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The presence of Christianity in Australia began with the foundation of a British colony at New South Wales in 1788. In the 2016 census, Catholics constituted 22. The Christian footprint in Australian society and culture remains broad, particularly in areas of social welfare and education provision and in the marking of festivals such as Easter and Christmas. Richard Johnson, Church of England chaplain to the First Fleet.

Before European contact, indigenous people had performed the rites and rituals of the animist religion of the Dreamtime. Portuguese and Spanish Catholics and Dutch and English Protestants were sailing into Australian waters from the seventeenth century. The permanent presence of Christianity in Australia began with the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788. According to Manning Clark, the early colonial officials of the colony had disdain for the “consolations of religion”, but shared a view that “the Protestant religion and British institutions were the finest achievements of the wit of man for the promotion of liberty and a high material civilization.

On 7 February 1788, Arthur Phillip was sworn in over the Bible as the first Governor of the colony, and delivered a speech to the convicts counselling the Christian virtues of marriage and an end to promiscuity. Lord’s Supper in an officer’s tent. He became known as the “flogging parson” for the severity of his punishments. Some of the Irish convicts had been transported to Australia for political crimes or social rebellion in Ireland, so the authorities were suspicious of Catholicism for the first three decades of settlement and Catholic convicts were compelled to attend Church of England services.

One-tenth of all the convicts who came to Australia on the First Fleet were Catholic and at least half of them were born in Ireland. A small proportion of British marines were also Catholic. The absence of a Catholic mission in Australia before 1818 reflected the legal disabilities of Catholics in Britain and the campaign of genocide against the Irish. The government therefore endorsed the English Benedictines to lead the early church in the colony. The Church of England lost its legal privileges in the Colony of New South Wales by the Church Act of 1836. Drafted by the Catholic attorney-general John Plunkett, the act established legal equality for Episcopalians, Catholics and Presbyterians and was later extended to Methodists. Nevertheless, social attitudes were slow to change.

Polding requested a community of nuns be sent to the colony and five Irish Sisters of Charity arrived in 1838. Since the 19th century, immigrants have brought their own expressions of Christianity with them. In 1885, Patrick Francis Moran became Australia’s first cardinal. Moran believed that Catholics’ political and civil rights were threatened in Australia and, in 1896, saw deliberate discrimination in a situation where “no office of first, or even second, rate importance is held by a Catholic”. The Churches became involved in mission work among the Aboriginal people of Australia in the 19th century as Europeans came to control much of the continent and the majority of the population was eventually converted.

With the withdrawal of state aid for church schools around 1880, the Catholic Church, unlike other Australian churches, put great energy and resources into creating a comprehensive alternative system of education. East London in 1865 to minister to the impoverished outcasts of the city. The first Salvation Army meeting in Australia was held in 1880. Section 116 of the Australian Constitution of 1901 provided for freedom of religion. Sectarianism in Australia tended to reflect the political inheritance of Britain and Ireland. All Saints Greek Orthodox Church, Belmore, Sydney.

Waves of post-World War II multicultural migration diversified the makeup of Christianity in Australia. Pope Benedict XVI arriving at Barangaroo, Sydney for World Youth Day 2008. Further waves of migration and the gradual winding back of the White Australia Policy, helped to reshape the profile of Australia’s religious affiliations over subsequent decades. Russian sailors visiting Sydney celebrated the Divine Liturgy as long ago as 1820 and a Greek Orthodox population emerged from the mid-19th century. The Greeks of Sydney and Melbourne had a priest by 1896 and the first Greek Orthodox church was opened at Surry Hills in Sydney in 1898. In 1924, the Metropolis of Australia and New Zealand was established under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In the 1970s, the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational churches in Australia united to form the Uniting Church in Australia.

1970 saw the first visit to Australia by a Pope, Paul VI. Pope John Paul II was the next Pope to visit Australia in 1986. In recent times, the Christian churches of Australia have been active in ecumenical activity. The Australian Committee for the World Council of Churches was established in 1946 by the Anglican and mainline Protestant churches. Data for table from Australian Bureau of Statistics.