Amid Christianity's decline in Australia, network aims to plant 300 new churches by 2030

I don't see things changing much unless there is some sort of crisis which causes people to start thinking about death and dying becoming real possiblities.

My old (Protestant) pastor thought God would eventually give us a revival as He was sick and tired of losing Australians. When I asked him where he thought such a revival might start he said he thought it would be in the Catholic Church.

I asked him why. He replied the Protestants were far too divided, saying "When it comes to theology Protestants couldn't agree how far to spit!"

He died over 32 years ago and there still hasn't been a revival. God's not in a hurry it seems, although there is plenty of opportunity for God (and the devil) to make trouble for Australia - our dependence on Middle Eastern oil, Asian neighbours with many times our population and growing military and economic power; Indonesia is Moslem and our nearest neighbour with over ten times our population; China is our biggest trading partner and throwing her weight around, while she squares off with the USA for local influence; indigenous land claims; burgeoning national and state government debt; burgeoning personal debt (almost half of Australians have less than $1000 in savings); climate change activitism threatening our coal exports; and so on.

I remember reading where a retired British military officer commented somewhere that he would be very surprised if Australia's defence forces were not "put to the test" sometime in the 21st century, and sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile we'll be waiting till the late 2030's and early 2040's for our AUKUS submarines to be built. By that time all I'll be able to do is give a weedy nonagenarian cheer and keel over. I'll be out of it!

We'll see what happens.