Creeping secularization, cultural pluralism, and the aboriginal population are high on the agenda.
A well-known evangelical preacher in a well-known evangelical church in the United States, who was about to visit Australia to speak at a Christian convention, was being farewelled by his congregation. “Lord,” prayed a venerable deacon, his grey beard twitching with emotion, “protect our beloved pastor from those wild Australians.” His sentiment accorded well with the myth cherished by many Americans, that Australia is an untamed country of bush and billabong, inhabited by koalas and kangaroos, and jolly swagmen.
Although the present reality is vastly different, Australians are still coming to terms with their history. “One of the ghosts in our past which still haunts us,” said Manning Clark the historian in his 1976 Boyer Lectures, is “the bloody encounter between the white man and the black man,” while the other is “the use of cheap convict labor to plant civilization in Australia.”
Today at least three major challenges face Australian Christians. The first is secularism. Although the 1976 census reveals that 78 percent of the population still profess to be Christians, there was a “mass swing of the sixties and seventies away from God and church” (see Leon Morris, “Christians in Australia,” Jan. 19 issue). The weekly church attendance of Protestants is now less than 20 percent, while in the 21- to 24-year age group it is only 9 percent.
This creeping secularization is due less to an intellectual rejection of the gospel than to the apathy that materialism brings. Although there is some poverty—especially among working class migrants—the majority of Australians are very comfortably well off. It was Donald Horne who in 1976 coined the expression “the lucky country.” The label has stuck, but in a sense in a different way from that intended by its originator. He meant that Australia had become a modern industrial country more by good luck than by good management. But what Australians usually mean when they use the expression of themselves is that their country’s vast natural resources guarantee their affluence, and its sunshine their health and enjoyment.
The second challenge is that of cultural pluralism. Before World War II virtually all Australians were of British descent. People referred to Britain as “the old country” and described a trip there as “going home.” But after the war there was a planned influx of Italians, Dutch, Germans, Yugoslavs, Poles, Austrians, and especially Greeks (Melbourne is now the third largest Greek-speaking city in the world, after Athens and Thessaloniki), while more recently immigrants have been arriving from Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Latin America, and the Chinese dispersion. So the original homogeneous Anglo-Saxon culture no longer exists. In its place a multicultural society is emerging, in which the different ethnic groups are learning to respect each other. I know no better statement of the ideal of “integration” than that given in 1969 by Roy Jenkins when he was British Home Secretary. He defined it “not as a flattening process of assimilation, but cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance.” Thus the church has new opportunities to reach out to the growing numbers of Muslims and Chinese.
The third challenge is the Australian aboriginal population. It is thought that the Aborigines migrated to Australia from Asia some 20,000 years ago. When the European colonists arrived, there were probably 300,000 of these simple people, hunters and food gatherers, divided into more than 600 tribal groups, speaking more than 200 languages, and regarding the whole continent as theirs. The decimation of the aboriginal population was appalling. Many died of European diseases, while others were ruthlessly slaughtered, until by the mid-1930s there were only about 60,000 “full blood” Aborigines left. (The aboriginal population has more than doubled since then, and it is estimated that it may be back to 300,000 by the end of the century.)
The Aborigines were also dispossessed of their land. “Unlike other British colonial territories, Australia was claimed and occupied without negotiation of a treaty, without any act of purchase and without any payment of compensation.” So writes Frank Engel, former general secretary of the Australian Council of Churches, in a recent paper.
Worse even than the Aborigines’ loss of life and land was their loss of morale. “It is my thesis,” wrote the aboriginal author Kevin Gilbert in Living Black, “that Aboriginal Australia underwent a rape of the soul so profound that the blight continues in the minds of most blacks today.”
Most of the churches have missions to the Aborigines, and have a reasonable record of bringing them education and health care in addition to the gospel, and of helping to champion their rights and preserve their identity. It is thought that perhaps 75 percent of them are now nominally Christians. Only a few Christian Aborigines have been ordained to the pastorate, however, although the number is growing. The Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship was founded earlier in this decade and draws about a thousand to its annual convention. As yet, however, there is little liaison between them and white evangelicals.
For three weeks in May, Billy Graham conducted his third crusade in Sydney; 95 percent of the churches cooperated in the Crusade. The statistics are astonishing. Eleven thousand people enrolled in the counselling classes, and more than 2,500 prayer groups were formed. On April 22, 30,000 Christians visited a million homes. Then, in spite of unseasonable cold and rain, huge crowds came to the Randwick Racecourse each night, growing to 85,000 on the final Sunday afternoon. At each meeting more than 1,000 responded to the invitation, a high proportion of whom had no church affiliation; thousands of small nurture groups are now caring for them. Mass media coverage was overwhelming, and landline radio relays were arranged in 130 centers. A team of associates held satellite crusades in other cities, and nearly 1,000 clergy and church workers enrolled in the week-long School of Evangelism, which it was my privilege to address on three mornings. Church leaders have spoken of the powerful impact the crusade has had not only on Sydney but throughout the nation. “My visit to Australia,” said Billy Graham as he left, “has been one of the most satisfying experiences of my entire ministry.”
John R. W. Stott is rector emeritus of All Souls Church, London, England.
