Evangelism and the Sydney Diocese: Our DNA


“At the 2017 session of synod a report was given in relation to diocesan mission and church growth. While there were some positives, the general tenor of the discussion was fairly bleak.

Church leaders might be tempted to despair at the apparent fruitlessness of their efforts and perhaps withdrawal into a ‘holy huddle’. Spending all our effort on current members may seem like a more rewarding enterprise.

To take this course, however, would not only be a dereliction of the gospel mandate entrusted to all Christians, it would be a radical departure from one of the most enduring and significant aspects of our diocesan identity: evangelism. …

Evangelism in Sydney Diocese has never been easy. It was not easy for Richard Johnson. It was not easy for D.J. Knox. It was not easy for John Chapman. Yet, evangelism is an essential aspect of Sydney Anglican identity. Our society has changed radically over the last 230 years, but our mission remains the same.”

– Ed Loane calls us back to our great task – at The Australian Church Record.

Related:

In 1988, Dudley gave this address to the ACL’s Annual General Meeting – Reaching Out In Difficult Situations.

Amazing Grace – a most fitting hymn

The John Newton Project’s Marylynn Rouse points out the appropriateness of the singing of Amazing Grace (watch here, 13:43 into the recording) by the GAFCON 2018 attendees on the Temple steps.

The words for Amazing Grace were drawn from 1 Chronicles 17, and were written to accompany Newton’s New Year’s Day sermon in 1773.

1 Chronicles 17 speaks of God’s covenant with David (who desired to build the Temple), and the promise of the everlasting Kingdom of David’s Greater Son.

We also note that John Newton was key in sending the first Chaplain, Richard Johnson, to Australia, and in the founding of CMS, which brought the gospel to so many parts of the world.

Read the fascinating background to that most beloved of hymns – at The John Newton Project.

Photo: GAFCON Media.

Go, Bear the Saviour’s Name…

“In advance of my upcoming trip to Australia and New Zealand, I’ve been studying all I can find on the early history of Christianity in those two nations. Australia was settled by the British first, of course, and served as a kind of staging point for missionaries to reach New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Australian Christianity begins with Richard Johnson, the chaplain of the very first fleet to reach her shores. He had been hand-selected for the task by William Wilberforce and his associates, and immediately got to work preaching the gospel and carrying out the duties of a pastor. He did so with the blessings and prayers of many in his home country, including John Newton, (author of “Amazing Grace”), who wrote this little poem in his honour. …”

– Tim Challies (who will be in Sydney shortly) quotes John Newton’s words to Richard Johnson.

Image: John Newton, courtesy of Marylynn Rouse at The John Newton Project.

Related: ‘Go, bear the Saviour’s name to lands unknown’.

ACL Annual General Meeting 2017 Report

ACL Council member Caitlin Hurley reports on this year’s Annual General Meeting, held in the Chapter House of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, on Thursday 8th June 2017.   Read more

Moore’s treasures unveiled

richard-johnson-address-mtcA campaign has begun to preserve a major collection of Australian Christian history at the library of Moore College, including two of the first books ever printed by press, the first book distributed in Australia, an ancient Hebrew parchment, a first edition of the King James Bible and rare photos of the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

The historic, and eclectic, group of ‘treasures’ is to be housed and exhibited in the college’s new library, due for completion in 2017, and the college is raising funds to display and preserve the irreplaceable collection. 

‘Some of Australia’s priceless national heritage is found in the Moore College library – not surprising, since the college is one of the oldest tertiary educational institutions in the country and it became the repository of special books and artefacts from the earliest days,’ said Moore’s former principal Dr Peter Jensen, who is backing the effort to conserve the treasures.  

One of the most historic items of Australiana is ‘Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies’ by the chaplain of the First Fleet, the Rev Richard Johnson. It was printed in England in 1794 with editing by the slave trader-turned evangelist John Newton. Johnson used it in his work in Sydney, making it the first book conceived and distributed in Australia…”

Read the full story by Russell Powell at SydneyAnglicans.net.

Richard Johnson’s ‘Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies Established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island’ (with some editorial input from John Newton) was republished in PDF format for the ACL website several years ago. It is a wonderfully direct gospel tract.

Photo credit: Moore College.

GAFCON Easter Pastoral Letter 2015

Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Chairman of the FCA Primates Council“… last week it was my privilege as Chairman of GAFCON to share in the launch of the Australian branch of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans.

I believe this is a new beginning for united gospel witness across the continent, sharing the same determination and passion for the gospel as that of the pioneering Anglican chaplain and missionary, Richard Johnson, who led the first recorded act of Christian worship on Australian soil on Sunday 3rd February 1788…”

– Chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, writes an Easter Pastoral Letter.

Australia’s Christian Heritage

Dr Stuart PigginWeekend reading, new in our Resources section:

Associate Professor Stuart Piggin gave this address at a gathering on 3rd February 2015 to commemorate the First Christian Service in Australia.

Held in Richard Johnson Square, Sydney, the gathering was close to the site of the first service, conducted by the Rev. Richard Johnson, Chaplain to the Colony, on 3rd February 1788.

“We are at the site of:

• the First Christian service on Australian soil,
• the first sermon preached,
• the first church and
• the first schoolhouse

The preacher at that service, held under a ‘great tree’, beginning at 10 o’clock on 3 February 1788, a hot midsummer’s day, was the Rev Richard Johnson, Australia’s

• first minister,
• first educator,
• first carer for orphans,
• first carer for aboriginal children …”

Click here to open the PDF file of Dr. Piggin’s address in a new window.

Photos: Ramon Williams, Worldwide Photos.

Australia’s Christian Heritage: Analysing popular stereotypes on the foundation of Christianity in Australia

Dr Stuart PigginAssociate Professor Stuart Piggin gave this address at a gathering on 3rd February 2015 to commemorate the First Christian Service in Australia.

Held in Richard Johnson Square, Sydney, the gathering was close to the site of the first service, conducted by the Rev. Richard Johnson, Chaplain to the Colony, on 3rd February 1788.

Click here to open the PDF file of Dr. Piggin’s address in a new window.

Photos: Ramon Williams, Worldwide Photos.

‘Go, bear the Saviour’s name to lands unknown’

The Rev. Richard JohnsonThis Australia Day long weekend, it’s a good time to bring the people of Australia before our heavenly Father in prayer.

Even before European settlement, the inhabitants of “lands unknown” were in the prayers of men and women like John Newton.

On 8th July 1777, Newton wrote this in his diary –

“My leisure time and rather more than I can well spare taken up with reading the accounts of the late voyage of Capt. Cook in the Southern Ocean and round the Globe.

Teach me to see thy hand and read thy name in these relations. Thy providence and goodness are displayed in every clime. May I be suitably affected with the case of the countless thousands of my fellow creatures, who know thee not, nor have opportunities of knowing thee.

Alas that those who are called Christians, and who venture through the greatest dangers to explore unknown regions, should only impart to the inhabitants examples of sin and occasions of mischief, and communicate nothing of thy Gospel to them. Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls, when thou wilt arise and shine upon them?”

(Special thanks to Marylynn Rouse of The John Newton Project, who transcribed this entry from Newton’s diary.)

Part of the answer to John Newton’s prayer was the Rev Richard Johnson (pictured), who sailed, in May 1787, on the First Fleet as the first Chaplain to the Colony to be established at Botany Bay.

Newton wrote to Johnson –

“Go, bear the Saviour’s name to lands unknown,
Tell to the southern world his wondrous grace;
And energy Divine thy words shall own
And draw their untaught hearts to seek his face.”

So let’s give thanks for Richard and Mary Johnson, and for those who sent them – and be committed afresh to “bearing the Saviour’s name” to all in our land.

Related: Richard Johnson’s An Address To The Inhabitants Of The Colonies
Established in New South Wales And Norfolk Island (pdf).

Duke and Duchess to sign Australia’s first Bible on Easter Sunday

Richard Johnson's Bible and Prayer Book“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are attending church this Easter, joining the congregation at Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral.

The royal couple will sign the First Fleet Bible and Prayer Book as they leave the church on Easter Day. The books were originally the personal Bible and prayer book of Australia’s first chaplain, Richard Johnson…”

– Story from Eternity Newspaper.

Archbishop Jensen on the 225th Anniversary of Australia’s first Christian service

Archbishop Peter JensenHere’s Archbishop Peter Jensen’s sermon given at St. Philip’s York Street on February 3rd 2013. It was the 225th Anniversary of the first sermon preached in the Colony of New South Wales, by the Rev Richard Johnson.

“Today we have little concept of the difficulties and dangers through which the First Fleet passed in order to deliver its cargo to these shores. Its arrival here was a masterpiece of organisation, skill and courage.

Given the ubiquity of modern communications, we can scarcely imagine what it was like to travel so far with little chance of report or cry for help. We forget how rarely European ships had passed this way and how uncharted the sea was. We can scarcely conceive how frail their ships were, how powerful the forces of nature that imperilled them, how lacking in the technical instruments by which the path may be found and the course traversed in safety.

I think we may say that in truth the voyage of the First Fleet was one of the greatest feats of seamanship in recorded history. …”

– Read it all at SydneyAnglicans.net.

225 years on — will we be faithful?

Richard Johnson monumentTwo hundred and twenty five years ago, on Sunday February 3rd 1788, the Rev. Richard Johnson, Chaplain to the First Fleet and first Chaplain to the Colony of New South Wales, preached at the first Christian church service in Australia.

Craig Schwarze has some resources here – and there’s our own page on Richard Johnson here.

And it’s also worth taking the time to read Johnson’s Address to The Inhabitants of The Colonies Established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island (PDF file) published in 1792.

Excerpt:

“This will be my daily prayer to God for you. I shall pray for your eternal salvation, for your present welfare, for the preservation, peace, and prosperity of this colony: and especially for the more abundant and manifest success of the Redeemer’s cause and kingdom, and for the effusion and out-pouring of his Holy Spirit, not only here, but in every part of the habitable globe.”

As the spiritual beneficiaries of men like Richard Johnson and John Newton (who recruited Johnson and who edited his ‘Address to the Inhabitants of the Colonies…’), the question remains: Will we remain faithful to the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and will we be as concerned as these men were for those without Christ?

Related: Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls? – John Newton’s diary entry as he considered the needs of those without Christ in far-off lands.

(Archbishop Peter Jensen will be preaching at a service to mark the anniversary – 10:15am at St. Philip’s York Street.)

Sydney Anglicans IV: The Primacy of the Word

Mark Thompson writes about the primacy of the word in part four of his series on Sydney Anglicans –

“Unsurprisingly, confidence in the Bible as the written word of God, the supreme authority in all matters of faith and life, would soon become an enduring characteristic of the church in Sydney.”

Read it all here –

“The churches of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney are sometimes caricatured as Bible-centred rather than Christ-centred or God-centred. The truth behind the caricature is the attention we give to the proclamation of the word in public and private gatherings. While elsewhere Anglican churches might give more prominence to the sacraments or to an experience of the Spirit, Sydney Anglican churches typically place great store on the reading and exposition of Scripture. Expository preaching is the staple diet of most congregations. Fellowship groups routinely involve Bible study. Read more

Giving thanks for John Newton

John NewtonWhat happens when, in the Lord’s providence, his people long for others to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? What happens when his people work together for this end?

In May 1787, the First Fleet set sail from Portsmouth, carrying 1,400 officers, ships’ crew, marines and their families, convicts – and the Chaplain, Richard Johnson and his wife Mary. They were bound for New South Wales, on the other side of the world.

John Newton was one of the key men who had worked to have a minister of the gospel on the First Fleet.

We get a glimpse into his motivation in this previously unpublished extract from his 1777 diary. It was written seven years before he helped found The Eclectic Society, ten years before the Fleet sailed, and twenty-two years before he helped found CMS. –

8 July 1777

My leisure time and rather more than I can well spare taken up with reading the accounts of the late voyage of Capt. Cook in the Southern Ocean and round the Globe.

Teach me to see thy hand and read thy name in these relations. Thy providence and goodness are displayed in every clime. May I be suitably affected with the case of the countless thousands of my fellow creatures, who know thee not, nor have opportunities of knowing thee.

Alas that those who are called Christians, and who venture through the greatest dangers to explore unknown regions, should only impart to the inhabitants examples of sin and occasions of mischief, and communicate nothing of thy Gospel to them. Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls, when thou wilt arise and shine upon them?

Give thanks for John Newton, and men and women like him.

Special thanks to Marylynn Rouse of The John Newton Project, who found this entry in Newton’s diary from his time in Olney and passed it on to us.

The painting of John Newton by John Russell hangs in the CMS building in Oxford. Photo © Marylynn Rouse / The John Newton Project, used with permission. Larger version here.

Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls?

John NewtonWhat happens when, in the Lord’s providence, his people long for others to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? What happens when his people work together for this end?

In May 1787, the First Fleet set sail from Portsmouth, carrying 1,400 officers, ships’ crew, marines and their families, convicts – and the Chaplain, Richard Johnson and his wife Mary. They were bound for New South Wales, on the other side of the world.

John Newton was one of the key men who had worked to have a minister of the gospel on the First Fleet.

We get a glimpse into his motivation in this previously unpublished extract from his 1777 diary. It was written seven years before he helped found The Eclectic Society, ten years before the Fleet sailed, and twenty-two years before he helped found CMS. –

8 July 1777

My leisure time and rather more than I can well spare taken up with reading the accounts of the late voyage of Capt. Cook in the Southern Ocean and round the Globe.

Teach me to see thy hand and read thy name in these relations. Thy providence and goodness are displayed in every clime. May I be suitably affected with the case of the countless thousands of my fellow creatures, who know thee not, nor have opportunities of knowing thee.

Alas that those who are called Christians, and who venture through the greatest dangers to explore unknown regions, should only impart to the inhabitants examples of sin and occasions of mischief, and communicate nothing of thy Gospel to them. Lord hast thou not a time for these poor benighted souls, when thou wilt arise and shine upon them?

Give thanks for John Newton, and men and women like him.

Special thanks to Marylynn Rouse of The John Newton Project, who found this entry in Newton’s diary from his time in Olney and passed it on to us.

The painting of John Newton by John Russell hangs in the CMS building in Oxford. Photo © Marylynn Rouse / The John Newton Project, used with permission.

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