The Brunswick Baptist Church is a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

in 491 Sydney Road, ,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Victoria, Australia. The church is affiliated with the

Australian Baptist Ministries Australian Baptist Ministries (formerly Baptist Union of Australia) is the oldest and largest national cooperative body of Baptists in Australia. The Baptist Union of Australia was inaugurated on 24 August 1926 at the Burton Street Church in Syd ...

History

The congregation was started in 1859 by Geo Burton and John Wallis, who were parishioners of the former Sydney Road Methodist Church (whose building now houses the Sydney Road Community School). As a result, the Baptist Church has been present on this site since 1862. The foundation stone was laid on 30 May 1889. However, the church building was only built in 1889. The organ was built by

Gray and Davison Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

, and it was originally meant for

St Pancras Old Church St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in Somers Town, Central London. It is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, and is believed by many to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England. The church i ...

central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

. It was installed in this church in 1929 by Frederick Taylor, when it was donated to the church by Frederick William Biggs. The current pastor is Mark Payne.

Heritage significance

The church building was designed in the

Gothic Revival architectural style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

masonry. It was listed by Heritage Victoria with a "Heritage Overlay," which aims to protect places of local significance to Victoria.

References

Baptist churches in Melbourne Churches completed in 1889 Gothic Revival architecture in Melbourne 19th-century Baptist churches Gothic Revival church buildings in Australia Buildings and structures in the City of Merri-bek 1889 establishments in Australia {{VictoriaAU-struct-stub