William Miller (minister)

William Miller/ar (ca 1815-1874) was a minister of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria who served the John Knox Church, cnr Little Lonsdale and Swanston Streets, Melbourne 1851-64, and was the first Chairman of the council of Scotch College in Melbourne.

Miller should not to be confused with his contemporary Rev William Baird Millar/er, who belonged to the United Presbyterian Church of Victoria for a brief period.

Life and ministry

Miller was licensed by the Free Church of Scotland Presbytery of Linlithgow on August 14, 1849, married Mary Brisbane nearby in West Calder on March 21, 1851, was ordained for Melbourne, Victoria on April 17 and arrived in Melbourne on September 11. He was received by the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria on September 22, and appointed to the oversight of the John Knox Church in Swanston Street, its founding minister James Forbes having died the previous month. His ministrations were so acceptable that the congregation soon extended a call to him, which he accepted, and was inducted into the charge on December 16.

Miller laboured faithfully as a minister of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and was spoken of as “highly esteemed”, “possessing good abilities”, “amiable in character” and “commanding the love and respect of the community”.

Miller had arrived in Melbourne the same day as George Lawson, the rector appointed by the Free Church of Scotland for the Academy planned by James Forbes and later known as Scotch College. On November 9, 1851 the Free Presbyterian Synod appointed Miller Convener of the Academy Committee (the other members were the members of the Session of John Knox Church), and so he may be regarded as the first Chairman of the College Council. In 1853 Miller, along with Rev Duncan MacDiarmid Sinclair (1816-1887), Rev John Tait (1809-60), John Armstrong (1810-1857) of Bush Station and Archibald Bonar, merchant, were appointed the first trustees of the East Melbourne site of Scotch College.

In 1853, Miller was appointed to the church committee which was to investigate and potentially negotiate the basis for union with the various Presbyterian denominations in Victoria. He eventually opposed further negotiations due to disputation over the doctrinal standards, legislative basis and ministerial supply. Of his own denomination, “he hoped they would have grace and courage to maintain their own integrity and consistency by refusing all further negotiations until this point (i.e. the legislative basis) should be conceded.”

Miller and several other opponents of union on the proposed basis were expelled by the majority in April 1857, and formed a minority synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria, of which Miller became the moderator on April 14. It became the only Free Presbyterian Synod when the majority, with the blessing of the Free Church of Scotland, entered into the union forming the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in April 1859.

Funds were raised to send Miller to Scotland to represent the interests of the minority at the May 1860 Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. The Assembly would not receive him as a deputy of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria, but only as one of a body "calling itself" the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria. This he declined. On the advice of friends, he appealed to appear by way of petition as an individual. The Assembly urged reconciliation and reunion.

The rebuff by the Assembly did not help stability in the Victorian Synod, and this was aggravated by the May 1861 Assembly undertaking, by a vote of 341 to 64, to recognise the minority only if they ceased to claim they represented the position formerly occupied by the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria. In May 1864 the Free Presbyterian Synod divided down the middle and Miller took the side of those who thought union with the Presbyterian Church of Victoria was appropriate. At the close of the year he submitted his resignation from the ministry of John Knox Church, citing the poor health of his wife, although the difficult church situation must also have been relevant. The congregation sided with those opposed to union but ultimately joined the union church in 1867 through the influence of a visiting Scottish minister, Rev J.O. Dykes. The kind of union that occurred in Victoria in 1859 did not occur in Scotland until 1900 and 1929. Miller returned to England about March 1865, where he served the Presbyterian Church at St Helens, Merseyside for some years, before he retired to Callander in Scotland. He suffered an angina attack at the newly constructed Railway Buildings in Callander where he died, age 59 on August 10, 1874. He was survived by his wife. No children have been identified to date.

Publications

* "Letter on the Position and Necessities of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria, to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland" (Glasgow 1860, 32pp)

* "Victorian Pulpit #5" (sermon, Melbourne n.d. [186-] ).

* "Free Presbyterian Church in Victoria" (reprinted from "Paisley Herald", Glasgow 1861, 20pp).

* "Presbyterian Union in Australia - To the Editor of the Scottish Guardian" (Glasgow 1861, 2pp).

* "The Edinburgh Presbytery and the Australian Union" (reprinted from "The Witness", Edinburgh 1861, 12pp).

* "Union in Victoria. Additional Extracts with remarks." (Edinburgh 1861, 4pp).

ources

* "The Free Presbyterian Church of Australia" by James Campbell Robinson, W.A. Hammer, Melbourne VIC 1947.

* "The Bush Still Burns" by Rowland S. Ward, Melbourne VIC 1989.

* "Address on the Present Position of the Free Presbyterian Church of Victoria delivered at the Close of the Meeting of Synod on 18th April 1865, by the Moderator with Relative Correspondence etc." by Rev. Arthur Paul, Walker May, Melbourne VIC 1865.

* "Minutes of John Knox Free Presbyterian Church, Swanston Street 22/11/1846-1/08/1865" PCEA Archives, Wantirna, Vic.

* " Minutes of the Synod of the Free Presbyterian Church of Australia Felix (afterwards Victoria) from June 9, 1847" PCV Archives, Melbourne