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Easter Monday’s National Day of Repentance builds on Australia’s long and rich Christian history. Discover the many calls for national prayer and repentance by Church and government leaders over the past two centuries.

The history of national days of prayer in Australia reflects the country’s strong Christian heritage. This legacy can be seen in the words of the Australian Constitution and the first act of Parliament in 1900, both stating, “humbly relying on the Blessings of Almighty God.”

This godly tradition of seeking divine intervention during times of crisis has continued to this day.

Brief History of National Days of Prayer

Australia has experienced many dramatic answers to these national days of prayer over the years.

Fifty years after the arrival of the first fleet, the Governor of NSW, George Gipps, a Christian, declared Sunday, November 2, 1838, a national day of fasting and humiliation in response to the severe drought. Within two days, heavy rains began to fall, causing many to catch the flu! (At one point, NSW governed most of Australia and numerous South Pacific islands, including New Zealand.)

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, national days of prayer were held during wars, droughts, and other national emergencies. Churches or government leaders often initiated them.

ANZAC Day, first observed on 25 April 1916, began as a solemn day of remembrance for the soldiers who landed at Gallipoli in 1915. In its earliest inception, concerned Christians founded it as a national day of repentance.

Early commemorations of ANZAC Day in Australia included church services and calls for national repentance, reflecting on the nation’s moral and spiritual state amid the losses of war. It was seen not only as a time to honour sacrifice but also as a time to seek divine guidance and renewal for the nation.

One notable instance of a national day prayer occurred when Prime Minister Robert Menzies called for one in 1940, during World War II.

In 1986, Dr Graham McLennan established the National Alliance for Christian Leadership (NACL), which comprised a diverse range of theological persuasions. At one point during its first assembly, delegates broke into small groups for intercession. The Lord soon made clear that a large national Christian witness was to take place in 1988.

Many groups, including the NACL and churches, worked together to stage Australia’s largest National Day of Prayer on 8 May 1988. The event celebrated the opening of Parliament House with a gathering of 50,000 people.

In March 2007, Brian Pickering, the coordinator of the Australian Prayer Network, organised a National Solemn Assembly, majoring in repentance, to pray for an end to the drought. Within a matter of months, rain started to fall, and the dams began to fill again. See the Healing of the Land documentary below to better understand the power of repentance and prayer combined with fasting.

Over the past five years, several historic Indigenous-led National Solemn Assemblies have been held across the nation. Ps Peter Walker, along with Ps Richard Evans from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, hosted several events in this vein.

National Day of Prayer

In recent decades, the prayer movement has become more organised and focused, with groups like the National Day of Prayer and Fasting (founded in 2011) uniting churches across denominations in an annual celebration. It is interesting to note that the Canberra Declaration underwrote these celebrations.

These events often centre on themes like repentance, unity, and revival, carrying on a legacy of collective spiritual reflection in Australian public life. As one of the early founders and the coordinator of the National Day of Prayer and Fasting, I can attest that repentance has always been a key focus of this day.

The National Day of Prayer and Fasting was changed to just the National Day of Prayer (NDOP) in 2024, and repentance was not such a strong part of the day. However, fasting is strongly associated with repentance in the Old Testament, so the NDOP continued to have a connotation to repentance.

Genesis of 21 April 2025 National Day of Repentance

The passion for promoting the need for national repentance continued under the leadership of Dr. Hilary Moroney, the founder of the Canberra House of Prayer. This was greatly inspired by Ps Jeff Daly from Middleton, California, who himself was the founder of both the USA National Day of Repentance and the Global Day of Repentance.

Commissioner James Condon, Chairman of the National Day of Prayer, was a strong supporter of Hilary’s vision for both church and national repentance, alongside Dr. Graham McLennan, Coordinator of the NACL.

Perhaps Australia’s first official National Day of Repentance in over 125 years was held last year by Dr. Hilary Moroney, under the guidance of Dr. Graham McLennan, on Sunday, 24 March 2024. This also coincided with a Global Day of Repentance organised by Ps Jeff Daly.

Ps Jeff Daly, who worked closely with Dr Hilary Moroney to further promote the ongoing call for repentance at an individual, church, and national level, shares his story in the video below. He explains his overview of the ministry work leading up to this historic National Day of Repentance on Easter Monday, 21 April 2025.

Several years ago, an informal group was established called “Australia Kneels.” Its purpose was to promote personal and national repentance in Australia and the Great Southlands of the Holy Spirit. Born-again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ were sought and gathered on Zoom calls, who possessed some or all of these seven characteristics:

• Have died to their old selves, moved now by the Holy Spirit in humility, open to working with others to advance His Kingdom, mindful to work at keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3).
• Discerning the times, that the Lord sees us as His Bride, and we need to be ready for His soon coming as our Bridegroom.
• See repentance as a gift from the Lord, as well as His way to heal a nation.
• Find repentance highlighted in His Word.
• Increasingly honour the conviction of the Holy Spirit to confess sin and then repent from that old sin pattern.
• Beginning to bear Holy-Spirit-produced fruits of repentance, with others witnessing their new godly character.
• Believe as an aspect of their unique calling by the Lord (John 15:16) that they are called to encourage personal and national repentance in their nation.

The 2025 National Day of Repentance

May many in Australia now follow this direction in these end times. May pastors and priests preach repentance, as the Lord Jesus did when He first began His ministry (Matthew 4:17). May repentance now become a fruitful reality in Australia this National Day of Repentance on Monday, 21 April 2025.

In 2 Chronicles 7:13–14, at the completion of the first Temple, the Lord gave Solomon a message. Its core conviction and promise still stand:

“If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people, and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”

Register for the National Day of Repentance here.

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Image via Adobe.