Sharing stories of Queensland’s faith communities, past and present, to explore aspects of religious practice in Australia. Distinctive and diverse, these vital stories of belief and belonging are snapshots of communities in action.
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Few Are Called: the Society of the Sacred Advent
A Queensland-based Anglican order of sisters, active since 1892, has a remarkable legacy of achievement in education and healthcare provision.
Father George and Sister Veronica
At the Abbey Church and community at Caboolture, Father George and Sister Veronica work in a spirit of service, connection, and inter-faith dialogue.
Contemporary Spiritualism in Queensland
In colonial Australia, Spiritualism was attacked by churches and commentators. Since the 1970s, popular opinion has become more accepting of Spiritualist ideas.
Few Are Called: the Society of the Sacred Advent
A Queensland-based Anglican order of sisters, active since 1892, has a remarkable legacy of achievement in education and healthcare provision.
Father George and Sister Veronica
At the Abbey Church and community at Caboolture, Father George and Sister Veronica work in a spirit of service, connection, and inter-faith dialogue.
Contemporary Spiritualism in Queensland
In colonial Australia, Spiritualism was attacked by churches and commentators. Since the 1970s, popular opinion has become more accepting of Spiritualist ideas.
A parish of 173,746 square miles
The Australian Inland Mission pioneered medical and social services into remote Australia, establishing bush hospitals, a flying doctor service, and an outback radio network.
Ross Parisi
The son of Sicilian migrants in the sugar-growing region of Far North Queensland, Ross Parisi has an abiding connection to the unique Feast of the Three Saints, held annually in the small town of Silkwood.
The Difficult John Vincent: First Clergyman at Moreton Bay, 1829
At a time when clergy were in short supply across the colony of New South Wales, Rev. John Vincent’s appointment to Moreton Bay in 1829 failed disastrously.
Any Given Sunday: Pentecostal Christianity in contemporary Brisbane
‘Pentecostal’ or ‘Charismatic’ church services reflect a distinct contemporary religiosity — a visual and emotional aesthetics delivered through technology and performance.
From the Ashes of 9/11: Kuraby’s Masjid al-Farooq
The September 2001 arson attack on the Kuraby Mosque was a catalyst for the Brisbane Muslim community to articulate what it means to be a Muslim post-9/11.
The Brisbane Spiritual Church
A Brisbane centre for Spiritualist practice and religious worship remains active today, after more than a century of continuity, change, and compromise.
The Bains family
Gian Singh Bains, his son Rajinder, and daughter-in-law Rasvinder discuss their family’s history in Queensland. Gian helped establish Queensland’s first Sikh gurdwara, at Edmonton south of Cairns, in 1983.
Dorita Murgha Wilson
Dorita Murgha Wilson explains how she has reconciled Christianity with her culture and identity as an Aboriginal woman.
Pauline Ah Wang and Willie Wigness
Two pillars of the Waiben (Thursday Island) Anglican community share their thoughts, including about the Quetta Memorial Church.
Bill Le Page
An ardent follower of the Indian spiritual figure Meher Baba, Bill Le Page reflects on his life and relationship with Baba, the ‘God-Man’.
Smells and Bells: Anglo-Catholicism at All Saints’, Wickham Terrace
Located in the heart of Brisbane, All Saints’ has long been an important focal point for the Anglo-Catholic tradition in Queensland.
Nicholai von Tonslamann
Artist and traveler Nicholai von Tonslamann has transformed the surrounds of his Mount Morgan home, building shrines and temples to Hindu gods and goddesses.
Ghungalu Country, Central Queensland
Steve Kemp, a Ghungalu elder from Woorabinda in Central Queensland, conveys some of his cultural knowledge, family lineages, and connection to country.
A Modern Medievalism: the Abbey Church, Caboolture
The story of the Abbey community begins in England in the 1920s with an unusual fusion of Christian mysticism, spiritual curiosity, and medieval heritage.
Queensland’s Theravada Buddhist Temples
People from Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka have established distinctive local centres for Buddhist life throughout southeast Queensland.
Gunggandji Country, Far North Queensland
The Aboriginal township of Yarrabah, due east of Cairns, is the traditional country of the Gunggandji and Mandingalbay Yidinji peoples.
Venerable Rinchen
An ordained Buddhist nun, founder of the Khacho Yulo Ling Buddhist Centre in Cairns, and provider of care to the dying.
Janeth Deen
A prominent member of the Queensland Muslim community discusses family, education, working life, and community activities.
Venerable Chonlatish Chanhorm
An abbot of a Thai Buddhist temple and monastery describes his work, the development of the temple, and plans for the future.
The Saints of Silkwood
The Three Saints Feast celebrates Sicilian religious traditions and Italian-Australian identity.
Duncan Harrison
An important figure in the formation of the Uniting Church of Queensland and its Moderator in 1980.
Olive Crombie, Arthur Preston, and the Founding of BlueCare
During the 1950s, Olive Crombie and Arthur Preston established with the West End Methodist Mission the health service now known as BlueCare.
Welcome to Mithaka Country
Mithaka representative Josh Gorringe explains his sense of connection to Mithaka Country, and the work being done there to understand and care for cultural sites of significance.
Architecture, art, and music at St Peters Chapel
Designed by Dr Karl Langer in an architecturally modernist style, the St Peters Lutheran College Chapel in Indooroopilly opened in 1968.
Charismatic Revivalism: Tradition and innovation in the Apostolic Church
The spirit of early Christianity inspires the community of the Apostolic Church of Queensland in Hatton Vale, a tradition that arrived from Germany in the 1880s.
Swedenborg to Soul Warrior: The Brisbane Society of the New Church
The Brisbane followers of Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg have been a small but enduring presence in the city’s religious landscape, beginning in the 1860s.
Protestants, Catholics, and the Queensland Irish Association
Protestant-Catholic tensions have been an enduring feature of Queensland social life, especially in the fractious interwar period.
Alan and Dorothy Demack
Decades of service as lay preachers has enriched the community experience of this Rockhampton couple.
Regional Chinese Temples in early Queensland
Early Chinese migrants built over thirty temples in regional Queensland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Now only two remain.
Religion at the Moreton Bay Settlement, 1824–42
The harsh military setting of the Moreton Bay penal settlement was an unpromising location for religious and spiritual life.
The Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress
The UAICC commenced with great energy and idealism in the mid-1980s. It aimed to provide Aboriginal and Islander people a voice to the wider church.
Tropical Cathedrals
Impressive new cathedrals were a feature of post-war development in the 1960s in Cairns, Townsville, and Thursday Island.
Rev. Merrington and the ANZAC Memorial Peace Chapel
During the Great War, Rev. Dr E. N. Merrington’s war diary and letters home talk of numinous and sublime experiences.
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The Sunshine Coast’s ‘Abode of God’
Avatar’s Abode, one of four key sites of a global spiritual movement, developed after Meher Baba’s 1958 visit and remains a focal point for the movement in Australia.
Benjamin Glennie, Apostle of the Downs
The diary of Anglican priest Benjamin Glennie details the challenges and privations of religious ministry on Queensland’s colonial frontier.
Quetta Memorial Church
Since Christianity was introduced to the Torres Strait Islands, the receptivity of Islander culture has ensured that Christian traditions have been adapted to local tastes.
Music at St John’s Cathedral
The musical culture of Queensland’s Anglicans has been a vibrant wellspring for musicians, including the only female master of cathedral music in the British Empire.
Creationism with an Australian Accent
Modern creationism has a strong Queensland flavour, both in the career of former schoolteacher Ken Ham, and the political and education controversies of the 1970s and 1980s.
Synagogues in the Sunshine
A handful of Jewish families established the Gold Coast’s first organised Jewish community.
The Ganesha Temple in South Maclean
An inclusive approach to community enables a diversity of Hindus to make social connections and express religious devotion at the Sri Selva Vinayakar Koyil.
The Brisbane Synagogue
The story of the Brisbane Synagogue echoes the struggles and successes of early Jewish life in the city.
Zoroastrianism in Queensland
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Multi-faith in Queensland
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Jainism in Queensland
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