This data was put to Newstalk ZB’s Sunday at Six host and the lead chaplain at Media Chaplaincy, Reverend Frank Ritchie, in an effort to grapple with the complex role religion continues to play in Aotearoa’s evolving cultural context.
Speaking to The Front Page podcast, Ritchie isn’t surprised by the steady shift of people away from organised religion.
"In my 45 years of life, I've watched New Zealand change significantly as a nation, and that figure of people connected to organised religion keeps declining – and personally, I don't think it's a negative thing," says Ritchie.
While the influx of people from countries with different worldviews would have contributed to that drop, Ritchie says there’s also been an important shift among New Zealanders.
"I think there's a growing honesty in New Zealand. Back in the day, you would have had a lot of people who were christened or baptised as Anglican, Catholic or Presbyterian and then as they grew up they would have recognised themselves as being Christian whether they went to church or not.
"I think that need to culturally say that you're Christian when you might not necessarily be something that you hold to be true is decreasing. What I think we're seeing as time progresses is New Zealanders becoming more honest."
Asked whether he thought it was still appropriate for the nation to have this mandated holiday when there was such a widespread of religious affiliations across the country, Ritchie said he understood why some might be asking this question.
"People who don't have any sort of faith whatsoever might see it as confusing that a nation would elevate the celebration of one religion's holy days over another. But as someone who's travelled a bit to nations that are highly religious but hold to a different religion than what has been predominant in New Zealand's history, the idea is not strange at all.
“For instance, I spent time with Muslim friends in Israel and Palestine and found a whole lot of commonality. There’s an understanding we have of each other because we have a shared religious way of viewing the world that say my atheist friends don’t have. Even here in New Zealand, I’ve sat down with a number of people from other religions and they have no problem that we celebrate Easter and Christmas.”
Listen to the full podcast for more from Frank Ritchie on the role of religion in New Zealand, and why there’s a strong non-religious reason to keep Easter trading bans in place.
