Towards a united front: Heathcote’s Methodists

LIKE most towns, nineteenth century Heathcote boasted a number of churches.

The Anglicans and Catholics laid claim to the highest numbers of members, with the Presbyterians in third place.

In the 1861 census, the population was 1,515 and 626 ticked the Church of England box, 341 Roman Catholic, 177 Presbyterian and then there were 95 under the general Methodist umbrella which included the Wesleyans and the United Methodists.

The remainder were a variety of smaller protestant denominations and 44 “pagans”, who were Chinese.

Nobody selected “no religion;” a sharp contrast to 2021 when almost 41 per cent of district residents chose this option.

By 1891 the measurable pagan population had shrunk to zero, but the proportional membership of the mainstream churches remained similar.

The town had both a Wesleyan and United Methodist Church, and these two groups also had congregations at a number of other nearby settlements including Argyle, Costerfield and Derrinal.

But while they were a minority, they were very vocal about a number of issues – particularly temperance.

They saw the consumption of alcohol as an essentially anti-Christian activity that led to a downward slide into drunkenness and penury.

Throughout the 1860s, the Heathcote Total Abstinence Society met at the Wesleyan and United Methodist churches.

In December 1869 a McIvor Times report noted the society’s belief that beer shanties trading on Sunday were “in every way highly injurious to the morality and prosperity of the community.”

Several Methodists, including builder James Crowle, were local council members for many years and used this as a platform to promote their own beliefs.

In December 1870 Cr Crowle moved that shire hall fees be refunded to a temperance group as their meeting was “for the benefit of the ratepayers.”

This was successful opposed by Cr Robinson who said “he could scarcely think that the expense was incurred for the benefit of the ratepayers, the object of the entertainment is one on which there exists a considerable diversity of opinion.”

But while the temperance movement gained traction across all the mainstream Christian denominations, some attitudes and beliefs were exclusive to non-conformist groups such as the Methodists.

When a concert, followed by a dance, took place in Costerfield in late 1901, L Walton, superintendent of the Heathcote Methodist Church, wrote to the McIvor Times saying he understood this was being done to raise money to repair the church.

“While I thank them through this medium for their kind intentions to undertake repairs to the Church, I must, at the same time, as a matter of principle, with all kindliness, decline to allow money raised in the manner indicated to be used for Church purposes,” he said.

Given the immense popularity of balls and dances across the district, Walton’s principled stance was remarkable.

The five Australian Methodist denomination, the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodists, the Bible Christian Church, the United Methodist Free and the Methodist New Connexion churches united under the banner of the Methodist Church of Australasia on 1 January 1902, although Heathcote’s Wesleyan and United Methodist churches had already amalgamated in about 1898.

In 1977 most Methodists joined with the Congregational Union of Australia and the Presbyterian Church of Australia to form the Uniting Church in Australia.

The present-day Heathcote Uniting Church building was originally a Methodist Church dating from 1929.

Until then, the Methodists had been accommodated in poor quality, and often temporary, buildings.

At the dedication of the new church, on 12 October 1929, the guest of honour, President of the Methodist Conference, Rev H Styles Heath, congratulated the congregation on their achievements.

“It was highly commendable for the Methodist people to erect a building more in keeping with the great purpose of divine worship and which will ultimately reflect upon the religious life of the community,” he said.