Religion in australia

[Goliwog]

I noticed that quite a few articles here concern america so i thought that some of you might be interested in australian religious history , the hillsong story , the uniting church story among others ..

1788
Australia was first settled by the british in 1788 as a convict settlement . The offical religion was the Church of England although most of the convicts were irish decenters which were mostly catholics. The catholics were not allowed to practice thier faith and were forced to attend the Anglican church. This meant that most of the convicts had no genuin faith and many preffered to be nonreligious then Anglican. Many convicts viewed church s part of thier ultimate punnishment. 

Britian was also not concerned with developing australia as a nation but used it literally as a dumping ground for the worst criminals. The morals of the criminals didnt improve as many of the priests were drunks. The moral character of the colony was so bad that convicts would only work if they were offeed alchahol. The alchohol problem became so bad that ifor a while alcohol became the currency. This meant that the convicts couldnt improve thier own lot because they drunk all of what they earnt.  From this stage Australia had developed into one of the only non religious british colonies as few were eager to attend church, let alone the church of england being mostly of Irish decent.

The Macquarie era 1810-1821
Goveneor Macquarie was sent to clean up the filthy colony in 1810. This was good for religion as Macquarie believed in ecumenism . He supported a school system based on christianity as a whole and not one denomination but mostly it is during the Macquarie era that more denominations and pastors travelled to australia to try to improve the plight of the convicts.

1810 : first Congregationalist church begin the London Missionary society.
1815: methodist church in England sends Rev samuel Liegh to Australia to start a mission/church
1820: Catholic services allowed to be taken
1820 Orthodox services allowed to be taken 
1824: First Presbyterian church opens in Autsralia
1832: First Quaker congregation comes to Hobart

From the Macqaurie era mission after mission came to australia in attempots to convert the convicts back to christianity. The Most successful however includes the adventists , The uniting church and the Pentecostals.

The adventists
The seventh day andventist church came to Australia in the 1880's . Although not a big church trhe adventists had a big impact opn australia. They started a chain of christian hosptitals and schools which instituted a way to raise up new generations of christians . The vast literature was also impacting as well as the use of sanitarium a health food company in which a cereal known as wheat bix has become an australian icon. The adventists set up Avondale coolege in 1880's which was a structure to train teachers and nurses aswell as advfentist pastors.

The uniting church
Until the 70's a lot of ground had been made by the catholic and anglican churches brining 50% of the population to christianity. However numbers in most denominations were begging to drop. So The presbyterian , Methodist and congregational churches grouped together to form the uniting church which today is possibly the most effective church in ayustralia next to the catholics and the anglicans.

The pentecostals
By 1990 The uniting church had stopped a lot of the sway of people falluing away from church simply by uniting . However another move was made by the pentecostal church in australia targetting younger audiences. In the 90's The pentecostal church grew rapidly (from its start in the 70's) increasing by 16% per year. This can be seen in hillsong church which started with about 20 members ionj a prayer group and today is the largest church in Australia.

I could go on a lot more but it is amazing how christianioty as grown in australia from a dump where no-one believed in God eventually into a christian nation (70% are christians today) I thank God thatso many people were willing to witness to convicts who thought church was part of thier punnishment...

[mike]

Thanks for the interesting information.

[Bonnie]

I noticed that quite a few articles here concern america so i thought that some of you might be interested in australian religious history , the hillsong story , the uniting church story among others ..

1788
Australia was first settled by the british in 1788 as a convict settlement . The offical religion was the Church of England although most of the convicts were irish decenters which were mostly catholics. The catholics were not allowed to practice thier faith and were forced to attend the Anglican church. This meant that most of the convicts had no genuin faith and many preffered to be nonreligious then Anglican. Many convicts viewed church s part of thier ultimate punnishment. 

Britian was also not concerned with developing australia as a nation but used it literally as a dumping ground for the worst criminals. The morals of the criminals didnt improve as many of the priests were drunks. The moral character of the colony was so bad that convicts would only work if they were offeed alchahol. The alchohol problem became so bad that ifor a while alcohol became the currency. This meant that the convicts couldnt improve thier own lot because they drunk all of what they earnt.  From this stage Australia had developed into one of the only non religious british colonies as few were eager to attend church, let alone the church of england being mostly of Irish decent.

The Macquarie era 1810-1821
Goveneor Macquarie was sent to clean up the filthy colony in 1810. This was good for religion as Macquarie believed in ecumenism . He supported a school system based on christianity as a whole and not one denomination but mostly it is during the Macquarie era that more denominations and pastors travelled to australia to try to improve the plight of the convicts.

1810 : first Congregationalist church begin the London Missionary society.
1815: methodist church in England sends Rev samuel Liegh to Australia to start a mission/church
1820: Catholic services allowed to be taken
1820 Orthodox services allowed to be taken 
1824: First Presbyterian church opens in Autsralia
1832: First Quaker congregation comes to Hobart

From the Macqaurie era mission after mission came to australia in attempots to convert the convicts back to christianity. The Most successful however includes the adventists , The uniting church and the Pentecostals.

The adventists
The seventh day andventist church came to Australia in the 1880's . Although not a big church trhe adventists had a big impact opn australia. They started a chain of christian hosptitals and schools which instituted a way to raise up new generations of christians . The vast literature was also impacting as well as the use of sanitarium a health food company in which a cereal known as wheat bix has become an australian icon. The adventists set up Avondale coolege in 1880's which was a structure to train teachers and nurses aswell as advfentist pastors.

The uniting church
Until the 70's a lot of ground had been made by the catholic and anglican churches brining 50% of the population to christianity. However numbers in most denominations were begging to drop. So The presbyterian , Methodist and congregational churches grouped together to form the uniting church which today is possibly the most effective church in ayustralia next to the catholics and the anglicans.

The pentecostals
By 1990 The uniting church had stopped a lot of the sway of people falluing away from church simply by uniting . However another move was made by the pentecostal church in australia targetting younger audiences. In the 90's The pentecostal church grew rapidly (from its start in the 70's) increasing by 16% per year. This can be seen in hillsong church which started with about 20 members ionj a prayer group and today is the largest church in Australia.

I could go on a lot more but it is amazing how christianioty as grown in australia from a dump where no-one believed in God eventually into a christian nation (70% are christians today) I thank God thatso many people were willing to witness to convicts who thought church was part of thier punnishment...

Great post!  Thanks for the history of this.

dayspring08