Religion

• Religious Leadership

  Provide authentic discernment of a religion's tradition and how this tradition relates to contemporary society. Authentic religious leaders are people that not only provide leadership but live their faith in a way that helps others live out their faith.
• Religious Structure

  The organisation of a religion, including its leadership. Typically, the way a religion is organised and led is complex and needs to be seen as a system rather than a collection of parts. These structures also may be well established and formal or less well-defined and informal.
• Religious Process

  How things are done in a religion. They often give expression to the workings of a particular religious structure. Such processes may be well defined, others less so. Typically, there is a system or way of doing something according to a series of steps, actions or understandings.
• The Parish

  • The Church today is whenever its members gather to continue the work of Jesus. The leader of a parish is a priest. The priest leads the community in celebrating the sacraments.
• The Diocese

  • An area that consists of a number of parishes, led by a Bishop. In a diocese, the Body of Christ gathers for special feasts and events in a Cathedral, which is the bishop's church. Members of a diocese are active in a special diocesan works such as hospitals and Catholic Schools.
• Ways the presence of religion can be observed in society

  • Religious buildings, such as churches, schools and hospitals
  • Religious traditions are visible such as Christmas and Easter (at Christmas, nativity Easter)
  • People wearing religious symbols and clothing
• Ways a person or group could respond to a religion

  • Acceptance
  • Rejection
  • Indifference
• Acceptance

  A person may positively respond to what is offered by religion and be influenced by what they encounter. They interact with religion and practice their faith through active worship and involvement in religious rituals.
• Rejection

  A person may have a conscious approach of rejecting religion. Their encounter with religion and religious matters may lead to rejection of its teachings and practices. They may not see a relevance for the context of the way they view the world they are living in.
• Indifference

  A person's awareness of religion, and interest in a reaction to religion may change throughout their life. They may not see a relevance for the context of the way they view the world they are living in.
• Social factors that may affect how people respond to religion

  • The presence of social disadvantage or hardship such as poverty, poor health conditions or even war
  • Cultural influences such as excessive consumerism
  • Social attitudes such as atheism or aggressive secularism (religion=private)
• Cultural influences such as excessive consumerism

  May lead people to not be able to find satisfaction in consumerism. Excessive consumerism distracts people from religion as they're so busy in their life they don't have time to pray or follow God.
• When you're excessively consuming you'll find it hard to connect with God. For example, you may make lots of money, but when you run out of money, you won't longer be satisfied