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National Christian Heritage Sunday celebrates the Gospel of Jesus Christ arriving on Australia’s shores. This year we celebrate it on Sunday 5 February.

Australia’s first minister, Rev. Richard Johnson, arrived with the First Fleet on 20 January 1788. Then, on 3 February 1788, Rev. Johnson held the first Christian service in Australia. This event is celebrated on the first Sunday in February each year.

As Australia’s first Chaplain, Rev. Johnson spent twelve years in Australia from 1788 to 1800 with several roles as military and prison chaplain, parish priest, and missionary to the indigenous community.

On the Shoulders of Giants

William Wilberforce and John Newton, the former slave trader of Amazing Grace fame, were the chief sponsors of the Botany Bay chaplaincy. Newton became Johnson’s important mentor, confidant and advisor, calling him the “first Apostle to the South Seas”.

Newton, with friends such as William Wilberforce, founded the Eclectic Society, seeing Johnson as “the means of sending the Gospel to the other side of the Globe”.

It was William Wilberforce in 1786 who suggested to the then Prime Minister William Pitt to have a Chaplain.

Worship

The first service conducted on Australian soil was an impressive occasion. Careful preparations were made, the convicts being ordered to ‘appear as clean as circumstances will admit…’ and ‘No Man to be Absent On Any Account Whatever’. The guard was to be changed earlier than usual, so as to give those who had been relieved ‘time to cleanse themselves before Church’. The ‘Church Drum’ was to beat at 10 0’clock.

The Fleet had been in Sydney Cove the previous Sunday, 27 January, but no service was held until some semblance of order had been created onshore, the service taking place the following Sunday 3 February 1788, 235 years ago on a nearby grassy hill, the text being Psalm 116:12 — ‘What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?’

Watkin Tench reported that the behaviour of both the troops and convicts was ‘equally regular and attentive’.

Educator

Richard was married, but little is known about his wife, Mary. There is only one letter recorded of her corresponding with friends or relatives. She must have been a very pioneering, courageous, adaptable, patient and caring woman.

Johnson was a man of prayer and hope looking beyond the immediate and mortal, believing in God’s sovereign purposes for this new nation. He had brought with him over 4,000 pieces of Christian literature, including 100 Bibles and 400 New Testaments.

He was also Australia’s pioneer educationalist, establishing Australia’s first schools.

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You can read more about the foundations of the church in Australia on the National Christian Heritage Sunday Website. Republished from Vision Christian Media. Image: Portrait of Richard Johnson by Garnet Terry/Creative Commons.