Australia Day: Great Southland of the Holy Spirit?
StJohnsAshfield StainedGlass Baptism (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Many will be familiar with references to the ‘ Great South Land of the Holy Spirit .’ We talk about it, we sing about it, but what’s it really all about? Can we really claim that this is God’s own country? Is there something spiritually significant about this nation of ours beyond the fact that all the earth belongs to God? The Great South Land of the Holy Spirit reference stems from a proclamation by Captain Pedro Fernandez de Quiros , a Portugese seaman and explorer. In March 1603 Queirós was finally authorized to return to Peru to establish another expedition, with the intention of finding Terra Australis, the mythical “great south land,” and claiming it for Spain and the Church. Queirós’s party of 160 men on three ships, San Pedro y San Pablo (150 tons), San Pedro (120 tons) and the tender (or launch) Los Tres Reyes left Callao on 21 December 1605. In May 1606 the expedition reached the islands later ...