Church Act 1836

The statue of Sir Richard Bourke outside the State Library of New South Wales notes in its inscription that he "established religious equality on a just and firm basis".[1]

The Church Act, also known as the Church Building Act,[2] was a 1836 law in the Colony of New South Wales. It was drafted by John Plunkett and enacted by the Governor, Sir Richard Bourke.[3] It was subtitled "An Act to promote the building of Churches and Chapels and to provide for the maintenance of Ministers of Religion in New South Wales."[4]

The Act established equitable funding for Church of England, Church of Scotland, and Roman Catholic churches. It thus led to the effective disestablishment of the Church of England.[5][6] Bourke later extended the provisions of the Act to Methodist and Baptist churches, as well as the Jewish community, the latter an object advocated in the Legislative Council by William Wentworth.[7][8]

References

1. "Sir Richard Bourke". Monuments Australia. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
2. "Church Building Act 1836 No 7a". Australasian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
3. Suttor, T. L. (1967). "Plunkett, John Hubert (1802–1869)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 2. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
4. Oliver, Alexander (1879). A Collection of the Statutes of Practical Utility, Colonial and Imperial, in Force in New South Wales. p. 160. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
5. "Bourke Church Act". Defining Moments. National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
6. Ngui, Samantha (2008). "Freedom to worship: frameworks for the realisation of religious minority rights". University of New South Wales. p. 40. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
7. "The Church Act, 1836". State Library of New South Wales. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
8. Bohleke, Konrad (April 2022). "The New South Wales Council of Christians and Jews 1942-1946: Australia's First Formal Channel for Interfaith Dialogue" (PDF). University of Sydney Library. Retrieved 21 December 2023.

Further reading

• Stoneman, David (2011). "The Church Act: The expansion of Christianity or the imposition of moral enlightenment?". University of New England.