Wishing you all a Happy Australia Day! For all Indian-Australians, a double celebration for you since it is also National Day for India!
Yesterday at church, we had a brief segment on Australia Day, and Pastor Barry Cutchie spoke briefly on the topic. I found what he shared quite interesting so I have chosen to quickly repeat it here, with links branching off the relevant areas for anyone who wants to explore the details further:
Australia is NOT a lucky country, but a BLESSED country.
Whilst the common phrase we all know is that Australia is a lucky country, the concept of luck suggests that events are subject to chance. Instead, we are reminded of three key historical events which support the notion that we are instead a BLESSED country:
1. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, 1606
In 1606 de Quiros became the first Dutch explorer to lay claim to Australia, but he was also a man with heart for God. Between the 14th and 15th centuries the Spaniards began sending expeditions into the South Pacific as they were convinced there existed a great land ‘terra australis’. He gave this continent the name “La Australia del Espiritu Santo” or literally “Southland of the Holy Spirit”.
Read more at Our Godly Foundations, written by Col Stringer.
2. Richard Johnson, 1788
As part of the First Fleet that came to colonise and establish the then Colony of New South Wales, Richard Johnson was the minister sent to lead the spiritual health of the new settlement. As mentioned in this ABC source titled The First Fleet Bible, he was very respectful of the indigenous settlement – naming his firstborn Melba in honour of that culture. The first recorded reading was:
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? Psalm 116
Through successive ministers who made the long and dangerous journey over the seas, the first 100 years of European settlement in Australia was enhanced by the strong representation of evangelical ministers instead of the more traditional Protestant and Catholic Christian denominations which came to dominate society later on.
3. Sir Henry Parkes & Sir Samuel Griffith, 1901
During the time of Federation and our Constitution was developed such that the opening text of the preamble reads:
Whereas the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God, have agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland…
I have highlighted in bold the reference we all continue to acknowledge through to this modern-day – ours is a nation that relies on the blessing of Almighty God! No other nation has this kind of explicit reference to God/Yahweh.
Together, Sir Henry Parkes and Sir Samuel Griffith pieced together our constitution. Both were Anglicans and the general culture of the then-colonies was suitably dominated by Christians such that is was deemed highly appropriate and acceptable that the preamble wording was retained, likely refined to the final version above – but was never questioned as a notion unacceptable to the Australian identity.
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For these reasons, Australia is indeed a BLESSED country and not merely a lucky country. That the last 50 years of Australian society have seen migrants join and become part of our nation is part of God’s blessing to unite all people here in this the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit. Thus, in one sense, Geoff Bullock’s song The Great Southland is a modern-day homage to the original historical blessing that one Dutch explorer sought from God over 400 years ago.
