History
It was founded in Adelaide in 1972 as the Australian Festival of Light and Community Standards Organisation, with the name and inspiration from United Kingdom's Nationwide Festival of Light founded in 1971.
It came out of work by the Australian Community Standards Organisation (CSO), which had recently merged with the South Australian Moral Action Committee. Moral Action Committee members included Reverend Lance Shilton, Rector of Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Adelaide and later Anglican Dean of Sydney; Dr John H. 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. Reverend 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.
It was less active after the mid 1980s, but has undergone reconstitution since 2003.
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.
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.
Read more about this topic: Festival Of Light Australia
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