Western Australian Consolidated Acts

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA ACT 1970 - PREAMBLE

Preamble

Whereas — 

            (a)         on 24 July 1901, the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales (now known as the Presbyterian Church of Australia in the State of New South Wales), the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, the Presbyterian Church of South Australia, the Presbyterian Church of Tasmania and the Presbyterian Church in Western Australia, holding the same doctrine, government, discipline and form of worship, agreed to unite and form one Presbyterian church to be called the Presbyterian Church of Australia, on the basis of a Scheme of Union, within which Church, those churches continued to exist as part of a federal ecclesiastical structure;

            (b)         pursuant to the Presbyterian Church of Australia Act 1901 , the union of the churches was entered into on 8 November 1901;

            (c)         by the last mentioned Act it was provided that all property belonging to the Presbyterian Church in Western Australia and the congregations thereof or held on behalf of, or in connection with, that Church and the congregations or bodies connected therewith on the Scheme of Union scheduled to that Act being entered into, was to be held upon the same trusts as they were held immediately prior to the Scheme of Union being entered into but subject thereto;

            (d)         by the Presbyterian Church Act 1908 , as amended by Acts numbered 50 of 1919, 6 of 1924 and 19 of 1964, it was provided that certain property was to be held for Presbyterian purposes in the manner provided by those Acts;

            (e)         it is expedient that the Federal Union of the Presbyterian Churches as now constituted be enlarged so that those churches be completely united within the Presbyterian Church of Australia and that the General Assembly of that Church should have all the powers and authorities usually vested in the supreme court of an ecclesiastical body holding the Presbyterian system of church government and that it have power to enter into a scheme of union with other churches subject to due and proper safeguards for minorities; and

            (f)         this Act is necessary to effect these objects.

Be it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: —