Transforming History: The Origins of the Stone-Campbell Movement in Victoria, Australia

In the early history of the pioneer congregation in Victoria, Australia, the austerity of primitivist British Churches of Christ under the control of elders was challenged by the theater of later nineteenth-century evangelism under the sway of American evangelists. This article seeks to understand how the early history of Churches of Christ has been written, taking into account the ecclesiological tensions around elders and evangelists. In the light of current expressions of the movement’s purpose, the article seeks to reframe the narrative into a history that speaks meaningfully into the present.