The ''Australian Christian Commonwealth'' was a weekly newspaper published by

Hussey & Gillingham George Frederick Hussey (20 August 1852 – 13 June 1935) was a politician in the State of South Australia. History George Hussey's father, also named George Frederick Hussey, arrived in South Australia on the ship ''Asia'' in July 1839 with ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

from 1901 to 1940.

History

The ''Australian Christian Commonwealth'' was first published on 4 January 1901. Although "new", the masthead of the first edition included the subtitle ''"with which are incorporated The

Christian Weekly & Methodist Journal Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...

, The Primitive Methodist Magazine, The

Bible Christian Monthly The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

"'' and that it was ''"The Organ of the Methodist Church in South Australia, and the Champion of Evangelical Christianity."'' The

Methodist Church of Australasia The Methodist Church of Australasia was a Methodist denomination based in Australia. On 1 January 1902, five Methodist denominations in Australia – the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodists, the Bible Christian Church, the United ...

had been formed by combining several

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

denominations in Australia. The three incorporated titles belonged to the three South Australian branches of merging denominations :– Wesleyan Methodist Church,

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

and

Bible Christian Church The Bible Christian Church was a Methodist denomination founded by William O’Bryan, a Wesleyan Methodist local preacher, on 18 October 1815 in North Cornwall. The first society, consisting of just 22 members, met at Lake Farm in Shebbear, ...

. The newspaper began as "Vol. XIII, No. 660, ew Series maintaining the publication order, alongside content and design continuity, of its previous iteration, the ''Christian Weekly and Methodist Journal''. It continued publication until mid-1940, and was superseded by the ''South Australian Methodist'' (1940-1970). Rev. Brian Wibberley Mus. Bac. was editor from 1901 to 1911.

Preservation

The newspaper has been digitised and made available for free online by the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

through the

Australian Newspapers Digitisation Project Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text document ...

References

{{Adelaide newspapers Defunct newspapers published in Adelaide