Serena LAKE

LAKE, SERENA (née THORNE) (b. Shebbear, Devon, England, 28 Oct 1842; d. Adelaide, SA, 9 July 1902). Evangelist and temperance worker.

Serena Thorne was the daughter of Samuel Thorne, printer and publisher for the Bible Christian denomination, and Mary O'Bryan, daughter of the church's founder. Educated at home she imbibed the evangelical fervour that characterised all members of the Thorne family. By the time she was eighteen she was a local (lay) preacher and soon became known as 'the girl preacher' of North Devon. She was regarded as uncommonly eloquent, a reputation that was to endure throughout the rest of her life. Her success as an evangelist was such that in 1865, at the age of 23 she was sent to Brisbane to help establish Bible Christian work in Qld. Two years later she went to Vic as an itinerant evangelist with the Bible Christian church.

In 1870 Serena Thorne moved to SA where for several weeks she spoke each Sunday evening to crowded congregations in the Adelaide Town Hall. The mission in the city was followed by visits to country centres. At Auburn (SA) she renewed her acquaintance with the Rev Octavius Lake (q.v.) whom she had known at Shebbear some years before. They were married on 2 March 1871.

As the wife of a Bible Christian minister for 30 years Serena Lake served in both rural and suburban circuits. Until her death in 1902 she was the leading woman preacher in SA. Believing that God could call consecrated women to the work of evangelism she organised in 1892 the Bible Christian Women's Missionary Board of which she was president for seven years. This body commissioned a number of young women for evangelistic work in SA. At the same time the Board supported the appointment of a missionary to China to work in association with colleagues from the church in England.

Serena Lake was a leading supporter of the WCTU founded in South Australia in 1886. Like the early Bible Christians she was a lifelong total abstainer and became an implacable foe of the liquor industry. Within the WCTU she was the branch organiser and by 1890 had been responsible for establishing 22 new groups in various churches.

Along with her cousin John Thorne (q.v.) Serena Lake was a notable gift to Methodism in South Australia from the Shebbear family whose story is inextricably woven with the early days of the Bible Christians.

Australian Christian Commonwealth 25 July 1902; A D Hunt, This Side of Heaven: A History of Methodism in South Australia (Adelaide, 1985); Uniting Church (SA) Historical Society Newsletter 1, Jan 1978, 'Serena Thorne's Diary'

ARNOLD D HUNT