Pioneer Congregational leader Thomas Q. Stow firmly against state aid for church schools in South Australia colony
South Australia's first Congregational church minister (from 1837) Thomas Quinton Stow and his wife Elizabeth Randolph Stow. Three of their four sons became prominent contributors to South Australian society. At right: George Strickland Kingston's plan for the Congregational chapel in Freeman Street (later Gawler Place), Adelaide city, in 1840.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
The Congregationalists – a Protestant dissenting church sect allowing autonomy for each of its groups – was early in making the first of its significant marks on South Australia.
Its first minister Thomas Quinton Stow arrived from England on the Hartley in South Australia in October 1837. He pitched a marquee and preached his first sermon in it in November. Next month, with 10 others, he formed the colony’s Congregational Church and was elected pastor.
Early in 1838, on North Terrace, Adelaide, he helped to build a temporary place of worship with gum posts, pine rafters and reed thatch. This was a few months before the Anglican Trinity Church opened nearby on the terrace..
At the request of some leading colonists, Stow opened a daily classical academy, starting the long-standing Congregational link with a higher education in the colony. In 1839, the foundation stone of a Congregational chapel was laid in Freeman Street (later gawler Place), Adelaide. Opened in 1840, the building had a heavy debt, which embarrassed Stow during the depression years. He added to his income by farming a property on the River Torrens that he named Felixstow.
Stow formed many churches and trained several ministers. He was the first chairman of the Congregational Union of South Australia in 1850, and fostered friendly relations between all denominations.
He was appointed to the first board of education in 1846 and served on many other public committees, always ready to promote moral, social and intellectual progress. As the outstanding preacher, his firm stand against state aid to religion had a powerful influence from 1846 until the grants to churches were abandoned in 1851.
The Congregationalists, though small in number, continued to staunchly support separation of church and state, and political democracy, refusing the early government grants. In the 1870s, the Congregationalists sponsored several parliamentary bills for free state schools. Although unsuccessful, the 1875 Education Act strongly embodied their principles for secular education.
