That's study number six, and we're halfway through, I think. If I remember rightly, last week we started study six, but you didn't have the notes. So now you've got the notes, and if you go to page two of study six, I think there's a page number on the bottom of your pages. There is. Page two, you'll see the little paragraph, Church among the Aboriginal people. In 1967 and 1970, secular authorities stated, and the first quote is 1967, that's from A. A. Abbey, the original Australians, and he, in his questionable wisdom, said, for all the effort and money that has been devoted to the conversion of Aborigines, whether in the city or outback, there have in fact been very few converts. He has no idea, probably, at that point, had no idea how wrong he actually was, but he was very, very wrong. And then there was another quote, this time from the Australian Society. A fellow called Davies was the editor of this particular series. They came out over a period of years. Australian Society sociological introduction. And he said, there is little evidence to show that its object of the conversion of Aboriginal people to Christianity has been achieved. There is no evidence to say that it's been achieved. They really were so far off, they had no idea. even so far off for their own day. And certainly as history has shown, they are even more off today. It's obvious that such assessments were wrong and are wrong. John Harris, in his book One Blood, shows that such assessments were incorrect even when they were written. He states that by the 1930s, the proportion of Aboriginal Christians was greater by far than that of the whites. And on page 660 of his book, 1950s most Banjilang of New South Wales were Christians. Now that's just one tribal group but that can be said for a lot of other tribal groups in New South Wales and indeed across Australia and I would suggest by far the majority of Anangu-Pindinjara people are Christian folk. A large percentage of them are regular worshipping Christian folk. Certainly in the Fink River Mission, the Lutheran Church in the Fink River Mission is over 6,000 people. who are practicing, worshipping believers. And that can be extended right across Australia. There's a huge percentage. I have no idea what the actual percentage per head of population is, but it's far greater than it is for white Australians. The Christian gospel has borne and is bearing much fruit in the form of a robust church among the Aboriginal people. Next week, Lord willing, no, the week after, Lord willing, we will have Denise Champion speaking and Denise is at the moment up at a conference in the Northern Territory and they are dealing with Indigenous liturgies and the formation of Indigenous liturgies primarily for the Uniting but probably also for Anglican and other church groups. So there's and these are Aboriginal Christian leaders that are doing this. The Queensland Church, Anglican Church, boasts of several high-ranking church folk, both canons and bishops, and I've had the privilege of meeting a couple of them, and they are quite significant men and quite capable men. The body of Christ among Aboriginal people reveals the same diversity as it does among non-Aboriginal people. So when we're talking about the church amongst Aboriginal people, we've got to be very careful to allow them the same freedom of diversity, the same pluriformity really, that can be seen amongst the the white church. In other words, you as Church of Christ folk, I'm sure, would recognise me as a brother, and I'm a Lutheran pastor. And that same freedom needs to be shown to the Aboriginal church. Just because they come from a different community doesn't mean that they're not part of the same body of Christ, albeit expressing their worship in a different way. But that, to me, is one of the beauties of the pluriformity of the church. The body of Christ among Aboriginal people reveals the same diversity as it does among non-Aboriginal people both inter- and intra-denominationally. In other words, if you went to the Uniting Church, Aboriginal Uniting Church, say, at Elko Island, it would be different in its style and its character, probably quite different to that which you would find in, say, Mimili, in the top of South Australia. So within the denomination and across denominations, there is a vast difference. And this is, I personally think, a very unessential thing. Because as soon as you're dealing cross-culturally, there has to be a recognition that our culture is going to reflect itself. There's got to be a recognition of the need to have our culture reflected in our worship. If it doesn't, then our worship is just not relating to the culture in which it's ministering. So there needs to be a difference, and that difference is quite valid and quite important really. The same fundamental realities which assure the one of its identity in Christ are present in the other. The same fundamental realities that assure you of your unity in Christ with other believers within your denomination are present also in other denominations and therefore I would suggest present also cross-culturally, those fundamental realities. The same variety of secondary beliefs and practices which form the pluriformity of the Church are present in both. Although such diversity is readily evident, the abundance of similarities is even more so. They worship the same Lord Jesus Christ. They long for the same word to be proclaimed. They long for their pastors to be examples of the gospel that they're proclaiming. They long for prayer and for fellowship. If the Spirit of God is enlivening you, then there's going to be a natural desire for community within the communion. simply because the God in whose image we are made is bringing himself to life in your heart and the hearts of others, and he is a communal God. And so he's going to be moving you to seek community and to seek communion. So when doing it, that same God is in the hearts of the Aboriginal people. So they are obviously going to be seeking community and communion. And I would suggest that if the Aboriginal people, or indeed if you or I, are in a community where we cannot find that essential communion with other believers of our culture, then we will find it in other believers of another culture. Simply because there's something driving us within us that knows this is what we must have. Community. Communion. Although such diversity is readily evident, the abundance of similarities is more so. This fact forces one to acknowledge the reality of the church among Aboriginal people which is obviously and necessarily Aboriginal. Aboriginal Christian leadership. The following list is by no means exhaustive. I find great fascination in researching this, and whenever I get a book that has to do with Aboriginal culture, Aboriginal history, I look down through it to see if I can see an Aboriginal Christian leader, and I note it. And sometimes you've got to look carefully, and sometimes you've got to cross-reference, because normally authors don't sort of focus on it, but to me it's an essential thing to look for. The following list is by no means exhaustive. It only refers to the more prominent leaders in certain geographical areas. However the list does show that from the very beginning of the gospel being proclaimed in South Australia, and indeed Australia as this list will testify, God raised up Aboriginal leaders who gave ample evidence that they were equipped with all that was needed to share the gospel with their own people. Obviously the gospel they received and shared was coloured by the mission that brought it to them, but God showed his willingness to unite a people for himself in spite of the divisions his servants thought so important. And sometimes the servants, the dear, lovely missionaries, and I know that I was one of them, we thought there was some aspects of our gospel that was so essential. And the Lord sort of showed us over time that, hey, the Lord didn't agree with our sense of priority. He was working outside of our framework and he was waiting for us really to catch up to his framework. And this is evident as you go through this list, you'll realise that people's hearts were being revived by an Anglican version of the Gospel. As readily as they were being revived by a Church of Christ version of the Gospel. As readily as they were being revived by a Lutheran version of the Gospel. And even by a Catholic version of the Gospel. And I actually haven't included it, but there are a couple of references that I thought were quite fascinating. When the Holy Spirit worked in Yarrabah, which is an Anglican mission off the coast of Queensland, sorry, on the coast of Queensland, the people were given visions before they actually heard the Gospel. And the fascinating thing was the visions were extremely Anglican. And then if you cross that over to another area where the Catholic Church was working, before the Catholic Church came there, the people were given visions that are obviously Catholic, before the Catholic priest and before the Gospel got there. So I'm not sure what you make of that, except that to me it seems that God is willing to work in whatever framework he's setting up to provide his gospel. God is incredibly gracious and we get very frustrated sometimes when he just doesn't fit our mould. I think whilst our origins might be vastly different, the end point's the same. Thomas and Jemmy Bennelong in 1820, this was in New South Wales in Botany Bay, They were very soundly converted in the Anglican framework. If you go back to the very beginning notes, you'll see the first two pastors there were Anglican pastors appointed by the Eclectic Society and Society of Christian Knowledge or something like that. I can't remember now. But they were appointed by people who had a significant impact on the Clapham sect. What's his name? John Newton and William Wilberforce. And those two guys obviously started bearing fruit fairly early, but they didn't recognise their fruit and went away sad, if you like. But Thomas and Jemmy Bennelong were two such people. Then Takenaro, South Australia. Lutheran slash Anglican. A bit of a squabble over who can claim this man. He didn't live for long after he was converted, but he was soundly converted. And his testimony, which we'll come to a little bit later on, Demonstrates his sincerity of his conversion and then a good good brother of ours Nathanael Pepper and Turn over the page Conrad rubber rubber and and Peter Buller both ordained pastors from Hermannsburg and that Patrick Brisbane ordained in 1970 and Gumbly were Amara in from Queensland Anglican and still a significant pastor up there. Then I haven't added in Bishop Arthur Malcolm and Bishop James Lethwich that are both Aboriginal men and bishops in the Anglican Church in Queensland. So let's just have a look at some of these people and on an individual basis. Takenaro, 1871. We don't know a great deal about the man, but what we do know is very significant as evidence of his faith. Takenaro had been very diligent in reading the New Testament as his preferred section of scriptures because in it he read about Jesus. He was frequently heard praying and would often get up during the night to pray. When he was very ill he asked that a section of 1 John 3 be read to him. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. Now if you just picture yourself in Takenaro's situation, he's a Ghana man, He's watched, first of all, a huge percentage of his population killed by smallpox. Then he's seen his land being taken over by literally thousands of white people come in in a very short time. And then these missionaries come in and start telling him about Jesus. Very soon after he heard the gospel, he gets sick, and it's not long after that he dies. But you read the passage that most touches his heart. and you get a bit of an indication of how deep his conversion has obviously gone. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. Who's the us for Takenara? Who's the us? His people. That we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now we are the sons of God. And this is a man who's dying, very, very sick. He calls out to the missionary constantly to come and read with him because he can't read, he doesn't have the scriptures in his own language. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in himself purifies himself even as he is pure. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it does not yet appear that we shall be, but we shall know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is, and every man that has this hope in himself purifies himself even as he is pure." Takenaro's expressions with regard to forgiveness of sins and his trust in Jesus Christ were a blessing to those who knew him. He would recite the Lord's Prayer and other petitions with great earnestness. He also believed that his sins were forgiven and that he was going to glory and would see his saviour face to face. Now this was from a man who died and the missionaries that gave him the gospel felt that their ministry was a failure. The record of Takenaro's illness and death provides a picture of his redeemed state but also the lack of understanding of the gospel in the minds of the missionary pastors. They constantly focused on the action of the hearer to secure their own salvation rather than the action of God who saved them. This resulted in a cultural conversion as distinct from a dependence on grace and it explains why baptism was often withheld at the very points when it would have been most theologically appropriate. A lot of the Aboriginal people, baptism was withheld from them simply because they didn't conform to the the cultural criteria that we lay down for them. And of course, as we read in earlier papers, one of that criteria is they've got to start tilling the ground. They've got to start farming. They've got to start valuing material things, because if you don't value material things, how can you claim to be a Christian? Because for the missionaries, this materialistic view of what they understood to be the gospel was essential evidence of salvation. If that's not there, how can you say somebody's truly saved? It was a big mind shift that was required in the missionaries' thinking. Over time, missionaries have started to realise this. And then Blind Moses in 1823. Blind Moses was baptised in 1890. He preached regularly at Hermannsburg and later at Henbury Station. He also assisted in instructing people for baptism. using whatever mode of transport was available, such as donkey, camel, buggy, on foot or occasionally back of a truck. Now really he probably should have had the same horse that the Anglican fellow had last week. He was riding on Luther because Blind Moses was from the Lutheran mission. So maybe he should have had a horse called Luther as well. And then he called into all his people at Deep Well, Alice Well, Horseshoe Bend, Indra Kaura, Jay Creek, Alice Springs, Andulja, Uplunga and other places. He preached that everyone should put their trust in Jesus and give up their juringa, or their sacred objects. He had memorized whole chapters of the scriptures and he used Bible pictures, taught hymns, the commandments and prayers by rote. During his ministry he assisted Karl Strelo with translation of the New Testament into Western Urunda. In his final years he preached and taught children at Jay Creek near Alice Springs and dictated a valuable account of his own life. Obviously a man of God, obviously a leader, and in 1823, I presume that's his birth date, he was baptised in 1890. The question to me is why, if all these gifts and skills were evident and this ministry was evident, why was he not ordained? To their credit, I would suggest that if he had been in a Church of Christ mission, he would have been. He would have been given pastoral responsibilities. He was exercising them, but the church didn't quite know how to deal with it. Nathaniel Pepper, 1860. Nathaniel Pepper was converted on the 17th of January 1860 as a result of studying for the purpose of assisting with translating Romans 8. Trevor and I have a mutual friend who's doing linguistic work. And I think if ever there was a very obvious expression of pastoral care, it's doing linguistic work certainly with church leaders. Here's a perfect example where a man was converted because he was helping the missionary do linguistic work on Romans 8. I have thought how he prayed in the garden, says Nathaniel Pepper, till his sweat came out as blood, and that, for me, I couldn't sleep. I felt so happy. I've wept over my sins. His sweat came out like blood and that for me." Pepper went on to evangelize his people around the mission station and out to the nearby stations. He led worship services and read the Psalms and prayers. He freely confessed, you have laid down your life for our sins. Pepper wrote to the mission headquarters in Germany and included a poem. Think of our brethren, Lord, who preach the gospel word in spirit free and bold, in hunger, heat, and cold. Thou art their strength and shield. Help them to win the field. Signed, Nathaniel Pepper. It's often argued that the ministry of Nathaniel Pepper brought about the beginning of the Aboriginal church. In fact, it's fascinating as you go through each particular denominations group, they all claim that they had the beginning of the Aboriginal church. Maybe there is some sense in which Nathaniel Pepper's conversion However, despite Pepper's obvious maturity in the faith and his love for his Lord, these are not the things that were used to determine his maturity. Instead, his Christian maturity is denoted by the fact that he built a house with a fireplace. Gee, it's fascinating, isn't it? He built a house with a fireplace. There's a whole book being written, and it's the book that I bought last week, I should have bought it again this week, on Nathaniel Pepper, and it deals with the cultural clash and how Nathaniel Pepper's conversion was part of that cultural clash, And one section of it talks about Nathaniel Pepper building his own house and the difference that having a fire in the house meant. And it certainly was a significant thing. Pepper was then able to more adequately minister to his people when it got cold and wet down the southern part of Victoria. He could bring everybody in and sit around his fire. But it certainly drew a line in the sand. It separated him from his people. Although he did offer to teach them how to build houses, Then James Unaipon in 1864. James Unaipon, an anglicised spelling of Unaiponee, was born at Ralkin in the 19th century. Ralkin, if everybody knows Point Maclay, if everybody's aware of Meningee, where Meningee is, Point Maclay sort of off to the side on the edge of the lakes, and its Aboriginal name is Ralkin. As an Orangery leader, he was converted under the ministry of Reverend James Reid. Now, Reverend James Reid, I think, is a Presbyterian pastor. At the same time as George Taplin was there, he wasn't instrumental in bringing this man to the Lord, but James Reid was drowned in a boating accident going across Lake Alexandrina not long after he settled into the area. After Reid's tragic death, George Taplin took James on as his assistant missionary. a position he accepted in September 1864. By the mid-1860s, he was authorised to administer the sacraments. He worked with George Taplin to develop a written grammar of his language, and in 1864, Nuremberg was the first indigenous language to have a translation of the Bible extracts published. 1864, can you tell me how many years ago that was? Who's any good at sums? 103? 145? Last year, I think last year or the year before, was the completion of the first entire scriptures in an Aboriginal language. 2007. Yes, the Creole Bible. So when you think 1864 was the first written grammar and it's taken that long You know, we don't have a lot to brag about there, do we? In fact, just some recent studies I've done, if everybody knows where Luther Seminary is in North Adelaide? That was built originally, I think, as Winston College, I think, and it didn't survive very long. It wasn't long before it became Angus College, the first missionary training college in Australia. And in my notes coming up in a couple of weeks' time, I think it's something like 74 or something missionaries were sent out from that place while it was a missionary training college. Not one to Aboriginal people. Not one single missionary to Aboriginal people. James and Angela, I'm sorry, James at Unaipon, Naurangu was the first indigenous language to have a translation of the Bible extracts published. By mid-1865 William McHughes also stepped forward for missionary service to his people. Together McHughes and Unapon funded their own mission trip from Ralkon on Lake Alexandrina up the river as far as Mannum. They purchased their own riverboat and embarked on two trips before Taplin deemed their efforts unfruitful and squashed the project in May 1869. Now this really hurt James Unapon. It took him quite a while to recover from the disappointment and the lack of understanding of the need to share the gospel with his own people, albeit with different tribal groups, but still Aboriginal people. Once Unaipon recovered from the distress of Taplin's actions, he resumed his spiritual care of his people through general ministry, preaching and praying. James and Angela Noble, 1908. Now, the pain that Unaipon went through was quite different to the experience of James and Angela Noble. Angelina Noble, before she was married, was taken as property by a white farmer, a white cattle drover, and basically his slave, until she was eventually discovered as a young teenage girl by the police, and the police then took her to the mission. But in that time, she had learned to survive driving cattle, so she was no little fairy princess. She knew how to live rough and she was obviously a Christian young girl, but she knew how to live rough and she knew how to live out in the bush. When James and Angelina were married, the Anglican church in Melbourne were looking for volunteers to start a mission work at Nookah, so across the peninsula, across the gulf on the other corner. And the Yarrabah community put forward James and Angelina and another man's name. And the Anglican authorities back in Melbourne said, no, no, no, no. This is not a suitable job for a woman. We accept two of the nominations, but won't accept the third one. So Angelina has to stay home. The Yarrabah community decided they haven't got a clue what they're talking about. This is Angelina they're talking about. She's more than capable, so they send her off anyway. One of the first evidences of the communities being willing to stand against the mission organizations or the European church. James Noble was converted in 1895 at about 19 years of age. He married Angelina in 1904 and together they supported the missionary endeavours of Reverend Ernest Gribble, the son of Yarrabah's founding missionary, Reverend John Brown Gribble. They soon assumed the full role of traditional missionaries themselves. They selected mission sites, taught school, built mission buildings, horse yards, administered the sacraments, preached and attended and addressed synods. James was the first Aboriginal Anglican clergyman. By 1939 there were 14 identifiable Aboriginal missionary leaders from the Yarrabaugh community. Then there was a big, big silence for a long, long time before the more recent years and the Anglicans started to reappoint again, recognising Aboriginal Christian leaders. Now, I ran out of time, but I was trying to get in before Trevor called in today to say hello. I was trying to get in some work on a fellow called Lane Paddy. Lane Paddy was quite a character, but I was able to focus on Mickey Free, so I'll go through Mickey Free first. Mickey Free and Lane Paddy and Michael Highfold were all from the Coonabba area and from here in South Australia. Mickey Free was converted under the ministry of Pastor Wibusch in the scrub camp north of Coonabba Mission. The details of his conversion are limited but informative. They show how culture in the gospel and the education and control of children were interrelated in the missionary's mind. Now please don't think for a minute this only relates to the Lutherans. This was pandemic. Pretty well every mission and with the one notable exception and that's AIM. And to your credit AIM The Church of Christ's affiliation and historical relationship with Aboriginal work is closer to AIM than any of the others, but they're the notable exception. Pretty much every other mission, including UAM, got heavily involved in the education and confusing gospel and culture to the destruction ultimately of the gospel. Then how interrelated they were in the missionary's mind. Back, if you look at footnote 21 for Clem Eckerman and the Coonabba, the Mission and the Noongar people, Pastor Clem Eckerman has passed away now. In many ways I've actually got the continuation of his ministry at Ferryden Park. But his family published this book, his memoirs, and it was launched at Ferryden Park quite recently. Pastor Weebush, unwilling to risk the loss of the family to the Mission, that is the family of Mickey Free, impressed on him particularly his duty towards his children, whose training would be neglected if he left Cunova. And as his own account of the event ran, that's Mickey Free's account of the event, that was when I became a Christian, when Pastor Weebush told me I shouldn't take my children away from the Word of God. Now, you know, we here with all our infinite wisdom that we have and 20-20 hindsight, should we say that what the missionary did was wrong? Or should we say that what the missionary did was right? I don't know. But can you see the confusion of gospel and culture and yet can you see there was actually quite an incredible benefit as a result of that? So, Mickey was a long-standing elder in the church. and he had a good name throughout the community as a worker for his own needs and for the welfare of others and the Kingdom of God. In other words, he wasn't a bludger, he didn't look for welfare handouts, he worked to look after his own needs, care for his own family, but he also had a good reputation in the community for being a community worker. Now that's not Pastor Eckerman's comments, that's actually taken from the newspaper articles that were written as his obituary. He was a shrewd financial manager and from his early days as a Christian he took responsibility for the congregation's collection money. Pastor Eckerman writes, it was a rare morning that he did not see him in his pastor's study, meaning Mickey Free's own study, in the business of the mission and the master. I'm still hoping and praying that one of my congregation is going to walk past my study window and see me in there one day, but we're still waiting on that. But at least Mickey Free had that reputation, you see. Just in regards to the issue of money, my wife and I, when we went to Girard Mission, which was a UAM mission in the Riverland, we went there and the missionary was responsible for the petrol, for the ambulance, for the telephone, for the church, for the maintenance of the church, and basically he was the on-tap counsellor. Sorry? That's it. Now, in my naivety, I sort of felt there's something intrinsically wrong with this because the government provides these individual families with money to care for foster children. How come the church is not willing to trust them with money to care for the church building? So systematically, we actually cut those welfare activities. The first thing that went was the petrol. We closed down, we had a very large petrol bowser tank at the side of the mission house. And we thought, A, it was not real healthy for my children to be that close to a petrol bowser. And so in negotiations with the church, particularly Uncle Toot and Popeye and two beautiful people, Eddie Lindsay and Mary Coulmentry, Toot and Popeye, but lovely folk. And they were basically our leaders in the church. And so in communication with them, we actually cut out, first of all, the petrol bowser, then the taxi service, and I made myself, you know, not very popular driving. And a number of folk would come up to me and say they need to get into town, and I say, look, I'm sorry, I can't. And, you know, in their drunken stupor, they would say, well, hang on, you're supposed to be a Christian, and you've got to do what I want. And I would say, look, I am a Christian, and I'm supposed to be about it, I am a Christian, and I'll give you what you need, not what you want. And what you need is to stay home. You've had enough cordial already. And then I systematically cut off the other things. When we left that community, when we got to that community, the church had about $1,000 in the bank and basically the missionary did everything else. When we left that community, Uncle Toot did the gardening, Poppo was the bookkeeper, they did their own banking. There was still $1,000 in the bank but they ordered their own Sunday school material and they did the gardening of the church and Popeye and Susie did the Sunday school teaching. What surprised us when we first started cutting this out, and part of it was to educate the people, to let them know where the missionary stood financially. And it's a policy that I've followed through pretty well all of my ministry. The people didn't know that the missionary didn't get the same government pays that they got, because the missionary had always thought, oh, the poor Nungers, you can't really trust them with these facts, they wouldn't know how to deal with it. So consequently, the poor Nungers never knew that they got the bad reputation when they didn't support the missionary. So, in our naivety, we actually shared what our financial situation was. And Uncle Toot, when he'd go shooting, would come back and drop a couple of ducks off. My wife had to learn how to prepare ducks fairly quickly. He'd drop a couple of rabbits off. When Popo came through on the shopping bus, she'd pull the bus up out the front and she'd run in with a couple of loaves of bread. And there was offering that started to come in and it was channelled to the missionary, earmarked for the missionary. So, I mean, the fault wasn't the Aboriginal people. The fault was the missionary. He never trusted the Aboriginal people with the information. Here, at this particular place, Mickey Free, right from the start, had oversight of the congregation's collection money. When money comes from a certain people, the sooner the missioner recognizes the need to entrust those people with that money, the better off. We have no right to do anything else but. Bobby Peters, 1932. Bobby Peters first heard the gospel through the ministry of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Matthews at Old Maloga. Now, I'm not sure what umbrella the Matthews were under, it certainly wasn't Lutheran or Anglican and healthy relationships. There's a book called Politics of Guilt, I think it's called, and in there the author mentions the sin of presumptuous responsibility and I suppose that the lesson for me in that is that I don't have the responsibility of the government. I have the responsibility to elect them, but I don't have the responsibility for them. I have a responsibility to call them to task when I think they're overgoing, and I do that by the ballot box and other means if the opportunity's there. And so when the government, federal government, makes a decision about intervention, et cetera, that is what you're talking about, then I have limited responsibility in that regard, direct responsibility. I have limited direct responsibility because it's outside of my range. And if I assume by my attitude or by my frustration or my anger that I should have more, then it's what this also calls the sin of presumptuous responsibility. I do think, however, as far as the responsibility is that we do have as a church, as a congregation, then we need to learn that if these funds are raised for Aboriginal ministry, then we need to trust the funds to Aboriginal people. They won't use it the way we think they should, but that's not our responsibility. But having said that, I realise there are lots of other implications. I think the Uniting Church did actually set a very good standard for us. When they formed United Aboriginal Islander Christian Congress, when the Uniting Church formed, they had all these spare buildings all over the place. But I wouldn't dare go up to my hierarchy in my church and say you should have done the same thing when you had all your buildings left over when the two synods of the Lutheran Church came together. You go down a lot of country towns, you'll see an old Lutheran Church here and an old Lutheran Church there. Only one's active. Well, what happened to the other one? Well, when Union formed in, what, 1966 or something, they had all these surplus buildings, but they didn't go down the path of the Congress. And I think that's probably what we should have done. It's too late now, but it's probably what we should have done. But I do think there is a sense in which God has given us an area of responsibility that we need to exercise under his oversight and learning to trust believers, and especially in the missions case, both at Girard for me and Mickey Free here, these funds were raised by their own people. So the missionary has no right to control it whatsoever, no right at all. One of the lessons that the missionary took a long time to learn was that when the government eventually came to the point of giving Aboriginal ladies a child endowment, and that's relatively recently, for a long, long time white ladies had child endowment, but Aboriginal ladies didn't qualify, they didn't get it. When the government eventually decided it was right to give it to them, they would send it out to the mission. And the mission would keep it. And by the way, now they're starting to be held to account for that. Yes. Well, in the early days, the government was almost an extension of the church because it was the church people that were in government in the very early days. So they set a path and a course right there. But the Aboriginal people caught on to how to live in a Western society and use Western systems a lot quicker than the Western society was able to adapt. And even now, you will find that it is a lot easier for people to give up the receptor mentality than it is for the other end of the people to give up the donor mentality. In other words, the donors find it a lot hard to change and the donor system finds it a lot harder to stop than it is for the receptors and the receptor system to stop. It's because we build up whole structures over this welfare state of ours and it's very hard to change it once it's in motion. So now then look at Bobby Peters in 1932. Bobby Peters first heard the gospel through the ministry of Mr and Mrs Daniel Matthews at Old Maloga station, which was, I think, somewhere near Swan Hill on the river in Victoria. However, Bobby Peters spent the next 20 years of his life as a drunk. Now, this is a fairly common story in Aboriginal communities. They might hear the gospel as a young person, but then the social and community pressures, the negative and positive ones, if you like, start to attack. and the pool is just taken away. When we were at Girard, we had a lovely young woman come with us. There was about five or six of us that drove across from Girard to Port Augusta Convention in the convention heydays when there was, on this particular year that I'm thinking of, there was about two and a half thousand people at convention in Amiwara. It was the largest known Christian gathering of Aboriginal people up to that date and maybe even still. It didn't get a mention on any of the media, in any of the printed press at all. At one particular point there was a bit of an argument, a bit of a fight in Port Augusta, out front of the pub. That got media print, but not the 2,000, 2,500 people that were there. But we took this young lady across and she obviously, the Lord touched her in some incredible way while she was there. For the next two weeks after we got home she was proudly wearing an AEF badge on a lapel of her jacket, and she was a different young woman, and that was quite obviously so. Then something went dramatically wrong, and she went down and became a, you know, sort of like the proverb in the scriptures, you know, the devil had been swept out and then seven more came in. And she started, you know, slicing herself, and Jude and I would sort of a number of times took her into hospital after she'd cut herself again, and she was just filled with shame and whatnot. And she would say this. As it turns out, as time went on, she did two very, very substantial sentences for murder in Victoria Square. She knifed a person in the throat and killed the person. And then for another one, for armed robbery. She's now out and only, she came along to church about two years ago, I suppose now, and we baptised her, which was quite wonderful. Then the drugs sort of took its toll again and she went down. But in that time when she was coming back, she told Jude and I what had happened all those years ago. She'd been raped and she was so shamed she couldn't tell us, she couldn't tell anybody else. But you see, and so she hit the drugs, hit the grog, hit the drugs and started slicing herself because of this unbelievable pain that she was carrying inside. It's so often the case where Aboriginal folk will hear the gospel and then the social and community pressures just come in and undermine them. Again, we need to be careful not to be too hard on them because for a long time the only strength, the only reassurance, the only support a lot of these kids get on a mission situation is their peers. And so they walk around on the communities where there's so much dysfunctional life and their only support group is their peers. So when they come to faith and the Lord speaks to them personally, somehow they need to break from their very peers that have supported them and been their only support for so long. It's a big ask. It's a big ask. Again, patience is required. However, this particular man, Bobby Peters, spent the next 20 years of his life as a drunk. He took an Aboriginal man by the name of Eddie Atkinson. Now, I don't know how much you guys know of your church history, but he became a Church of Christ pastor. the first ordained Church of Christ, Aboriginal Church of Christ pastor. Now I realise that I think being ordained in the Church of Christ is a relatively new thing, am I right in saying that? Normally Church of Christ don't have ordained pastors, is that, am I correct in saying that? So when I'm talking about ordained I'm talking about he was acknowledged as his pastoral gifts and a leader in the church, if you can just give me that freedom. In other words I'm not suggesting for a minute that the Church of Christ were doing for Eddie Atkinson what say the Lutheran Church might have done for Pastor Rubber Rubber, where they have big formal celebrations and he wears gowns from then on and all that sort of stuff. But there was a recognition from the Aboriginal community and the white community, and that's very significant, that Eddie Atkinson had great pastoral gifts and he was ministering and using those gifts and the church then recognised that. Eddie Atkinson, the first southern Aboriginal man to be ordained, to share the word of forgiveness with him before he was soundly converted in 1930. The chain of conversions leading up to Bobby Peter's faith is significant. An Aboriginal man by the name of Stanley Russell was converted only weeks before his death from alcohol abuse. He felt constrained by the love of God to take the word to his people. Now, Stanley Russell was on his deathbed, but he had a burning desire. He'd just met the Lord. The Lord had come to him on his deathbed. He had a burning desire. Before he dies, he needs to take the gospel to his people. Now, there's no transport, so he had to walk. And it was a substantial walk, and when he got there, he couldn't make the final few yards or whatever it was. They ran out from the community, saw their uncle coming, and picked him up on both sides and carried him in. And when he got there, he was just sort of alert enough to be able to say what he had to say, and then he died. And as a result of that, Stanley Russell, despite severe weakness and pain, he walked to the community he was concerned about. As a result of his testimony, 12 people were immediately converted. After some grounding in the faith, two of these, Reverend Bert Marr, who went on to minister at Perth Fleet NSW, and Alec or Alexander Russell, moved out into the surrounding country and then across large portions of rural NSW. Alex or Alexander Russell then became resident minister at that mission station for four years, during which time Eddie Atkinson was converted. This means, therefore, that Bobby Peters was converted fourth generation aboriginal ministry. You see the church is growing. And when you look at the stats that these particular guys and these folk then relate to AIM and the foundation of AIM, the formation of AIM and the development of AIM, their ministry was very successful. And then you get these turkeys come up in 1967 say that there was no effective church in the aboriginal communities. This means, therefore, that Bobby Peters was converted fourth generation Aboriginal ministry. He was founding pastor of an AIM church at Darlington Point in New South Wales from 1932. The quiet ministries. I'm still trying to build on this for my own sake, because I know that there are a number here that I could add in. I just need to pin them down. These are the ministries which we probably remember in our own families. For example, I know before my grandmother passed away, that she used to pray for me regularly. During my teenage years, when I was right off the rails and right off the deep end, my grandmother on my other side, when she'd travel around the world, she very proudly went into any church that she could find, anywhere she went, and she'd pray for me. My Sunday school teacher, dear old Mr Hawkes, he singled me out when I was just a very young tacker and would pray for me daily. Now these quiet ministries, and I think if you reflected in your own history, you may be able to come up with them yourself. Ministries such as that referred to in Norman Mitchell's testimony. He learnt the importance of prayer and the word of God from his father. And you'll see that story in Story of Fire continued. Or Reverend Bill Hollingsworth, whose experience was the same as Timothy's, who learnt the faith from his mother and grandmother. I know for a fact that UAM was ministering at Girard for 45 years before we got there. prior to Gerard they were ministering at Mannum to the same people, and prior to that Mrs Matthews, it's mentioned up here under Bobby Peters, her and her husband were ministering on the other side of the river at Mannum to the same people. So these guys had heard the gospel for a long time, but when we got to Gerard, Uncle Toot used to say that he heard the gospel from his grandmother. Missionaries, I would hope that they rejoice in that fact, but they didn't get a mention. It's impossible for us to imagine the hardships these leaders suffered. They were frequently ostracised by their own people as well as subject to the overt and covert racism of the dominant Europeans around them. They suffered the loss of their own ancestral land and culture and yet were seen to have defected to join the enemy who took the land. The colonial and church authorities often gave them titles equal to their European counterparts Yet when the crunch came, they faced restrictions not suffered by their European peers. One example of that now is that we could have Aboriginal pastors ordained, but they are ordained only to their community. So in other words, if they want to minister somewhere else, they don't have that freedom to do so. So I think we are still, we haven't gone very far. All right, shall we go on to study number seven? And if somebody again can act as the watchman for me, because I need to be stopped when it's the appropriate time. So now on study seven, and if I can read, all right, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 5 to 10. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire. but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, O God. First, he said, sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them, although the law required them to be made. Then he said, here I am. I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first, to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all." What I just want to bring out from that is that it wasn't the organisation or the institution that God was actually looking for. Those things were fine so long as they helped in bringing about the relationship. And the relationship meant and required a body. So when the church is formed, the organisations are only valuable so long as they foster and nurture that relationship. Aboriginal Inland Mission, aka Australian Indigenous Mission Ministries, which is what it's now called, and United Aborigines Mission or Ministries. AIM is a non-denominational ministry which was formally constituted in September 1905. The organisation can trace its origins back in 1893 when a small group of concerned Christians from the Christian Endeavour movement and two Baptist in Sydney began meeting over a picnic lunch at La Perouse, Sydney's centre in the southern part of Botany Bay. The first missionary was Miss J Watson and soon followed by Miss Retta Dixon. Now that's a very famous name in Aboriginal mission history but I suggest also she's worthy of a position in Australian history. Within a week of ministry, within a week, what number are you up to brother? How can we possibly say, we have to acknowledge God was alive and well. God was active. There's no doubt about it. 14 people within a week. Within, where are we, 76 conversions within the first 12 months of the mission's operation. Now, there's a couple of things you need to take note here. First of all, these were women missionaries. So Aboriginal men coming from a very paternalistic society, a very male-orientated society, weren't going to just follow the skirts of two ladies. And certainly not two white ladies, and certainly not in the period before welfare handouts became such a fundamental part of Christian ministry in Australia. I think sadly so. So what I'm saying is that these people must have been soundly converted. Soundly converted. At a time also when being converted meant that they automatically had to face issues in dealing with their own culture. Soundly converted. 76 conversions within the first 12 months of the mission's operation. United Aborigines Mission formed out of AIM and hence also traces its origins back to 1893. Between them, the two organisations accounted for nearly half the missionaries of all denominations in the whole of Aboriginal Australia and 90% of those working in settled areas. They both had, in fact even more so UAM than AIM, had a tradition of being willing to send missionaries where nobody else would go and they were quite frequently, you could almost say eccentric missionaries. Annie Locke, if anybody knows anything of Annie Locke, she was the missionary who went up to Barrow Creek and she simply got in her horse and buggy, single lady, slightly overweight, and off she went. Amazing when you think of going up to Barrow Creek. I mean, the Lutheran Church flies the flag soundly when they think of what, a couple of thousand sheep and a couple of dozen people that went from the Barossa Valley up to Hermannsburg. That was a big issue. And it was, I'm not belittling that for a minute, but there was a whole community that went. This is one lady, one lady who went on her own across Australia, across the desert, before there was a bitumen road from Port Augusta to Bella Springs, and she went up to Barra Creek. And she ministered there, and then, as though that wasn't sort of tough enough, when she finished there, the UAM called her briefly to Oodnadatta, and she went to Oodnadatta until Dorothy, until sisters Rutter and Hyde arrived there to look after the children. And then she went then, am I right? And then she went there over to Aldia and she took over from Daisy Bates at Aldia, took over, took the place of Daisy Bates. In fact, Pastor Clay Meckerman in his book on Coonabba the Mission and the Nunga people refers to her as the real Kabbalah. Daisy Bates was the false one because Daisy Bates was not a Christian. She was, I think, probably a well-intended lady but she was declared herself not Christian. She just wasn't Christian. But she was indeed that famous soldier's wife. What was his name? That famous soldier who was executed in South Africa? Breaker Morant. Yes, yes. Daisy Bates was Breaker Morant's wife. But mind you, she was a bigamist also. She had two husbands. unusual lady. But anyway, Annie Locke took over from Daisy Bates and then as a UAM worker. So she was used to her very hard. And if you see a picture of Aldea, it is just, the picture is just a windmill in the middle of sandhills. Literally, just thousands of square miles of sandhills. And then the windmill was only necessary because the, I'll tell you a little bit of the background of it. Aldea was Aldea Soak. And the water from Aldea Soak simply came up out of the ground. Beautiful, fresh drinking water just came up out of the ground. It was water from the Great Australian, from the Great Dividing Range. It fell on the top part of Queensland and soaked underground, came right underground and just came up out of the ground at Aldea Soak and probably some other places also. Beautiful drinking water. And for hundreds of years Aboriginal people would congregate in that area. They'd have their ceremonies in that area. and there would be almost a permanent camp in that area. And then the train line came through, and of course the train line took a lot of water, and so when they first got to Aldea Soak, they built a couple of big rainwater tanks, big water tanks, and pumped the water out of the bore, and not a problem at all. But after a couple of years of doing this, they realised they had to put the bore down a little bit deeper to get the same water, so they did put it down a little bit deeper. Aboriginal people still gathered a little bit. Daisy Bates had come along, and then Annie Locke, They started using more trains and needing more water, so the ball would go down a bit deeper. They kept on doing this until they put a hole in the bottom of the soak. And almost overnight, the water went. And so a way of life that had been so much a part of Aboriginal way of life in the Western Desert was suddenly gone. Overnight. Quite tragic. United Aborigines Mission formed however although their dedication and sincerity is beyond doubt the fact remains that they offered the Aboriginal people a syncretized Christianity as they themselves saw it and in so doing were guilty of syncretism just like the denominational missionary forebears. On their own website AIM acknowledges that With the benefit of hindsight, AIM would recognise that hurt was caused through continuing for too long with paternalistic attitudes." And I tip my hat to AIM for being willing to do that. I haven't been able to come up with anything like that on UAM's website. Aboriginal Christian Ministry Training Institutions. This also is a very significant list. The Native Workers Training College was set up by Rita Dixon. And one of my members at Girard, who's still alive, the dear lady, a lady that everybody calls EJ, Emily Meyer, she was a graduate of Singleton Bible College, which was the native workers' training college. And then Noongarlinia, established in 1973, a combined work of Uniting Church Anglican Catholic. And then Narangirup, which, and I had been to Narangirup, just to show you the sorts of things Does anybody here know a brother, Ray Finn? You would have seen Ray, yeah? Nobody else knows Ray? Ray Finn was at Naringara Bible College. I don't think he was still studying there. I think he'd finished studying but might have been back there visiting. I'm not really sure. Anyway, if he was studying, he was a senior student. My wife and I were at Girard and we were called across to Perth because they were talking about placing us at Leonora. as Bible teachers at Leonore and Mount Margaret Orbit Ranges. We went across to Perth and went down to Narangara. We had a lesson to learn about DL Ronnie Williams and the fact that he wasn't able to stay inside. But anyway, we went down to Narangara and there was Ray Finn and a fellow, Jeff Kickett, I think was another young fellow there. And we're sitting down around the table and the two missionaries, lovely DL folk there, sitting there and Ray Finn here and my wife and I there. and Jeff Kickett there, and Ray had something to eat, was enjoying his meal and then he put his elbow on the table and started chatting. And my wife and I were really enjoying this conversation. The old missionary says, excuse me, excuse me Ray, you know better than that, you must not put your elbows on the table. And I looked, I was stunned, I was absolutely stunned. Now, I don't know that the missionaries will do the same now, but I'm heavens above. I'm not an old fellow, I'm a young fellow. And it was in my lifetime. It just shocked me. So Ray is a lot more gracious than I am and he put up with it, but I wouldn't have been able to. I would have been out of there like a shot. And then Bimberdeen Bible College started by AEF, Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship, over at Cootamundra in New South Wales. While we were at Girard, we visited Bimbidine and it was going very, very strongly then. It's taken a bit of a downturn now, but it is still going, I believe. Wontong Baibuya is, again, an extension really of Noongarlinya, although it's an independent organisation and it's in Queensland. It focuses mainly on the Islander and Queensland people. Then Taplin at Point Maclay. Now, Taplin Aboriginal Friends Association is the organisation that Taplin represented. But he's really, sorry. Bible College? You don't know what it is? All right. Okay, I will see if I can follow that up. John Blackett, so if I type in his name and Google him it might come up. Yeah, I would appreciate that. There was a guy, a fellow called Graham Paulson who's still alive, an Aboriginal pastor, and for a long time around the Tweeds Head area he had tried to and had run his own little Bible study, Bible college type thing, with courses that he'd developed, but it didn't warrant a mention under this heading as far as my studies were concerned. Taplin at Point Macleay, there can be no doubt Taplin's sincerity and love of the gospel. He was certainly a great and stable man of God. He said, on the first Sunday after my arrival I opened the largest room in my house for divine worship. If I could just say another lesson there from my UAM days, when we went to Gerrard, we took over from Gerrard brother Laurie Rees. and Laurie Rees in many ways was a mentor for me, but he had just had a heart attack. We were supposed to go to his mission station while we were waiting to go to a mission called Aerial Missions up in Daly Waters in the Northern Territory. He came and he was visiting friends of ours at TEPCO and he asked what we were doing and I told him and he told me what he was doing. And he said, oh, if you're not careful, I'll invite you to come up and look after the mission station for me. And I said, oh, well, if you're not careful, I'll accept. He said, well, I'm not careful. I'm masking. So anyway, we were due to go up there for six weeks. About a week before that time started, he had a massive heart attack. And UAM asked us if we would be able to stay on a bit longer. So we did. And that time went on to, it was a three-year term at Girard. But while we were there, we sort of went round. We arrived at about 2 o'clock in the morning and stayed in the spare room and had sand flies all through the mattress and we were having a dickens of a job. We laid there looking up at the ceiling and we couldn't find the light switches because we'd never been in the house. Sorry, we had been in the house once before years ago. But anyway, we were sort of talking to each other and we sort of said, what the hang are we doing here? What the hang are we doing here? When we settled down and people started to get to know us, they'd come in and stand at the kitchen door. And we'd be sitting at the kitchen table and we'd say, come on in. And they'd stand at the door. We'd say, come on in. They'd say, come in. Well, it took a long time for them to get them past the kitchen door. And the reason being is that they had never been allowed to come in past the kitchen door. Again, I'm not talking about 100 years ago. When my kids started going, my two oldest kids started going to Gerrard, going to Winky School, they'd catch the school bus out the front of our place with the Gerrard kids and off they'd go to school. They'd get back in the afternoons and my kids would get off the bus out the front of our place along with half the Gerrard kids and they'd come on in. And then after a while the parents started coming and looking for them and they'd get a belting because they'd gone into our lounge. We've taught the people wrongly. No, we're OK. We don't mind ministering to you, but we don't want to be friends with you. We expect you to let us into your house, but it's above. No, we can't let you into ours. Yeah. On the first day after my arrival, he says, I opened the largest room in my house for divine worship and invited the blacks to attend. A good number came and listened with attention while I prayed. and tried to address them in simple language from the text. Now remember, this Taplin, this is his first Sunday, he didn't know any Ngarindjeri, and they didn't know any English, and yet he preached and they sat there and listened. Isn't that wonderful? The Lord is a great God. It wasn't long before he saw fruits to his ministry. The first convert was Walkeri, then a young lad of 12 years old, later two converts under Reverend James Reid, working in conjunction with Taplin, Alan Jamblin and James Unaipon. However, as soon as the issues of culture encroached on the lives of the new converts in ways that Taplin deemed sinful, he intervened, and so squashed the ministry. First fruits at Hermannsburg. Now, don't take my word for that. You can read that whole story in the book, Conquest of the Norringery, by Graham Jenkins. And you'll see a great deal there. And plus, there are other now stories published under individual families' names. One of the interesting things too, in regards to James Jenapon, he wrote, he was a skilled linguist, spoke Hebrew and Greek, he addressed Parliament, he was an inventor. No, I think it's the son. Anyway, when he became quite capable, he started writing a book, and the book was about Aboriginal myths and legends, Aboriginal culture, And he became friendly with a doctor who offered to arrange to get it published. But what Yenapon didn't realise is that the doctor put his own name to it. And that book is quite famous. You can still buy it in the bookshops. It's still published by Angus and Robertson. And royalties are still paid out, but not to his family. The family have now taken it to court, and it's a court case. It's been proven who the author was. But as far as I know, the family still don't get any royalties from the book. The particular doctor, I mean apart from fraud and plagiarism, is guilty of a great offence against this particular man of God. First fruits at Hermannsburg. In 1877, seven teenagers were baptised after two years of catechesis. Five of the youths were influenced by the witness of the other two, Kalimala and Takua. Kalimala continued his own ministry to his people, urging them to be faithful. He was largely responsible for the conversion of another 24 people being baptised within two years of his own baptism. In 1894, when Carl Strello began his pastoral care, these people still maintained their faith. One of these was Jebalka, or Brian Moses, who we heard of earlier on, and another was Nathaniel, a recognised Aboriginal Christian leader. Hermannsburg now has a strong church with Marcus Wheeler, an Arundel man, as the pastor. And not long ago, Pastor Peter Conrad Rubberubber and Pastor Peter Buller, both ordained Aboriginal men. Pastor Inkamala, Pastor Peter Buller's son-in-law, I met in the book for Max Hart and interviewed him. And I thought I would speak to him, sort of bring my English down to sort of Aboriginal English level and just find out, you know, if the man sort of loved Jesus and things like that. Well, boy, jingoes, did I come away feeling thoroughly ashamed of my own racist attitudes. This guy gave me a very solid theological introduction to justification and sanctification and forgiveness. And I thought, wow, I need to go back to college. This man's got it all. He knows it. And Pastor David Ingemarla. Aboriginal Christian conventions. The concept of Christian conventions in Aboriginal ministry can be traced back to an AIM initiative in 1907. So they are not a new thing. One significant ministry, and I think even back in 1907, they really followed from the Keswick Convention concept. I'm not sure how long Keswick had been involved, but it was a similar sort of idea. Does anybody know when Keswick started, the Keswick Convention movement? Yeah, the Keswick movement, yeah. See, there's Keswick Convention Centre over in Perth, but it's a global movement. But yeah, I think it started from the UK. But I'm not sure what year. Sorry? Yeah, yeah, but whether it's this old, I'm not sure. But it's the same phenomena, and I think started about the same time. One significant ministry that used the large-scale meetings was that of AIM pastor William B. Naden, an Aboriginal man. Pastor Naden was an Aboriginal man who served from 1938 to 1950s. He became one of the first eight Aboriginal workers that AIM sent to administer the gospel to their own people, and he had a very successful ministry based at Pilliga Mission in northern New South Wales. From 1938 to 1939, AIM sent another 100 Aboriginal missionaries into the field. Another 100 Aboriginal missionaries. In 1948, Pastor Naden began a new ministry in Gilgandra, where his ministry became legendary. Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people travelled long distances to hear him speak. He held regular open-air services, sometimes seven nights a week, and again in the mornings he used the local Castlereagh River for baptisms. It was said at the time that a true revival was taking place in Gilgandra. The warning in the western plains of New South Wales was, don't go to Gilgandra or you'll get converted. Wonderful. Don't go to Queenstown, you'll get converted. Thank you very much. Can I just finish this section up to the revival? Okay. Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship and Christian Conventions. Max Hart has rightly understood the apparent fragmented origins of the growth of indigenous church as one continuous work of the Holy Spirit. This is evident in the title of his book, A Story of Fire Continued. He records otherwise disparate events as one continuous process across the nation. Aboriginal Christian leaders in Western Australia said, we couldn't read the smoke signals from 5,000 kilometres away in the eastern states, but they were also considering the same ideas over there. And that's what was evidence really, proof that it is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Eastern State Aboriginal church leaders were having meetings at the same time as the Western State, Western Australian Aboriginal church leaders. They had no idea that each other were doing this, but they were talking about forming an organisation which became known as Aboriginal Evangelical Fellowship. The AEF was born of common frustration at the denial of their full equality with white Christians. The AEF and the convention phenomena grew simultaneously. The Port Augusta Convention began in January 1970 at Stirling North and that was the same time the AEF was formed. It was incorporated in August 1992. It began as an initiative of Aboriginal church leaders who didn't have the freedom to exercise their leadership within the established denominations. There are ample records to show that God was working constantly in the hearts of missionaries, mission administrators and mission committee members as issues of Aboriginal leadership aspirations were raised and discussed. However, the turning point came in January 1971 at a meeting called by Aboriginal leaders with Reverend Geoffrey Bingham as the study leader. The fruit of their deliberations enabled Aboriginal leaders to meet and share their experiences as members of the mainstream churches. However, as long as they limited themselves to working within the mainstream churches, only they would remain objects of missions rather than equal partners in the community of faith. The formation of AEF represented a breaking away from the bonds of the missionary overseers, and the convention at Port Augusta was an obvious expression of their newly won freedom. At their peak, the conventions brought together over 2,000 Aboriginal Christians from across Australia. Even today, although the biannual Port Augusta Convention is a mere shadow of its former self, it has spawned conventions across the Anangu-Pinjara lands of remote northern South Australia, as well as an annual convention in Alice Springs. Max Hart records some of the other conventions up to 1995. Amater, Indulkina, Mimili, Fregon, Kenmore, and Indulkina again. Pastor Jack Brayside, who is Don Haywood's father-in-law, he's now deceased, stated that the tribal people made a real contribution to the AEF because they were not tied to materialism, nor did they have to rationalise anything. Now can you see that? They were not tied to materialism. You see, even though the missionaries said you have to be to be truly converted, eventually the church is there, growing strong, and it's still not tied to materialism. Nor did they have to rationalise everything. In fact, that's still one of the big bugbears because you will find mission organisations still have a lot of trouble not getting in and making sure the church is clean and the windows aren't broken and the doors are repaired. Those things aren't really a concern to the Aboriginal communities, but they are a big problem for us, eh? It was interesting, I saw, I have a video at home, which was a movie, of the dedication, the opening of the church in Urnabella. This beautiful big building, if you've seen the Urnabella church, it's a cement brick building and it's got a steeple area and whatnot, and it was really quite special. And there were these white people dressed in their finery, both mission and visitors coming into the community. and every second person is stark naked, going to worship. And they come out of worship stark naked. Do you think they're going to be particularly worried what colour the paint is on the building? I don't think so. I don't think so. But mind you, I don't think Jesus was all that worried about it either. I don't think he is even now. Although a Christian convention was held in Katherine, Northern Territory each year since 1966, the convention movement across Australia has really only grown since the Port Augusta Convention in 82. Since then, there are regular conventions in Alice Springs, Normanton, Urnabella, Armata, Condobolin, and many other areas where Aboriginal Christian ministry is prominent. The convention movement is still a very significant factor in Aboriginal Christian ministry. Might I hasten to say now, people at Urnabella wear clothes when they go to church. Thank you. Can we pray?