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Australia is a highly plural, secularized federal Western democracy on the southern rim of the Asia-Pacific. It has a relatively small population (26 million) spread across a vast but largely uninhabitable landmass (and attendant islands). From 1788, British colonization over traditional Aboriginal land decisively shaped the first 160 years of religious culture, with ‘the Big Four’ traditions (Anglicanism, Catholicism, Methodism and Presbyterianism) dominating. Australia was thus an early recipi…

William Francis (Frank) Houston. Born on 22 April 1922 at Wanganui, New Zealand, Frank Houston was the third of four children. Reportedly, in his initial weeks of life he contracted pneumonia and experiencing healing through prayer. The affliction would, however, be recurrent. A small boy teased at school about his stature, he carried the weight of expectation that he would “never amount to anything.” When a friend was converted in a Salvation Army event, and then died young in an accident, Hous…

John Archibald Duncan Adams, 5 April 1844, Lessudden, Roxburgh, Scotland–8 Oct 1936, Dunedin, New Zealand. Second of 13 children born to Irish-born tailor, John James Adams (1818–1894), and his wife Elizabeth Ann nee Noble, John A. D. Adams emigrated from Scotland with his parents in 1848 to New Zealand as part of the first wave of settlers in the new Otago settlement. Farmers and labourers, in 1864 they sold their Taieri Beach farm and returned to Dunedin. Though Scots Baptists, many of the Adams children w…

Sarah Jane Lancaster (née Murrell), (1858–1935). Born in Williamstown, Victoria, Australia, Sarah Jane was the third child (of eight) of master mariner, William Lee Murrell and his wife Mary Anne (née Hume). In December 1879, Sarah Jane married railway “engineer” Alfred Henry Lancaster (31 Jan 1858, Manchester, England–4 Feb 1930). They lived with the Murrells for some years, until they had children (of whom there were seven). Their large family network of Catos, Murrells, Pyes and Buchanans, ma…

Alexander Thomas Davidson, 1902, Granville, NSW–18 Sep 1987, Mitcham, Victoria. The son of Alexander (auctioneer) and Eleanor Annie Davidson, ‘Alec’ or ‘A.T.’ Davidson was born in Granville, and grew up in Auburn, Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Prior to his marriage in 1930, Davidson trained and worked as an accountant. The family were members of Auburn Baptist Church, where Alec became a lay preacher. In 1930, in the middle of the Depression, he married Olive Rita Kellaway (1903–1992…

[English Version] Nash, Clifford Harris (16.12.1866 London – 27.9.1958 Melbourne), anglik. Geistlicher und evangelikale Führergestalt. Nach Ausbildung an der Oundle School und der Universität Cambridge wurde N. durch die Schule B.F. Westcotts, Handley Carr Glynn Moule u.a. zu einem konservativen Evangelikalismus der Mitte hin beeinflußt. Zu seinen Tätigkeiten gehörten Lehre und Predigt in: Musselburgh; Huddersfield, Yorkshire; seit 1897 Sydney (u.a. Church Hill, Redfern); Melbourne (St. Columb's, Ha…

[English Version] Perry, Charles (1807 London – 2.12.1891 Cambridge), anglik. Gründungsbischof von Melbourne; Studium in Cambridge, Ordination 1836. Auf Anraten des Sekretärs der Church Missionary Society, H. Venn, wurde P. am 29.6.1847 zum Bf. von Melbourne ernannt und erreichte seinen Amtssitz (43 000 Einwohner) am 23.1.1848. Die Phasen des Goldrausches machten Melbourne damals zum finanziellen Zentrum Australiens. P. teilte die Ansicht G.C. Gorhams über die Tauferneuerung im Gegensatz zur hochki…

[English Version] Paton, John Gibson (24.5.1824 Kirkmahoe, Schottland – 28.1.1907 Canterbury, Victoria, Australien), Missionar der Presbyterianer, Politiker und Sozialreformer. Zunächst Lehrer und Stadtmissionar in Glasgow, wurde P. nach Ausbildung an der Universität Glasgow und der Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall, Paisley, 1858 Missionar auf den Neuen Hebriden (heute Vanuatu). Seine Vertreibung aus Port Resolution, Tanna, durch die lokale Bevölkerung beantwortete P. 1862 mit einer international…

[English Version] Polding, John Bede (18.10.1794 Liverpool – 16.3.1877 Sydney), kath. Gründungsbischof und erster Erzbf. von Sydney. Ausbildung in Acton Burnell bei Shrewsbury, Eintritt in den Benediktinerorden, Apostolischer Vikar von Madras, Indien. 1834 erhielt P. das neugegründete Vikariat von New South Wales, das zu dieser Zeit den gesamten australischen Kontinent (Australien) umfaßte. Als P. im Jahr darauf in Sydney ankam, bestand das geistl. Personal der dortigen kath. Kirche lediglich aus vi…

[German Version] (1807, London – Dec 2, 1891, Cambridge), founding Anglican bishop of Melbourne. Perry studied in Cambridge, and was ordained in 1836. On the advice of Henry Venn, secretary of the Church Missionary Society, Perry was elevated as bishop of Melbourne on Jun 29, 1847, and arrived in Melbourne (population 43,000) on Jan 23, 1848. The gold rushes made Melbourne the financial capital of Australia. Perry supported the Gorham view on baptismal renewal, in opposition to the High Church (Hi…

[German Version] (Dec 16, 1866, London, UK – Sep 27, 1958, Melbourne, Australia), Anglican minister and evangelical leader. After his education at Oundle School and the University of Cambridge, Nash was influenced by the school of B.F. Westcott, Handley Carr Glynn Moule and others, towards a middle-of-the-road conservative evangelicalism. His activities included teaching and preaching in: Musselburgh; Huddersfield, Yorkshire; Sydne…

[German Version] Founded in 1928, the Borneo Evangelical Mission became one of Australia's most important indigenous faith missions. Influenced by J.H. Taylor and the China Inland Mission, Borneo Evangelical Mission was foundational for the creation of the national Evangelical Church of Borneo and the evangelization of large parts of the country (Indonesia: I, 1). By the late 1970s it was widening its operations from Borneo into Asia.…

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[German Version] (May 24, 1824, Kirkmahoe, Scotland – Jan 28, 1907, Canterbury, Victoria, Australia), teacher and city missionary in Glasgow. After studying at Glasgow University and at Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall, Paisley, he was sent in 1857 as one of two missionaries to the New Hebrides (today Vanuatu). He answered his 1862 expulsion from Port Resolution, Tanna, with an international publicity campaign in support of the South Sea Missi…

[German Version] (Oct 18, 1794, Liverpool, UK – Mar 16, 1877, Sydney, Australia), foundation Catholic bishop and the first archbishop of Sydney. Educated at Acton Burnell near Shrewsbury, he took Benedictine orders and was selected as vicar apostolic of Madras, India. In 1834 Polding was consecrated to the newly established vicariate of New South Wales, which then covered the entire continent of Austral…

[German Version] (Nov 30, 1780, near Bath, England – Mar 29, 1869, Tasmania, Australia). Tasmanian Baptist minister. From 1793 a sailor with the East India Company, Dowling was influenced by William Huntingdon and Samuel Eyles Pierce to accept Christ and associate with the London Itinerant Society. After prea…

[German Version] (Jun 3, 1858, Williamstown, Victoria, Australia – Mar 6, 1934, Melbourne) was a Pentecostal evangelist. Lancaster was initially a school ¶ teacher and Methodist, influenced by international holiness literature, particularly reports of the Sunderland revival (1907). Lancaster experienced baptism in the Holy Spirit and healings in 1908, and in 1909 she established the Good News Hall (GNH), Australia's first permanent Pentecostal congregation. Pentecostal leaders (Pentecostalism) such as William Sl…

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[German Version] (May 9, 1885, near Taree, New South Wales, Australia – Mar 14, 1967, Canberra), Anglican bishop, social reformer and one of Anglicanism's most influential thinkers. As bishop of Goulburn (1934–1967) Burgmann championed Christian social and labor concerns and devoted himself to popular education. He helped frame the UN Declaration of Human Rights. From his vision for an Australian Anglican university grew St. John's College in Morpeth and St. Mark's National Seminary in Canberra.…