History of Christianity in Australia pre 1945 (also Judaism and Islam)
From http://portal.waverley.nsw.edu.au /library/SOR/06 australia pre1945/australia pre summary.html
Click here for some recent government statistics. In the 2021 census, 43.9% of Australians identified themselves as being of the Christian faith.
In the 2016 census, the figure was 52.1%, and of those aged 65 and older, the figure was much higher at 70%.
Click here for the statistics in the November 2017 postal survey regarding same sex "marriage".
49% of registered voters voted "Definitely Yes", 30.5% voted "Definitely No", and 20.5% made their call "No response". Regardless of media hype, while that was a strong mandate in favour of change, it also reflected the diversity in our land.
Click here for a census (including religion) in Brisbane back in 1846 reported by the Moreton Bay Courier. 
The arrival and establishment of Christianity in Australia
Back in 1788 Reverend Richard Johnson was appointed Church of England chaplain in the founding of this prison colony, due, in large part, to the influence of two notable men, John Newton and William Wilberforce, who were keen for a committed evangelical Christian to take the role. Johnson and his wife thus sailed with the First Fleet.
At the first open air Christian service held at Sydney Cove on Sunday, 3 February 1788, Johnson took as his text Psalm 116:12-13: What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?
I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.
He also supervised the colony's schools, attended executions, worked among the convicts and organised and funded the building of the colony's first church, opened in 1793. He worked extensively with the Aboriginal population. A young Aboriginal girl, Abaroo, lived with his family and Johnson gave his daughter an aboriginal name, Milbah.
He remained in Australia as senior chaplain until 1800 before returning, apparently temporarily, to England though his "temporary" leave was a permanent one.
1794 Following William Wilberforce's recommendation, Samuel Marsden with his wife Elizabeth arrived as an assistant chaplain. Made senior chaplain in 1802, though on a partial stipend. Combined this work with being a sheep farmer, also a fairly severe magistracy. Other than a brief return to England (between 1807-1810), worked tirelessly in Sydney and Parramatta, also visiting New Zealand seven times, until his death in 1838. Closely associated with all the Governors, though not always on good terms.
1795 First Presbyterian church service. Conducted by Thomas Muir, who had received a 14 year transportation sentence with other Scottish rebels in 1794. However he was released on arrival by order of Governor Hunter (a fellow Scot), and received “a neat little house” with a farm two miles away on the Parramatta River. But his stay was brief. He escaped in February 1796 on a fur-trading American ship that had landed in Sydney for supplies. Wounded in a battle, he died in Paris in 1799.
1795-1798 Political uprising in Ireland resulted in deportation of further political prisoners to Australia including three Catholic priests, Fathers Harold, Dixon and O'Neil.
1798 English missionary, James Fleet Cover, a Congregationalist from the London Missionary Society arrived fleeing unrest in Tahiti.
1803 As a concession to the Irish Catholics, Father James Dixon authorised to say first mass for Catholics in the colony.
1804 Castle Hill rebellion. Subsequently, Dixon's permission to say mass was withdrawn as the government feared that the priests would use such an occasion to incite opposition against the British (the vast majority).
1815 English missionary, Samuel Leigh, first Methodist minister arrived. Hard working preacher, established the first Methodist circuit, with some fourteen preaching places. Became friends with Samuel Marsden, stayed until 1832 when he returned to England following the death of his wife in 1831.
1817 Arrival of Irish Trappist monk, Jeremiah O'Flynn. O'Flynn was a Catholic priest who claimed to have permission from British authorities to minister to the Catholics of the colony. However, due to his poor command of English (Trappists are renowned for spending much time in silence), such permission had actually been refused. O'Flynn continued his ministry for some months before being arrested and deported.
1820 Irishman, John Joseph Therry arrived. Therry came with an official mandate from London to minister to the Catholics of the colony.
1823 Scotsman, Rev. John Dunmore Lang (Presbyterian) arrived in the colony. Fervently evangelical. Other than brief trips back to England and the U.S. to recruit other similarly minded ministers, remained in Australia until his death in 1878.
1829 Englishman, Rev. William Grant Broughton arrived as Church of England Archdeacon.
1835 Englishman, though with Irish sympathies, Bishop Bede Bolding arrived as first Catholic Bishop of Australia (New Holland, Van Diemen's Land and the adjoining islands). Note, until the 1930s, virtually all Catholic priests in Australia traced their ancestry back to Ireland.
1836 Following a trip to England, William Grant Broughton became first Church of England Bishop of Australia.
The arrival and establishment of Hebrew Synagogues in Australia
1788 The first Jews arrive in Australia as convicts on the First Fleet. Referred to as Hebrews.
1817 Minyan (Prayer Service) formed and a Chevra Kadisha (Burial Society) established.
1830s The first Hebrew synagogue takes place in the home of Phillip Joseph Cohen who is authorised to perform Jewish wedding ceremonies. Cohen's community were easily accepted into the Australian community, because unlike their European counterparts, they all spoke English.
1838 Bridge St Synagogue large enough to hold 100 males and 30 females.
1843 First Victorian community formed.
1844 Permanent synagogue consecrated in York St Sydney . This synagogue could hold 500 people and was to serve as the centre of Hebrew life in Sydney until the Great Synagogue.
1845 First synagogue consecrated in Tasmania.
1848 First synagogue opened in Victoria.
1850 First synagogue in South Australia consecrated.
1850s The number of Jews in Victoria grew from a few hundred to over 3000 during the gold rush period.
1876 Earliest consecration of a synagogue in Queensland.
1878 Great Synagogue built in Elizabeth St in Sydney with Alexander Davis as Chief Rabbi.
1900 Development of organised Hebrew community in Western Australia.
The arrival and establishment of Islamic Mosques in Australia
Prior to 1788, visits from Macassan fishermen are recorded, being Muslims from South East Asia.
1860s The camel transportation industry sees a significant increase in the number of Muslims arriving in Australia from mainly Pakistan and Afghanistan. By 1880 there were approximately 3000 Muslims who were working as camel drivers in Australia.
1882 First Islamic mosque built in Maree, South Australia.
1890 Islamic mosque built in Adelaide.
Small numbers of Muslims have now arrived in Australia from Lebanon and Turkey. Also, Muslims from Indonesia brought into Australia to work in the pearling industry and on sugar plantations.
1901 Introduction of the Immigration Restriction Act, commonly known today as the White Australia policy, significantly decreased the number of Muslims living in Australia. Many were forced to return to their homelands. In 1911, approximately 300 Turkish Muslims were counted in Australia, and those numbers decreased after World War 1 following the Australian war with Turkey.
The impact of sectarianism on the relationship among Christian denominations in Australia pre-1945
- Sectarianism refers to rivalry or division along religious lines.
- Sectarianism leads to severe discrimination, persecution and violence.
- Social and political reasons mixed with religious reasons.
- At the time of the arrival of the first fleet (1788) there was considerable rivalry and bitterness between the Church of England and Catholics in England and Ireland.
- The Protestant reformation of the 16 th century had left a great deal of bitterness between the Catholics and Protestants.
- Secondly, the occupation of Ireland by the English and the oppression of the Irish people maintained that strength of feeling.
- The colony was set up with the Church of England as the established religion. Catholics in the colony were a small minority and many felt they were harshly treated.
- Importantly, everybody was expected to attend a Divine Service, spoken in English (not Latin) on Sunday.
- Irish convicts (Catholics) were referred to using a horrible word, "scum", by most of the English authorities.
- In 1804, Napoleon became Emperor of France, a country at war with England (and the rest of Europe and Russia) until his final defeat in 1815. The French were historically a Catholic country, Napoleon himself reportedly considered Catholicism "the form of worship most favorable to the maintenance of order and the true tranquility of the moral world — Protestantism was a source of trouble and disagreements".
- Education became an important political issue after 1835 which was played out according to sectarian division.
- Employment practices had become instances of sectarianism. Notices regarding positions vacant often included the qualification "Catholics need not apply". However, this discrimination in employment was not practised in the Public Service. Catholic schools accordingly had a strong focus on preparing their students to pass the annual Public Service examination.
- Debate over conscription in World War I further fuelled this sectarian rivalry. With war threatening everywhere, universal military training for Australian men aged 18 to 60 had been compulsory since 1911. Australian voters were asked in October 1916, and again in December 1917, to vote on the issue of conscription. The referendums, if carried, would have extended this requirement to service overseas.
Both referendums were narrowly defeated, 1,087,557 in favour and 1,160,033 against in 1916, and 1,015,159 in favour and 1,181,747 against in 1917. - Leaders of mainline Protestant Churches had urged citizens to show loyalty to Britain and support the referendum.
- Catholic leaders by contrast were strident in their opposition. This led to a great escalation of hostility towards Catholics who were considered as traitors, though many acknowledged that a significant number of Protestants must have also opposed the issue for both referendums to be defeated.
The contribution of Christianity to social welfare in Australia (prior to 1945)
The reason for the contribution of Christianity to social welfare was that assisting the needy and the disadvantaged formed a central part of the Christian ethos. Also in providing education for the needy.
- 1838 Caroline Chisholm worked to ensure safe passage and assisted with settlement and the finding of employment of over 10,000 migrants. She particularly concerned herself with the welfare of female immigrants, setting up a Female Immigrants Home.
- 1866 Catholic Order of St Joseph founded by Mother Mary MacKillop and Father Julian Tennyson Woods to teach children of the poor.
- 1888 Mother Esther establishes the first Church of England religious order to work for poor women and prostitutes.
- 1897 Nathaniel Dawes establishes the Bush Brotherhood (Church of England) with preachers on horseback providing ministry to those living in rural and remote areas.
- 1920s Rev John Flynn (Presbyterian Church) developed the Flying Doctor Service and the School of the Air.
- 1930 Great Depression. With aid and relief insufficient to tackle poverty, Christian Churches lobbied the government for structural changes in how the State provided welfare, resulting in the introduction of unemployment benefits.
The influence of Christianity on education, with growing population
- 1825 NSW Schools Estates Corporation Charter
- 1836 NSW Church Act "Pound for pound" subsidy to Church of England, Catholic, and Presbyterian denominations
NSW population was then 77,000 residents with as many as 14,000 children under 12 years of age. Convict transportation to NSW was about to end (in 1840). Many residents were now moving away from Sydney and something needed to be done about schooling infrastructure.
- 1880 NSW Public Instruction Act formalised public education as being "Free, compulsory and secular" and abolished the 1836 Act
The NSW population had by then accelerated almost 10-fold from 77,000 in 1836 to 750,000 in 1880. By 1887 it would become 1 million, by 1919 2 million, by 1947 3 million, by 1962 4 million, and in 2019 8 million.
One seventh (1/7) of all colonial land grants were to be reserved for Church of England schools and churches.
NSW population in 1825 was 38,000 residents, with most still living in Sydney.
Enacted by Governor Bourke - for every pound raised by the different denominations, government would contribute the same amount for its schools in return. Initially made available to just Church of England, Catholic, and Presbyterian denominations, it was later extended by Governor Bourke to the smaller denominations i.e. Methodists and Baptists, as well as to Jewish congregations. This act was opposed by many Presbyterians and others who believed that religion and government should be separated, and hence governments should not be providing any funding for religious schools. Furthermore, the financial advantage it provided "city folk", where costs were lower, added to the rural versus urban class divide.
NSW Premier Henry Parkes in 1880 was said to grieve the separation of Catholic children from others with whom they would have to 'mix in later years', and his exhortations 'let us be of whatever faith we may, let us still remember that we are above everything else free citizens of a free commonwealth'. Similar thoughts were expressed in Victoria, Qld, etc.
So, as state schools opened, many church schools had to close except for where the parents were able to meet the costs of education themselves. Funding for church and other independent primary schools was not looked at again until the late 1960s.
Public morality (prior to 1945)
- Sabbatarianism (Sabbath Observance)
- Sexual morality
- Temperance movement
- Gambling and Prostitution
It encouraged Church attendance. Evangelical Protestants strongly supported this as it was thought to improve one's moral and spiritual character. Legislation was accordingly brought in that abolished recreational activities, as well as servile and commercial labour on Sundays. Church of England and Catholic Church were less stringent in their views as they saw no harm in recreational activities on the Sabbath, as long as it did not involve servile labour.
There was widespread opposition among all Christian denominations towards extramarital relationships, homosexuality, and divorce. Evangelical Protestants were particularly outspoken in their opposition to these matters.
To overcome problems related to the drinking of alcohol, thousands of abstinence pledges were made as the "temperance" movement gathered steam, via groups such as the Rechabites and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Partly in this attempt to improve public morality, partly also as a war austerity measure,
In the Vagrancy Act of 1835, prostitution was obviously illegal. Gambling was also banned because gains by means other than honest labour was seen as corrupt.
By 1900 these attempts at social control became known as wowserism, a word thought to be peculiar to Australia, though the word's background is unclear. In curtailing acts of enjoyment for many, it was viewed negatively by the broader community and sowed the seeds for a more secular society. These public morality debates also heightened the religious tensions which existed between the Church of England, the Catholic Church and the conservative elements within Protestant denominations.
Postscript. Interestingly in Queensland since 1992, in an endeavour to cut down alcohol abuse (especially amongst indigenous groups), legislation was introduced to ban its consumption anywhere outside of private homes and licensed premises. Thus it's been banned on footpaths, roads, parks, beaches, shopping centres, unlicensed restaurants and cafes, community centres, halls, churches, theatres, libraries, galleries, buses, trains, aeroplanes, taxis, ferries, gyms and hospitals.
Then since July 2016, licensed bars in Queensland may no longer sell hard liquor shots after midnight, and all drinks sold after 2AM must always be alcohol free.
http://www.lawstuff.org.au /qld_law/topics/Alcohol
http://mobile.abc.net.au /news/2016-06-30/queensland-lockout-laws-come-into-force/7551904
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