Introduction

In an Australian novel set in the late 1920s on a cruise, the heroine contemplates the Sunday options available to passengers and crew:

Indeed class differentiation of religion has been a feature of Australian society since European settlement commenced in 1788 as a penal colony. Among the early settlers, the military and free settlers tended to be Anglican or Presbyterian, but convicts and former convicts were disproportionately Catholic. Assumptions that Protestantism was essentially the religion of the ruling class held through much of the 20th century, with other scenarios not even entertained in the public imagination (Dempsey, 1983).

Similarly, within the profession of social work, it is not uncommon to hear matters of religion discussed with a certain assuredness that no other possibility is imaginable. Over the last two decades there has been a growing interest in the role of religion and spirituality in social work practice internationally, including in countries such as Australia, places where for much of the 20th century social work sought to distance itself from its religious roots. However, while there is now much wider recognition that religion and spirituality can make a very positive contribution to wellbeing for individuals and communities, the professional imagination as to what this might involve has frequently been confined to particular situations, stages of life or fields of practice (Crisp, 2017).

Provision of welfare services by religious organisations

Differentiation by class differentiation on the basis of religion has been accompanied in Australia by a segmentation of welfare services by religion (Hughes, 1998). Unlike in some countries where the emergence of the welfare state saw religious groups hand over much of their welfare provision to the state (Prochaska, 2006), religious organisations remain major providers of health and welfare services to the Australian community, albeit much of it on contract to government departments and paid for by taxpayers (Crisp, 2014). Almost all of the 25 largest Australian charities are associated with organisations where religious beliefs underpin their existence (Lake, 2013).