THE STORY OF THE
SYDNEY UNITARIAN CHURCH 1850-1974
By Eleanor Wilson
OUR BEGINNINGS
From
an early Sydney newspaper:
�Among
the free emigrants who, from time to time, sought in the world of Australia a
wider sphere for their industry and enterprise, it might be reasonably presumed
that a fair proportion would be persons holding Unitarian views of
Christianity, and it has long been known that individuals professing these
views had settled in different parts of this Colony. But until the year 1850 no
systematic attempt had been made to ascertain their numbers or to organise them
into a religious community. On Saturday, May 18th, 1850 however, an
advertisement addressed to Unitarians was inserted in the �Sydney Herald� by
Mr. William MacDonnell, whose name will always be associated with the formation
of the first Unitarian Church in the Colonies.�
The advertisement
was as follows:
�TO UNITARIANS.
A few persons of this persuasion, feeling the
great want of a place of worship, where they could honour
God according to their consciences, are anxious to meet and co-operate with
brethren of similar views, that they might by mutual aid and counsel make a
beginning in carrying out so desirable an object. For this purpose
communications are solicited from Unitarians who reside in Sydney or are
scattered throughout the Colony, with such suggestions as their wishes or
experience may dictate; and, as this step is but preliminary, those who feel
interested in advancing the great truth of the
strict Unity of God, will please, for the present, address �Alpha� at the
office of the �Herald�.�
A number of letters were received from people
who declared themselves Unitarians and willing to co-operate in the
establishment of Unitarian worship, and after several preliminary meetings in
the home of Mr. MacDonnell, a public meeting was called for Sunday, June 30th,
1850, at Grocott�s Rooms, George Street, opposite
Hunter Street. Attending this meeting were three doctors, several lawyers and
other prominent citizens, about 30 persons in all, and a list of over 30 other
people known or presumed to be Unitarians, was read.
After much animated discussion the following
resolution was unanimously adopted:
�That we Unitarian Christians now met together,
consider it our duty to establish the worship of God in accordance with the
practice of the Unitarian Churches of Great Britain and Ireland and the United
States of America, and do accordingly join ourselves into a Society to be
denominated �THE AUSTRALIAN UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION�.� [The name has
been changed more than once since 1850.]
Subscriptions and donations were soon
forthcoming and the newly elected committee anted a room somewhere on Church
Hill where the congregation met regularly for a year. They then petitioned the
Government for a grant of land on which to build a church and were given a
small plot of ground at the foot of what is now Clarence Street. It was of
little use to them as the ground was swampy and the little band continued to
meet in the rented premises.
It soon became quite an influential body and it
was necessary to look for better accommodation. The trustees heard that the
Wesleyan Chapel in Macquarie Street was for sale. It had a pleasant little
manse attached and a sale was negotiated with the owners. It stood at the
corner of Martin Place and Macquarie Street, where the huge Reserve Bank was
erected a few years ago. The terms of sale were �400 down and a promissory note
for the balance of �472 payable in 3 years, being for purchase and interest,
was signed on January 1st, 1852. After installing gas lighting and adding a
porch, along with some necessary repairs to the manse, the whole costing �150,
the congregation left their temporary home on Church Hill.
At this stage the name of the movement was
changed to �THE UNITARIAN SOCIETY OF SYDNEY� and the trustees turned their
attention to bringing out a minister from England. The British and Foreign
Unitarian Association was approached and selected for them as the first
Unitarian minister in the Colony, Rev. George Stanley, B.A.
After much correspondence a stipend of �200 per annum was agreed upon and on
October 25th, 1853, the steam ship �Great Britain�, 78 days out from Liverpool,
docked at Port Jackson and a deputation of eminent Unitarians went on board to welcome
their future pastor and his lady.
The Chapel was opened for public worship on
Sunday, November 6th, 1853. The following extract from the first Minute Book
reflects the pride the trustees and committee felt their achievements:
�The Opening Service was felt by many to be
deeply interesting and was more numerously attended than the most sanguine had
anticipated, the Chapel being filled in every part by a highly respectable and
most attentive audience. The sermon delivered by Rev. G. Stanley on this occasion
was afterwards published at the unanimous request and at the expense of the
Congregation. The commencement of Evening Services was necessarily deferred for
a few weeks.�
REV. GEORGE HEAP STANLEY, MA. LL.B. 1853-1864
Mr. Stanley announced that his theological
position was that of Christocentric Unitarianism. He
said:
�Whilst I teach Unitarianism as a theology I
shall preach Christianity as a gospel � not as a system of philosophy merely,
but as a revelation of God to man and in this revelation the Lord Jesus will
ever be to me a central figure.�
At a preliminary meeting it had been decided
that the service in the morning should be
liturgical and according to the Congregational mode in the evening.
Mr. Stanley began his ministry with a membership
of 141 persons, and a choir of 27, and soon had a Sunday School
of over 60 pupils. A Religious Improvement Society was organised,
an organ purchased, and the ministerial stipend increased to �400 per annum.
Nearly all the pews were let and books sent out from the parent association in
London formed the nucleus of a library. The choir, presided over by a
salaried organist, consisted of amateurs, �being persons of education as well
as attached to our principles do not sing for the sake of display or of lucre,
yet all have the regularity so seldom found in volunteers. They meet twice
weekly for practice and chant now with considerable precision and no little
taste.�
Mr. Stanley stayed 11 years and then resigned
to devote himself to education. He became Headmaster of a school for boys, many
leading citizens passing through his hands. He availed himself of a recent
provision of the Colonial Legislature permitting graduates of British
Universities to take, on examination, higher degrees in the University of Sydney;
it was thus that he obtained the degree of LL.B., the first man in the Colony
to do so. He lived at Paddington with his family and was always ready to help
out at the Macquarie Street Chapel when his services were requested. During his
period the name underwent another change and the movement came to be known as �THE
UNITARIAN CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH�. By 1872 it had become �THE NEW UNITARIAN
CHURCH� and church papers from 1874 onwards refer to it simply as �THE SYDNEY
UNITARIAN CHURCH�.
The first minute book contains copies of
indignant letters from Mrs. Stanley, who took great exception to being asked to
pay pew rent when her husband was no longer minister. Pew rents represented a
good proportion of the income of the chapel.
REV. JAMES PILLARS, MA. 1864-1875
The successor to Mr. Stanley was Rev, James
Pillars who, at the age of 30 arrived, with his young wife, to take up the
ministry. He worked with tremendous enthusiasm and soon had a full church. Many
social activities were organised and the course
seemed set for a period of expansion. The land in Clarence Street was sold for
�1980 and ground purchased in Liverpool Street for �800. This area was at that
time a fashionable residential part, many doctors having their consulting rooms
in nearby College Street.
Mr. Pillars laid the foundation stone of the
beautiful Liverpool Street Church in 1872, and said:
�Probably, before this stone is disturbed,
Christianity will have abandoned many of its fundamental beliefs. But the time
will never come when the soul of man will cease to reverence justice and
goodness; and therefore to be religious in the highest and noblest sense of the
word. It was with these feelings they were laying the foundation stone of a new
church, not for the ecclesiastical perpetration of any one article of the
doctrine of Christianity; but to promote reverence for truth, for the reverent
cultivation of the sanctities of sentiment and opinion and the immortal
principles of progress.�
Rain fell heavily during the ceremony, setting
a pattern for Unitarian open-air functions ever since. (When the foundation
stone of the church in Francis Street was laid by Rev. Wyndham Heathcote the first rain fell after a long drought, causing
him to remark that we should perhaps arrange with the Government to hold
outdoor functions whenever rain was needed, when we could expect a deluge!!)
Along this time a man named William Lorando Jones gave a lecture in Parramatta
Park for the Sydney Secular Society; he was prosecuted for blasphemy and
sentenced to 2 years in gaol and fined �100. The
public reaction was prompt and extreme; Mr. Pillars called a public meeting in
the Unitarian Church, a committee was formed to free Jones, over 2000 people
signed Mr. Pillars� petition to the Government and Jones was released in 4
weeks. This same Jones was the sculptor of the monument erected by public
subscription in Rookwood Cemetery to Mr. Pillars�
memory.
Unfortunately, Mr. Pillars became involved in
disputes with the trustees when the new building was almost ready for the roof,
the work was stopped (the church was not finished until 1879) and Mr. Pillars
left, taking many members of the congregation with him. He continued his work
from the Temperance Hall in Pitt Street.
While taking a party of Sunday School boys to a picnic at Tamarama
Beach he disappeared from the rocks and his body was never recovered. The �Town
and Country Journal� reported the incident in the following quaint sentences:
�The young companions
with whom he took his last and fatal ramble on the cliffs, on July 31st, stated
that after they had leapt the chasm, they observed him gazing, as if in
admiration and deep thought on the waves that dashed up from beneath. It was
from the calm enjoyment of such a contemplation that
he passed in a moment into the unseen world.�
This calamity brought together the separated
brethren and a service of reconciliation and remembrance was held in the still
roofless church.
REV. JOHN HENRY SMITH 1879-1882
After the Church had been without ministerial
leadership, except for the help afforded by Rev. G. Stanley, the next man to
take on the restless and difficult congregation was Rev. J.H. Smith. The
Liverpool Street Church begun in 1872, was opened by
him on August 30th, 1879. After 3 years he resigned to become Headmaster of a
country school.
REV. A.B. CAMM 1882-1885
Mr. Camm had been a
Congregational minister in England and had served as a missionary in Costa Rica
before entering the Unitarian ministry. After serving our churches at Bolton
and Blackpool he came to Sydney in 1882. In his
inaugural address, reported by The Sydney Empire on December 4th, 1882,
Mr. Camm said:
�Believing that a religious life is one of the
prime necessities of human nature, my ministry will be devoted to the
nourishing of that life in those who, though unable to assent to the divinity
of Jesus, yet believe him to have excelled all other men in the realization of
the righteousness and charity of God.�
His reporter described him as not so much an
orator as a vigorous and subtle thinker. The description of the ceremony
concludes:
�Teachers of his class, links between educated
mind and Christianity (this is said without any implied endorsement of
Unitarian peculiarities of doctrine) are not so plentiful in New South Wales
that the advent of a man who will labour to nourish
righteousness and charity in those to whom he will speak, can be denied a
welcome to the Colony.�
One of his discourses (his farewell address on
leaving Sydney) was published at the request of the congregation under the title
of Phases of Unitarianism, Orthodoxy and Free Thought. In it he asks:
�What does our liberal religion do? It turns
prayer into thanksgiving and aspiration. It does not define God; it fears to
symbolize Him. As the universe unfolds however, it sees a revelation of higher
qualities through Life and Law, towards Love. It feels the universe is good,
and finds no better word for the Supreme Life than the simple Saxon one � God.
Once a week we find an aid to moral, mental and spiritual growth, in seeking to
harmonize our growing individual life with the revealing, infinite One � God.
If that seems a remnant of superstition to anyone, at any rate it should not be
sneered at. [He was referring to a lecture at the Theatre Royal the previous
Sunday when disparaging remarks had been made about Liberalism.] Such an
attitude of mind and heart accords with our rational thought.�
Mr. Camm returned to
England at the expiration of his contract and was killed in a railway accident
in the Peak Hill Tunnel in 1891. (The first of three of our
ministers who died by accident.)
REV. E.R. GRANT
1885-1888
The next incumbent was Rev. Edward R. Grant,
who had several successful ministries in England. The hot climate proved too
much for his frail health and he died in Sydney in January, 1888
REV. GEORGE WALTERS 1888-1898 & 1902-1926
Probably the most remarkable ministry in the
history of our church began with the induction of Rev. George Walters in June,
1888. He soon made his presence felt, not only in the Unitarian Church, being
an active supporter of the Woman Suffrage Movement, President of both the
Shakespeare Society and the Dickens Fellowship and a member of the board of
control in the early days of the Pitt Town Labour
Settlement. He was the author of a Biblical drama Joseph of Canaan
produced in Sydney at Her Majesty�s Theatre and at the Theatre Royal in
Melbourne.
In 1898 Mr. Walters, with almost the whole of
the congregation, formed the independent body known as the Australian Church,
following disputes with the Church Committee. The breach was not healed for 5
years after which he and his congregation came back to the church in Liverpool
Street.
He was a cultured and impressive speaker with
broad views. He made his pulpit available to many unpopular causes and speakers
including Mrs. Annie Besant when she visited
Australia on a lecture tour after her prosecution in England for the
publication of a book on birth control, judged unsuitable for reading by the
general public. Joseph McCabe was made welcome in our church on his visit at
the turn of the century, after he made headlines with his withdrawal from the
Catholic Church and the publication of Twelve Years in a Monastery. Like
his predecessor, Mr. Pillars, he was always ready to champion the underdog and
unpopular causes and freedom of thought and speech.
A memorable occasion was the Sunday evening
when the address was given by the Right Hon. William Morris Hughes, former
Prime Minister of Australia.� The Daily
Telegraph reporting the visit said Mr. Hughes seemed uncomfortable in a
pulpit and the large congregation expected to see horns sprout rather than a
halo appear round the head of the fiery little Welshman!!
Mr. Walters incurred a good deal of odium
because he publicly stated from his pulpit that he would not pray for the
success of the Allies in the Great War 1914-1918. He said, in explanation of
his unpopular attitude:
�It is because my conception of God is so
infinitely high, beyond all possibility of human conception that I could not
invoke that high and supreme power to shed blood and commit horrors at my
humble suggestion.�
He was fatally injured by a car on his way home
from a lecture in the church, after a remarkable ministry of 34 years and his
death was mourned as a public calamity.
REV. ALBERT THORNHILL, MA. 1929-1931
With the arrival of Mr. Thornhill
we come to the half century in the life of our Church.
After 9 years of notable service at the
Auckland Unitarian Church and a previous successful ministry in England, Mr. Thornhill�s appointment coincided with the depression
years, when he had to cope with reduced membership, and the evils of
unemployment and rising costs. He was described by the Daily Telegraph
as:
�a cultured cleric
with a big spiritual punch; full of learning and richly eloquent, conveying the
impression of intense sincerity.�
He immediately set about organising
the Jubilee celebrations and reunion of old members, at which the Premier of
New South Wales, Hon. W. A. Holman, KC, (afterwards a member of the church) was
a principal speaker. Mr. Holman deplored the modern tendency to abuse the
benefits of science and the vulgarity of much of the programmes
of radio and cinema. He said:
�Nowadays a child is able to fill every spare
moment with occupations which leave him not only uninstructed, but incapable of
forming any faith about the universe or about religion. The battle of
rationalism has still to be fought against this new enemy. We do not fight
today against established and authoritative churches, that
battle has been won almost too completely. What we have now to combat is an
insidious influence whose strength, ubiquity and danger is
increasing visibly every day.� (One wonders what would be the speaker�s
reaction to cinema and radio programmes in this �permissive
age� fifty years later?)
In spite of the difficult times Mr. Thornhill persuaded the A. B.C. to include Sydney Unitarian
Church in its religious broadcasting programmes which
resulted in a volume of correspondence from country listeners, many of whom
heard about Unitarianism for the first time. He was the author of several
pamphlets which had a wide appeal, and in spite of a busy ministerial life,
found time for much public activity. Mr. Thornhill
was a foundation member of the League of Nations Union; an ardent advocate of
licensing reform and a recognised authority on
educational matters. He returned to England and took up the study of dietetics.
He died in Sydney in 1936.
REV. WYNDHAM HEATHCOTE, BA. 1927-1928 &
1932-1945
The second longest ministry in our church was
that of Rev. Wyndham Heathcote, who had been an
Anglican clergyman until he developed �advanced views� and entered the
Unitarian Church, serving our churches in Adelaide and Melbourne, Wellington
(New Zealand) and Ottawa (Canada) before coming to Sydney. He occupied the
pulpit after Mr. Walters� death until the arrival of Mr. Thorrihill
from New Zealand, and again after Mr. Thornhill left
for England in 1932. He preached with scholarly vigor to an increasing
congregation and wrote many pamphlets, one of them having a circulation of
32,000, and retired in 1945, becoming Minister Emeritus.�
True to the Unitarian tradition of our
ministers defending the rights of citizens wrongly apprehended, Mr. Heathcote appeared in court several times; once to speak on
behalf of a Macquarie Street doctor, R.V. Storer,
prosecuted for selling a book he had written on Adolescence and Marriage,
to a policeman, when Dr. Storer was acquitted; to
defend a man charged with selling a pamphlet in the Domain without the permission
of the Government Dept. controlling public parks.� The pamphlet, written by Mr. Heathcote, became the subject of a Police Inquiry, during
which both he and the Hon. Secretary of the Church (the writer of these notes)
were interrogated by the police; and again during a censorship prosecution.
During Mr. Heathcote�s
ministry the beautiful stone church in Liverpool Street was destroyed by fire,
with the loss of many of the records of the church; from 1936 until the new
church in Francis Street was opened in 1940, the services continued without a
break in the Real Estate Institute, Martin Place. The church site,
bought for �800 in 1873 and sold for �23,000 in 1938, became a business area
for shops and offices.
Mr. Heathcote died in
Sydney at the great age of 94, active to the last and busy writing a book on
his spiritualist experiences.
Since 1945 our church has been served by six
ministers:
Rev. Colin Gibson, MA.� 1945-1949
Rev. J. B. Tonkin������� 1949-1953
Rev. G.E. Hale, BA.���� 1954-1956
Rev. D.W. Edmunds, MA. B.D. 1957-1961
Rev. W.G. Watson������ 1963-1966
Rev. Allen Kirby�������� 1967-1968
Mr. Gibson now serves our church in Aberdeen,
Scotland, after a ministry of several years at the Adelaide Unitarian Church;
Mr. Tonkin and Mr. Hale have both passed on; Mr. Edmunds returned to his native
America; Mr. Watson went out of the ministry and Mr. Kirby has been in charge
of the Adelaide Church since 1968.� Since
that time the pulpit has been vacant and the congregation has relied on the
help of its many friends to keep our services going.
The type of Unitarianism preached by the
fourteen men who have ministered in our Church in the last one hundred and
twenty-one years has varied, from the Christocentric
views held by Mr. Stanley to the naked Humanism preached by one of our younger
men a few years ago.� Nevertheless, one
strong characteristic has run unchanged all through; viz. a devoted
humanitarianism, expressing itself through social idealism and involvement.