Synod of Otago and Southland - History

History

The origins of the Synod of Otago and Southland began as early as 1848. A migration scheme was set up in the mid nineteenth century to settle Otago with a homogeneous group of settlers. The scheme decided on members of the Free Kirk who had split from the Church of Scotland in the Disruption of 1843. Many Scotsmen were displaced by the Highland Clearances and the opportunity to own and farm their own land appealed to many.

The first two ships of immigrants, including the Rev. Thomas Burns, a nephew of Robert Burns, sailed from Greenock, near Glasgow, in 1847 and arrived March 1848 . The settlers established the city of Dunedin, Scots for New Edinburgh. They formed into local congregations and set up the Presbyterian structures of church courts independent of the Presbyterian church that already existed in the north. Many other settlers followed with more ministers among them, and in 1855 the Presbytery of Otago was formed with responsibility for the area south of the Waitaki River and distributing the growing income from church property trusts.

It is said that in 1861 Dunedin was perhaps as Presbyterian as Edinburgh itself, but with the discovery of gold in what became the Central Otago Gold Rush, many men left their homes and headed for the diggings. People came from Australia and around the world to mine in Otago and the Presbytery urgently appealed to Scotland to send more ministers. These were sent and in 1866 the Presbytery was broken up into the presbyteries of Dunedin, Clutha, and Southland, all under the jurisdiction of the Synod of Otago and Southland. The number of ministers remained inadequate and in 1872 it was proposed that the Synod should build a seminary. In 1880 a theological college was formally established.