Baptists in Australia
An outline history
of the Baptist Union of Australia
© Baptist Union of Australia
1987
Reproduced from Baptised
into One Body: a short history of the Baptist Union of Australia by Basil
Brown
“Let us now Praise Famous Men”
by Basil Brown
The Baptist Union of Australia
is far more than an organisation; it is people — men and women who in their
devotion to their Lord and Saviour have toiled to fulfil its objectives,
labouring to bring it into being, shaping its ministries, inspiring others to
service and providing leadership in the work.
Brief sketches of a few
representative people follow. Many others could be mentioned, for the Union has
attracted the energies of many remarkable people over the years. Should the
reader be disappointed that someone of his choice is not on the list, one would
hope that the omission will provoke him to provide a more adequate Australian
Baptist hagiography.
The
Founding President - Joseph Hunter Goble
The First
Union Secretary - George Percival Rees
Ambassador
at Canberra - Arthur John Waldock
The
Earliest Lay President - Quinton Stow Smith
Founder
of the Women’s Board - Cecilia Downing
Home
Mission Enthusiast - Henry James (“Harry”) Morton.
Presidential
Evangelist - Wilfred Lemuel Jarvis
Missionary
Statesman - Frank Arnold Marsh
The Founding President - Joseph Hunter Goble
Joseph Hunter Goble was born
in 1863 at Port Fairy, Victoria. His mother brought him to Port Melbourne when
small. They knew extreme poverty. She was Irish, and Goble inherited her keen
wit and interest in contemporary issues. At the age of eleven he began work in
a soap factory, later becoming a printer. As a youth he helped in a mission to
seamen at Fishermen’s Bend, ultimately becoming the mission’s teacher and
pastor. About 1884, while working at his trade as a compositor, Goble became
student-pastor at the infant Footscray Baptist Church. Because a formal
theological education was not open to him, he received tuition while he
continued working. After two years, he resigned from pastoral duties on the
advice of a friend, a decision he came to regret. However, the Church called
him to full pastoral charge in 1895. He responded positively, recognising this
as the call of God. In this year, his wife died, leaving him with the care of a
son and daughter. The son, Stanley, was to follow him into the Baptist
ministry. Goble never remarried.
His warm-hearted and
encouraging ministry built up a strong church and a Sunday school which became
the largest in the State. More than once, his church was enlarged to accommodate
the increasing congregations. In earlier years he returned to his trade,
donating his entire wages to help finance extensions. For three years the
congregation met in the Federal Hall seating 1,200 people, but into which
occasionally 1,800 squeezed.
Goble was a strong
denominationalist. He served on major committees of the State Baptist Union,
and became its President in 1908-9. From that time on, he became the
unchallenged leader of Victorian Baptists, his advice being eagerly sought by
those engaged in the Union’s business.
His name appears frequently in
federal Baptist affairs from the 1911 Congress onwards. When the Interstate
Board, which prepared for the formation of the Baptist Union of Australia, was
set up, he became its chairman. He also was chairman of the Foreign Mission
Board. It was fitting that Goble should be unanimously elected the first
President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Its business was his vital concern
for the remainder of his life.
A friend declared that Goble
had “a passion for preaching and a heart big enough to hold the worries and
troubles of his many friends and acquaintances both inside and outside his
church, and warm enough to help and hearten all who sought his sympathy and
help”. Though personally acquainted with leaders of his community and the
State, he never lost the common touch. Although a diabetic, he gave himself and
all he possessed to the people of Footscray, burning himself out in the cause
of Christ.
When he died in January 1932, Baptists
throughout the Commonwealth mourned the loss of a great leader. On the day of
his funeral, thousands of citizens lined the streets of Footscray as the
cortege passed en route to the burial ground, paying tribute to his memory. The
local newspaper brought out a special edition in his honour, and citizens
erected a life-sized marble statue of him set high on a pedestal in Geelong
Road, not far from the substantial church he had erected in 1904 — a unique
tribute to a remarkable Baptist minister.
The First Union Secretary George Percival Rees
Born in 1873, George Percival
Rees was challenged to Christian commitment at the George Street Fitzroy
Church, Melbourne, a step which later led him to enter the Baptist College of
Victoria in 1894 to prepare for the Baptist ministry. After ordination, he
ministered for three years at Orroroo, South Australia. In 1901 he returned to
Victoria, to serve the churches at Bacchus Marsh, Port Melbourne, Essendon and
Box Hill. The Victorian Union, recognising his gifts of leadership, called him
to the presidential chair in 1921, while he was at Essendon. He resigned from
Box Hill in 1928 to become General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Victoria,
an office that combined secretaryship of the Union with that of State Home and
Foreign Mission committees.
Earlier, while he was
Victorian President, the Third Australasian Baptist Congress was held in
Melbourne in 1922. As leader of the host Union, he chaired the proceedings.
From that time on, Rees became active in federal Baptist affairs. He became a
member of the Interstate Board, eventually becoming Secretary, working closely
with J.H. Goble. He acted as secretary of the final Congress in 1925 which
prepared the way for the formation of the Baptist Union of Australia. When that
Union was constituted in 1926, he was appointed its first secretary. He
continued in office until 1929 when the Union’s Executive Committee was
transferred, first to Adelaide and then to Sydney. On its return to Melbourne
in 1935, Rees resumed secretarial duties, serving in that capacity until he was
appointed President-General for the years 1947-50.
Rees was a deeply humble man,
but he served with great ability. He combined strength of purpose with a
generosity of spirit which brought encouragement to those to whom he
ministered. His wise administration laid an excellent foundation for the
Union’s development in the years that followed. He passed away at the age of 86
in May 1959.
Ambassador at Canberra Arthur John Waldock
Appointment as Assistant
Pastor of the Bathurst Church, New South Wales in 1892 marked Arthur John
Waldock’s entrance into the Baptist ministry. Tutors from the State Union’s
Education Committee assisted him in gaining a theological education, for as yet
the State had no Baptist college. Later he transferred to Hinton, and in 1897
was ordained. Two years afterwards he was called to the Auburn Church, Sydney.
While at this church, he became honorary secretary of the State’s Home Mission
Society and immediately began to see the growth of the work. He was elected
President of the New South Wales Union in 1906, an office to which he was
re-elected twelve years later. Recognising the effectiveness of his leadership,
the churches appointed him the first full-time Superintendent of Home Missions
in his home State in 1908. He travelled incessantly, visiting the churches and
investigating possible openings for Baptist witness, bringing encouragement
wherever he went. His keen wit and diplomacy when handling difficulties became
legendary. He trusted the pastors under his care and, while well able to deal
with recalcitrants, he was completely loyal to them. When he resigned in 1924
to become pastor of the Mosman Church, the Union’s membership had doubled
during his time in office.
In the meantime, after
attending the Second Australasian Baptist Congress in 1911, Waldock became
increasingly involved in federal work. He gave leadership to preparatory
operations in the sphere of home missions. In 1924 he visited Canberra and
selected the site of the mother church in that city. His appointment as first
Chairman of the Home Mission Board when it was constituted in 1926 was a
natural consequence of this. With the goodwill of the Mosman people, he
continued to busy himself in the development of Baptist work in the Australian
Capital Territory, attending an early service, preparing for the erection of a
suitable church property, and travelling throughout the Commonwealth to raise
funds to begin the project. While he did not find it easy to leave his
supportive congregation at Mosman, he was inducted as the first pastor of the
Canberra Church on the day following the opening of the church building in
February 1929. His ministry extended to May 1948.
Waldock proved to be an
effective ambassador of Australian Baptists at Australia’s political heart.
Governors-General, Prime Ministers, government officials and church leaders
knew him personally. He was recognised as a Christian statesman, one of the leading
citizens of Canberra in whose concerns he took a keen interest as he ministered
impartially to both high and low. His Baptist witness was always strong and
clear.
Elected President-General of
the Union in 1941, Waldock brought to the office his gifts as a preacher and
administrator. When he resigned from the pastorate in 1948, the Canberra Church
was free of debt. After a brief interim ministry at Petersham, Sydney, he
returned to Canberra to live in retirement. He was called Home in May, 1961.
The earliest Lay President Quinton Stow Smith
To the time of his death,
Quinton Stow Smith’s life and that of his father, James, virtually spanned the
history of South Australia. His father arrived in the colony in 1839. His pioneering
colleagues had a deep influence upon Stow Smith as he was growing up.
Born at Karrayerta, Greenhill
in 1864, he was named after Rev. T. Quinton Stow, an early Congregational
minister of whose church James Smith had been an officer until, with the arrival
of Rev. Silas Mead, the Flinders Street Baptist Church was established, which
James then joined. At the age of fifteen, Stow Smith began business as a land
and estate agent, later becoming director of a timber business.
Through the witness of his elder
brother, Pirie, he became a Christian and was baptised by Rev. A.W. Webb at the
North Adelaide Church in 1883. From this point onwards, Stow Smith began a
Christian witness in sport, business, community life and the church which
continued to the end of his life. After marriage, he joined the Flinders Street
Church in 1891, which he served as an officer under all its ministers up to the
time of his death. In his later years, he was made a Life Elder. He was rarely
absent from worship. On his ninety-ninth birthday he was in his pew, as alert
and devout as ever. Stow Smith was a man of prayer. His life had a spiritual
richness that made him greatly loved.
He was deeply interested in
people’s well-being. Following his father, he worked with the Adelaide Benevolent
and Strangers’ Friend Society for 65 years. A block of flats for senior
citizens bears his name: “Stow Smith Homes”. He had a long association with the
Bible Society, and at his death was Australian Vice-President of the world
body.
As a convinced Baptist, he
served on many boards and committees of the South Australian Baptist Union
which called him to the Presidential office in 1911, a year marked by
remarkable growth. A friend of ministers, he took steps to set up the
Ministers’ Provident Fund. Stow Smith was present at the First Australasian
Baptist Congress in 1908, and thereafter was active in federal concerns. He was
appointed Vice-President of the Interstate Board in 1912, and became a member
of the Foreign Mission Board established on that occasion, serving as its
Chairman for a few years from 1923. It was fitting that, because of his
continued involvement in federal business, he should be elected
President-General in 1929, the first layman called to this office.
Stow Smith was a member of the
Executive Committee of the Baptist World Alliance from 1922-34, and Australian
Vice-President of the Alliance in 1928-34, the first person nominated for this
office by the Baptist Union of Australia.
Both he and his wife, who died
in 1947, were generous in hospitality, and had the pleasure of entertaining
many world Christian leaders such as Drs. F.B. Meyer, J.H. Rushbrook, Howard
Taylor, Sadhu Sundah Singh, Toyohiko Kagawa and Miss Mildred Cable. Stow Smith
entered the fellowship of the Church Triumphant on June 10, 1963, when he was
in his one hundredth year.
Founder of the
Women’s Board - Cecilia Downing
Cecilia Downing (nee Hopkins)
was born in London and came to Australia as a child. Trained as a teacher, she married
Rev. John Downing, a Spurgeon’s graduate, then minister of the Church at
Williamstown, Victoria, where she lived. When his health failed, he was
compelled to leave the pastoral ministry and become a banker. On their return
to Melbourne from the country, they joined the Collins Street Church of which
Mrs. Downing was a loyal member for 46 years, giving leadership in the Church’s
women’s activities.
For more than 20 years Mrs.
Downing was a member of Executive Council of the Baptist Union of Victoria. She
was a foundation member of the Victorian Baptist Women’s Association, of which
she was secretary from 1932-41. She had a keen mind and considerable
administrative ability. Recognising the need to link together Baptist women’s
work throughout Australia, she took steps that led to the formation of the
Women’s Board of the Baptist Union of Australia in 1935, becoming its first
President. She was honoured with life membership of the Board in 1938. Earlier,
in 1928, she had been a delegate to the Baptist World Congress at Toronto,
Canada, and subsequently worked for the formation of a Women’s Committee of the
Alliance.
Mrs. Downing was a woman of
wide interests, keenly interested in national and international affairs. She
maintained that “the wider a woman’s interests, the more good she can do in the
community”. She was a strong feminist but, as the mother of seven children,
insisted that a woman’s first loyalty is to her own home. During her life she
championed the cause of women and children. The broad scope of her involvement
is seen in some of her activities: probation officer to the Children’s Courts;
member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, of which she was Victorian
President in 1914-18; member of the Women’s Inter-Church Council which she helped
to establish; member of the Good Neighbour Council associated with the
Immigration Department; member of the Pan Pacific Women’s Standing Committee.
Victorians still remember her
as the President of the Housewives’ Association. From 1938 this outspoken Christian
lady challenged with real effect evils and abuses in the community that
threatened life in the home. The press recognised the strength of her
influence: “a powerful woman, one to be reckoned with in the maelstrom of
politics”. In 1940 she became Federal President of the Association. For this
and much more, she was invested with the M.B.E. in February 1952. She died
later that year at the age of 94. Both Baptists of Australia and the community
at large are the poorer for the passing of this great soul.
One of her grandsons, Mr.
Arthur Downing, was the Union’s Legal Adviser from 1959-80.
Home Mission
Enthusiast - Henry James (“Harry”) Morton.
One of the most colourful
personalities to serve the Baptist Union of Australia was Henry James (“Harry”)
Morton. After school days, he became a master plumber, eventually taking over
the business his father had founded.
Morton was converted and
baptised at the Petersham Church, Sydney, where his father was a respected
deacon. His whole Christian life was spent as a member of this Church which he
too served diligently on its diaconate. He had a keen interest in young people
which his fellow members recognised for, when the Petersham Church established
a hostel for young men, they named it “Morton Lodge”.
Loyalty to Christ led him to
bear strong witness to his faith in community life. For many years he was a
councillor of the Municipality of Marrickville. On two separate occasions he
was appointed Mayor. His work in community organisations was honoured when a
park in the district was named after him.
At some time or other he was a
member of every major committee or council of the Baptist Union of New South
Wales, of which he became President in 1924-25. But his major interest was in the
Home Mission Society which he long served as treasurer. Its churches
appreciated his wise counsel and practical help.
He became involved in federal
work in the twenties. For a time he was a member of the Foreign Mission Board.
When the Federal Home Mission was constituted, he became its first treasurer,
serving as such for 30 years. Then, at the age of 81, he was appointed
chairman, an office he held until his death. The Board’s work was always close
to his heart. A few weeks before he died, he visited the newest Aboriginal
mission station in the Northern Territory at Hooker Creek. He made time for
other activities as well. From 1942-49 he edited the Australian Baptist.
Morton was proud of the fact that
he never missed one series of Assembly or Council meetings of the Baptist Union
of Australia, a unique record. Small of stature, he thought in big terms and
acted accordingly. He was known as a man who never spoke unless he had a
meaningful contribution to make to a discussion or debate. He had a keen sense
of humour which he could use to clarify obscure issues. At times his reports
were masterpieces of wit, thereby gaining acceptance for otherwise unpalatable
facts. It has been said of him: “He had a rare ability of preserving the wisdom
of age and experience without any diminution of enthusiasm and adventurousness
He passed away at the age of
86 in June 1961.
Presidential
Evangelist - Wilfred Lemuel Jarvis
Coming from a long line of
clergymen, his father a Baptist minister, Wilfred Lemuel Jarvis was born in
1895 at Macclesfield, Chester, England. The family came to Australia in 1913
when Rev. A.C. Jarvis accepted the pastoral charge of Jireh Baptist Church,
Brisbane. His son Wilfred entered business as a commercial artist. At the age
of 18 he responded to a call to the ministry and was appointed to work among
farmers and bullock drivers in the Blackall Ranges, west of Nambour.
Theological training was interrupted when he enlisted in the military forces,
but World War I ended before he could embark for overseas.
After marriage he set the
course of his life’s ministry by engaging in evangelistic work. He was
influenced by Herbert Booth, son of the founder of the Salvation Army, a
notable freelance evangelist. From 1919 to 1933 he conducted missions in the
eastern States of the Commonwealth. Dr. C.J. Tinsley gave inspiration and
support, and Jarvis worked with him at Stanmore, Sydney, during 1931-33 as
assistant pastor.
In January 1934 he accepted a
call to the mother church of Australian Baptists, the Bathurst Street Church,
Sydney, the depleted congregation of which immediately began to prosper. When
it became necessary to relocate the church, Jarvis led the congregation to the
present George Street site, opening the new building in 1937. His pastorate of
17 years was astounding. Particularly during the war years, the building was
packed to overflowing every Sunday night and many, including local and overseas
service personnel, were converted. Jarvis was an innovator. For example, he
started a Christian Workers’ Training College which prepared scores of people
for service, some of whom entered the Baptist ministry.
A few days after war broke out
in 1939, he became President of the New South Wales Baptist Union. His
leadership brought encouragement in those uncertain days. He was influential in
the formation of the Baptist National Service Auxiliary of the State Union,
through which the churches ministered to the needs of service men and women. He
took part in the formation of the State’s Baptist Homes Trust and, active in
inter-church matters, he served as President of the New South Wales Council of
Churches.
Alarmed by moral decline and
decreasing church attendances in the immediate post-war years, at the
Australian Union’s Assembly in 1947 Jarvis called Baptists to a Christian
Commonwealth Crusade, and devoted his gifts and energies in leading this
evangelistic thrust. He was called by Assembly 1950 to be President-General, although
absent in America at the time, and while in office continued to travel through
Australia encouraging churches in this evangelistic endeavour.
In 1950 Jarvis gave a
memorable keynote address at the World Congress in Cleveland, Ohio, United
States of America, which appointed him Australian Vice-President of the Baptist
World Alliance. He subsequently served for some years on the Alliance’s
executive committee.
Few have been more gifted than
he. He was a superb communicator, an eloquent preacher and a persuasive
evangelist with a genius for an apt epigram, repartee and the use of sanctified
humour. To state that he was also a talented musician, artist and dramatist by
no means exhausts the list of his gifts. After a particularly moving portrayal
of William Carey in a play he had written, produced and in which he starred,
someone asked him: “Wilfred, what can you not do?” “Sleep!” was the laconic
reply. Jarvis would not use this rich endowment for self-display or personal
gain, but to glorify the Saviour whom he delighted to serve. He died in Sydney
in October, 1977.
Missionary Statesman - Frank Arnold
Marsh
Frank Arnold Marsh was trained
in the Baptist College of Victoria and ordained to the Baptist ministry in
1922. He served churches in Victoria at Regent, Warrnambool and Sandringham
before becoming General Secretary of the Australian Baptist Foreign Mission in
1934 after the death of Rev. J.C. Martin. He guided the Mission out from the
depression years and through the period of war that followed. During his term
of office, its activities expanded from East Bengal, which upon the formation
of the Islamic State became East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), to Assam, to New
Guinea (Papua New Guinea) and into Netherlands New Guinea (Irian Jaya). He
travelled from State to State, particularly in his earlier years in office,
pleading the cause of the Mission, establishing it more firmly in the affection
of Australian Baptists.
Marsh was recognised as a
missionary statesman. In 1950 he attended the Assembly of the United Nations in
New York as a special adviser to the Australian delegation. At all times he had
the loyal support of his wife and daughters, from whom he was frequently
separated by his work. However he did not totally confine his interests to the
Mission, but was active in the business of the Baptist Union of Australia,
serving on the Executive Committee, which appreciated his wisdom and
experience. In 1947-48 he was Acting Secretary of the Union.
When he retired from the Mission
in 1958, Marsh became Assistant Minister of the Collins Street Church,
Melbourne. He was President General of the federal Union from 1959-62. In 1962
he left for Hong Kong to serve the needs of students, especially refugees from
China, as Comptroller of the Hong Kong Baptist College. Severe heart trouble
compelled his return to Australia in 1964. In spite of this, he undertook a
number of interim ministries in Victoria in churches such as Blackburn North.
He died at the age of 78 on July 1, 1976.
The Australian Baptist
Missionary Society paid this tribute to its former leader: “Mr. Marsh was a man
of God. In his personal dignity, his unquestioned integrity, his wide grasp of
missionary affairs, his quietly cautious approach to all matters, his refusal to
be harried by hostile pressures, and his insights into people’s character, he
embodied many of the best aspects of Christian life and character.’’