Stop C4: Pleasant Sunday Afternoons

Click on the above to listen to audio of Wesley Church Pleasant Sunday Afternoons

A soapbox for social issues

Pleasant Sunday Afternoons (PSAs) were a feature of life at Wesley Church from 1893. Crowds gathered to listen to music and speakers discussing social issues ranging from unemployment to the opium trade. The first public broadcast from a church in Australia was at a Wesley Church PSA on 22 October 1924. Along the way, PSA speakers have included many Prime Ministers including Billy Hughes, John Curtin, Robert Menzies, Harold Holt and Gough Whitlam.

A socialistic voice in hard times

The PSA program grew out of meetings held on Sundays at the Mission during the response to the 1890s economic downturn.

There was great public concern about the exploitation of employees at the time and in 1893, the Government appointed a board of inquiry into the Factories Act and the practice of ‘sweating’. The Mission’s secretary, Alexander Edgar, joined a delegation of tailors and bootmakers to the inquiry and meetings on the ‘sweating evil’ were held at the Central Mission.

From unemployment to opium

PSAs were an important feature of life at Wesley Church throughout the twentieth century, with crowds gathering in the church grounds on Sundays to listen to speakers discuss a range of social issues including unemployment, gambling and the opium trade.

These Sunday meetings were well attended by the public to hear Edgar, as well as social reformers Samuel Mauger and Dr W Maloney, talk about tackling inequality. The PSAs became a weekly feature and it was said that ‘services at Wesley were ritualistic in the morning, socialistic in the afternoon and evangelistic at night'.¹

An influential platform for reform

It was an influential platform in Australia, with speakers including Prime Ministers Billy Hughes, John Curtin, Robert Menzies, Harold Holt and Gough Whitlam. Over the years, the PSA fought for such issues as fairer labour laws, slum clearance, women’s suffrage, justice for Aboriginal people, and peace in Vietnam.

Read more about leading social reformers here

References

¹Roscoe Wilson, The Story of the Churches, Australasian, 18 October 1934, p.51 

Image References

1. Former Prime Minister Billy Hughes at a PSA, 1951 Source: The Challenge of the City, 1993
2. The Mission orchestra, conducted by G M Williams, date unknown
   Source: The Challenge of the City, 1993