Festival of Light Australia
Encyclopedia
Festival of Light Australia was an Australian ministry promoting Christian family values from 1973 to 2008, when its name was changed to FamilyVoice Australia.
It was founded in Adelaide
in 1972, with the name and inspiration from Nationwide Festival of Light
founded in the United Kingdom
in 1971. It was less active after the mid 1980s, but has undergone reconstitution since 2003. Its stated mission was to be "a Christian ministry to the nation, promoting true family values in the light of the wisdom of God".
FamilyVoice Australia was formerly known as Festival of Light Australia, and earlier still as the Australian Festival of Light and Community Standards Organisation. The name was changed to FamilyVoice Australia on 1 July 2008 in order to eliminate confusion with the many other festivals or groups around the world called “Festival of Light” or “Festival of Lights”, such as the Hindu Divali and the Jewish Hanukkah – and also to indicate something about the group’s purpose.
2. Festival Focus South Australia – a four-page newspaper initially sent to subscribers in SA seven times a year. From 2003, separate state editions were gradually published, beginning with SA and Queensland. In 2008 there were separate quarterly editions of Festival Focus for the five mainland Australian states.
FamilyVoice Australia submissions have included issues such as marriage, adoption, surrogacy, human rights, abortion, euthanasia, childcare funding, paid parental leave, the commercial television industry code of practice, suicide, men’s health, religious freedom, “adult” stores, alcohol-related violence, computer games, referendum machinery, child sex abuse, drug and alcohol abuse prevention and treatment, equal opportunity laws, bicameral parliaments, reproductive technology and gambling.
, which was founded by Mary Whitehouse
, Malcolm Muggeridge
and others in 1971. The Nationwide Festival of Light changed its name to CARE (Christian Action Research & Education) in 1983.
News of the UK Nationwide Festival of Light soon caught the attention of the Australian Community Standards Organisation (CSO), which had recently merged with the South Australian Moral Action Committee. Key members of the Moral Action Committee included Rev Lance Shilton, Rector of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Adelaide and later Anglican Dean of Sydney; Dr John Court, then senior lecturer in psychology at Flinders University, and Peter Daniels
. South Australian delegates at a CSO meeting in Melbourne in 1972 led the move to hold “a nationwide act of Christian witness, similar to that conducted in Britain last year (Festival of Light)”.
Rev Lance Shilton then initiated an interdenominational steering committee to establish the Australian Festival of Light at a meeting in Toorak Gardens, Adelaide, in November 1972. The committee appointed Dr Court as chairman; Rev Shilton and Mrs Roslyn Phillips as deputy chairmen, and Peter Daniels as publicity officer.
The Festival of Light was formally launched in Adelaide in June 1973 with a media conference and the release of a new book by Dr Court and SA journalist Helen Caterer, Stand Up and Be Counted, which aimed to motivate readers to defend publicly their Christian faith and values.
Lance Shilton’s network of contacts through the Australian Evangelical Alliance and the Community Standards Organisation led to the formation of independent branches of Festival of Light (which later included the Community Standards Organisation) in all Australian states. Rev Fred Nile
accepted leadership of the NSW branch in July 1973, becoming the full-time director in January 1974. Mr Nile greatly increased the organisation’s activity and public profile.
Sometimes there was open controversy. A week before the 1973 visit of Mary Whitehouse, students at the University of Adelaide, Flinders University
and the South Australian Institute of Technology (now the University of South Australia) began a “Festival of Fright” campaign against the Australian Festival of Light events, saying: “These latter-day Calvins should be met by as much opposition as freedom-loving people can muster…”
In 1978, South Australian Attorney-General Peter Duncan
criticised the Festival of Light, saying: “I believe there is a desperate need to develop a tolerant society… I don’t think this sort of hysteria and prejudging that is generated by the Festival of Light does anything to further this move.” Duncan also spoke out against the 1978 Festival of Light-sponsored visit to Australia by Mary Whitehouse, calling her “an agent of darkness” and an “opponent of freedom”.
announced that his government would move to tighten pornography laws, particularly in relation to children.
On 10 September 1978 at the Whitehouse rally in Adelaide’s Rymill Park, Festival of Light circulated a petition calling for tighter control of pornography, later signed by over 14,000 South Australians. On 20 September, Labor Premier Don Dunstan
delivered a blistering attack on the Festival of Light in the South Australian House of Assembly, calling the petition pamphlet “disgraceful”. He said a graph accompanying the petition was “one of the most untruthful pieces of work that I have ever come across” – because it showed a rise in South Australian rates of reported rape following a 1974 law allowing the sale of hardcore pornography, compared with Queensland where hardcore pornography was banned and rape reports remained steady. Dunstan said rape convictions should have been used instead of reports, and the graph should have extended beyond 1975.
However on 27 September, Liberal MP Bruce Eastick
defended the Festival of Light petition and graph, and said part of the Premier’s speech the week before had been a “blatant untruth”. Dr Eastick said rape report statistics from South Australia and Queensland after 1975 showed that “it is quite clear that the problem in South Australia is almost four times as serious as that which exists in Queensland”. Liberal MP Mrs Jennifer Adamson
later fully documented the statistics in the Festival of Light petition pamphlet, and listed the academic credentials of the founding chairman Dr John Court.
Dr Eastick also pointed out that a child pornography magazine Just Boys had been banned in New South Wales, but had been classified for unrestricted sale in South Australia, “alongside the Women’s Weekly”.
On 28 September the Dunstan government introduced the Criminal Law (Prohibition of Child Pornography) Bill, which passed both houses of parliament without dissent on 21 November 1978 after Opposition amendments tightened its provisions. The passage of the bill in an amended form was widely seen as a response to the Festival of Light campaign. Liberal MP Keith Russack noted: “The many signatures on petitions presented to this Parliament is a significant indication of the South Australian public’s concern.”
In 2008, Festival of Light Australia underwent a major rebranding. On 1 July 2008 its name was changed to FamilyVoice Australia in order to avoid ambiguity, especially on the internet. Dr David Phillips remains the national president and is supported by five state officers, a national research officer and a national administrator.
and the Adelaide Festival Theatre, and led a march of 10,000 people to Light’s Vision in Adelaide on 14 October 1973, where the Festival of Light Proclamation setting out the breadth of its concerns was read out and endorsed by a total crowd of over 12,000.
Mary Whitehouse later recalled her first visit to Australia as one of the big events of her life. She told her biographer Max Caulfield that because of the intense media interest, “I became better known in Australia in three and a half weeks than I did in Britain in ten years.”
, and 4000 in the Sydney Town Hall on 27 September.
to Australia to mark the 1981 United Nations International Year of Disabled Persons
. Mother Teresa was the guest speaker at the Festival of Light “The Handicapped Child in the Community” conference, attended by 800 people.
in February and March 1996. Jessen was born alive after an attempted saline abortion left her with brain damage and cerebral palsy
. She spoke to packed venues in all states and territories.
, was the first major national event under the new FamilyVoice name. Speaking to the media, public and private meetings and seminars for Christian leaders (a total of over 2500 people attended in all mainland capitals), Nazir-Ali expounded the theme of “Courage in a hostile world”. He described “the triple jeopardy of aggressive secularism, radical Islam and a misplaced understanding of multiculturalism”.
s in 2001, respectively for "service to family policy and community education as Chairman of the Festival of Light"
and for "service to family activities and community education through the Festival of Light".
The national magazine Light has won eight awards for excellence in religious journalism from the Australasian Religious Press Association.
It was founded in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
in 1972, with the name and inspiration from Nationwide Festival of Light
Nationwide Festival of Light
The Nationwide Festival of Light was a grassroots movement formed by British Christians concerned about the development of the permissive society in the UK at the end of the 1960s....
founded in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1971. It was less active after the mid 1980s, but has undergone reconstitution since 2003. Its stated mission was to be "a Christian ministry to the nation, promoting true family values in the light of the wisdom of God".
FamilyVoice Australia was formerly known as Festival of Light Australia, and earlier still as the Australian Festival of Light and Community Standards Organisation. The name was changed to FamilyVoice Australia on 1 July 2008 in order to eliminate confusion with the many other festivals or groups around the world called “Festival of Light” or “Festival of Lights”, such as the Hindu Divali and the Jewish Hanukkah – and also to indicate something about the group’s purpose.
Publications
1. Light – a quarterly 12-page magazine sent to subscribers throughout Australia as well as some MPs and media outlets, from January 1975 to May 2008.2. Festival Focus South Australia – a four-page newspaper initially sent to subscribers in SA seven times a year. From 2003, separate state editions were gradually published, beginning with SA and Queensland. In 2008 there were separate quarterly editions of Festival Focus for the five mainland Australian states.
Activities
A key activity of FamilyVoice Australia is providing authoritative information to supporters, churches and community leaders on issues facing Australia today, through:- Deputations by state officers to churches, schools and community groups
- Publications
- Website
- Written submissions to governmental, parliamentary and other inquiries
- Oral evidence to inquiries
- Background briefing papers to MPs on current legislation
- Opinion pieces sent to mainstream media
- Media interviews
FamilyVoice Australia submissions have included issues such as marriage, adoption, surrogacy, human rights, abortion, euthanasia, childcare funding, paid parental leave, the commercial television industry code of practice, suicide, men’s health, religious freedom, “adult” stores, alcohol-related violence, computer games, referendum machinery, child sex abuse, drug and alcohol abuse prevention and treatment, equal opportunity laws, bicameral parliaments, reproductive technology and gambling.
History
The Australian Festival of Light was inspired by the UK Nationwide Festival of LightNationwide Festival of Light
The Nationwide Festival of Light was a grassroots movement formed by British Christians concerned about the development of the permissive society in the UK at the end of the 1960s....
, which was founded by Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
, Malcolm Muggeridge
Malcolm Muggeridge
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist. During World War II, he was a soldier and a spy...
and others in 1971. The Nationwide Festival of Light changed its name to CARE (Christian Action Research & Education) in 1983.
News of the UK Nationwide Festival of Light soon caught the attention of the Australian Community Standards Organisation (CSO), which had recently merged with the South Australian Moral Action Committee. Key members of the Moral Action Committee included Rev Lance Shilton, Rector of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Adelaide and later Anglican Dean of Sydney; Dr John Court, then senior lecturer in psychology at Flinders University, and Peter Daniels
Peter J. Daniels
Peter J. Daniels, is an Australian life coach, writer, and professional speaker.Daniels has authored thirteen books, including How to Reach Your Life Goals and How to be Happy Though Rich....
. South Australian delegates at a CSO meeting in Melbourne in 1972 led the move to hold “a nationwide act of Christian witness, similar to that conducted in Britain last year (Festival of Light)”.
Rev Lance Shilton then initiated an interdenominational steering committee to establish the Australian Festival of Light at a meeting in Toorak Gardens, Adelaide, in November 1972. The committee appointed Dr Court as chairman; Rev Shilton and Mrs Roslyn Phillips as deputy chairmen, and Peter Daniels as publicity officer.
The Festival of Light was formally launched in Adelaide in June 1973 with a media conference and the release of a new book by Dr Court and SA journalist Helen Caterer, Stand Up and Be Counted, which aimed to motivate readers to defend publicly their Christian faith and values.
Lance Shilton’s network of contacts through the Australian Evangelical Alliance and the Community Standards Organisation led to the formation of independent branches of Festival of Light (which later included the Community Standards Organisation) in all Australian states. Rev Fred Nile
Fred Nile
Frederick John "Fred" Nile is an Australian politician and clergyman. Nile has been a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 1981, except for a period in 2004 when he resigned to contest the Australian Senate at the 2004 federal election...
accepted leadership of the NSW branch in July 1973, becoming the full-time director in January 1974. Mr Nile greatly increased the organisation’s activity and public profile.
Mixed response
The 1973 Proclamation of Australian Festival of Light reached out to “all people of good will”, but most of those who responded had a Christian background. In 1974 Flinders University historians Hilliard and Warhurst noted that supporters of Festival of Light were mainly Protestants of the Evangelical tradition and conservative Catholics, and that some other Christians tended to be critical of the organisation’s “overconfident presentation of complex moral issues in simple black and white terms”. Hilliard and Warhurst said that despite Festival of Light's promotion among churches around South Australia, some clergy were unresponsive and many congregations did not get involved.Sometimes there was open controversy. A week before the 1973 visit of Mary Whitehouse, students at the University of Adelaide, Flinders University
Flinders University
Flinders University, , is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.The university has established a reputation as a leading research...
and the South Australian Institute of Technology (now the University of South Australia) began a “Festival of Fright” campaign against the Australian Festival of Light events, saying: “These latter-day Calvins should be met by as much opposition as freedom-loving people can muster…”
In 1978, South Australian Attorney-General Peter Duncan
Peter Duncan (Australian politician)
Peter Duncan was an Australian Labor Party politician and one of the relatively few members of parliament to have not only served in both a state and national parliament, but also served as a minister in both cases....
criticised the Festival of Light, saying: “I believe there is a desperate need to develop a tolerant society… I don’t think this sort of hysteria and prejudging that is generated by the Festival of Light does anything to further this move.” Duncan also spoke out against the 1978 Festival of Light-sponsored visit to Australia by Mary Whitehouse, calling her “an agent of darkness” and an “opponent of freedom”.
Influence on legislation
Nevertheless the September 1978 Mary Whitehouse visit was influential in the Festival of Light campaign against hardcore pornography. On 12 September, following national media coverage of the pornography problem in relation to the Whitehouse tour, Victorian Liberal Premier Rupert HamerRupert Hamer
Sir Rupert James Hamer, AC, KCMG, ED , generally known until he was knighted in 1982 as Dick Hamer, Australian Liberal Party politician, was the 39th Premier of Victoria, serving from 1972 to 1981.-Early years:...
announced that his government would move to tighten pornography laws, particularly in relation to children.
On 10 September 1978 at the Whitehouse rally in Adelaide’s Rymill Park, Festival of Light circulated a petition calling for tighter control of pornography, later signed by over 14,000 South Australians. On 20 September, Labor Premier Don Dunstan
Don Dunstan
Donald Allan "Don" Dunstan, AC, QC was a South Australian politician. He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953, became state Labor leader in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979.The son of a business...
delivered a blistering attack on the Festival of Light in the South Australian House of Assembly, calling the petition pamphlet “disgraceful”. He said a graph accompanying the petition was “one of the most untruthful pieces of work that I have ever come across” – because it showed a rise in South Australian rates of reported rape following a 1974 law allowing the sale of hardcore pornography, compared with Queensland where hardcore pornography was banned and rape reports remained steady. Dunstan said rape convictions should have been used instead of reports, and the graph should have extended beyond 1975.
However on 27 September, Liberal MP Bruce Eastick
Bruce Eastick
Bruce Charles Eastick is a former Australian politician. He was a Liberal and Country League and Liberal Party of Australia member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1970 to 1993, representing the electorate of Light....
defended the Festival of Light petition and graph, and said part of the Premier’s speech the week before had been a “blatant untruth”. Dr Eastick said rape report statistics from South Australia and Queensland after 1975 showed that “it is quite clear that the problem in South Australia is almost four times as serious as that which exists in Queensland”. Liberal MP Mrs Jennifer Adamson
Jennifer Cashmore
Jennifer Lilian Adamson-Cashmore is a former Australian politician. She was a Liberal Party member of the South Australian House of Assembly between 1977 and 1993, representing the eastern suburbs seat of Coles ....
later fully documented the statistics in the Festival of Light petition pamphlet, and listed the academic credentials of the founding chairman Dr John Court.
Dr Eastick also pointed out that a child pornography magazine Just Boys had been banned in New South Wales, but had been classified for unrestricted sale in South Australia, “alongside the Women’s Weekly”.
On 28 September the Dunstan government introduced the Criminal Law (Prohibition of Child Pornography) Bill, which passed both houses of parliament without dissent on 21 November 1978 after Opposition amendments tightened its provisions. The passage of the bill in an amended form was widely seen as a response to the Festival of Light campaign. Liberal MP Keith Russack noted: “The many signatures on petitions presented to this Parliament is a significant indication of the South Australian public’s concern.”
Structure and name changes
In 2004 the national body of the former Festival of Light Australia was formed under a new constitution, with a national office in Adelaide and branches in South Australia and Queensland. Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales branches followed in 2005-2007. In 2004 Dr David Phillips, formerly chairman of the South Australian branch of Festival of Light, became national president of Festival of Light Australia.In 2008, Festival of Light Australia underwent a major rebranding. On 1 July 2008 its name was changed to FamilyVoice Australia in order to avoid ambiguity, especially on the internet. Dr David Phillips remains the national president and is supported by five state officers, a national research officer and a national administrator.
1973 Mary Whitehouse
The first major event of the Australian Festival of Light was the visit by “Clean-up TV” campaigner Mary Whitehouse to Sydney and Adelaide in October 1973. It was Shilton, while on a trip to Britain in May 1973, who invited Whitehouse to Australia. Whitehouse spoke to overflow crowds in the Sydney Town HallSydney Town Hall
The Sydney Town Hall is a landmark sandstone building located in the heart of Sydney. It stands opposite the Queen Victoria Building and alongside St Andrew's Cathedral...
and the Adelaide Festival Theatre, and led a march of 10,000 people to Light’s Vision in Adelaide on 14 October 1973, where the Festival of Light Proclamation setting out the breadth of its concerns was read out and endorsed by a total crowd of over 12,000.
Mary Whitehouse later recalled her first visit to Australia as one of the big events of her life. She told her biographer Max Caulfield that because of the intense media interest, “I became better known in Australia in three and a half weeks than I did in Britain in ten years.”
1976 Malcolm Muggeridge
Malcolm Muggeridge’s Australian Festival of Light speaking tour was equally successful in October 1976. An estimated 35,000 people heard his keynote address to the Family Celebration in Sydney’s Hyde Park on 10 October; he spoke to a capacity audience in Adelaide’s Festival Theatre on 14 October and significant crowds in other cities throughout Australia and New Zealand.1978 Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse successfully toured Australia for a second time in September 1978, amid controversy over UK court action she had initiated against an offensive poem about Jesus published in a homosexual paper. Student demonstrators picketed her meetings and Brisbane police arrested two youths and five girls who threw strawberry pies at her. Despite the protests, large crowds came out in support – including 5000 at an Adelaide march Mary led from Rymill Park to Parliament House on 10 September, 800 in Hobart, 1000 in Brisbane, 2000 in Melbourne, 1500 in Perth where she was welcomed by Premier Sir Charles CourtCharles Court
Sir Charles Walter Michael Court, was a Western Australian politician, 21st Premier of Western Australia and member for the seat of Nedlands for the Liberal Party for nearly 30 years.-Early life:...
, and 4000 in the Sydney Town Hall on 27 September.
1981 Mother Teresa
The Australian Festival of Light and some Catholic leaders invited Mother TeresaMother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
to Australia to mark the 1981 United Nations International Year of Disabled Persons
International Year of Disabled Persons
The year 1981 was proclaimed the International Year of Disabled Persons by the United Nations. It called for a plan of action with an emphasis on equalization of opportunities, rehabilitation and prevention of disabilities...
. Mother Teresa was the guest speaker at the Festival of Light “The Handicapped Child in the Community” conference, attended by 800 people.
1996 Gianna Jessen
Festival of Light Australia sponsored the Australian tour of US teenage singer and pro-life activist Gianna JessenGianna Jessen
Gianna Jessen is a recording artist and pro-life activist who is a saline abortion survivor.-Early life:...
in February and March 1996. Jessen was born alive after an attempted saline abortion left her with brain damage and cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy is an umbrella term encompassing a group of non-progressive, non-contagious motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development, chiefly in the various areas of body movement....
. She spoke to packed venues in all states and territories.
2010 Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali
The September 2010 Australian tour by a Pakistani-born UK Anglican bishop, Michael Nazir-AliMichael Nazir-Ali
Michael James Nazir-Ali was the 106th Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England: he retired in September 2009, taking up a position as director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue...
, was the first major national event under the new FamilyVoice name. Speaking to the media, public and private meetings and seminars for Christian leaders (a total of over 2500 people attended in all mainland capitals), Nazir-Ali expounded the theme of “Courage in a hostile world”. He described “the triple jeopardy of aggressive secularism, radical Islam and a misplaced understanding of multiculturalism”.
Awards
David and Roslyn Phillips were awarded Centenary MedalCentenary Medal
The Centenary Medal is an award created by the Australian Government in 2001. It was established to commemorate the Centenary of Federation of Australia and to honour people who have made a contribution to Australian society or government...
s in 2001, respectively for "service to family policy and community education as Chairman of the Festival of Light"
and for "service to family activities and community education through the Festival of Light".
The national magazine Light has won eight awards for excellence in religious journalism from the Australasian Religious Press Association.