Silas Mead (16 August 1834 – 13 September 1909) was an EnglishBaptist minister who founded theFlinders Street Baptist Church and South Australian Baptist Association inAdelaide,South Australia, and is remembered for themissionary work in India which he inspired.
Mead was born on 16 August 1834 inCurry Mallet,Somerset,England, the youngest son of farmers Thomas and Honor Mead, née Uttermare. He wasbaptised at age 15 and helped local Baptists build achapel, where he conducted services as alay preacher.[1] He attended night school at nearbyTaunton, then enteredStepney College,[2] which becameRegent's Park College in 1856. Mead completed an MA there in "Mental Philosophy" in 1859 and an LLB in 1860.[3] He took further studies at theUniversity of London aiming for adoctorate of divinity, but was frustrated by their inability to grant such a degree.[3][4]
Mead applied for a position with theBaptist Missionary Society but was rejected. MeanwhileGeorge Fife Angas wrote to Regent's Park College seeking candidates for a Baptist ministry in Adelaide. Principal Joseph Angus recommended Mead, who accepted.[3] In preparation for his arrival, Angas and the Baptist congregation each pledged £500 towards a building, as well as a stipend of £250 per year.[5] They negotiated purchase of a block of land onFlinders Street and asked architect Robert Thomas, son ofthe newspaper proprietor to prepare plans.[5]
Mead arrived inSouth Australia aboardParisian on 13 July 1861.[3] On his first Sunday in Adelaide, he preached at the Ebenezer Independent Chapel inRundle Street[3] and soon began taking regular services atWhite's Rooms. On 5 August, twenty six members formed a newchurch congregation and on 18 December the foundation stone atFlinders Street Baptist Church was laid.[5] The building cost£7000, was opened on 19 May 1863, and the debt was cleared the following year. The church established a mission inFaridpur,India, and encouraged Baptist churches in the other Australian colonies to establish similar missions.[4] From 1862–1871, members of the church were "dismissed" by Mead to form new congregations in locations includingQueenstown,Moonta,Gawler,Norwood,Hilton, andGeorgetown.[5] Mead advocated for the appointment of women as deaconesses and as South Australia debatedwomen's suffrage, the church gave opportunity for women to speak in meetings.[5] By 1874, Mead had 874 members at the church.[6]
Mead was instrumental in the founding of the South AustralianBaptist Association in October 1863.[7] An Association library was established at Flinders Street Baptist in 1868, consisting largely of donations from Mead's own collection, and he was the inaugural editor of the denominational periodical,Truth and Progress the same year.[7] He was a Board member and lecturer in Greek and Hebrew at the Adelaide Baptist Theological College, which was established in 1869.[7] Mead's strong advocacy for believer's baptism by immersion and open membership, his emphasis on freedom and individual responsibility, and his disdain for creedal statements were influential on the Association, of which he was appointed President in 1867, 1872 and 1879, and then General Secretary for eight years.[7] He was sometimes called the "Baptist Bishop".[7]
In the wider community, Mead was an advocate on social issues including gambling, alcoholism, care for the needy, and funding for the "spiritual and social improvement of the Aborigines."[8] He served as Vice President and President of the South AustralianYMCA and helped drafted its constitution in 1878.[8]
In 1867, Mead published a book titledScripture Immersion, making a biblical case for believers baptism by immersion in response to a paper by English Methodist and advocate forinfant baptism,John Hannah.[8] He helped found Union College (laterParkin College) in 1872 for training ministers of threedenominations:Baptist,Congregational andPresbyterian.[9]
After his wife's death fromtyphoid in June 1874, Mead sought treatment overseas and spent fifteen months on leave while his sister in law looked after his five children in Adelaide.[6] During his travels, Mead visited the mission work in Faridpur, spoke at theBaptist Union Assembly inNewcastle, visited the Holy Land and Europe, and met with leaders of the newholiness movement in England.[6]
Mead arrived back in Adelaide on 19 November 1875.[10] He moved with his children into the church's newly finished manse in 1877 and the following year married widow Mary Leighton.[10]
The South Australian Baptist Missionary Society (later theAustralian Baptist Missionary Society). was formed in November 1864, with Mead among the key drivers, and in 1882 he commissioned the first two missionaries,Ellen Arnold and Marie Gilbert.[11][12] Mead made four visits to India and his son Cecil was the first man sent to the mission work in Bengal in 1892.[13]
Mead founded the South Australian chapter ofChristian Endeavour in 1888, serving as its President,[14] then as first President of CE Australia in 1891,[10] and in 1897 as President of the Australasian Christian Endeavour Union.[15] He met withHudson Taylor andWilliam Booth on their visits to Adelaide in 1890 and 1891 respectively.[10]
In 1891, Flinders Street Church appointed a new minister to serve under Mead, and then in August 1896 Mead resigned, with the church granting him the title of honorary pastor and a £100 annuity for life and requested the SA Baptist Association grant him life membership.[10]
Mead returned to England in 1897 and on 1 October took up a position as principal ofHenry Grattan Guinness'sHarley College,London.[2] He encouraged many students to consider missionary work, but his declining health led to his resignation in 1900.[16] Students petitioned for him to remain as a tutor for another year.[16]
Mead and his daughter, physicianGertrude, returned to Australia in 1901, settling inPerth where he joined his son-in-law, Alfred Wilson as co-pastor of the Baptist Church in Museum Street. When Wilson moved to New Zealand in 1907, Mead continued as 'honorary pastor'.[17] He became a member of the Baptist Union of Western Australia Council, serving as President in 1902, and again became active in Christian Endeavour and Bible teaching, as well as advocacy on social issues.[17] In 1902, he chaired the Interstate Baptist Federal Conference in Adelaide as the state associations debated forming afederal union.[17] He chaired the WA Baptist Foreign Mission Committee and was a delegate to theBaptist World Congress in London in 1905.[17]
Mead died from heart failure on 13 September 1909 in Gertrude's home in Perth[17] and was buried at the Baptist cemetery inKarrakatta. He was remembered as the "Father of Baptist Missions in Australasia" in theAdelaide Advertiser and the "Father of the Australian Christian Endeavour Society" inThe West Australian.[17]
Mead met Anne "Annie" Staple (1839– 15 June 1874) in Somerset and she later travelled to Adelaide to marry him atGumeracha on 25 May 1864;[3] she died oftyphoid fever aged 35. They had five children:
He married again, to the widow Mary Leighton (c. 1835 – 21 March 1886) at Flinders Street on 22 October 1878. He had no further children.[2]
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