These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

Dianne Ethelle Buchanan, Christian Pioneer

1945 – 1993

You may ask why should a Gympie grave in Queensland display words in an Aboriginal language of the Northern Territory that say, ‘Märr-ŋamathinyamirrnydja walal gi bala-räli’yunmirr yan” which translates as ‘Love one another’ from John’s gospel.[i] The answer lies in the life of Dianne Buchanan.

On the 18^th October 1946, Dianne was born to Nils and Grace Buchanan. She was the only daughter, in a farming family of 4 children, whose livelihood came from growing delicious sweet pineapples in the district of Gympie.

In 1955, when Dianne was 9 years of age she decided to love and follow Jesus. After completing her teaching training and a couple of years teaching at Biloela Kindergarten in Queensland, she responded to the Methodist Overseas Mission’s appeal for teachers to help at the fast expanding school on Elcho Island in the Northern Territory.

She winged her way into Galiwin’ku, Elcho Island, as a pre-school teacher, in 1969, where she was welcomed not just as a teacher but as one of the community, receiving an Aboriginal subsection name ‘Galikali’.

“Deep down I knew it was where God wanted me,” Di said. “The children were delightful to teach. So accepting and uncritical of my attempts to communicate in their language. The Aboriginal people are a very gentle people … I’ve been ministered to in many ways.”[ii]

After five happy years in the Pre-school, she was drawn into Adult Literacy, which displayed her gift with languages. This led to another career change in 1977 when she was nominated to be translator of the Bible into Djambarrpuyŋu, the largest language group represented on Elcho Island and also used in the neighbouring Yolŋu communities of North East Arnhem land.

She continued to work on translating the New Testament for her Aboriginal family right up until her final days. Rev Djiṉiyiṉi Goṉḏarra said of Dianne that she was ‘a pioneer in her linguist work, and a strength for both Church and Community.’ ‘She saw many changes. She saw self-determination’ he said,[iii] and ‘was one of the few missionaries who was able to adapt to the changing circumstances of Aboriginal community life’.[iv] It was a privilege for Di in 1988 to be the first lady to lead 30 traditional Yolŋu Christians from Galiwin’ku to the Holy Land.”[v]

Di was a major prayer support and encourager in spiritual renewal and the revival at Elcho Island in the 1970’s and 1980’s.[vi] Her diaries were a significant contribution to the writing of the book ‘Fire in the Outback’ by John Blacket.

Of her own spiritual journey she writes: “With a renewal of my own commitment to a love-relationship with Jesus, came a release from an over-developed sense of responsibility for the church at Galiwin’ku.[vii] ‘Only in union with him will you find real complete freedom, unspeakable joy, the peace that passes understanding. So now take his yoke on you again, … for he promised to carry (his) share.’[viii]

Over 20 of her Aboriginal family from Elcho Island travelled to Gympie to join with Dianne’s family and friends to mourn her death, on the 5^th March 1993. One could not help but also celebrate her rich and wonderful life, as one who loved and trusted in her Lord. She was only 47, but by God’s grace 7 months earlier she was able to stand with her translation colleagues and witness the dedication of a Mini-Bible, that included five-eighths of the New Testament, produced in Djambarrpuyŋu during Elcho Island’s Jubilee celebrations.

Di’s favourite writing of Mother Basilea of the Sister’s of Mary takes pride of place on the front page of Di’s Bible.

O none can be loved as is Jesus

None like him is found anywhere

‘Tis He whom I love, whom I long for

For no-one with Him can compare.

So all that I have I will give Him

I’ll sacrifice all I hold dear,

My whole life to Jesus belonging

My heart seeks my Lord to revere.

I’ll  follow now close in His footsteps

The path that He trod here below,

I only desire what He gives me

And only His way I will go.

My heart is at peace and so joyful

For all I desire He supplies

I look now for nothing but Jesus

Who all of my hopes satisfies.

 Margaret Miller and Dr Marilyn McLellan

 

[i]  In the writings of John these words are found in John 15:12, also John 13:34

[ii] ‘Profile. Di Buchanan: translator’ p11 in Journey, May 1992

[iii]  ‘Islanders mourn church worker’ p7 ‘Northern Sign’, a magazine of the Northern Synod, Uniting Church in Australia. Number 4. April 1993. Article also p5 of NT News 11 March 1993

[iv]  “Selfless devotion of mission worker, a newpaper article of ‘Gympie Times’ 11^th March 1993

[v] ‘Dianne Ethel Buchanan, 1945-1993, A Tribute’ p8,9 in the Queensland Uniting Church Auxiliary for World Mission Newsletter May 1993

[vi] “Two Bible Translators Die” p7 Khesed Newsletter March 1993.

[vii] Di’s newletter dated ‘end of March’ year not stated, ca 1982

[viii] ‘Genesis 3’ –writing of Di Buchanan, 1991

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

James Robert Beattie (J.R.B.) Love, Christian pioneer

Presbyterian missionary to the Aborigines.

The fifth of 10 children born to the Rev George Clarke Love and his wife, Margaret Georgina, née Beattie, Bob Love’s Christian faith was nurtured in the Presbyterian manse at Strathalbyn, where his father ministered from 1892 to 1923. The family migrated to Australia when he was 5 months old and spent a short period in Vic before moving to SA. Experience gained in the bush around Strathalbyn as he grew helped prepare him for his future work in remote areas of Australia. Interest in a group of Aborigines who camped near their home for a short period kindled his missionary commitment. He taught as a student teacher at Strathalbyn in 1906-7 and was a student at the Pupil Teacher School in Adelaide and commenced study for a BA at University of Adelaide in 1908-9.

He was appointed head teacher of the Leigh Creek School, 500 km north of Adelaide. This environment stimulated his enquiring mind and his interest in exploring the bush. He sent specimens of rare birds to Edwin Ashby for showing at meetings of the Royal Society of SA. One identified as a new genus and species was named Ashbyia lovensis. He visited a nearby mission to learn more about the Aborigines.

In 1912 at the age of 23 he was asked by the Presbyterian Church to undertake an expedition ‘for the purpose of inquiring into the conditions of life among the Aborigines of the Interior’. He left Leigh Creek on 28 Dec 1912 with horses, a mule and two dogs. Accompanied for a short part of the journey by a brother, John, and a friend he travelled extensively in SA, the NT and Qld. He kept a diary and wrote a detailed report of the expedition and formed the habit of meticulous recording of observations, a feature of his later work.

Port George Mission had been established in the north-west of WA in 1912 by the Rev Robert Wilson and his wife Frances. Bob Love was asked to relieve the Wilsons to enable them to take leave. Following his arrival in Dec 1914 he undertook exploratory journeys to seek a new site for the mission. He embarked on a study of the Worora language. He left Port George on 14 July 1915. He enlisted in the AIF on 9 Nov 1915, joined a Light Horse Regiment in April 1916, and transferred to the Imperial Camel Corps in May. In August 1917 he was commissioned 2Lt and promoted Lt in Nov. He transferred to the 14th Light Horse in July 1918 and in Sept was one of the first of the allied troops to enter Damascus. He was wounded in the chest and hand and awarded the DCM and the MC ‘for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’.

On his return to Australia he entered Ormond College, University of Melbourne to complete his BA and undertake theological studies. He was ordained in Adelaide in 1922 and appointed to Mapoon Mission in north Qld. He married Margaret Holinger, a teacher at Mapoon, on 5 Sept 1923. They had four children.

After five years of involvement in the evangelistic, administrative, pastoral, agricultural and training work at Mapoon, he heard of financial problems which threatened the closure of Kunmunya, the new site of the former Port George Mission where he had served briefly before the war. He applied to serve as superintendent at Kunmunya and arrived there on 24 Aug 1927.

His early Christian upbringing, knowledge of bushcraft,  academic training, studies in Aboriginal culture and language and experience in leadership contributed to his 13 years of effective service at Kunmunya, a remote community dependent on the mission’s lugger for communication and supplies. He repudiated paternalism and earlier mission policies of opposing traditional customs. He respected the authority of the older men and held regular camp meetings, encouraging the people to discuss problems and make decisions. He was actively involved in the varied tasks of the mission, medical work, education, gardening servicing and running of the lugger, and the cattle industry. He recognised that there were aspects of traditional culture which could be used in explaining the Christian faith. He saw the need of communicating the gospel in the language of the people and engaged in further study of Worora language and translated the Gospels of Mark and Luke. His thesis on Worora grammar earned him an MA from the University of Adelaide. He insisted that when English was spoken by the people they spoke it well. His ministry led to the first baptisms at Easter, 1929 and the further growth of the church at Kunmunya.

While on leave in 1937 he spent 3 months visiting the Pitjantjatjara region of the northwest of SA to advise and assist in the establishment of Ernabella Mission. After 3 more years at Kunmunya he was asked to take up the role as superintendent of Ernabella. Leaving Kunmunya in 1940 he arrived at Ernabella on 2 March 1941 and during the difficult war years administered the development of the sheep industry and assisted in the study of the language. Underlying his involvement in all aspects of the mission’s work was the conviction, as he wrote in 1944, that ‘Our Scriptural commission is to heal the sick and preach the Gospel’.

The Loves left Ernabella on 2 March 1946, to serve as moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia. He was called to the Adelaide Hills charge of Mt Barker-Lobethal-Woodside but ill-health limited his time in ministry. He was described as a model of manly Christianity. The policies he advocated and implemented in the period between the two World Wars, respect for Aboriginal cultures and languages, encouragement of Aboriginal decision making and holistic mission, were forerunners of policies accepted more widely in recent decades.

J R B Love, Stone-Age Bushmen of To-day (London, 1936); M McKenzie, The Road to Mowanjum, (Sydney, 1969)

BILL EDWARDS
Content © Evangelical History Association of Australia and the author, 2004

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

 

Joseph Henry Davies & missionaries in Korea & Japan, Christian pioneers

Rev Joseph Henry Davies and his sister, Mary, arrived in Korea in October 1889, the first of over 130 Australians to serve there as missionaries of the Presbyterian Church of Australia, and the Uniting Church in Australia. Henry Davies was raised in a Brethren family and as an adult found his spiritual home in the Anglican Church in Caulfield and the Presbyterian Church in Toorak.

He founded the Caulfield Grammar School, but was sent as a missionary to Korea by the Presbyterian Church, after undertaking some theological education in Scotland.

The ship took him first to Busan, arriving there on 2 October, but he continued on to Seoul, where he studied the Korean language for five months. Presbyterian missionaries from the United States had already arrived in Korea four years earlier, and they and Davies together decided that they should divide responsibility for mission work in the country, and should form one united Presbyterian Church of Korea. The Australians were allocated the South-eastern province as the area for their missionary activity. In March 1990 Davies set out on foot for Busan, distributing Christian literature as he went. He arrived in Busan on 4 April 1890, having contracted small-pox and pneumonia on the way. In spite of medical care provided by a local Japanese doctor, Davies died on 5 April 1890.

His death awakened a strong commitment in the Presbyterian Church of Victoria to accept responsibility for the evangelization of the province, and five new missionaries – one ordained minister and his wife, and three single women – were sent out the following year. Thus began 124  years of missionary activity in which more than 130 Australians have served, and two couples continue to undertake service in the spirit of Christ in North Korea,

Missionaries established schools in major centres throughout the province – including the first schools in the province in which girls were allowed to study. They established modern hospitals and clinics in major centres. They preached the Gospel, established churches and trained lay leaders for them. They also participated in the national institutions – Dr Gelsen Engel taught in the theological college in Pyong Yang from its establishment in 1900 until 1937. Others have taught in this theological college since it moved to Seoul following liberation from the Japanese in 1945. Rev J. Noble Mackenzie developed a major hospital, church and residential village for sufferers from Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) and led it for 30 years. Rev Charles McLaren established the first psychiatric medicine program in the country. Dr Helen and Sister Cath Mackenzie established the Il Sin Hospital to serve women and infants during and following the Korean War.

When the missionaries were forced to leave Korea at the beginning of the Korean War, several women developed ministries among Japanese people, and Korean residents of Japan, while they waited for permission to return to Korea. For more than a century, Australian men and women laboured side by side with Korean colleagues in serving the most marginalized, sometimes exploited people in the country, in the spirit of Christ.

Christian people in the province in which most of the Australians have worked have erected a beautiful memorial in the mountains behind Masan to the seven missionaries and some of the Korean martyrs from the province who gave their lives in the service of the Gospel in Korea.

Rev John Brown

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

 

Stephen, martyr

 Stephen is regarded as the first Christian martyr. His story is to be found in Acts chapters six and seven. We first come across him when there is a dispute among the disciples between the Hellenist or Greek speaking disciples and the Palestinian or Hebrew speaking disciples. The Hellenists complain that the Hellenist widows are not being looked after. The twelve apostles call a meeting and seven believers, who are men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, and who all appear to be Hellenistic believers, are set apart to care for these widows. Stephen is the first named of these men. We are told that he was someone who was filled with grace and power, who did great wonders and signs among the people.

 

It would appear that Stephen was also an evangelist, one who spoke with others about who Jesus was and how he had fulfilled the prophecies in the Scriptures. Stephen and Philip, who is also an evangelist, are able to talk to the Hellenistic Jews in a way the Palestinian believers are not able to, because they share the same background.

Some men from the Synagogue of the Freed Slaves, who were also Hellenistic Jews like Stephen, began to question him. They were unable to defeat his arguments, so they arranged for some men to say that they had heard him blaspheme against Moses and God. They then stirred up the people and the religious leaders who brought him before the High Council. It is not clear if all of the council were present or only some.

The accusations were that he spoke against the Temple and the Law. Stephen was accused of saying that Jesus had claimed he would destroy the Temple and would throw out the Laws of Moses.

Stephen rather than giving a defence against the charges gives a defence of Christianity by retelling the story of how the people came into the land God gave them and how they had turned away from God. Stephen starts with Abraham in Mesopotamia thereby impressing on them that God’s presence is not confined to the Temple or the land.

He tells them that they have killed the one God sent, the one who was to come. At this point they cannot hold themselves back and they rush him, take him from the city and stone him to death. As this is happening Stephen tells them that he sees Jesus, the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of God. In this he is claiming Jesus, who they had tried and had put to death, had been the Messiah. Stephen dies asking God to forgive them.

Saul (Paul) was there and held the coats. Paul and others then start to persecute the believers who are scattered. Jesus words before he ascended that they were to take the Good News to the ends of the earth, is now to be fulfilled. If there hadn’t been a Stephen, the Gospel might have been lost or have stayed as a Jewish sect. Through Stephan’s martyrdom the whole world came to hear of the Messiah.

Peter Welsh

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

Josephine Butler, renewer of society

Josephine Butler was born on 13 April 1828 in Northumberland. Her father John Grey was a strong advocate of social reform and a campaigner against the slave trade. His cousin was Earl Grey, British prime minister between 1830 and 1834.

John Grey’s family were members of the Church of England, and strong supporters of the anti-slavery campaign.  The Grey children learned early about the horrors of slavery and Josephine’s first feminist instincts were aroused by the terrible stories of female slaves made pregnant by their masters and then forced to give up their babies.  The girls were educated at home by their mother, and Josephine had only a few years of formal schooling.  Despite that, as an adult she was a prolific writer of books and pamphlets, and became a competent speaker of both French and Italian.

The Grey siblings remained close throughout their lives, even when marriage took two of the sisters to live abroad.  Their political and Christian commitments inspired them to become involved in a number of philanthropic campaigns, but Josephine was the most dedicated and the most persistent.  Her faith was also an overwhelming motivation for all she did – at 17 she had an experience of conversion which led her to prioritise daily prayer and bible study throughout her life.

Josephine married George Butler in 1852. He was an academic with similar political views to her own. Together they had four children but in 1863, their six-year old daughter died. In an attempt to cope with her grief, Butler threw herself into charity work, particularly related to the rights of women. Amongst the issues on which she campaigned was child prostitution. She was part of a group which forced parliament to raise the age of consent from 13 to 16.

In 1869, Butler began her campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts. These had been introduced in the 1860s in an attempt to reduce venereal disease in the armed forces. Police were permitted to arrest women living in seaports and military towns who they believed were prostitutes and force them to be examined for venereal disease. Butler toured the country making speeches condemning the acts. Many people were shocked that a woman would speak in public about sexual matters. But in 1883 the acts were suspended and repealed three years later.

Butler also took a great interest in women’s education. She pressured the authorities at Cambridge University into providing further education courses for women, which eventually led to the foundation of the all-women college at Newnham. She was appointed president to the North of England Council for the Higher Education of Women in 1867.

Butler’s writing – promoting social reform for women as well as education and equality – was widely distributed. Her most famous publication ‘Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade’ was written in 1896.

Butler died on 30 December 1906.

Peter Gador-Whyte

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

 

Karl Barth, Christian thinker

Born on 10 May 1886 in Basel, Switzerland, Karl Barth grew up in the Swiss Reformed Church (in which his father was a pastor and a professor of New Testament).  He was ordained in 1908 — but on entering the pulpit of his church in Safenwil, he was overwhelmed by a sense that his seminary training had failed to prepare him for what he realised was the most important work of a pastor – proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in his community.

Responding to this failure of 19^th century liberal theology, Barth plunged anew into the study of the Scriptures, producing in 1919 his commentary on The Epistle to the Romans (with a revised edition in 1922).  In this study he identified that the divine revelation and salvation that come through Jesus Christ, Son of God, are entirely acts of God and that this dependence on God alone is the primary element of Christian faith. He developed this insight further in his most extensive work, Church Dogmatics.  For Barth, Jesus Christ is the “fountain of light by which the other two [persons of the Trinity] are lit.” (Barth, Dogmatics in Outline)

Barth was one of the Christian theologians who became deeply concerned about the policies promulgated in the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930s.  He was a significant contributor to the wording of the Barmen Declaration, which opposed the development of a “German Christian” church. This Declaration asserts (among other things) that the church belongs solely to Christ, and neither the Scripture nor the church’s work may be controlled by any human organisation.

The Faith of the Church (one of the early documents of the Joint Commission on Church Union, before the Basis of Union) referred to the Barmen Declaration and contained a major quotation from Barth’s Church Dogmatics.  Though the Basis of Union itself does not refer directly to Karl Barth, there is no doubt that his way of describing Christian discipleship undergirds the foundation of the Uniting Church’s life.

It appears that Karl Barth always opened and closed his sermons with prayer.  As this prayer shows, he was convinced that it was only by God’s generous gift that people are able to enter into the life of faith.

O Sovereign God,

grant that we may know you truly

and praise you fully

in the midst of your blessings to us,

that your word may be proclaimed aright

and heard aright

in this place and everywhere that your people call upon you.

May your light enlighten us,

your peace be upon us. Amen

(Karl Barth, Prayer)

 

Graham Vawser

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

Andrew, apostle

The disciple Andrew was the first called of the twelve apostles. Andrew belonged to Bethsaida of Galilee. He was the brother of Simon Peter and his father’s name was John. He appears more often in the Gospel of John than in Matthew, Mark and Luke. His name is Greek, and he is given no Hebraic or Aramaic name.

Andrew’s call to be an apostle took place through three different stages. Andrew we are told had been a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. He then seems to have left Galilee to travel with others to Bethany, near the Jordan, when he heard of John the Baptist. He became a follower of John. It was at this point that he encountered Jesus and when John said that Jesus was the Lamb of God, Andrew decided to leave John and follow Jesus. He first went to tell his brother, Simon Peter, that he had found the Messiah.

It would seem that Andrew accompanied Jesus when he returned to Galilee, where Andrew and Peter resumed their old vocation as fishermen. Andrew at this time received his second call. This seems to have happened after John the Baptist was cast into prison. Andrew and his brother, along with James and John, also brothers, were now called on to forsake their occupation as “fishers of fish” and become “fishers of men”.

The final part of Andrew’s call was when he was called to be one of the twelve Apostles. Andrew along with Peter, James and John seemed to form a group closer to Jesus than the others.

Andrew in all the times we meet him is introducing people to Jesus. As already noted he introduces Peter to Jesus; at the feeding of the five thousand by the Sea of Galilee, the attention of Jesus was drawn to the lad with five barley loaves and two fishes by Andrew; he introduces the Greeks to Jesus after Philip speaks to him. Andrew’s role was to bring people to Jesus.

After the death of Jesus Andrew is said to have preached in many areas to the north of Palestine. Out of this work, tradition says that the Patriarchate of Constantinople grew.

Tradition tells us that Andrew was martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras in Achaea. Although early tradition stated that he was bound, not nailed, to a Latin cross of the kind on which Jesus is said to have been crucified; later tradition said that he had been crucified on a cross of the form called crux decussata. This is the shape of the saltire on the Scottish flag. It is now known as the Saint Andrew’s Cross.

The relics of Andrew were discovered in Constantinople in the time of Justinian, and part of his cross is now in St. Peter’s, Rome. It is said that his arm was transferred to Scotland by St. Regulus. Many of his body parts are said to be found scattered across Europe.

He became a patron saint of many places including Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Greece and Scotland. His patron day is November 30th.

Peter Welsh

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

James Watson, Christian pioneer

James Watson was an outstanding pioneer Methodist missionary. He began his ministry in 1891 as a member of William Bromilow and George Brown’s huge Australasian missionary venture to the island of Dobu in the British-administered territory of Papua.  Watson almost died because of repeated bouts of malaria and was obliged to return home after two years’ service. From then on he served in circuits at Narrabri (1896–1898), Inverell (1899–1901), Broken Hill (1902–1906), Wallaroo (1907–1910) and Kempsey (1911–1913). His interest in missions however never waned. In 1914 he was appointed Foreign Missionary Secretary with the Methodist Church of Australasia and in 1916, was selected by the Methodist Overseas Mission Board to establish and lead the Methodist Aborigines’ Mission on South Goulburn Island (Warruwi) in Western Arnhem Land.

Watson was a man of untiring energy and zeal. He was an expert horseman, sailor, builder–immensely practical both in the bush and on the sea. He was a gifted raconteur, competent photographer and throughout his long life, a powerful spokesman for Methodist missions.

At a time when there was a widespread belief that Aboriginal people were a “dying race”, Watson played a prominent role in challenging Methodist attitudes towards Aboriginal people. On his first excursion into Arnhem Land in 1915 to find a suitable site for a mission station, his first-hand experience led him to the conclusion that they were a “remarkable people” to be greatly admired for their physical strength, athletic prowess, intelligence, poise, patience, humour and imagination. He expressed nothing but appreciation of “this most fascinatingly interesting race”. Watson represented the beginnings of a new wave of thinking in Methodism, one of making reparation or doing atonement for the diseases and destruction inflicted on Indigenous societies by European civilization. In public lectures and short articles in the Missionary Review, he often pointed out that it was not the wish of missionaries to try to radically change the way Aboriginal people lived but by “means of friendship and the Gospel to gradually improve the living conditions of the people who had undisputed right of title to these lands”. For Watson there was both a standing with Aboriginal people and a standing between them and injustices of white society. During World War I he boldly compared the treatment of Aboriginal people with “the atrocities of the Huns”—a foreshadowing of recent arguments about Aboriginal genocide.

Watson had a practical faith and was a man of his era.  His obituary in the Methodist states that he was “no great lover or student of books” but had a great capacity to get alongside people and to learn from them. His simple, practical faith is probably best illustrated by a sermon he delivered in Bendigo in 1903 on the subject ‘true religion”: “true religion consisted in being good and doing good”. It was also reported that when Watson died, his last words were: “I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith.” It is testimony to a man who was “a brave and devoted soldier of Christ”.

William Emilsen

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

John Thomas, Christian pioneer

 The Rev. John Thomas (1797 – 1881) and his wife Sarah were sent by the Methodist Missionary Society in Great Britain to serve in Tonga.  They were there from 1826 until 1850 and from 1856 until 1859.  Even though John Thomas was not the first missionary to arrive in Tonga he is regarded by the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga as the Father of the Church.

John Thomas, the son of a blacksmith and a blacksmith himself, was very aware of his academic limitations.  He wrote of himself in his personal journal,

my own rough and knotty mind . . . what a raw, weak and uncultivated wretch was I when I left our England.

This self-deprecation appears quite frequently in his personal writing.  Limited education he may have had, but he was an outstanding observer of life.  He may not have had a sparkling personality but he had great plodding persistence.  Those qualities enabled him to write an amazing chronicle of the history of Tonga which covers a period prior to the arrival of European influences.  He also records the establishment and growth of the Church.

He provides the genealogies of significant people, records the arrivals and departures of ships and geographical information about the Island group.  It is evident that John Thomas had the confidence of the people for they shared their stories and beliefs with him.

While John and Sarah Thomas were in Sydney preparing to go to Tonga there was a lot of pressure put on him to remain in Sydney, to serve in one of the circuits there.  He was, however, very clear in his own mind that the Mission Committee had appointed him to Tonga and to Tonga he would go. John and Sarah Thomas had tragedy in their lives when Mrs Thomas had a number of miscarriages.  At last a son was born and named John.  Nine years later tragedy struck again when the child died.  Later when they returned to England, Mrs Thomas also died.  When John remarried his new wife had a son but sadly that child too died when he was nine years of age.  John Thomas lamented there was no one to pass his written material to.  He thought he might destroy it.  Fortunately, he did not and his History of Tonga is a goldmine of information for Tongan people and for students of Tongan history.

John Thomas was a very spiritual man and a number of stories have grown up around his life.  A Tongan preacher told the story of John Thomas landing on an island to share the gospel of Jesus.  He knelt on the beach to pray.  Even though the water lapped around him his trousers were not wet.

Some people would be critical of John Thomas because he was pivotal in many people forsaking their traditional gods and becoming followers of Jesus Christ.  The value of that was indicated by a story written by John Thomas.  A King was gravely ill and one of his sons was strangled to appease the gods and to facilitate his father’s recovery.  Even though John Thomas worked relentlessly to bring change in Tonga and to have the people follow a new way, the way of Jesus, no one did more to record the beliefs and history and genealogy of the Tongan people.  He believed that there would come a time when people would want to know their history and about their culture.  When they did, John Thomas has recorded it for them.

He was truly the Father of the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga.

by Rev John Mavor

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

Desiderius Erasmus, reformer of the Church

The illegitimate son of a priest, Erasmus was possibly born in Rotterdam. He attended school in Gouda and Deventer and was strongly influence by the Brethren of the Common Life.
He gave Jesus a central place in his devotions. In 1486 he became an Augustinian canon. Ordained in 1492, he left the Augustinians to study at the College De Montaigu, Paris, in 1495. Travel to England from 1499 – 1500 led to a close friendship with the notable scholar John Colet and careful study of the New Testament in Greek. His publications grew in number and variety, as did his fascination with the challenge of translating the Bible. Between 1506-1521, his spent time in Paris, Louvain and Italy, as well as making a return to England, and developing a fruitful friendship with Thomas More, celebrated in his book Enconium Moriae. As well as becoming the first teacher of Greek at Cambridge. His prestige was not only academic and pastoral. He was made a royal councillor in Brussels during 1516.

Between 1515 – 1525 Erasmus produced the second earliest Greek New Testament and this went through at least 4 editions. One of these editions was used by Luther in his translation of the New Testament. Erasmus’s NT also played a part in the King James translation of the NT. His work on the Greek was not without critics. Since Erasmus’s work older Greek versions of the whole or parts of the NT have been found and these finds have corrected the many mistakes in Erasmus’s texts.

From 1521, he lived in Basel with J. Froben, the noted printer. There he could write with fewer interruptions. When the city became Protestant, he moved to Freiburg from 1529 – 1535 before returning to Basel, where he died while editing the works of Origen. Advocacy of social, political, educational and religious reform made him an influential leader in the Europe of his day. He corresponded widely with people in a wide range of positions and status. An English edition of his letters is currently being prepared. He was strongly opposed to the corruption of traditional Catholicism and the Papacy, which he saw as indispensable of the European heritage. He sought to clarify their central emphases. Seeking to correct abuses in the church, he wrote a variety of popular and scholarly books, ranging from devotional works, such as his Enchiridion (1504) to editions of the Fathers. Initially, he welcomed Luther’s teaching and writing as complementary to his own. He, however, grew disturbed at its increasingly polemical nature and potential to undermine Catholic unity. That was made plain in De Libero Abitrio, to which Luther replied in De Servo Abitrio. Erasmus replied with Hyperaspistes. It was clear that they were far apart on many theological issues and reflected wider divisions in popular and scholarly Catholicism. Erasmus was convinced of the importance of education and that return to the sources was vital for authentic reform. He could be a cutting critic, as well as an inspirer of devotion. He provided reliable editions of some of the leading Fathers, as well as writing popular books on basic Christian belief and behaviour. Though he cherished the Catholic heritage, some more traditional Catholics regarded him as a corrupter of the faith.  His work was censured by the University of Paris and his books were totally banned by Sixtus V in 1590. The Roman Index banned some books, but permitted others, when they were carefully edited.  His importance has been widely recognized in the 20th century.

Ian Breward