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National
Alliance of Christian Leaders
Newsletter: September, 2007
First
Australian Christian Church
Service 220 Anniversary Celebrations.
 I
received a call from Ian Combridge
suggesting we celebrate an
exciting milepost in Australia’s
history which will occur on
Sunday, 3rd February 2008,
only a few months away.
It will be the 220th anniversary
of the very first Christian
service on Australian soil.
You
will already know of the world
renowned hymn “Amazing Grace”
written by the Rev. John Newton
in 1772. However, few people
will know that this same Rev.
John Newton (a former shipmaster
on British slave ships), approached
the Rev. Richard Johnson in
England on the 23rd September
1786 with a visionary proposal
to be the chaplain and missionary
on the first fleet to the
“Land Down Under”.
John
Newton was crystal clear about
the cost involved to embark
on such a grand journey, and
the call required to undertake
such a glorious mission. He
wrote “A minister who should
go to Botany Bay without a
call from the Lord, and without
receiving from Him an apostolic
spirit, the spirit of a missionary,
enabling him to forsake all,
to give up all, to venture
all, to put himself into the
Lord’s hands without reserve,
to sink or swim, had better
run his head against a brick
wall.”
 Rev
Johnson accepted Newton’s
proposal, and the rest is
Australian history.
Rev. Richard Johnson conducted
the first Christian service
on Australian soil on Sunday,
3rd February 1788.
The 3rd February 2008 will
be a Sunday, and will be exactly
220 years to the very day
of that great and significant
event.
It is a landmark event in
the Christian heritage of
our nation. It is therefore
fitting and most appropriate
for this event to be celebrated
throughout the nation, and
for the current generation
to learn and be aware of the
Christian foundations on which
our nation and its morals
and laws, has been built.
An
organising committeee is being
formed.
Do
you want to be part of this?
Please
email nacl@netwit.net.au
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