5th February, 2015
 |
|
The service commemorating the 227th anniversary of the first Christian gathering on Australian soil. PICTURE: Ramon Williams |
Christians gathered in central Sydney this week to mark the 227th anniversary of first Christian service on Australian soil.
Organised by the Australian Christian Nation Association and NSW MLC Rev Fred Nile, the service commemorates that held by the Rev Richard Johnson on 3rd February, 1788, under a "great tree" (near where a memorial now stands commemorating the erection of the first Christian church in Australia).
Among those who attended Tuesday’s service, held in Rev Richard Johnson Square at the corner of Hunter and Bligh Streets in the CBD, were Dame Marie Bashir, former governor of NSW, and Associate Professor Stuart Piggin, of Macquarie University, along with representatives of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, the International Coptic Union and the Australian Monarchist League.
In his keynote speech addressing the theme of ‘Does our heritage matter?’, Dr Piggin hosed down the "stereotype" that Australia was a "post-enlightenment secular nation" and that it was never intended Christianity be foundational to the colony founded in 1788, saying that, on the contrary, the Christian faith was seen as central to the freedom of Australians.
Dr Piggin also countered the view that Australia was settled "as a dumping ground for convicts", instead saying the Sydney settlement is "best understood as a visionary reform experiment".
He described it as a "myth" to believe that Australia "is committed to the rigid separation of church and state if by that it is meant that they must have nothing to do with each other".
"Of course, no-one wants a church in the pocket of the government or a government in the pocket of the church," he said. "A free church in a free state is good polity. But the best outcome for society and the church is when there is a complementarity of church and state when the cause is right. So we have today in Australia extensive co-operation between church and state in education, welfare and health, a co-operation in the best interests of our community."
As well as defending Rev Johnson against criticisms that a church service was not held on the first Sunday in the colony and that, when he did preach, Rev Johnson’s message showed he was "out of touch", Dr Piggin also highlighted another member of the first fleet – the "truly remarkable" Lieutenant William Dawes.
An Evangelical Christian (and astronomer and surveyor), Dawes, Dr Piggin said, befriended the Indigenous Eora people – his notebooks reveal his "wonder at aspects of Aboriginal culture and his sensitivity to their plight" – and recorded how he was "appalled" when Captain Arthur Phillip ordered the capture and execution of six Indigenous men after a gamekeeper was killed. Dawes later become governor of the freed slave settlement of Sierra Leone.
– DAVID ADAMS
