Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria

The Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria, also known as the Free Church of Australia Felix, was an Australian Presbyterian denomination founded in Melbourne, Victoria in 1846 as a result of the Disruption of 1843 in the Church of Scotland.

The first Presbyterian minister in Melbourne, Victoria, James Forbes and one of his three elders at Scots' Church, Melbourne adhered to the position also adopted by those who withdrew from the 'Synod of Australian in connection with the Established Church of Scotland' and formed the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia in New South Wales on 10 October 1846. Forbes and his elder withdrew from the Presbytery of Melbourne of the Synod and organised a distinct body on similar lines to the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia, although spelling out the constitution afresh rather than simply adhering to the existing constitution. There was no difference of principle between the two bodies.

Forbes gave up his handsome stipend (£200 from the government plus £150 from the congregation), the church, school and manse he had erected, and commenced afresh. He issued his Protest on 29 October 1846 and submitted it to the Presbytery of Melbourne on 17 November, the date of the organising meeting of what the minutes call The Free Presbyterian Church of Australia Felix. The first service was held in the Mechanics Hall (where the the Athenaeum now stands) on 22 November 1846 with about 200 people crowding the building.

The building of John Knox Free Presbyterian Church, Swanston Street was opened 8 May 1848 on the corner with Little Lonsdale Street and with frontage to that street. The John Knox School began in Kilmore, the building on 3 July 1848 with T.J. Everist as teacher. Within a year there were 120 students and an adjoining brick building came into use in August 1850. The congregation erected a two-storey manse next door to the church in Swanston Street late in 1850. The Rev William Miller was inducted as the next minister in 1851-1865. The church was reconstructed in 1863 and re-opened by Rev William McIntyre 26 July of that year. It now houses the Church of Christ congregation.

Forbes sought to obtain additional ministers for the Free Church. He apparently offended the Irish Church by some critical remarks on some individual Irish ministers who had not stood with him in 1846, so assistance came chiefly from the Free Church of Scotland. Thomas Hastie came from Tasmania in January 1847 and was settled at Buninyong and The Leigh, while Rev J.Z. Huie became minister at Geelong in the same year. Schools were established in both parishes. There was little other help until the explosion of population following the discovery of gold in 1851, the year of Forbes' death.

The three ministers and Henrie Bell, elder at John Knox, formed the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church on 9 June 1847. Forbes showed himself an efficient administrator. He not only wrote the Fundamental Act of the Synod (which was adopted also by the Free Presbyterian Church of South Australia upon its formation 9 May 1854) but he drew up rules for the guidance of the church.

Forbes' death plus the revolution caused by the Gold Rush meant his careful positions were modified to facilitate union into the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1859. His strong stance against receiving state aid on an indiscriminate basis was modified in 1853. Those bent on union expelled anti-unionists in 1857 so there were two Free Presbyterian Synods until the majority joined in forming the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in 1859. The remaining Synod did not obtain recognition in Scotland and divided again in 1864, some joining the union in 1867 and the rest continuing the Free Presbyterian Church on the original footing.

Early congregations of the Free Presbyterian Church included John Knox Melbourne, Chalmers' East Melbourne, South Yarra (Punt Road), Richmond (Bridge Road), Brighton, St Andrew's Carlton, Geelong (Little Malop Street), Geelong Gaelic, Myers Street), Bellarine, Batesford, Ballarat (Sturt Street), Bendigo (St Andrew's), Hamilton, Burnbank, Beaufort, Gippsland (Sale).

Ironically, the three parishes that ultimately continued the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria and united with the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia in 1953 (East St Kilda, Geelong (Myers Street) and Hamilton/Branxholme) had all benefited from state-aid. The property of these three centres has been sold of recent years and new centres established. They are, Melbourne: Knox, Wantirna 1987; Geelong: Coppards Road, Newcomb 1991; Melbourne: Narre Warren 1990; Glen Huntly 1990, with a Southern Sudanese congregation meeting currently in North Dandenong.