Aboriginal people are “the skeleton in the cupboard of Australia’s national life”, and “outcasts in our own land”, said Aboriginal Churches of Christ pastor, Doug Nicholls in a passionate and angry speech in 1938.

Later this month, the Victorian Churches of Christ will celebrate the ministry of Nicholls, with an unveiling of his portrait.

Nicholls was born in 1906,played football for Fitzroy in the 1930s,became a pastor in 1939, married Gladys in 1942,was a major player in the 1967 Referendum, knighted in 1972 he accepted the appointment of governor of South Australia, and died in 1988.

This celebration provides the first public occasion, before the Nicholls family, politicians and congregational representatives, for Victorian Churches of Christ to reflect on their relations and ministry with indigenous communities. It was once suggested that he be recognised in some way in their new Conference Centre, but this was rejected, as was the need to recognise that the Centre sits on stolen land.

The occasion of this unveiling provides a glimpse into how one Victorian church is responding to indigenous communities and congregations.

In 2006, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission (NATSIEC), on which Churches of Christ are represented, demanded an end to poverty in indigenous communities. This was followed up, in 2007, by a further angry and emotional charge that Australians, including the churches, don’t care, and are content to leave Aboriginal people “on the dung heap of society”.

Other denominations, stung by such comments responded. The UCA, for example, committed itself to an indigenous recruitment, training and employment program for all of its agencies, and the Melbourne Anglican Diocese recently resolved,” to allocate one percent of its income for the purpose of supporting Aboriginal people in the work of Christian ministry”.

Churches of Christ ignored such calls.

During the time of his ministry, Nicholls was the most significant and visible face of the Victorian Churches of Christ. But even then, despite receiving honours from governments and royalty, leading Aboriginal organisations, and participating in government and community committees, the white male leadership of his church, ensured he was never elected president of their conference.

As the leaders of the church in which he ministered meet to unveil his portrait, Nicholls is a largely forgotten figure in white congregations, and indigenous ministry marginalised. In black communities and congregations he is remembered with love, and respect for his passionate commitment to justice for his people.

Budgets committed to a ministry are always an important indicator of the seriousness a church sees that ministry. In 1978 the Victorian Churches of Christ had a thirty thousand dollar indigenous ministry budget; in 1988 it was close to forty thousand; in 1998 it received twenty one thousand dollars for that ministry; in 2005 the budget was a little over three thousand dollars. In 2006, with a revenue of some seven hundred thousand dollars, the Conference Council spent a mere six hundred dollars on indigenous ministry!

In addition to what NATSIEC was saying to churches, there were some twenty five further reports on the situation of indigenous communities sitting on the shelves of Australian churches. Most of these refer to the injustice of poverty and the denial of employment opportunities. Churches of Christ operate multi million dollar aged care companies, yet the Conference Council, the executive organ of the Conference of Churches of Christ, is yet to inform their members on whether or not they have an indigenous employment policy.

No indigenous student has trained at the Churches of Christ Theological College for more than forty years. Some years ago the appeal by indigenous staff for congregations to celebrate NAIDOC was ignored. When members of congregations remember Sorry Day, few will have any idea that the origins of that day can be traced back to the Day of Mourning, for it was on that day in 1938, Nicholls said that they were now outcasts in their own land. The Sir Douglas Nicholls Fellowship for Indigenous Leadership has never been promoted or supported in the church in which he once ministered.

A struggling, marginalised and unfunded social justice network, attempts to educate and inform congregations on indigenous issues.

In 2002 the Indigenous Ministry Unit (no longer in existence) warned the Conference in its annual report of “the extent of sexual abuse within the Koori community”. The President of the Conference at the annual general meeting made no comment, the Council ignored it and no one at the meeting raised it. It was ignored in the following years. It is therefore not surprising when correspondence relating to the horrors of abuse in indigenous communities was tabled in 2007, it was received without discussion.

In a prophetic call to the 1998 annual general meeting, the indigenous ministry unit, asserted that, ”the health of our Conference is directly linked to the health of Indigenous Australians. This is because the health and growth of indigenous Australians is a test of our faithfulness in applying the Gospel in our context”.

A decade later, as the ministry of Nicholls is remembered and celebrated, Churches of Christ have yet another opportunity to respond to that call.

Alan Matheson Minister (Retired)

Churches of Christ.