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Congregational Union of Australia | |
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Formerly North Adelaide Congregational Church; now known as Brougham Place Uniting Church | |
Classification | Protestant |
Orientation | Calvinism |
Theology | Calvinism |
Region | Australia |
Language | English |
Founder | Frederick Miller |
Origin | 1830 Hobart, Tasmania |
Branched from | Congregational Church, England |
Merged into | |
Defunct | 1977 |
Congregations | 300 |
The Congregational Union of Australia was a Congregational denomination in Australia that stemmed from the Congregational Church in England as settlers migrated from there to Australia.
Congregational Churches existed in all states and territories of Australia at some time. The oldest Congregational Church was founded in Hobart in 1830 by Frederick Miller.
One of the earliest and most influential Congregational ministers in early times was Thomas Q. Stow, who built the first church in South Australia.
Some of the first Congregational Churches established in each Australian state included the Pitt St church in Sydney, Stow Memorial Church (now Pilgrim Uniting) in Adelaide, Collins Street (now St Michael's) church in Melbourne, Trinity (now Trinity Uniting) in Perth, and National Memorial Church (now City Uniting) [1] in Canberra.
The Congregational Church was the first Christian denomination in Australia to ordain women, with the first female ordinand being Winifred Kiek in 1927.
The Union dissolved in 1977, when the Uniting Church in Australia was formed. 260 of the congregations that had previously formed the Union joined the new Uniting Church. The Uniting Church union also included the Methodist Church of Australasia and the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
However, 40 other congregations that had previously formed the Union objected to joining the new Uniting Church, and formed the Fellowship of Congregational Churches instead. In 1995, there was a split within that Fellowship, with some more ecumenically-minded congregations leaving to form the Congregational Federation of Australia.
Today, there are therefore three Christian organisations that can claim to be direct 'descendants' of the Union.
The Christian Church is a Mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing as a loose association of churches working towards Christian unity during the 19th century, then slowly forming quasi-denominational structures through missionary societies, regional associations, and an international convention. In 1968, the Disciples of Christ officially adopted a denominational structure at which time a group of churches left to remain nondenominational.
The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. It has approximately 46,500 members in 1,383 congregations with 608 active ministers, including 13 church related community workers.
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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, about 870,200 Australians identified with the church; in the 2011 census, the figure was 1,065,796. The UCA is Australia's third-largest Christian denomination, behind the Catholic and the Anglican Churches. There are around 2,000 UCA congregations, and 2001 National Church Life Survey (NCLS) research indicated that average weekly attendance was about 10 per cent of census figures.
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The Basis of Union is the document which formed the basis on which most congregations of the Congregational Union of Australia, Methodist Church of Australasia and Presbyterian Church of Australia united to form the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) in 1977. It was issued in nearly its final form in 1974.
The Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Australia.
The Port Adelaide Uniting Church is located in Port Adelaide, South Australia. It is an active church, with worship and prayer each week.
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The Fellowship of Congregational Churches is a conservative Congregational denomination in Australia. It was formed by the forty congregations of the Congregational Union of Australia who chose not to join the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977.
The National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (NACCC) is an association of about 400 churches providing fellowship for and services to churches from the Congregational tradition. The Association maintains its national office in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. The body was founded in 1955 by former clergy and laypeople of the Congregational Christian Churches in response to that denomination's pending merger with the Evangelical and Reformed Church to form the United Church of Christ in 1957.
The Congregational Federation is a small Christian denomination in Great Britain comprising just under 300 congregations. The Federation brings together Congregational churches, and provides support and guidance to member churches both financially and otherwise.
The Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ is the regional body of the United Church of Christ within the states of Alabama, northwestern Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee. It maintains headquarters in Atlanta. The Rev. Char Burch serves as the executive.
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The Indonesian Christian Church is an Indonesian Church of Presbyterian denomination. The church's theology is Calvinist.
Pilgrim Uniting Church is a church in the heart of the City on Flinders Street, Adelaide, South Australia. It is a church of the Uniting Church in Australia.
Clayton Wesley Uniting Church, formerly Clayton Congregational Church, is a church building in Beulah Park, South Australia, located on Portrush Road, in a commanding position at the eastern end of The Parade, Norwood.