Camden College was an independent, Congregational Union of Australia, day and boarding school for boys from 1864 until 1877 and theological college for the training of Christian ministers from 1864 until 1974. [1]
Thomas Holt and the Congregational Church founded a boys school and theological college at Camden, the former home of Robert Bourne, on 12 July 1864. Camden College, as the institution became known, was just north of the present Camden Street on the border of Newtown and Enmore in New South Wales.
Samuel Chambers Kent, the Congregational minister in Newtown from 1861, became the founding warden and resident chaplain of Camden College from 1864 to 1872. [2] [3] Kent's portrait hangs in the library of the Uniting Theological College in Parramatta. [3]
Camden College and its garden were subdivided in 1877 and the college moved to Glebe. The college buildings, including Camden, were demolished in 1888. [4]
In 1974 prior to the formation of the Uniting Church in Australia from the Congregational Union, the Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church, Camden College merged with Leigh College and St Andrew's Theological Hall to form the United Theological College, a part of the theology school at Charles Sturt University. [5]
The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union of Australia united under the Basis of Union. According to the church, it had 243,000 members in 2018. In the 2016 census, 870,183 Australians identified with the church, but that figure fell to 673,260 in the 2021 census. In the 2011 census, that figure was 1,065,796.
The Scots College is an independent primary and secondary day and boarding school for boys, predominantly located in Bellevue Hill, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
The Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA), founded in 1901, is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Australia. The larger Uniting Church in Australia incorporated about 70% of the PCA in 1977.
The University of Divinity is an Australian collegiate university with a specialised focus in divinity and associated disciplines. It is constituted by twelve theological colleges from seven denominations and three schools. The University of Divinity is the direct successor of the second oldest degree-granting authority in the State of Victoria, the Melbourne College of Divinity. The university's chancery and administration are located in Box Hill, a suburb of Melbourne in the state of Victoria.
Fairholme College is an independent, day and boarding school for girls, located in Toowoomba, one of Australia's largest provincial cities, in South East Queensland, Australia.
The Congregational Christian Church of Tuvalu, commonly the Church of Tuvalu, is a Christian church which is the state church of Tuvalu, although this status merely entitles it to "the privilege of performing special services on major national events"; its adherents comprise about 86% of the 11,600 inhabitants of the archipelago.
Joseph Coles Kirby was an English flour miller who migrated to Sydney, Australia in 1854. In 1864, Kirby was ordained in the Congregational Churches and then ministered to rural and city congregations in Queensland and South Australia and supported or led many causes for social reform such as the temperance movement, women's suffrage and "social purity", raising the age of consent to 16 in Australia.
The Reverend Arthur "Ashworth" Aspinall was a co-founder and the first Principal of The Scots College, Bellevue Hill, Sydney, Australia. He was a Congregational and Presbyterian Minister, and a joint founder of the Historical Society of New South Wales. A portrait of Arthur Aspinall is found in Cameron's Centenary History, p. 320, Plate 99.
Leigh College was from 1915 until 1974 a Methodist Theological College located at 416-420 Liverpool Road, Strathfield South, New South Wales. It was the successor to Wesleyan Theological Institution. The site includes three significant historic properties: Brundah, a Victorian style house, Leigh College Hall, a neo-Georgian Revival style building and the E. Vickery Memorial Chapel.
The Pitt Street Uniting Church is a heritage-listed Uniting church building located at 264 Pitt Street in the Sydney central business district, Australia. Founded in 1833, the congregation was the original church of Congregationalism in New South Wales. The church building was designed by John Bibb and built from 1841 to 1846. It is also known as Pitt Street Congregational Church. The property is owned by The Uniting Church in Australia and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Thomas Holt was an English-born Australian pastoralist, company director and politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1868 and 1883. He was also a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for two periods between 1856 and 1857 and again between 1861 and 1864. Holt was the first Colonial Treasurer in New South Wales.
Hubert Cunliffe-Jones was an Australian-born Congregational Church minister and author, who became chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales and a professor at the University of Manchester. He was an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from the University of Edinburgh.
Newtown is a residential locality in Toowoomba in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Newtown had a population of 10,039 people.
Harry Chambers Kent (1852–1938) was an English-born Australian architect. He was Sydney-based during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a leader of his profession as President of the Institute of Architects of NSW (1906–07). During his career he was associated with the design of over 670 buildings. Many of his designs are heritage listed and two are on the New South Wales State Heritage Register.
Brecon Congregational Memorial College was a Congregational college in Brecon, Powys, Mid Wales. The college graduated ministers and missionaries who were posted to Africa and India. There were classes in biblical literature, chemistry, classical languages, logic, psychology, theism, theology, trigonometry, German language, and Welsh language. The college was established in Carmarthen in 1757, and was located in Brecon from 1839. The Memorial College building in Brecon was opened in 1869. After the last principal left in 1959, the college was closed. The building is now named Camden Court and is used for sheltered housing.
Joseph Robertson was an Australian Congregationalist minister.
St Sophia Greek Orthodox Church, officially the St Sophia and Her Three Daughters Greek Orthodox Church, is a heritage-listed Greek Orthodox church at 411a Bourke Street in the inner city Sydney suburb of Surry Hills in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. Formerly a Congregational church, the building is also known as the former Bourke Street Congregational Church and School. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The United Theological College (UTC) is an Australian theological college and a founding member of Charles Sturt University's School of Theology. As well as providing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in all areas of theology, the UTC trains ministry candidates for the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory.
Lilian Wells (1911–2001) was an Australian church leader who served as president of the Congregational Union of Australia, and the first moderator of the New South Wales Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. She was the only woman to serve in the role of president for the Congregational Union. She served on the joint committee that planned the merger of the Congregationalist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches that formed the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977. She was appointed an Officer of Order of the British Empire in 1977, for her service to the church.
Alexander Rea, commonly referred to as Alex Rea, was an English clergyman who had a career as an organist in Australia. He was responsible for ordering the Sydney Town Hall Grand Organ and supervising its construction.