COLLINS STREET INDEPENDENT: BETWEEN COMMUNITY-BUILDING AND MISSION

A vital church takes part in a range of activities with multiple functions.

A long-serving member of Collins Street Independent, now St Michael’s Uniting, roamed through his memories of ministers, and demonstrated a church responding to its location in the heart of the city of Melbourne.

From this story it is obvious that Collins Street began activities when a need was discerned, but felt no need to continue them after others took up these areas of service. They were then quietly closed down and attention was given to the next area of need.

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I have known only one church in my lifetime, Collins Street Independent Church, which is now St Michaels Uniting.

I have long Congregational connections there. My great-grandparents were married there in 1853 by Rev. Alexander Morison. My grandparents were married there in the 1890’s. My parents attended, I was baptized there and have attended all my life.

Here is a list of the ministers who have influenced me.

Rev. J. Ernest James was a small Welshman, a dynamic preacher, and the minister at Collins Street from WWI (1917) to 1928. The doors had to be closed half an hour before the service when he was preaching, for the church was full. He baptized me just before his return to England.

Rev. A. Penry Evans was another Welshman, minister from 1929−1946, through the Great Depression and WW II. I didn’t know him well, because I came back to Victoria in 1943. (My father was in the permanent army. I attended 16 schools.) Penry Evans expounded scripture dramatically.

Rev. Gordon Powell came to Collins Street straight after the war. He was there from 1946 to 1952. He was the youngest minister to occupy a city pulpit and the first Australian to occupy the pulpit at Collins Street after the strong tradition of Welsh preachers. There were many new people with families. The church opened a crèche, and established a youth group. Overseas visitors and preachers came. Gordon Powell remained a Presbyterian while on loan to Collins Street. He founded the first Alcoholics Anonymous group in Melbourne, with the help of a man named Harold who turned up drunk to a church service one day, and Lillian Roth, the alcoholic actress. He took part in radio broadcasts, on the ABC, 3DB, 3XY.

Gordon Powell organized a Temple Day in 1951 where we all bought gifts of money to church. A carillon was installed in the church in the same year. He gave what he called Tonic Talks and small cards were produced with his main points, designed to be carried in the pocket or placed on a desk.

Mrs. Gwen Powell was a powerful and loved wife who engrossed herself in all activities, and was truly a friend of us all. Gwen Powell was president of organizations, and involved with fetes and fairs. She stayed involved with the church after her husband’s ministry there ended. She was involved with Bodalla Nursing Home; fresh flowers were placed beside the bed of every resident.

In 1951 Gordon Powell invited Dr Leslie Weatherhead, a Methodist from London’s City Temple, a Congregational church, to preach for 3 months in conjunction with Wesley Methodist Church. He preached in Collins Street in the morning and Wesley at night. (Those were the days of two services, at 11 am and 7 pm.) After 3 months of exhausting activity, his final service was held in the Exhibition Building.

He was a remarkable man; everyone wanted to be where he was. It was a hot February, March and April during his ministry, and ladies in church were fanning themselves. He told them that they were causing more heat by their fanning. He was easy to listen to; he was able to preach simply. He lectured during the week.

In 1950, Gordon Powell began a dual ministry with the man whom he described as “the grandest colleague God ever gave man in the ministry,” Rev. Lyall Dixon.

Rev. Lyall Dixon, (1950−1971), was a South Australian, ordained in 1931, and he ministered in Adelaide and then in England for 12 years during the blitz, first in a slum area in Surrey and then in Islington Chapel, where he dealt with many problems. He returned to Australia in 1944 to the North Perth church.

In April 1950, Lyall Dixon was invited to preach at Collins Street with a view to a call. The church secretary, Peter Tait, took him and me home after the service. I sat and listened to them talk. He was called and he accepted. I was drawn to his sincerity and humility. Lyall Dixon’s influence remains with me to this day.

In his time the church was involved with youth work, camps and plays. Service activities took place at the Elizabeth Fry Retreat, at Tanderra, the Latrobe Street Mission and the Maribyrnong Migrant Centre. I was involved with Sunday School activities at Latrobe Street mission.

Australia-wide CYF (Congregational Youth Fellowship) camps began in 1949. Lyall Dixon encouraged the youth of Collins Street to attend these and I went to three of them.

Edith Hughes-Jones, a daughter of the manse, gave the Independent Church a property at Olinda. A camp was built there, using professional and voluntary labour, and named Illalangi. In 1964 it was destroyed by bushfires and rebuilt, but eventually there was less enthusiasm for its use, and it was closed and sold, and the money used for causes associated with children and young people.

In 1951 the church erected the first Christmas tree in Melbourne on the corner of Russell and Collins Streets, a huge live pine tree which came from Talley-Ho Boys’ Village, arriving at 4.15 am under police escort. The council required that it be erected by 7 am and it was. On the tree’s first night, money and 600 toys were left under the tree although they had not been solicited; these were distributed on Christmas morning, mostly through the Free Kindergarten Union of Victoria. Later a modern metal tree replaced the live pine; eventually Wesley and the City Council also erected trees, and Collins Street moved on to other projects.

Plays were held in the church; Christopher Fry’s A Sleep of Prisoners was produced by Peter Randall from Melbourne’s Little Theatre. In 1966 a Sound and Light show called “The Church on the Hill” like those produced in European cathedrals, was part of the centenary celebrations of the building.

In Lyall Dixon’s time, Catherine Marshall, the wife of Peter Marshall, visited Collins Street to launch her book, A Man Called Peter. This was published by William Heinemann, and Theo Sambell, general manager of Heinemann, and a member at Wyclif Congregational Surrey Hills, had some input into the visit.

The church sponsored migrant families and goodwill services for migrants were held. Rev. Frank Forward came to help Lyall Dixon with church visitation. Brotherhood Through Music services were held at Collins Street with Lyall Dixon’s friend Rabbi Sanger and later Rabbi John Levi of Temple Beth Israel, the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. These were held in the synagogue and Collins Street alternately.

Lyall Dixon and members of the church were involved with the Hanover Centre for the Homeless. The superintendent of Gordon Boys’ Home was a member of the church, and the boys from there attended Sunday School.

In 1954, Lyall Dixon was a delegate at the Evanston World Council of Churches Conference and returned with the idea of stewardship campaigns. These were held at Collins Street, and then the Congregational Union took the idea to other churches. He was twice president of the Congregational Union of Victoria and once president of the Australian Union.

In 1956 a floral carpet was created on the Collins Street forecourt in front of the church as part of the Olympic Games’ celebrations.

In 1958 the church was redecorated. No longer cream, with red carpet and timber pews and panels, it became gold, blue, and black, with wallpaper, modern light-fittings, and grey limed pews.

In 1966 at the time of the centenary celebrations, a chapel was set aside on the north-west corner of the church, incorporating niches for ashes. Small weddings and services were held there. Early in the 1960s a service was held to celebrate members of my grandmother’s family; this took place in the chapel. (The chapel has since been redesigned to create a quiet space and is now known as Mingary.)

Watchnight services were held on New Year’s Eve, broadcast by the ABC. A Friends of Lahore group met regularly and the church supported the London Missionary Society. In the early 1960’s, Dr. Edna Gault provided counselling at the church during the week.

Lyall Dixon produced small booklets on prayer, on praise, on thirst. On Christmas Day his family held Open House, and invited anyone who would otherwise be alone to join them.

In 1969 Lyall Dixon announced his plan to retire at the end of the following year, ensuring that the church would not be without a minister. He stated that he believed change to be necessary in a changing world. On retirement he was appointed Warden of the Chapel.

He had the greatest influence on me of anyone outside my family.

His wife Freda was a strong supporter of her husband’s ministry and a true friend to the people of the congregation.

Rev. Syd Henshall, (1953−1963), another Welshman, came to Collins Street from Watford in England. He and Lyall Dixon shared a ministry. They held joint lunchtime services.

Syd Henshall was president of the Congregational Union of Victoria. During his presidential year, he launched and carried through his vision of a home for aged people, setting up the Mayflower Homes for the Aged in Brighton and Balwyn using funds from the sale of the Latrobe Street Mission.

Syd was a friendly and happy person and a real pastor; he enjoyed pastoral visitation. His wife Hannah had a delightful Welsh accent; she was loved by everyone. After a ministry of 11 years, he was called to Trinity, Perth in 1964.

Rev. Brian Heath (1965−1971) was a South African, who came to the church from Applecross, Western Australia. He was young, and full of enthusiasm.

He immediately enjoyed a rapport with the youth of the church and started monthly folk worship services with the Idlers Five, singers of gospel and folk songs, on Sunday evenings. In 1968 he set up the Alleyway Café on the stage of the Independent Hall to provide a cheap meal for the young people of the city, but it was overtaken by businessmen. The café lasted for several few years, and was staffed by volunteers from the church. My wife helped with it. It was fun. It built community.

Maisie Heath came to the church with three children and a fourth was born while they were here, so she was not as involved in church activities as other ministers’ wives, but she was a good friend.

Brian Heath’s ministry at Collins Street overlapped briefly with that of Dr Francis Macnab, who arrived in February 1971. Brian Heath left in November of that year, ministered briefly at Glenhuntly, and then took up a position at Wesley Central Mission, before returning to Western Australia.

Dr. Francis Macnab is a psychotherapist and founder of the Cairnmillar Institute. He was called to Collins Street Independent in 1971. As a Presbyterian minister he was unwillingly to comply with Congregational principles of Church government, so the church virtually ceased to function as a Congregational Church even before Church Union. After Union the church’s name was changed to Collins Street Uniting, and from there to St Michael’s Uniting. Because Collins Street originally voted against Church Union, and a special agreement was negotiated before a second vote was successful, Francis Macnab has lifetime tenure.

Collins Street Independent, now St Michael’s Uniting.

Next: Chapter 8. The Essence of Church

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