James Edward CARRUTHERS

CARRUTHERS, JAMES EDWARD, (b. Sydney, NSW, 26 Jan 1848; d. Sydney, NSW, 15 Sept 1932). Methodist minister.

Despite his Sydney birth, James Carruthers grew to maturity at Kiama where he was converted at 16 by the well-known evangelist Rev Thomas Angwin. At 17, he assumed the office of local preacher and made an immediate impression with the depth of his preaching and the eloquence of his presentation. At 19 he was accepted for the Wesleyan ministry and went to the Theological Department of the early Newington College where he trained for a single year (1867). Thereafter he was appointed to Narrabri, which circuit occupied the whole north-west corner of NSW. For this he had sole pastoral responsibility. Subsequent appointments were: Murrurundi, Tamworth, Dungog, Deniliquin, Wagga Wagga, Bega, West Maitland, Armidale, St Leonards, Ryde Lewisham, Parramatta, Stanmore, Burwood, Paddington, Mosman and Lindfield. Few Methodist ministers of his own or any other day ministered to more of NSW than did James Carruther. He married first Elizabeth McWilliam and then Emily McKeown.

Carruthers was first and foremost an outstanding circuit minister who loved to preach and did it superbly well. In this he was helped by his considerable intellectual abilities and his omnivorous reading. Few men were less affected by a limited formal training than he, though he later took a keen interest in the provision of a more adequate and appropriate training for Methodist clergy. Carruthers used his local preachers well and regularly sought their active assistance in his intra-circuit evangelistic campaigns, happily sharing the preaching, as well as the less prominent work, with them.

But James Carruthers was not just a faithful pastor and successful evangelist. He had the capacity to see and understand the larger picture and to work for the good of the connexion at large. Minor contributions of this kind may be found in the fact that he spent about twelve years as district chairman, had two terms (1895, 1913) as president of the NSW Methodist Conference, was twice secretary of the Australian Methodist General Conference and was president-general for a term (1917-20) which began three years after he had commenced his formal supernumeracy. He was also treasurer of the Supernumerary Fund for many years and president of the Evangelical Council of NSW in 1913-14.

Much more important, it was Carruthers who, with his extensive country experience, first recognised the need for NSW Methodism to follow the example of the Victoria and Tasmania Conference and appoint single young men as lay home missionaries to carry out most of the functions of the ministry in areas not capable of sustaining a full ministry and in 1889 he presented a scheme for this work to Conference. Of no less consequence, was his action a few years later in taking up the cause of the suburbs of Sydney and hammering away, year after year, at the need to increase the ministerial provision there at a rate commensurate with the increase of population. A further major contribution was made while he was at West Maitland, when he formalised and enlarged the role of women in the church by the inauguration of the body know as the Ladies' Church Aid which thereafter provided considerable assistance, both spiritual and financial, to the church. Carruthers also played a leading role in the movement for Methodist union in the 1890s and in the abortive movement for union between the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches and in the movement for the formation of a Council of Churches. Finally, during his more than 16 years as editor of the connexional journal, the Methodist, he was able to give valuable exposure to these and other connexional issues of importance. Perhaps more than anyone else, he deserves to be considered the 'statesman' of the Wesleyan and Methodist churches in NSW throughout a key period.

His considerable literary skills made him one of the best editors that the Methodist ever had, but it is arguable that, during the years of World War One, he tended to abuse the office by adopting a pro-empire, pro-war stance which outdid the generals and politicians and by imposing an informal censorship on the material submitted to the paper. He simply had no patience with those who did not share his patriotic views. What at other times seemed to be conviction and courage here took on the appearance of stubbornness and arrogance. Regarded as an 'unhasting yet unresting' worker, he did other literary work too, writing frequently for the Sydney Morning Herald and being author of two books of his own, Memories of an Australian Ministry and Lights in the Southern Sky. Though he made few lasting enemies, he knew how to be 'difficult'. In 1930, after participating openly in a decision to bring Dr Donald Soper to the Sydney CMM, he then went behind the back of the governing committee and acted to prevent Soper from accepting the appointment. His action may have been based in his extreme political conservatism, so very different from Soper's outlook. Sometimes the observer finds it hard to avoid the view that he had a strong interest in power.

Minutes of Methodist Conference, 1933; Methodist, 24 Sept 1932; SMH, 16 Sept 1932

DON WRIGHT