Presbyterian Church of Australia

The Presbyterian Church of Australia (PCA) is the largest Presbyterian denomination in Australia. (The larger Uniting Church in Australia incorporated about two-thirds of the PCA in 1977.)

History

Beginnings

When captain James Cook landed in Australia in 1776 he was sure to have had some Presbyterians in his crew. John Hunter the captain of HMS ''Sirius'' was a former Church of Scotland minister.
Later Presbyterian Christianity came to Australia with the arrival of members from a number of Presbyterian denominations in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century.
The Presbyterian missionaries played an important role to spread the faith in Australia. Since then Presbyterianism grew to the fourth largest Christian faith in the country.

The Presbyterian Church of Australia was formed when Presbyterian churches from various Australian states federated in 1901. The churches that formed the Presbyterian Church of Australia were the Presbyterian Churches of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia. These state churches were (and still are) incorporated by separate Acts of Parliament (i.e. by the respective State Parliaments) for property holding purposes. (These Acts are known as Property Trust Acts).

Church union

In 1977 two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia together with nearly all the membership of the Congregational Union of Australia and the Methodist Church of Australasia, joined to form the Uniting Church in Australia. Much of the third who did not join the Uniting Church did not agree with its liberal views, although a number remained because of cultural connections.

After the union

Before the union the Presbyterian Church of Australia was liberal, but the continuing Presbyterian Church became increasingly conservative. A resurgence of traditional Reformed theology took place. In 1982 the denomination withdrew from the largely liberal World Communion of Reformed Churches and later joined the conservative World Reformed Fellowship. In 1987 a new hymnbook was introduced. In 1991 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Australia repealed the approval of the ordination of women. Women elders continue in some states. The heresy trial of Peter Cameron in 1993 upheld historic Reformed beliefs. The church is active in missions with about 130 missionaries working around the world, including Korea, the Pacific and Myanmar.

Statistics

The Presbyterian Church of Australia's official website has stated that the church has over 50,000 adults and children within 740 congregations with more than 600 ministers, deaconesses and theological students.

At the last Commonwealth Census (2016) nearly 540,000 people identified as Presbyterian/Reformed, representing 2.3% of the population. This makes Presbyterianism Australia's fifth largest Christian denomination, although not all Presbyterians are members of the Presbyterian Church of Australia. See also List of Presbyterian Denominations in Australia.

Church organisations

The Presbyterian Church of Australia's missionary organisation is the Australia Presbyterian World Mission. The organisation has more than 170 cross-cultural missionaries.

The Presbyterian Church of Australia has established Arabic, Chinese, Cook Islands, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Samoan and Sudanese congregations, as well as a deaf Presbyterian Church.

The Presbyterian Inland Mission continues the work of the Australian Inland Mission founded by John Flynn in 1912. Padres patrol outback Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, and hopes to expand into the Northern Territory and Tasmania when resources become available.

The Presbyterian Church of Australia publishes the monthly ''Australian Presbyterian'' magazine and provides social and educational services.

Schools

The following schools have links with or are run by the Presbyterian Church of Australia. The closeness and formality of association varies.

Australian Capital Territory

*Covenant College, Tuggeranong

New South Wales

*Cooerwull Academy

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