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Methodist Church of Australasia

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The Methodist Church of Australasia was a Methodist denomination based in Australia. It existed from 1902 to 1977, when the Uniting Church in Australia was formed. It did missionary work in Australia through two organisations: the Methodist Overseas Mission (founded 1916), which focused mainly on Aboriginal Australians, and the Methodist Inland Mission (founded 1926), which served settler communities in remote parts of Australia.

History[edit]

On 1 January 1902, five Methodist denominations in Australia – the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodists, the Bible Christian Church, the United Methodist Free and the Methodist New Connexion Churches came together to found a new church.[1] Its organisational structure mainly followed the Wesleyan Methodist Church. This Methodist Church of Australasia established a General Conference, meeting triennially, for Australasia (which then included New Zealand) in 1875, with Annual Conferences in the states.[2] The church ceased to exist in 1977 when most of its congregations joined with the many congregations of the Congregational Union of Australia and the Presbyterian Church of Australia to form the Uniting Church in Australia.[2]

Missionary work[edit]

Methodist Overseas Mission[edit]

The Sydney-based Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia (MMS;[3] 1916–1930s),[4] later named the Methodist Overseas Mission (MOM; 1930s–?) was run by the Methodist Church of Australasia.[5] From around 1916[4] it established missions in Arnhem Land in northern Australia, moving across the islands from west to east, including Goulburn Island, Milingimbi Island, and Elcho Island, before planning missions on the mainland at Yirrkala (founded 1935) and Caledon Bay. Around this time, MOM was encouraging their senior staff to study anthropology under A. P. Elkin at Sydney University, to learn more about Aboriginal Australian culture, in particular the Yolngu people who lived in Arnhem Land.[6]

Superintendents at Yirrkala included founding superintendent Wilbur Chaseling, Harold Thornell, and Edgar Wells, who wrote about their experiences there. The residents were free to come and go as they wished and the interaction was on the whole positive in those early days, with a lack of dogmatism by the missionaries, and the Yolngu people accommodating Christianity within a version of their own beliefs.[6]

Mitchell Library in Sydney holds records of the Methodist Overseas Mission, including more than 300 boxes of manuscripts; photographs; slides; negatives; and 159 reels of film. The films include the master copy of the documentary film Faces in the Sun (1064), directed by Cecil Holmes for MMS. Others include Man Dark No More (1953) and Man of Two Worlds (1965). These films provide insight into the Stolen Generations brought about by the policies of cultural assimilation pursued by the government of the day.[3]

Methodist Inland Mission[edit]

Ambulance Car of the Methodist Inland Mission in Queensland

The Methodist Inland Mission (MIM),[7] also known as the Federal Methodist Inland Mission (FMIM),[8][9] was missionary organisation of the Methodist Church of Australia that existed between 1926 and 1977.[7] While the Methodist Overseas Mission performed missionary work among Aboriginal people, the Methodist Inland Mission served settler communities in the remote areas of the bush.[10]

The Federal Methodist Inland Mission was established at the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Australasia in Brisbane in May 1926,[11] and had its first board meeting in Melbourne in November of that year.[8][12][7] Five ministers were appointed in the first year, two to cover Victoria, and one each to Western Australia, Queensland, and South Australia.[8]

Its first ministers were appointed in regional Queensland, including the towns of Boulia, Cloncurry, and Normanton.[12] Rev. Ernest Ball established the first Methodist Inland mission base at Boulia.[13] In July 1929, the Methodist Hall was transported from the town of Duchess to Mount Isa, and was the first church building.[12]

The aim of the Methodist Inland Mission, which was run by the Methodist Inland Mission Board, was to send missionaries into remote parts of Australia[7] "to implant the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ".[8] At the beginning, it relied on the work of travelling preachers, who worked in collaboration with the Presbyterian Inland Mission.[7] Much of their work was administering medical help, including conveying people in their ambulances. While their main mission was with white people, they also observed the suffering of many Aboriginal people, and some ministers, in particular Rev. Athol McGregor, championed their cause.[8]

In May 1936, Rev. A. J. Barclay (president-general of the Methodist Church of Australia), at the request of the Methodist Federal Inland Mission Board and the Methodist Overseas Mission Board, was due to travel to every station in the West Australian sector of the Methodist Inland Mission, calling in at Port Hedland, Derby, Broome, Wyndham, and Darwin, by boat, and then, with Rev. S. T. Vickery, whose headquarters are at Port Hedland, travel overland to will travel to Marble Bar, Nullagine, and Roy Hil.[14]

In 1945, Reverend Harry Griffiths was responsible for the creation of Griffiths House in Alice Springs in 1941, originally designed to be a hostel for young single people who had moved to Alice Springs for work, but by the time it was opened, it was converted in to a social club for soldiers stationed in Alice Springs.[15] After the war it became hostel accommodation for children from remote areas of Central Australia so that they could attend school.[16]

After the Methodist Church became part of the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977, Frontier Services took responsibility for the missionary work.[7]

Other Methodist congregations[edit]

There are still independent Methodist congregations in Australia, including congregations formed or impacted by Tongan immigrants. The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia is derived from the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and did not join the Uniting Church in Australia.[citation needed]

Presidents-General[edit]

The triennial conference was led by the President-General. There were a total of 25 Presidents General over the life of the Methodist Church of Australasia, from its formation in 1902 until the Uniting Church in 1977.[2]

year President-General
1902 Rev. George Lane , DD
1904 Rev. William Henry Fitchett BA, LLD
1907 Rev. William Williams DD, FLS
1910 Rev. Henry Youngman
1913 Rev. George Brown DD
1917 Rev. James Edward Carruthers DD
1920 Rev. Alexander McCallum DD
1923 Rev. Edward Holdsworth Sugden MA, BSc, Litt.D
1926 Rev. John Gladwell Wheen
1929 Rev. Frank Lade MA
1932 Rev. Albert Thomas Holden BA, CBE, VD
1935 Rev. Arthur Johnstone Barclay
1938 Rev. Arthur Edward Albiston MA, BD
1941 Rev. Harold Manuel Wheller OBE
1945 Rev. John Wear Burton MA, DD
1948 Rev. Herbert Garfield Secomb DD
1951 Rev. George Calvert Barber CBE, MA, BD, PhD
1954 Rev. Robert Bathurst Lew OBE, ED, BA, DD
1957 Rev. Harold Wood , OBE, MA, DD, DipEd, FACE
1960 Rev. Hubert Hedley Trigge OBE, MA, BD
1963 Rev. William Frank Hambly MA, BD, DD
1966 Rev. Cecil Gribble, OBE, MA, DipEd, LRSM
1969 Rev. Charles Kingston Daws CBE, ED, FASA, FLCS, LCA
1972 Rev. Rex Collis Mathias MA, DipREd.
1975 Rev. Winston D’Arcy O’Reilly OBE, MA, DipSocSci, MACE

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Methodist Church of Australasia". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 1 January 1902. p. 5. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  2. ^ a b c Eric G. Clancy (September 2002). "Methodist Leaders: The Presidents General of the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Australasia, 1902-1977" (PDF). Church Heritage. United Theological College. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 March 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2018. Originally published in Church Heritage, 12, 4 (September 2002), pp. 224-242
  3. ^ a b "Revealing the activities of the Methodist Missionary Society through film". ALIA Library. 20 June 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia - Summary". Find & Connect. 26 November 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  5. ^ "Methodist Overseas Mission - Summary". Find & Connect. 7 November 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  6. ^ a b Morphy, Howard (2005). "Mutual conversion?: The methodist church and the Yolngu, with particular reference to Yirrkala". Humanities Research. IX (1). ANU Press: 41-53. Retrieved 7 June 2023. PDF
  7. ^ a b c d e f George, Karen; George, Gary (7 November 2017). "Methodist Inland Mission". Find & Connect. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e Pederick, Alec W. (1970), Men on the frontier a brief history of the Federal Methodist Inland Mission, Melbourne Methodist Publishing House (Aldersgate Press), ISBN 978-0-85571-050-7
  9. ^ "Thomas Blackwell". A tribute to influential Australian Christians. 28 October 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  10. ^ O'Brien, Glen (2013). "Methodist encounters with other religious traditions in "the southern world"" (PDF). p. 5.
  11. ^ "Home missions". The Brisbane Courier. No. 21, 321. Queensland, Australia. 27 May 1926. p. 10. Retrieved 9 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ a b c Mount Isa Mines Limited.; M.I.M. Holdings Limited. (July 1961). "Methodists conducted first service in 1926". Mimag. 14 (7). Mount Isa, Qld: Mount Isa Mines Limited. nla.obj-305343578. Retrieved 9 June 2024 – via Trove.
  13. ^ "Matthew Hope". Monument Australia. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  14. ^ "METHODIST INLAND MISSION". The West Australian. Vol. 52, no. 15, 555. Western Australia. 2 May 1936. p. 16. Retrieved 9 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ Lamont, John (31 August 2018). The right amount of crazy : St Philip's College & Griffiths House, Alice Springs - 75 years. Lamont, Alison. ISBN 978-1-925467-02-4. OCLC 1091024911.
  16. ^ George, Karen; George, Gary (1 April 2014). "Griffiths House". Find and Connect. Retrieved 9 June 2024.


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