Thomas Jefferson GORE

GORE, THOMAS JEFFERSON (b. Bloomfield Kentucky, USA, 1839; d. Adelaide, SA, 4 July 1923). Churches of Christ minister.

Gore attended Kentucky University (MA 1863). He had been personally cared for by Robert Milligan, president of the University. Milligan had been similarly nurtured by Alexander Campbell, one of the pioneers of the American Disciples. Gore was thus heir to a rich tradition that married strength of conviction with breadth of spirit.

Gore responded to requests made by Australian Churches of Christ for American evangelists, ie local parish ministers. He arrived in Melbourne with another American evangelist, G L Surber, on 19 Feb 1867. Surber remained in Melbourne and Gore was allocated to the Grote St Church in Adelaide, where he ministered for over fifty years.

The American Disciple evangelists who worked in Australia in the latter part of the nineteenth century exercised a decisive influence. The Australian Churches of Christ were psychologically conditioned to receive them, the membership was small enough to be influenced by the few with outstanding ability, the evangelist's role encouraged itinerancy and their success further popularised their approach. The Americans conducted Adelphian Classes to foster local preaching talent and disseminated their ideas through the Australian Christian Pioneer, of which Gore was editor (1868+).

With the merging of British and American restoration traditions, clashes were inevitable and involved such questions as the relationship of the authority of the elders to that of the evangelist, the role of the minister in the morning service, the financing of the churches and the role of the annual meeting of the churches. It was over the first of these issues that the Grote St church split in 1869. It would appear that three issues were involved—whether final authority resided with the elders or the evangelist, whether the evangelist, even if financed by a particular church, was free to determine his sphere of activity and whether the evangelist chose or merely appointed the elders.

On arriving in Adelaide in 1867, Gore was publicly welcomed by the Rev Silas Mead (q.v.), minister of the Flinders St Baptist Church and founder and editor of Truth and Progress. After an initial uneasiness, reflected in debate through their respective journals over such issues as the use by Churches of Christ of the term 'Christian' as a denominational title, the question of the spiritual legitimacy of foundations stones and the significance of baptism, the two men settled into a warm and comfortable relationship, particularly after the death of Gore's 27 year old wife.

When the first Federal Conference of Churches of Christ was called together in 1906 principally to set up, in Melbourne, a Federal Training College for ministers, Gore was invited to be the inaugural principal. While he had conducted training classes in Adelaide, almost since his arrival in Australia, and was committed to the idea, he declined because of age.

G Chapman, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism: A History of Churches of Christ in Australia(Melbourne 1979); A S Gore, Thomas Jefferson Gore (Melbourne, 1926)

GRAEME CHAPMAN