Archbishop Kanishka Raffel made conversion, his and the need for Sydneysiders who do not know Christ to be converted, the theme of his speech to this year’s Sydney Anglican Synod (church parliament). He told the story of his own conversion, highlighted other people coming to Christ as the synod began a deliberation of bold targets to increase the number of Christians  by five per cent each year for the next five years.

“I believe in conversion because I was converted. Next January,

it’ll be 40 years since by God’s grace he opened my eyes to see the sin in my own heart and the grace that flows from the cross of Christ. A death of limitless power, a sacrifice of matchless beauty to satisfy a just wrath 

to atone, immovable and infinite sin, to overwhelm and heal a deep and deadly corruption. 

“Reading the gospel alone in my room, not because I was on a search for God, but because God was on a search for me. 

Reading the gospel because I had promised the friend who gave it to me that I would do so. Not knowing that the friend who gave it to me was praying that I would read it and be converted. Not knowing that my Christian grandmother had prayed, I guess for my whole life, that I would be converted, until the end of hers. Not knowing, despite having been told that another friend who’d been converted by the Lord when we were 14 had started to pray for the conversion of his Buddhist friend and hadn’t stopped. Not only that, but he also enlisted his friends to pray for me as well and they did, and the Lord heard their prayers… 

“I believe in conversion because Sydney needs to be converted. The challenges facing Sydney are myriad: the cost of living, the housing crisis, domestic violence, the epidemic of youth anxiety and depression, social isolation, polarisation and discontent spilling onto the streets.

Complex problems, not easily solved, and enormous human suffering. We are impacted along with everyone else, but often, too, churches are picking up the pieces, offering comfort and hope.

“Nevertheless, we say what Sydney needs most is Christ. The National Church Life survey reported in May, that in Protestant, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic churches across Australia, average weekly attendance in 2024 was about 1.3 million Australians or about 5 per cent of the 27 million population of our nation. 38 per cent of all church attending Australians live in New South Wales and the ACT, the largest proportion of any state or territory in raw numbers. 

“That’s about 495,000 people in New South Wales and the A CT attending Church Weekly. The average weekly attendance at Sydney Anglican churches is just over 50,000, including children based on 2024 reporting, which means nearly one in 10 churchgoers in New South Wales and the ACT are attending Sydney Anglican churches. 

“But the population of the diocese, which is roughly greater Sydney and the Illawarra, was about 5.5 million at the 2021 census. That means that more than 5 million people in the Diocese of Sydney were not attending any church. About 10% of Australia’s population profess other religious, uh, other religions, but in 2021, 30.9% describe themselves as having no religion at all.”

Archbishop Raffel then introduced the central theme of the Synod, a proposal to “to commit and commend ourselves again into the service of God so that Jesus is honoured in our midst as men and women, young and old, First Nations people and those from every nation under heaven who now, now resident in our midst, turn to Christ in repentance and faith. He died that we may live. May we not live so that others may know eternal life through faith in Jesus. Must we not commit ourselves to the conversion of Sydney? Is Jesus not worthy? Are our friends and family not needy.”

The Archbishop reflected on a report to last year’s Synod that revealed a decline in attendance, which forms the background to this year’s call to focus more keenly on evangelism, with a 5 per cent growth target for each of the next five years,  but then highlighted how churches have already responded.

“I have been deeply encouraged in the last 12 months at the ways in which people have sought to respond to the call of last year’s Synod. …

“Churches and mission areas are being creative and collaborative in wonderful ways. Let me tell you some of them. The Macarthur mission area has just hosted the Macarthur Men’s Conference for its second year. 

“Last year, the Toongabbie and Wentworthville mission areas held a joint Moore College mission and have continued to share training opportunities and encourage each other in local evangelism. Dundas and Greystanes parishes are partnering in Sunday services and share one treasurer and one safety ministry rep, enabling others to serve in other ways. 

“On the northern beaches, a recent night of prayer for the spread of the gospel was attended by 400 people from 13 Anglican churches. Some of the older saints said they couldn’t remember such a thing taking place for 50 years. I hope you find this thrilling, and there is much, much more.

And I hope as we meet together in Synod, you will lean across the seats and ask the people around you what is the Lord doing…

“I heard recently of two, two different women who became Christians after attending English language classes at two different churches that had the word welcome in their in their language on the church’s street sign. 

“Now, if you put the word welcome on your street sign, in the language of one or more of the cultural groups who live in your suburb, and someone from those groups came to church, what would you do next to help them find out about Jesus? Have you got a plan for that? 

“In some parts of Sydney, when a person becomes a Christian from another cultural background, they can’t tell anyone because it would disrupt too many relationships or even put their safety at risk. Likewise, many churches are finding that it takes longer for someone to become a Christian even if they are attending church regularly. You might have someone who’s on the way but takes several years before they’re willing to say, I turn to Christ.
“My point is our ministry contexts are gloriously varied. Our ministry tactics will vary, but can we commit ourselves to the prayerful work of gloriously varied. Our ministry tactics will vary, but can we commit ourselves to the prayerful work of seeking under God to see 5% growth at every church through people coming to know Christ and confess him as Lord?”

Raffel shared some stats on youth ministry, a key part of the 5 per cent goal.

“ SRE [voluntary teaching in public schools] is the largest public ministry on our front doorstep, providing as it does a wonderful opportunity in New South Wales public schools. We have over 2000 teachers from 250 of our churches involved in 1050 schools. Isn’t that magnificent?

“McCrindle has reported a renewal in the spiritual search among Australians and that Gen Z, those who are now between the ages of 13 and 28 are more likely than any of the older generations to have had spiritual conversations thought about the meaning of life, thought about God prayed or read the Bible and while the number of Gen Z young people who identify as practicing Christians is around 10%, there’s another 20% of Gen Z women at a surprising 30% of Gen Z men who identify as Christian but are not actively practicing faith.
“We shouldn’t acquiesce in a narrative that young people are uninterested in faith in general or Jesus in particular. There’s plenty of evidence to the contrary, just as there is evidence of a battle for the souls of young men especially, are we ready to speak to them of the Lord who loved them and gave himself for them? …

“YouthWorks can point to 175 churches who engage with the three soon to be four annual leaders in training camps, now seeing over a thousand senior high youth attend being equipped to run youth and children’s ministry. There are three Square One kids ministry camps with over 900 children in attendance drawn from our local church children’s ministries. 

“You might have a little Sunday school – send them along to a square one camp, and there’ll be hundreds more. Both of these camps have nearly doubled in size over the past four years.
“YouthWorks has seen recent growth in the number of young people making professions of faith in local church youth and ministry programs, youth and children’s ministry programs ranging from 5% to 50%.
“Youth ministry has also been the sphere of gospel minded collaboration and mission areas. Parramatta Mission Area held a combined youth night. Earlier this year, 100 teenagers attended, five gave their lives to Christ.
“Six churches from the Harbour and Chatswood Lane Cove mission areas ran a youth event in August where 200 young people in leaders came together to pray and to be equipped to reach their friends. Four of the Bayside Mission area churches held a combined young adults camp with 60 in attendance from a dozen cultural backgrounds. That’s a camp that looks a lot like Sydney.
“23 youth groups, 23 youth groups from the Inner West churches combined for an event attended by 500 teenagers. Perhaps even more encouraging is the weekly combined youth group of Leichhardt and Village Annandale, which has resulted in a critical mass of about 25 attenders, four times the size of the groups that had previously existed separately.
“The 13 churches of the Northern Beaches held a youth event at one of our schools, St. Luke’s Dee Why, with 570 young people in attendance, 110 of whom stood to profess Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

Praise God. I’m so grateful for these efforts and my prayer is that every church will consider how to more effectively reach children and young people.

“The attendance pattern report presented to Synod last year showed that in the 2022-23 year there was a post COVID recovery in attendance of 11%. We are praising God that this has continued in the last year. In [2024] total attendances across the diocese have gone up by a further four and a half per cent. Of the 18 mission areas that decreased in attendance between 2013 and 2023, 14 increased in the last year. Four of our five regions saw an increase in the last 12 months. Western Sydney had a small decrease. Average weekly attendance fell from 47,800 in 2013 to 44,598 in 2023. That has bounced back somewhat in 2024 to 46,594 adult attenders. We give thanks for such encouragement of faithful, persevering, prayerful, imaginative collaborative ministry and its fruits and we praise God for his sovereign grace, Synod. Can we commit ourselves under God to prayerfully seek his work among us to see every church in the diocese grow by 5% in each of the next five years through the conversion of adults, youth, and children to faith in Christ? I hope we will do so.”