Methodist Church of Australasia
The Methodist Church of Australasia was a Methodist denomination based in Australia.
History
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]
Missions
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 of Australia.[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]
Other Methodist congregations
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.
Presidents-General
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 |
References
- "Methodist Church of Australasia". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 1 January 1902. p. 5. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
- 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
- "Revealing the activities of the Methodist Missionary Society through film". ALIA Library. 20 June 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
- "Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia - Summary". Find & Connect. 26 November 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
- "Methodist Overseas Mission - Summary". Find & Connect. 7 November 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
- Morphy, Howard (2005). "Mutual conversion?: The methodist church and the Yolngu, with particular reference to Yirrkala". Humanities Research. ANU Press. IX (1): 41-53. Retrieved 7 June 2023. PDF