History
The Church of Christ churches were born out of the Second Great Awakening of the 1790s and early 1800s in the U.S.A., which was marked by a wave of evangelistic revivals. The Second Great Awakening began on the United States frontier, in Kentucky and Tennessee, out of which the Stone-Campbell movement emerged from the amalgamation of 2 movements led by Barton Stone and Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell, which was the beginning of the Churches of Christ. The movement was also called the “Restoration Movement”, with a purpose to restore the church to its 1st century practice. The movements were united in the belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; that Christians should celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the 1st day of each week; and baptism of believers was by immersion in water.
In the 19th century there was a mission movement within the Churches of Christ which expanded to 178 countries and estimated to number between 12-14m people. The Churches of Christ came to Perth in 1890, planting their first church. In 1898 a group of men and women met in the home of Subiaco’s postmaster where the Subiaco library is today to make plans for a new church. 16 people then met for the first time at Subiaco church of Christ on 25th September 1898, in a temporary location: the Old Victoria Hall on Rokeby Rd where the jeweler Linneys is now located. A plot of land was subsequently purchased at our current address for £65 and the church building was constructed in 1900 following a successful support-raising appeal to churches all across Australia. Its doors opened on 25th October 1900.
Little did they know at the time but the life of a black slave in the cotton fields of Alabama in 1857, was to have a dramatic influence on Subi church. This slave was named Jourdon Banks. As he is being lashed by his white master and overseer, he grabs the large bully stick from the master, and knocks both of them to the ground, beating them into submission. He flees to Illinois a free state, from there to NYC, and from there he takes passage to London. In his memoirs he says twice, “I want to go to Australia”, and he eventually migrates to Australia in December 1861. His passage is recorded in the ship’s log of the Duncan Dunbar. Jourdan Banks lands in Victoria and this is where he becomes a Christian. He marries a white woman called Sarah Jane McMullen in 1867 and they have 9 children.
One of their children – Harry J Banks – in 1897 travelled to Coolgardie in the WA goldfields during the gold rush and was appointed as an evangelist to the region. He went on to become the first long serving pastor of Subiaco Church of Christ.
Since that time Subi Church, as it is now affectionately known, has held 4 fundamental elements that make us who we are:
