RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Australia
Australia and Tasmania. In 1897 the incumbent was made archbishop of Sydney and he has the title of primate of Australia. He is elected by the Australian bishops, but must be confirmed by the archbishop of Canterbury. At present the province of New South Wales includes, besides the primatial see of Sydney, the dioceses of Bathurst (founded 1869), Goulburn (1863), Grafton and Armidale (1867), Newcastle (1847), and Riverina (1883). The province of Victoria comprises the dioceses of Ballarat (1875), Bendigo (1902), Gippsland (1902), Melbourne (1847), and Wangaratta (1902). The province of Queensland includes the dioceses of Brisbane (1859), North Queensland (1878), Rockhampton (1892), New Guinea (1896), and Carpentaria (1900). Further, there are the independent dioceses of Tasmania, with seat at Hobart (1842); Adelaide, for South Australia (1847); Perth (1857) and Bunbury (1903), in West Australia. Each bishopric manages its own affairs, diocesan conventions being convened from time to time by the bishop and attended by both clergy and laity. The chief business of these conventions concerns finance, the education of clergy, and relations to other ecclesiastical bodies. In 1872 a regular organization was adopted which unites the dioceses of the present Commonwealth under the primate of Sydney. Clerical and lay representatives of these sees assemble every five years at Sydney for general conference and legislation. In education the Anglican Church is important chiefly through a number of colleges under its supervision.
The Presbyterians, who numbered 427,000 in the Commonwealth in 1901, belong to several branches. Their first minister was installed at Sydney in 1823. The synod of each state and the general assembly meet annually. The Australian Methodists in 1901 were 506,000 strong. After the census of that year, which showed seven branches of Methodists in New South Wales, the union of the entire denomination
5. Other was effected by the establishment Protestants, of the " Methodist Church of Australia," first in three colonies, and in 1902 in the remainder. The first Wesleyan service in Australia was held in 1821, but a Methodist conference was not established until 1854; it was at first affiliated with the British conference, becoming independent in 1876. An annual conference is held in each colony, and the general conference meets triennially, while every ten years the Australian Methodists take part in the international Methodist Ecumenical Conference. The Baptists of Australia numbered 91,700 in 1901, although they did not begin to increase rapidly until after 1852, their gains being due primarily to their missionary activity in cooperation with the larger denominations already mentioned. The Congregationalists, including the Independents, numbered 75,350 in 1901, but can scarcely be considered a united and influential religious community on account of their basal principle.
The Roman Catholic Church in the Commonwealth, with 857,450 members, is divided into five provinces. Although Roman Catholic priests were
in Australia as early as 1803, it was not until 1820 that the Church came to a vigorous development with the aid of State subvention of clergy and buildings. In 1834 Sydney became the seat of a vicar apostolic with twenty-five priests, and eight years later was elevated into an archbishopric and the seat of a metropolitan for Australia and the islands, Hobart and Adelaide being suffragan
sees, although they did not remain in 6. Roman the province of Sydney, which now Catholics, includes Maitland (1847), Armidale
(1862), Goulburn (1862), Bathurst (1865), Lismore (formerly Grafton; 1887), and Wilcannia (1887). The second oldest archbishopric is Melbourne, which was created a diocese in 1847 and elevated to an archdiocese in 1874. To it belong the bishoprics of Sandhurst (1874), Ballarat (1874), and Sale, the southeastern part of Victoria (1887). In 1887 Adelaide and Brisbane (founded as bishoprics in 1842 and 1859) were made archbishoprics. The province of the former comprises the dioceses of Perth (1845); Victoria, formerly Palmerston, in the north, opposite Melville Island (1847); Port Augusta, on Spencer Gulf (1887); and Geraldton (1898); also the abbacy of New Norcia (founded on Moore River in 1867) and the apostolic vicarship of Kimberley (1887). Brisbane includes the bishopric of Rockhampton (1881) and the apostolic vicarships of Cooktown (founded in 1876 and placed for the most part in the charge of the Augustinians for missionary purposes) and Queensland (1887). The fifth province is Hobart (Tasmania), founded as a bishopric in 1842, raised to metropolitan rank in 1888. Many of these dioceses contain but few Roman Catholics, and were poor in ecclesiastical institutions and churches at the time of their creation. With the rapid increase of immigration after the seventh decade of the nineteenth century, however, and in the determination to resist the propaganda of Protestant denominations, orders and congregations were brought to Australia at an early period, and were particularly active in missions and parochial schools. The most extensive settlements were those of the Jesuits, the Marists, the Dominicans, and the Brothers of the Christian Schools, although the Benedictines were the first to arrive. The most active female orders are the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and the Sisters of St. Joseph. Roman Catholic associations flourish in all the cities, and schools of all kinds, especially intermediate, are under ecclesiastical control, while Roman Catholic newspapers and weeklies promote the interests of this Church. Synods of the Roman Catholic clergy of Australia have thrice been held, the first being in 1844.
The number of Jews in Australia is relatively small; there were in 1901 only 14,850, of whom
6,450 were in New South Wales and
7. Non- 5,910 in Victoria. Mohammedans,
Christian chiefly from India and the Sunda Is-
Religions. lands, numbered scarcely 4,500, chiefly
in Queensland. Confucians and Buddhists were not carefully distinguished in every colony, as is clear from the grave discrepancy between the number of Chinese immigrants and
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