Adelaide Unitarian Christian Church

Unitarian Church of South Australia
Location	99 Osmond Terrace, Norwood, South Australia
Country	Australia
Denomination	Unitarian Universalist
Website	http://unitariansa.org.au/
History
Founded	1855
Clergy
Minister(s)	Reverend Rob McPherson

The Unitarian Church of South Australia, Inc., is an independent and self-governed church affiliated with the worldwide Unitarian Universalist movement, a member of the Australia and New Zealand Unitarian Universalist Association, and an affiliate member of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is a socially progressive and inclusive spiritual community, not covenanted by doctrine and dogma, but by liberal religious principles distilled from the essential values of all world religions, as well as the arts, humanities, and sciences.

On July 11, 1854 a group of people of the Unitarian Christian denomination met in Adelaide, South Australia and resolved to found their own church and seek a suitable minister from England. John Crawford Woods was selected and arrived on the Quilto from London on September 19, 1855. Services were initially held in private houses until October of that year, when the first public service was held in King William Street, Adelaide.

The congregation opened a church in Wakefield Street in 1857. Members of the congregation included prominent South Australians such as Premier Sir Henry Ayers, industrialist Alfred Muller Simpson, newspaper editor John Howard Clark and librarian Robert Kay, who was active in the cause of popular education. Writer, teacher, politician, and suffragette Catherine Helen Spence joined the church in 1856, later preaching there occasionally. As a lay leader, she lobbied for greater opportunities for women in education, employment, and political participation. Membership peaked at around 750 in 1881.

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