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Arcadia/Galston Seventh-day Adventist Church Centenary

On Saturday November 29, 2008 the Galston Seventh-day Adventist church will celebrate 100 years since the opening of the Arcadia Seventh-day Adventist church which 30 years ago moved to its present site at 49 Arcadia Road, Galston.

The original church was built in Arcadia Road opposite Roscommon Road by Henry Harrington Irvine, born in Edinburgh 1859, who came to Australia via New Zealand with his parents in 1871. His father, a doctor, lived and worked in the St Leonards and Glebe areas. It is uncertain where Henry was living and what he was doing before he appeared in Arcadia in the late 1890s.

The original Arcadia Seventh-day Adventist Church c1908

In the early 1900s Henry became ill and spent a period of time in the Sydney Adventist Hospital (then known as Sydney Sanitarium, or THE SAN) and it was here that Henry became interested in the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist church, later becoming an enthusiastic and committed member. There was a good deal of interest in religious matters in those days, and at the request of certain members of the public, Henry Irvine agreed to arrange some meetings for the public. Records show that a “public meeting was held in H.H. Irvine’s packing shed on January 28, 1907”. Henry persuaded the leaders of the church in New South Wales to send a minister to conduct a series of meetings. Pastor Fred Paap was the man chosen. He was a big man with a big voice and a vigorous preacher. Pr Paap pitched a large tent in a clearing in the bush alongside the main road opposite Cobah Road, in which he held public meetings. The meetings were held for about three months and were mostly crowded out, the interest being so great. When the meetings were finished, a good number of those who attended indicated that they wished to unite with the Seventh-day Adventist church. More than twenty people were baptized in Berowra Creek and it was through the sacrifice and dedication of this little group that the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Arcadia began.

Early in 1908 it was decided to build and organize a church at Arcadia. The new members, like most people around in those days were very poor, but money was donated and Mrs Ross gave a quarter acre section of her land. Henry Irvine undertook to construct the building with the voluntary help of the members, providing his labour free, even making the church pews by hand. Everyone was enthusiastic, and the building was soon finished. On December 26, 1908 the members were organized into a church group of 21 members. The next day the building was dedicated free of debt – the total cost being one hundred and seven pounds, two shillings and eleven pence. This was the eleventh Seventh-day Adventist church to be organized in the Sydney area – today there are over seventy-six churches in the same area.

In those early days the minister would arrive on horseback to take the service. In later years, the motor coach would take him to Galston, then he would walk to Arcadia and return the same way.

Readers may recognize the names of some the charter members of this church: John O Carr (orchardist) - after whom Carr’s Road was named; Mr and Mrs Edgar Gauntlett who purchased the property on the corner of Galston Gorge Road and Fishburn Road, now known as Gauntlett’s Corner; Mrs A Ross, who donated the block of land on which the church was built; Axel Wilhelm (Billy) Carlson, Mrs Eliza Carlson, Miss Anne Carlson (later Gillis), Miss Eliza L Carlson (later Roberts); Edward M Gillis, Mrs Margaret A Gillis, Miss M Amy Gillis (Hancock), Joseph Gillis, Miss Mary A Gillis (Hill); Mrs E G Armstrong; Mrs Margaret J Lovejoy; Mrs Maud E Dowding and David H Gray.

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Arcadia/Galston Seventh-day Adventist Church Centenary

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