Presbyterians conduit for Uniting Church South Australian synod in 1977 with Methodists and Congregationalists
The Methodist church, largest of three congregations joining the Uniting Church in South Australia, fitted the new church's social justice ethos. The Methodists' 1965 Maugham Church, after replacing the original church (lower image) from 1856 in Franklin Street, Adelaide city, was demolished in 2016 for a multi-storey complex to extend its welfare services.
John Priestley, the commissioner of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia, in 1956 started steps towards what became the Uniting Church in the state in 1977.
Priestley led the way by starting a committee for Presbyterians to work with the Baptist, Churches of Christ and Congregational churches in new Adelaide metropolitan housing areas. A more formal agreement with the Methodists and Congregationalists led to joint parishes in 1965.
Presbyterians had been a conduit for friendly relations with other denominations, back to the South Australia’s Union College starting in 1872. Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians, later joined by the Methodists, were partners in the college, offering lectures in religious and secular subjects. It led to Adelaide University being founded.
From 1913 until 1952, Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterian and Methodists ran a joint mission to residents along the railway to Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, and (without the Baptists) to Marree in the South Australia’s far north, from 1945 until 1968.
Originally from Victoria, John Priestley revitalised the Presbyterian Church of South Australia as its commissioner from 1956, prompting American stewardship and lay evangelism. The lay activity brought new vigour to the church with more parishes and more full-time church workers by 1960. Within the Presbyterian Church of South Australia, Priestley achieved adequate salaries and allowances for ministers, a full-time director of Christian education and a revised code of church law and procedure.
Priestley was involved in preliminary moves towards forming the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977, combining the Methodist and Reformed (Calvinist) theological traditions. The Presbyterian, Congregational and Methodist churches formed its South Australian synod. In South Australia, the Methodist Church was much larger than the other two denominations but the union was achieved with little disruption.
The three uniting churches shared progressive themes, with all admitted women to the ministry, The Congregational Church in Adelaide the first in Australia when Winifred Kiek was ordained in 1927. The Uniting Church had the character of Protestant dissenters at their most concerned about political and social issues – without overt stress on social effects such as temperance. The Methodist church in Adelaide had become a leader in social and welfare services though its Maughan Church and mission, especially under Erwin Vogt, in the mid 20th Century.
The Uniting Church was at the forefront of Aboriginal rights including native title and reconciliation. It took a stand on environmental issues and supports the equality and dignity of marginalised people such as ethnic minorities, disabled people and homosexuals. Lay people were encouraged in leadership roles, including preaching and leading worship.
Through agencies of UnitingCare such as Eldercare, Resthaven, the Helping Hand Centre and St Andrew;s Hospital, the Uniting Church has a major presence in social welfare services, aged care and private hospitals. It also operated schools including Prince Alfred College, Scotch College and Seymour College.
From the 1980s, tensions emerged between the church’s social activist and theologically liberal wing and a conservative evangelical minority. Many cnservatives affiliated with a national Assembly of Confessing Congregations.
In 2005, the South Australian synod adopted a new structure, with seven presbyteries (regional groupings of congregations) ] collapsed into one and replaced by nine mission networks, These are groupings of congregations for mutual support based upon a shared ethos, objectives and theological viewpoint. The Uniting Church became the third-largest religious denomination in South Australia, its adherents making up 8.9% of the state’s population in 2011.
