Four Decades of “Discreet” Charismata: The Catholic Apostolic Church in Australia 1863–1900

For some years, the historiography of A ustralian P entecostalism has been dominated by the belief that P entecostalism came to A ustralia in 1909 through the agency of S arah J ane L ancaster who had, in turn, been influenced by news of overseas events. There had, apparently, been little or no influence in the A ustralian context by such groups as the C atholic A postolic C hurch, which formed in B ritain in 1835, in the wake of E dward I rving's proto‐ P entecostal theology. Although members of the C atholic A postolic C hurch arrived in M elbourne in the 1850s, the general view was that they had by then abandoned their earlier pursuit of the charismata. In 2012, I argued (based on a limited sample of evidence) that the adherents of the C atholic A postolic C hurch in A ustralia both taught and practised the charismata throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. This evidence is contained in the A ngels’ R eport B ooks, located in B radford, W est Y orkshire. Since then, the B radford collection has been fully digitised, thereby allowing a comprehensive review of the C atholic A postolic C hurch's charismatic activity and further evaluation of the L ancaster hypothesis. The significance of this research is that it allows a considerable re‐framing of the pre‐history of A ustralian P entecostalism, demonstrating that the C atholic A postolic C hurch taught and practised glossolalia, prophecy and divine healing through the last four decades of the nineteenth century.