John Gladwell Wheen

Last updated

John Gladwell Wheen (died 1929) was a Methodist minister. He served as President-General of the Methodist Church of Australasia from 1926 to 1929. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life

John Gladwell Wheen was born at Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, the son of Edwin Wheen. As a young man he was employed by the town clerk of Sheffield, and was later appointed secretary of the Sheffield Public Hospital and Dispensary. He was associated with the Carver Street chapel, and became a departmental superintendent of the Red Hill school, one of the largest in the city, and famous as a source of ministers and mission workers. Here he was associated with the late Rev. J. Woodhouse, who was a member of his class, and who later became his brother-in-law. [3]

Wheen immigrated to Australia in 1882 by the Sabroan (later the training ship Tingira) and settled in Victoria. [2]

Religious life

Wheen entered the Methodist home mission service in 1883, becoming a minister in 1884. [2]

He successfully organised several important funds, and in 1907 he became president of the Victorian and Tasmanian Conference. He had the distinction of being elected to the general conference after he had been ten years in the ministry. [2]

In 1908 Wheen was transferred from Victoria to New South Wales for service in the foreign mission office, and after serving in conjunction with the late Rev. B. Danks for a few years, was appointed general secretary in 1913. For 12 years he carried full responsibility for the missions. [2]

Wheen was elected president of the New South Wales Conference in 1919. [4] Soon after his term expired he was appointed by the general conference as its representative to the British Wesleyan Conference in London, and to the world conference on "faith and order" at Geneva. He returned in February 1921. Owing to ill-health, he retired from the position of general secretary to the Methodist Missionary Society of Australia in 1925. [2]

Wheen was elected and installed for three years as President-General at the general conference of the Methodist Church of Australasia at Brisbane in May 1926. He was regard as one of the most capable administrators in the Methodist Church in Australia. He rellinquished his position as President-General a few months before his death. [2]

Personal life

Wheen married Ellen Lief in 1888. They had three children: E.G. Wheen (a chemist), Ethel Wheen, and Agnes Wheen (a teacher at the Methodist Ladies College in Hawthorn, Melbourne. and headmistress of the Annesley Methodist Girls' College at Bowral in New South Wales. [2]

He lived at 5 Goodwin Avenue, Ashfield. [2] [5]

Wheen died on the morning of Wednesday 13 November 1929 in Sydney, after a short illness, at the age of 71 years. [2] His funeral service was held on Thursday 14 November 1929 at the Ashfield Methodist Church, after which he was cremated at Rookwood Cemetery. [6]

Legacy

A stained glass memorial window depicting "Morning at Gethsemane" in the Ashfield Methodist Church was dedicated to Wheen on Sunday 16 August 1936. It was made by John Ashwin. [7]

Related Research Articles

The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834).

Alfred Harold Wood OBE was a 20th-century Australian Christian minister, educator, writer, hymnologist and advocate of church union.

The Methodist New Connexion, also known as Kilhamite Methodism, was a Protestant nonconformist church. It was formed in 1797 by secession from the Wesleyan Methodists, and merged in 1907 with the Bible Christian Church and the United Methodist Free Churches to form the United Methodist Church. In Australia, it joined with those plus the Wesleyan Methodist Church and Primitive Methodist Church as the Methodist Church of Australasia in 1902.

The Methodist Church of Australasia was a Methodist denomination based in Australia.

William Henry Fitchett was an Australian journalist, minister, newspaper editor, educator and founding president of the Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne.

Jabez Bunting Waterhouse was an English-born Australian Methodist minister and a leading legislator within Methodist conferences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Glasgow</span> Australian politician and lawyer

Carl Spencer Frederick Glasgow was an Australian Member of Parliament and lawyer.

Howard Henry Nolan was an Australian Methodist minister. From 1908 until 1911 he was Conference Secretary of Foreign Missions and in 1928 and 1929 was elected as Secretary of the New South Wales Conference of Methodist Church of Australasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Street Uniting Church</span> Heritage-listed building in Brisbane, Queensland

Albert Street Uniting Church is a heritage-listed church at 319 Albert Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by George Henry Male Addison and built from 1888 to 1889 by Thomas Pearson & Sons. It was originally known as Albert Street Methodist Church and Central Methodist Mission. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

William Arthur Dunn was a prominent Methodist clergyman in the colony and State of South Australia. He was president of the Methodist Conference in 1929 and president of Prince Alfred College 1930.

Charles Thomas Newman, generally known as Rev. C. T. Newman, was a Methodist minister in South Australia and New South Wales.

John Henry Kessell was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert H. Nesbitt</span>

Robert Henry Nesbitt (1883–1966) was the first Australian Trade Commissioner to New Zealand and became chairman of the NSW Milk Board. During World War II he was the business member of the Air Board. He had extensive experience in the insurance industry and as a company secretary and accountant. Nesbit was an influential Methodist in New South Wales. He served as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Council of Newington College for two decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecil Gribble</span>

Cecil Frank Gribble was an Australian Christian minister who was President General of the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Australasia 1964–1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Pollard Sampson</span> Australian architect

Thomas Pollard Sampson was a Tasmanian-born Australian architect active in New South Wales during the first forty years of the 20th century. His work encompassed the styles of the Federation Arts and Crafts and Bungalow through to the Inter-War Styles. In 1912 he designed an octagonal roofed stadium at Rushcutters Bay that seated up to 12,000 spectators. At the time, the Sydney Stadium was said to be "the largest roofed-in structure in the world." In the 1920s and 1930s, as a golfer and member of Concord Golf Club and Pennant Hills Golf Club, he designed the clubhouses at both courses. The buildings of both these well known Sydney clubs are still in use in 2023.

Rupert Howard Grove was an Australian solicitor and a prominent Methodist and Uniting Church layman. The Australian Dictionary of Biography states that, "in the progression towards the union of the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Australia, Grove made a decisive impact."

The Australian Christian Commonwealth was a weekly newspaper published by Hussey & Gillingham in South Australia from 1901 to 1940.

Thomas Edward Clouston was an Irish-born Presbyterian minister and academic in New South Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Youngman (minister)</span> Methodist minister in Australia

Henry Youngman (1848–1927) was a Methodist minister. He was President-General of the Methodist Church of Australasia and often described as the Father of Methodism in Queensland.

Rev. William Henry Savigny MA was an Australian academic, born in England. His elder son, also named William Henry Savigny was a longtime master at Sydney Grammar School.

References

  1. ↑ Gunson, Niel, "Wheen, John Gladwell (1858–1929)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 22 April 2021
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "PERSONAL". The Examiner (Tasmania) . Vol. LXXXVII, no. 269. Tasmania, Australia. 14 November 1929. p. 8 (DAILY). Retrieved 22 April 2021– via National Library of Australia.
  3. ↑ "NOTED METHODIST". Chronicle . Vol. LXXII, no. 3, 818. South Australia. 21 November 1929. p. 64. Retrieved 22 April 2021– via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFERENCE". The Methodist . Vol. XXVIII, no. 13. New South Wales, Australia. 29 March 1919. p. 7. Retrieved 22 April 2021– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ "REV. JOHN G. WHEEN. Death Announced". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 28, 662. New South Wales, Australia. 14 November 1929. p. 12. Retrieved 22 April 2021– via National Library of Australia.
  6. ↑ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald . No. 28, 662. New South Wales, Australia. 14 November 1929. p. 9. Retrieved 22 April 2021– via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "Memorial Window to Rev. J. G. Wheen". The Methodist . Vol. 45, no. 34. New South Wales, Australia. 22 August 1936. p. 6. Retrieved 22 April 2021– via National Library of Australia.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.