Marching in the name of Jesus
They expected a couple of hundred people but 27,000 Christians turned up, writes Damian George.
Organiser Gordon Copeland was hoping a few hundred people would turn out to ‘‘March for Jesus’’ on an October day in 1972.
The march was to be part of the ‘‘Jesus movement’’, a phenomenon that swept its way across the world in the late 1960s and early 1970s and eventually found its way to New Zealand.
The interdenominational movement, which started in the West Coast of the United States and lasted about a decade, saw evangelicals from all Christian faiths burst onto the cultural landscape and propel their beliefs into the limelight.
Still, predictions from fellow organisers of tens of thousands of people turning out to march from central Wellington to Parliament grounds on October 8, 1972, were scoffed at by Copeland, who had set his expectations much lower.
‘‘They were talking about 20,000 people coming along but I thought it would be more like in the hundreds.’’
Pouring rain on the morning of the march probably did nothing to dispel that belief, even if a gathering at Wellington Town Hall the night before perhaps offered a glimpse of what was to come.
‘‘It was absolutely jam packed, it was overflowing,’’ Copeland said.
‘‘People came down from Palmerston North by the truckload – literally. It was quite humorous, because some of the trucks had the words ‘Rider truck for Jesus’.’’
By the time the march came around, and the skies had cleared, 27,000 people had descended on the town hall ready for the jaunt to Parliament.
The march was the last in a series that took place throughout the country.
Many raised their fingers to the air in what had become a worldwide symbol for the belief that Jesus was the ‘‘one way to God’’.
‘‘I was absolutely delighted with the outcome of the day,’’ Copeland said.
‘‘It was very much a movement of young people; the average age was late 20s to early 30s. But people of all ages were there, right through from the elderly to children and people pushing prams and pushchairs.
‘‘There was a lot of singing, a lot of ex-hippies. It was a really, really interesting crowd of people.’’
According to government website Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, the marches were partly a protest against perceived sexual permissiveness in society.
People from every major religion, including Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox, took part in the march through the streets of Wellington.
They carried placards and sung hymns with the backing of a Salvation Army band.
One photo shows a large banner saying, ‘‘Rejoice! Rejoice! Jesus Christ is Lord’’, and another can be seen with the words ‘‘Not renovation, but regeneration’’.
Copeland was raised a Protestant, but converted to Catholicism the same year as the march. He was treasurer of a group called ‘‘Gathering for Jesus’’, and organised the march with four others.
‘‘I think the real brilliant move was [that other organisers] decided to put out a newspaper
‘‘There was a lot of singing, a lot of exhippies. It was a really, really interesting crowd of people.’’
March organiser Gordon Copeland
[about the Jesus movement].
‘‘It was only about four pages but it was circulated around churches and spread among congregations.’’
The Jesus movement counterculture, which gave rise to ‘‘Jesus people’’ or, as some people preferred to call them, ‘‘Jesus freaks’’, had a lasting effect, helping to attract multitudes of new believers, many of whom moved into leadership positions in churches.
The movement also helped to create ‘‘Jesus music’’, with marchers often singing hymns with the backing of bands.
This led to the addition of instruments, such as guitars and drums, in churches throughout the world, and the advent of ‘‘coros’’ (fast-paced hymns) often sung in Pentecostal churches in Central America.
Despite the uprising, the Christian church was in a period of decline.
‘‘Although these years saw the beginning of a decline in church attendance, there was considerable visible public affirmation of Christian belief,’’ according to Te Ara.
Once at Parliament, Salvation Army Captain Brian McStay read the Christian Profession of Faith, before then-prime minister Sir John ‘‘Jack’’ Marshall delivered a speech, talking about his own Christian faith.
It was a photo of the large Wellington crowd currently circulating on Facebook that reminded Copeland of the momentous day. And, while the photo has sparked some discussion about a possible repeat, Copeland doubts anything similar can be achieved.
‘‘It was a phenomena. There was another March for Jesus some years later, maybe about 15 years.
‘‘It was great, but it was nothing like the march of 1972. There were maybe 6000 people.
‘‘I think we were all blown away by how many people turned out.
‘‘There are no plans that I am aware of, but there are certainly a few people speaking about it.’’
The Jesus movement had subsided by the late 1980s, but it helped to create various denominations and other Christian organisations that still exist today.
The march preceded other notable demonstrations in New Zealand in the following years, including an anti-abortion rally in Wellington in 1974 and the famous protests against the South African rugby tour of 1981.