Methodist Church of Australasia

On 1 January 1902, ten years after the publication of Methodist Union in Canada by W. F. James, five Methodist denominations in Australia – the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodists, the Bible Christian Church, the United Methodist Free and the Methodist New Connexion Churches came together to found a new church. Its organisational structure mainly followed the Wesleyan Methodist Church. This Methodist Church of Australasia established a General Conference, meeting triennially, for Australasia (which then included New Zealand) in 1875, with Annual Conferences in the states. The church ceased to exist in 1977, when most of its congregations joined with the many congregations of the Congregational Union of Australia and the Presbyterian Church of Australia to form the Uniting Church in Australia. ==Missionary work==

Methodist Overseas Mission The Sydney-based Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia (MMS; later named the Methodist Overseas Mission (MOM; 1930s–?) was run by the Methodist Church of Australasia. From around 1916 Superintendents at Yirrkala included founding superintendent Wilbur Chaseling, Harold Thornell, and Edgar Wells, who wrote about their experiences there. The residents were free to come and go as they wished and the interaction was on the whole positive in those early days, with a lack of dogmatism by the missionaries, and the Yolngu people accommodating Christianity within a version of their own beliefs. Methodist Inland Mission The Methodist Inland Mission (MIM), was missionary organisation of the Methodist Church of Australia that existed between 1926 and 1977. The Federal Methodist Inland Mission was established at the General Conference of the Methodist Church of Australasia in Brisbane in May 1926, and had its first board meeting in Melbourne in November of that year. Five ministers were appointed in the first year, two to cover Victoria, and one each to Western Australia, Queensland, and South Australia. Rev. Ernest Ball established the first Methodist Inland mission base at Boulia. In July 1929, the Methodist Hall was transported from the town of Duchess to Mount Isa, and was the first church building. In 1945, Reverend Harry Griffiths was responsible for the creation of Griffiths House in Alice Springs in 1941, originally designed to be a hostel for young single people who had moved to Alice Springs for work, but by the time it was opened, it was converted in to a social club for soldiers stationed in Alice Springs. After the war it became hostel accommodation for children from remote areas of Central Australia so that they could attend school. After the Methodist Church became part of the Uniting Church of Australia in 1977, Frontier Services took responsibility for the missionary work. ==Methodist Commission on Aboriginal Affairs==

The Methodist Commission on Aboriginal Affairs (CAA) was established in 1962 as an independent body within the Social Services Department of the Methodist Church, which was run from Melbourne by Rev. Arthur Ellemor. It was formed, among other aims, "to gather information on Aboriginal affairs, study the issues involved and, where needed, to make statements to members of the Methodist Church and the wider community". Other aims of the CAA were to ratify Convention 107 of the International Labour Organization concerning the protection and integration of indigenous and other tribal and semi-tribal populations in independent countries. Dentist and lay preacher John David Jago (6 August 1927 – 30 May 2008) was convener of the Methodist Commission on Aboriginal Affairs for five years. He drew attention to the difficulties faced by Indigenous Australians on a daily basis. He was also actively involved in the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI), and was a member of its executive for two years. Jago had previously been involved with the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship, and took a lifelong interest in Aboriginal affairs and advocacy. Jago, along with Yirrkala mission superintendent Edgar Wells, was an ally of the Yolngu people in their attempts to be consulted in bauxite mining on the Gove Peninsula, when they submitted the Yirrkala bark petitions and the subsequent court case known as the Gove land rights case (Milirrpum and Others v. Nabalco Pty. Ltd and the Commonwealth of Australia). Arthur Ellemor and the CAA supported the people in their court case, which was decided in 1971 against the Yolngu, with Justice Blackburn finding that aboriginal title had never been legally recognised in Australia. The body was listed as an "external ally", along with FCAATSI and others, during and following the 1966 Wave Hill Walk-Off, involving the land rights of the Gurindji people in the Northern Territory, which led to a positive outcome eventually under the Whitlam government in 1975. In the lead-up to the 1967 referendum, the CAA, which favoured greater federal government power in the creation and implementation of Indigenous policy, lobbied alongside FCAATSI, Gordon Bryant, and Joe McGinness for a "Yes" vote. ==Other notable people and activities==

Yirrkala teacher Ron Croxford, after taking sick leave around the time of the Yirrkala bark petitions in mid-late 1963, returned in March 1964 and received ordination as a minister. He later returned to Victoria with his family and led his own parishes in Melbourne. He was a member of the Aborigines Advancement League from 1966 until 1978, and was an invited guest of the Garma Festival in 2013, the 50th anniversary of the bark petitions. ==Other Methodist congregations==

There are still independent Methodist congregations in Australia, including congregations formed or impacted by Tongan immigrants. The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia is derived from the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America and did not join the Uniting Church in Australia. ==Presidents-General==

The triennial conference was led by the President-General. There were a total of 25 Presidents General over the life of the Methodist Church of Australasia, from its formation in 1902 until the Uniting Church in 1977. ==See also==