John Newton: Mastermind and mentor of early Australian Anglicanism

Posted on May 3, 2026 
Filed under History, Moore College, People

“On 8 July 1777, Reverend John Newton confessed in his diary to binge-reading the latest bestseller: Captain James Cook’s A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World, published that same year. It caught Newton’s imagination, but it also caught his evangelical heart: he prayed that the gospel would ‘arise and shine upon’ people of ‘unknown regions’.

Newton didn’t know it then, but his Lord had a time and a plan for those souls. Within seven years, Newton himself would play a crucial role in launching and nurturing the first Christian mission in Australia. …”

– Again, give thanks to the Lord for John Newton. At the Moore College website.