Was New Zealand ever a Christian nation?

Yes and No.

Up until the fairly recent past, the majority of the New Zealand population, both Māori and Pākeha, identified themselves as “Christian” (though with widely varying degrees of faith, understanding, and commitment). In 1966, roughly 80% of New Zealanders identified with some form of Christianity. They acknowledged Christian ethics and morals, recognised continuity with the religious affiliations in Britain, and attended church at least sometimes. Many churches had strong ministries among children and youth.

In many matters the laws and customs of New Zealand society broadly reflected underlying Christian beliefs and values, as did school assemblies, Bible in Schools, Anzac ceremonies, funeral and weddings, the wording of the original parliamentary prayer, and later the very popular national anthem “God defend New Zealand”.

Nevertheless, New Zealand has never been an exclusively Christian society. it has always been the case that some people in New Zealand have been more nominally Christian, or not Christian at all.

Church attendance in New Zealand has never been as strong as in some other countries (except among Māori, in the 1840s and 1850s). Early census figures indicate that the all-time peak of weekly church attendance in New Zealand was just under 30%, in 1896.

There are certainly enduring spiritual elements in the way the Crown is constituted in British common law and understanding, as an expression of Romans 13:1, and this was understood by many Māori chiefs at Waitangi, and beyond. The Treaty of Waitangi has strong Christian roots, as recognised by many Māori.

New Zealand law has never explicitly recognised Christianity as New Zealand’s “official” or only religion. From the beginning, in 1840, there was freedom of religion, and no official State church or religion, even though the majority of both Māori and Pākeha identified as Christian. The 1990 Bill of Rights confirmed New Zealanders’ freedoms of religion, thought, and expression. Such freedoms are consistent with New Zealand’s Christian foundations.

How Christian is New Zealand now?

At census level, a decreasing percentage of the population (32.3% in 2023) now identify themselves as “Christian”, while in the same census 51.6% of New Zealanders stated that they had “no religion”. Despite growth and encouragements in some churches, many churches appear to be struggling, and fewer young people and children are to be found in many churches. It is often publicly claimed that New Zealand is now ‘“post-Christian” and “secular”. Many newer laws and policies permit or promote things that are contrary to biblical values. Christian beliefs and values can often be misrepresented or disparaged in public and social media. Very understandably, most Christians are concerned that New Zealand appears to be gradually becoming less Christian than it used to be.

How can New Zealand become more Christian?

Christians in New Zealand generally recognise that we live in a free and diverse society, with freedom of religion.

At the same time many of us would love to see a growth in Christian faith among New Zealanders of all cultures, an increased number of committed Christians, a greater number of flourishing churches in New Zealand, and an expanding and more positive influence of the Kingdom of God in this nation.

Can this be achieved by protests, political movements, legal initiatives, or by new government laws and policies? No, though all of those things can sometimes help bring about some helpful incremental changes.

What would make New Zealand more Christian in outlook and values in simply a greater number of Christians, through a significant turning of the spiritual tide in New Zealand, across the cultures. This can happen by the hand of God alone. The Spirit of God needs to sovereignly move in the hearts of many believers, and bring us to a deeper level of faith, prayerfulness, and discipleship. There needs to be more love, and more evangelism. The Spirit of God needs to call hundreds of thousands of unbelievers to himself, and to powerfully renew New Zealand churches and Christians.

Author: Dr Stuart Lange

Dr Stuart Lange is the National Director of the NZCN and is a Senior Research Fellow at Laidlaw College, where he was formerly Vice Principal. Stuart wrote and presented the historical DVD documentary Te Rongopai: 200 years of the Gospel in New Zealand, 1814-2014.