or the magisterium of the church (the rise of defacto Episcopal structures, creating tensions within a federal structure built around local autonomous churches). 7. J. Reiher, 'Early AOG Leaders in Victoria, A.C. Valdez and C.L. Greenwood, and their attitudes towards women in ministry and leadership in the church, unpublished paper, 5. 8. The term 'American' is used to refer to the North American AG of the USA. 9. M. Poloma, Assemblies of God at the Crossroads: Charisma and Institutional Dilemmas, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989. 10. Poloma, 115 11. Poloma, 102. 12. Weber quoted in R.A. Tucker & W. Liefeld, Daughters of the Church: Women and Ministry from New Testament times to the present, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1987, 374. 13. J.R. Flower, quoted in Poloma, 109. 14. Poloma, 106. 15. J. James quoted in Tucker and Liefeld, 373. 16. Poloma, 112. 17. Poloma, 117. 18. Poloma, 19. 19. Chant, 38. 20. Chant, 38. 21. M.Hutchinson, 'The New Thing God is Doing: The Charismatic Renewal and Classical Pentecostalism', Australasian Pentecostal Studies, Vol 1, 1998, 12 22. personal correspondence. 23. AOG NSW Conference, 'Local Churches Constitution': Suggested local constitution, '7.4 Powers and Duties of Senior Minister.' 24. Reiher, 7. 25. The Apostolic News quoted in Reiher, 8. 26. Poloma, 109. 27. The correlation and interpretation of the data would not have been possible except by the helping hand of my supervisor Dr Mark Hutchinson, who was able to assist with statistical manipulation and interpretation. 28. The findings of the NCLS also reveals the educational levels of AOG adherents (both male and female) to be lower than those in mainstream denominations. Eleven percent of AOG adherents held a Bachelors degree compared with 17 percent of their mainstream educational equivalents. P. Kaldor et al, Taking Stock, Adelaide: Open Book, 1998, 348. 29. According to the NCLS in the last 5 years, 28 percent of AOG attenders have switched churches, and 21% transferred from a different denomination. In comparison to the overall NCLS findings, 12 percent of attenders have switched churches, and only 16 percent have changed denominations. Kaldor et al, 226. 30. Although charismatic experience does not mean doctrinal agreement. 31. Poloma, 29. 32. Bouma, 124.
18-24
0.0
9.95
25-29
0.0
7.54
30-49
57.7
29.96
50-64
34.6
13.51
65 +
7.7
13.48
A. Overall female population: 76.2
0.004
0.0
1.3
Marital Status:
B. Females aged 15 years and over
Single
9.0
27 (never married)
Married
87.2
52.16 (currently married)
Widowed
1.3
10.14
Divorced
2.6
10.59(separated or divorced)
Overall female population:
English
81.18
94.9
Other
18.82
5.1
Female Persons aged 15 years and over with a qualification:
2.6
HSC
7.7
20.89 (Bachelor degree)
Trade/Business School
25.6
6.88 (Postgrad dip;higher degree)
University Degree
12.8
Post-graduate
12.8
Other
3.8
Average Income:
Weekly income of females 15 years and over (1996):
20.02 (nil - $119/week)
5,000 – 20,000
41.0
35.11 ($120 - $399/week)
21,000 – 40,000
24.4
20.99 ($400-$799/week)
41,000 – 60,000
6.4
2.68 ($800 -$999/week)
61,000 – 80,000
0.0
1.29 ($1,000 - $1,499/week)
81,000 or over
0.0
0.55 ($1,500 or more/week)
Survey Correlations
Conclusion
Notes