The Congregational Union of Australia was a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

denomination in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

that stemmed from the

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

as settlers migrated from there to Australia. Congregational Churches existed in all states and territories of Australia at some time. The oldest Congregational Church was founded in

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/ Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

in 1830 by Frederick Miller.

History

One of the earliest and most influential Congregational ministers in early times was Thomas Q. Stow, who built the first church in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...

. Some of the first Congregational Churches established in each Australian state included the Pitt St church in Sydney,

Stow Memorial Church Pilgrim Uniting Church is a church in the heart of the City on Flinders Street, Adelaide in South Australia. It is a church of the Uniting Church in Australia. Social justice, as articulated by the Uniting Church in Australia in the inaugural S ...

(now Pilgrim Uniting) in Adelaide, Collins Street (now St Michael's) church in Melbourne,

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...

(now Trinity Uniting) in Perth, and National Memorial Church (now City Uniting) in Canberra. The Congregational Church was the first Christian denomination in Australia to ordain women, with the first female ordained being

Winifred Kiek Winifred Kiek (; 1884-1975) was the first woman to be ordained in the Christian Ministry in Australia. She was ordained on 13 June 1927 in South Australia to the Congregational Union of Australia (now part of the Uniting Church in Australia). ...

in 1927.

Dissolution

The Union dissolved in 1977 when the Uniting Church in Australia was formed. 260 of the congregations that had previously formed the Union joined the new Uniting Church. The Uniting Church union also included the Methodist Church of Australasia and the

Presbyterian Church of Australia The Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Australia. (The larger Uniting Church in Australia incorporated about two-thirds of the PCA in 1977.) History Beginnings When captain James Cook landed ...

. However, 40 other congregations that had previously formed the Union objected to joining the new Uniting Church and formed the

Fellowship of Congregational Churches The Fellowship of Congregational Churches is a conservative Congregational denomination in Australia. It was formed by the forty congregations of the Congregational Union of Australia who chose not to join the Uniting Church in Australia in 197 ...

instead. In 1995, there was a split within that Fellowship, with some more ecumenically-minded congregations leaving to form the Congregational Federation of Australia. Today, there are, therefore, three Christian organizations that can claim to be direct 'descendants' of the Union.

History

Dissolution

References

Further reading