Augustine Uniting Community Program
The Augustine uniting church community has combined with St. David's uniting Church in Canterbury.
The Rev. Paul Sanders (0.5) will work with the Rev Alex Sangster (0.8)as a minister of the Parish. Paul will continue as Program Director of Augustine.
Click here
for more information about the changes.
Sunday Gatherings:
All Sundays
10.00am
At St. David's UC
Cnr. Burke Road and Mont Albert Road
Canterbury
4th Sunday:
'Soul Food Cafe'
Augustine Centre
11.30— 1.30pm
Bring a plate to share brunch
Offering received
A Brief History of the
Augustine Church Complex
Augustine’s Vision
For 35 years, Augustine has sought to ‘inspire people, ideas and spirit’; from 1971 to 2001, this was achieved through the personal growth model, for which Augustine gained a significant reputation throughout Melbourne and Australia.
Today Augustine's new forms of ministry are spiritually holistic and relevant to a more skeptical
world. Programs for the 30+ age bracket link contemplative spirituality, social engagement, arts, celebration and community. Partnerships have been established with others to form a learning centre that provides for sustainable personal, communal and global well-being (ie ‘life in all its fullness’). One particular focus is on personal balance in life and work.
Children's programs in movement and storytelling are also available.
A bulletin board inside the front entrance bears a mandala display that incorporates the Augustine symbol and the many user groups that regularly meet or work here.
The Buildings
Today the Augustine Centre is a suite of buildings, managed by the Uniting Church in Australia. But it has a fascinating history covering more than 150 years.
The Hawthorn-red brick hall was originally built in 1889 as a Sunday School addition for the Congregational church that fronted 500 Burwood Road. That church was built in 1881 and is now owned by Qanstruct, who use it as an administrative and architectural office.
The original church on Burwood Road, the Augustine Centre (old Sunday School hall), a manse facing Oxley Road as well as the Robert Cochrane Kinder all lie on the original farm tract and was deeded to religious and community use by the original owners.
The Augustine Centre's foundation stone is found on the hall’s street-side. It was laid by Mr. Francis Whitman, founder of the original School in 1854.
The Alexander Room is named for the founder of the Augustine Centre, the late Rev. Dr. John Alexander, who from 1971 sought creative approaches to human relationships and personal growth.
In the heart of the Centre, large double doors give entrance to a a beautiful main h with its colourful double organ case divided by a small central apse. This spacious area can now double as a gallery, a concert hall, a study/prac room or a meditation centre. People are invited to use this space during the week as a quiet refuge to sit, restore, reflect, listen to music or read.
A new building across a patio from the original hall holds consulting psychologists and holistic health therapists in three therapy rooms. The large room to the left of the entrance is the Cooper Room, a light area for workshops and meetings, complete with its own kitchenette and a nearby toilet. This room was named after Edna Cooper, the Sunday School superintendent and elder who influenced change at Augustine, and after her husband John, treasurer of the Augustine church for forty years and owner of city hardware shops.
The old toilet block, which strangely boasts a heritage brick wall, is slowly being converted into two art studios and storage.
The large bunya pine tree which dominates the site is listed as No. 64 in the City of Boroondara's significant tree register.
The Robert Cochrane Kindergarten is our neighbour at the end of Minona Street. Mr. Cochrane, its namesake, was an Augustine church deacon from 1888 till 1935; he founded the original Auburn Free Kindergarten and held office as Treasurer for many years; he also donated the land.
A Brief History of the Site
In early Melbourne, there was not a single place of worship this side of the Yarra River; consequently, the residents of Hawthorn, Kew, and Camberwell found it quite an arduous undertaking to go to Richmond or Melbourne to worship.
"On this account, Mr. John Collings was moved to open his own house for public worship on the 29th of February 1852," and for two years he and others worshipped there. Then a separate cottage was purchased for a few years and extended into a small church on the site of the present Baptists Church which was erected in 1866. Augustine separated from the Baptists and built the church at 500 Burwood Road in 1881.
The Congregational church began in a time of conventional mass support; this social and spiritual phenomenon was reinforced by the twenty-eight year pastorate of Dr. Gosman from 1878 to 1906. He was a professor of theology and a powerful preacher, and during his time the church expanded dramatically. It attracted many wealthy families, and some business and political leaders, as well as many very poor people that worshipped as a separate group in its hall, the current Augustine Centre. Fortunately over decades, these social barriers have been eliminated in both this gathering and the wider community. Today, everyone is welcome who wishes to journey in Augustine's particular informal and querying style.
God's supposed abandonment of the thousands killed in the 1914-18 war destroyed the mass support of religion and from then until 1971, in common with most churches, the Congregational membership at Burwood Road gradually whittled away. By 1968, it had fifteen active members, and met monthly for worship.
After five years of searching for a relevant mode of relating to a vastly different community from their origins in 1852, the congregation invited Rev. John Alexander to establish the Augustine Church Centre for Drama and Growth in 1971.
Dr. Alexander steadily increased the numbers of people involved in its activities; this was achieved through his own skills and charisma, a high involvement of the congregation in its worship, the use of dramatical plays and other arts, and by organising courses in human relations skills. In 1974, worship activities were moved to the Sunday School Hall in Minona Street, and the church was leased to various bodies. But the personal growth work from the Centre had been well-established and had a large staff running regular courses in professional development and complementary skills.
Through the union of the Presbyterian, Congregational and Methodist churches, the Uniting Church came into being in 1977. John Alexander retired in 1980, and Rev David Jackson, his appointed successor, unfortunately died soon after. The Augustine Growth Centre and its personal growth movement flourished over the next twenty years, but it was dominated by a secular leadership, and the whole Augustine community slowly altered. The situation was resolved eventually by the appointment in 1995 of Rev Paul Sanders as minister.
His pastorate came at the point where personal growth courses were progressively moving into neighbourhood houses and commercial venues. In 2001, the Centre program director and thirty-three course leaders resigned, bringing this period to a close. A highly productive tradition had reached a sad conclusion. Over the years, the Augustine Centre had been a place where literally thousands of people had been assisted to more productive ways of relating to others; and their lives had been substantially enhanced with new skills. Fortunately, the Foundation for Personal Growth has continued some of its courses but now as a tenant on the site.
A new vision and programmatic direction was formed; with the sale of the Burwood Road Church, funds were available to renovate and create purpose-built facilities for a centre of learning, and for a ministry that was theologically holistic and relevant to a skeptical world.
Paul Sander's commitment to meditation and contemplative practice has led to a series of courses and formation training around spirituality as well as a Wednesday evening meditation. A monthly Saturday breakfast with speakers around the subject of spirituality and life has attracted an expanded group of interested and inquiring people. This is now administered by Oases.
Augustine's history as a place of innovation remains. Together with Borderlands Cooperative, Augustine co-founded the Oases Graduate School of Integrative and Transformative Studies in 2005 and this and its corresponding Community Learning and Research Centre are now on this site, shared with other programs.
The Augustine Pipe Organ
Music has had an important part in the Augustine community over the last 150 years with many excellent musicians participating in its activities. The Grandfather Fincham organ has had a central role in that. Constructed by George Fincham at a cost of £556, the organ was first dedicated in 1888. By 1902 the organ had three manuals and twenty two stops; in 1975, when the congregation moved to the hall it was moved there also.
In 1988 the organ's action was converted from pneumatic to electric action and it was expanded to five divisions. In 2005 it was almost totally dismantled and then re-erected as a divided organ around the remodeled central apse but now with 40 stops and 2067 pipes.
The current organist Roland Cropley has lovingly cared for this organ over 30 years. He has also patiently achieved the organ extensions, both as a local parish member and a talented musician.
For organists, musicians and historians who wish for more detail on this Fincham organ,