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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.
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]
Methodist Overseas Mission
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
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]
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]
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 |
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