Ulverstone Christian Reformed Church

I nformation about the Ulverstone Christian Reformed Church from their website:

The Christian Reformed Churches of Australia (CRCA) - now over fifty congregations across Australia - was founded upon the establishment of the two congregations of Ulverstone and Penguin on 13th October 1951. Although the church today has a broad and distinctive gospel vision and inclusive of all backgrounds, its original origins was founded on a much humbler purpose. A small community of Dutch immigrants from the Netherlands had settled in the Penguin-Ulverstone region, and a ministry was needed to have the new arrivals eventually integrate into other Protestant churches and Tasmanian life. Although there was no intention of forming a new church denomination; logistics, language and the need for a strongly biblical church, soon made this inevitable.

The first minister, Reverend J.A. Schep, who brought his own ‘kit’ home from the Netherlands, wrote, “Our denomination has not been called the ‘Dutch Reformed Churches’ but the ‘Reformed Churches of Australia.’ Therefore, too, I preach in English once a month, and it will be oftener in future. We are building up our own church life not because we are Dutchmen and want to remain Dutchmen, but because we are Christians … we are living in a country that is proud of its freedom. We want freedom to serve the Lord after our conscience”.

In those very early days, the Ulverstone Reformed Church used the Free Presbyterian Church building for services each Sunday fortnight, and by 1956 the church had moved to a weatherboard Church of Christ building on Leven Street.