page_title: Scouts Australia
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Scouts Australia / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a digital image of youth members of Scouts Australia from several groups attending "Scouts Own" during a camp 中文（繁體）‎: 澳大利亞童軍各團青少年參與虔敬聚會的數位影像。
context_page_description: Scouts Australia is a trading name of The Scout Association of Australia which is the largest Scouting organisation in Australia. It is a member organisation of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. It operates personal development programs for children and young adults from 5 to 25 years of age in Australia and Australian territories. It was formed in 1958 and incorporated in 1967. Scouts Australia's programs were opened to girls after 1971.
  The current stated purpose of Scouts Australia is to "contribute to the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual potentials as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities".
  Despite opening participation to girls and ever younger children and Australia having a high population growth rate, well above the world average, participation in the organisation's programs declined in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. According to a 2014 media article, "Scouts Australia is hoping [to] arrest a steady decline in membership. In 1979 the organisation had 114,500 youth members, today there are 52,000."
context_section_description: To enrol with Scouts Australia you are required to make the Scout Promise. The unique wording in the Australian Scout Promise of “do my best to do my duty to my God" allows some flexibility and Scouts Australia is open to people of all religious faiths that can make this promise. In 2017, with the launch of "The Adventure Begins", a new promise option allows Scouts to "do my best to be true to my spiritual beliefs", to further open the promise to all religious faiths. 
  Historically, Scouting in Australia was rooted in Christianity as that was the world view of Scouts founder, Lord Baden-Powell. Although Britain is now a majority non-religious nation Christianity was the dominant faith in both Britain and Australia in Scouting's early days.
  More recently, participants have come from many faiths and although the majority of Scout groups promote an interfaith approach to religion. Many Scout groups have been formed within existing communities and specific religious traditions as "sponsored groups", such as Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Islamic and Jewish.
caption: Youth participants at a Scouts' Own, an informal act of worship, at a Scout campsite
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