Presbyterian Church, Hobart
Back to the St. Johns Home Page
We are a group of ordinary local people of
all ages, backgrounds, interests and abilities, but we have one thing
in common - our lives have been changed by the Christian Gospel, that
Good News that came into the world with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Aims
We want to be a church that is:
Our Strategy
In order to achieve our aims we have a simple scriptural strategy.
"We will give ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word."
Acts 6:4
The pattern of church life at St John's is
deliberately shaped by this strategy with a strong emphasis on
preaching and teaching in our public worship. During the week we
alternate between a central congregational prayer meeting held at the
church building and small bible study groups (Home Groups) which are
scattered around the city and surrounding districts.
Our Ethos
Our desire is to be both contemporary and
traditional. Being contemporary is for us not merely a matter of
worship style. It means that we seek to communicate the traditional
gospel to today's people. We believe the problems people face today
are answered in the eternal truths of the Scriptures. However we also
believe that we stand on the shoulders of past generations of
Christians and benefit from their contributions to the life and
witness of the church.
Our Beginnings
The Presbyterian Church came to Tasmania from
Scotland in 1825 and traces its history back through the Reformation
in 1560 to early Celtic Christianity in Roman times.
The St John's congregation as formed in October 1849 to service the growing
population of Hobart west of Harrington Street. St John's church building was officially opened on Sunday 9th
April 1843 as Hobart's second Presbyterian congregation. The
Presbyterian Church of Tasmania has been a part of the Presbyterian
Church of Australia since Federation in 1901.
Our Beliefs
Presbyterians believe that the Bible is the
only infallible rule of faith and conduct. Presbyterians all around
the world own the Westminster Confession of Faith as a summary of
what they believe, and the sense in which they understand the
Scriptures. The confession is, of course, subordinate to the
Scriptures and is to be read in the light of Scripture. Copies of the
Confession are available for loan from the church library.
Our Organisation
"Presbyterian" comes from the Greek word
"presbyter" or elder. The local congregation appoints its own
"session" or body of elders which governs its affairs. The minister
is a "teaching elder" chosen and called by the local congregation,
but ordained and installed by Presbytery. Presbytery consists of all
the teaching elders (or ministers) and representative ruling elders
from a group of congregations over which it exercises
jurisdiction.
The Ministry team
Our Minister is Rev. Robert White. and our Associate Minister is Rev Rodney Waterhouse