About Church Clarity NZ

Church Clarity NZ is a transparency project that documents the publicly stated positions of New Zealand churches on two important issues: LGBTQ+ inclusion and women in leadership.

Our goal is not to advocate for any particular position, but to help people make informed decisions about faith communities by making these positions visible and easily searchable.

How We Score

Churches are scored across two dimensions. Each dimension has five possible ratings:

LGBTQ+ Position

• Clear Affirming— Church explicitly states they are welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people
• Unclear Affirming— Evidence suggests affirming but no explicit public statement
• Undisclosed— No public statement found on this topic
• Unclear Non-Affirming— Denominational affiliation or evidence suggests non-affirming
• Clear Non-Affirming— Church explicitly states a non-affirming position

Women in Leadership

• Clear Egalitarian— Church clearly allows women in all leadership roles including senior pastor
• Unclear Egalitarian— Evidence suggests egalitarian but no explicit statement
• Undisclosed— No public statement found
• Unclear Non-Egalitarian— Denominational affiliation or evidence suggests complementarian
• Clear Non-Egalitarian— Church explicitly restricts senior leadership to men

Methodology

Positions are determined by scanning church websites for explicit belief statements, membership in affirming networks (such as Diverse Church NZ), and denominational affiliations. Where a church has not made an explicit statement, we may infer a position based on their denomination's structural stance — these are marked as “Unclear.”

This database currently contains information on over 1,800 churches across New Zealand. Data is sourced from publicly available church websites and official directories.

Contact

If you believe any information is inaccurate or would like your church's position updated, please contact us through Diverse Church NZ.

Church Clarity NZ is a project of the Diverse Church Charitable Trust.