Baptists in Australia
© David Parker Oct 1999
Calvinistic
Baptists in Australia
(Strict
and Particular, Particular, Reformed)
A number of churches in Australia were founded as Particular Baptist churches and many others included people of this Calvinist conviction in their membership; there were few who identified themselves as General Baptists, although under the influence of Silas Mead, open membership was a characteristic of the churches in South Australia. For the most part, therefore, the differences between the Calvinist and Arminian wings of the denomination that were so evident in earlier times in England were not strongly evident in Australia during the 19th century, and most were content to be known simply as “Baptist.” Those divisions were also lessening in England at the same time and formally disappeared with the merger of the two groups in 1891.
A
revival of interest in Reformed doctrine, especially as seen in the 1689
Confession as reflected in the ministry of C.H. Spurgeon and the current
leadership of his church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle of London, occurred
during the later part of the 20th century and has attracted the interest of a
number of churches in UK and USA. (see also Reformed
Baptist resources and Reformed Baptist
churches ) In Australia some new churches were formed on this basis and
formed a loose association of their own; some existing churches
affiliated with state Baptist Unions also adopted these convictions.
However,
Strict and Particular Baptist churches (sometimes referred to as Particular
Baptist Churches), holding to the doctrine of the limited atonement, closed
communion and opposed to the free offer of the gospel, were not part of this
unifying trend in UK or in Australia. (see also Strict Baptist Historical
Society
Churches
of this tradition were more common in Victoria than other areas. The
first was formed in 1849 under the leadership of John Turner in
Melbourne by 1849; their building opened a year later on the corner of Lonsdale
and Exhibition Streets was only the second Baptist chapel in the colony.
One
of the most outstanding leaders of this branch of Baptist work was Daniel
Allen (1824-91) who arrived from England in 1848, and moved to Tasmania
where he was baptised by the pioneer Strict and Particular Baptist minister of
that colony, Henry Dowling. Dowling (1780-1869) had arrived in Hobart
Town, (then in Van Diemen’s Land) in Dec 1834 and then travelled to Launceston.
He maintained an itinerant ministry in various parts of the colony, including
Hobart, with wide acceptance by government and other religious bodies although
not with marked success. A chapel was built in York Street, Launceston in 1840
(which operated until 1916) and another was built in Hobart, closing in 1886,
but Strict and Particular Baptist work ceased to flourish after Dowling’s death
in 1869.
Allen,
Dowling’s most successful convert, moved to Victoria and working as a stone
carter, began ministering in various locations, including the Ballarat
goldfields. In Melbourne he worshipped first at Lonsdale Street, then branching
out to Preston and finally establishing his own church with a 400 seat chapel
at Market Street; this church moved later to Collingwood and Victoria Parade.
After a successful ministry and a further period over several years in
Tasmania, Allen moved to Sydney in 1871 where he followed the well known John
Bunyan McCure at the Castlereagh St church, serving until his death in
1891.
McCure
(b.1822) arrived in Victoria in 1852 as the first missionary to Australia sent
by the Strict and Particular churches in England. and established Mt. Zion
Church in Little Ryrie St, Geelong in 1856. After five years, he moved to
Sydney where he commenced the Castlereagh Street church and ministered for nine
years.
Another
church was commenced in the Geelong area around 1872, which was led by F. Fullard
1875-1884 who afterwards served for 12 years at Allen’s church, located then at
Victoria Parade. He too moved to the Castlereagh St church in Sydney, leading
it from 1907 until his death in 1912.
Several
other churches flourished in Victoria, including those at Rowe St, Collingwood
(1859) later at George St; Richmond; Henry St Hawthorn, later at Burwood Road;
Eaglehawk (1868); Ballarat; Portland; Greensborough and Camperdown.
Castlereagh
Street, established by McCure in 1861, and led later by Allen, was the main
church in Sydney, but a group of hyper-calvinist views apparently
existed as early as the 1830s. In 1848, the group was meeting in Macquarie St
and later in Kent and Goulbourn Streets. McCure associated himself with this
group and reviving and strengthening it with his dynamic ministry; their
Castlereagh Street building was opened
in 1863 and existed until 1913 when it removed to Belvoir Street; the
congregation became part of the Baptist Union of NSW in 1857. After a highly
successful ministry, McCure returned to England in 1870, to be succeeded by
Allen, who was equally influential especially through his role as editor of the
Australian Particular Baptist Magazine (fl.1884-1906) and as president
of the Particular Baptist Association of Australia.
The
Strict and Particular Baptist denomination, identified with the UK
‘Gospel Standard’ tradition is represented now by only a few churches,
including Zion Church at Hawthorn Vic; Mt Zion Church, Little Ryrie St,
Geelong, Vic.; Ryde Strict Baptist Church, Sydney, NSW; Smithfield, NSW and
North Adelaide, SA.
References: Australian Dictionary of Evangelical
Biography (D. Allen, J.B. McCure); Baptists in Victoria: our first
century (by F.J. Wilkin); Religious Bodies in Australia (by R. Ward and
R. Humphreys); Some Fell on Good Ground (by A.C. Prior); ‘A history of
Calvinism in the Baptist churches of New South Wales, 1831-1914’ by Michael
Chavura (PhD thesis, Macquarie University, 1994)
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