Nathaniel PIDGEON

PIDGEON, NATHANIEL (b. Bellevue, co. Wexford, Ireland, 16 Aug 1803; d. Sydney, NSW, 1879). City missioner, Sydney.

'I obtained a missionary spirit from the first day of my conversion', Pidgeon recorded some years after establishing the Christian City Mission, the first independent outreach in Sydney (Pidgeon, 1857:17,91). His vision for 'lost souls' began with a revival in Ireland in the 1820s when many, including his father, were dramatically converted. Although young Pidgeon joined a Methodist class meeting, he slipped into 'worldly ways' while serving his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker and several years passed before he found peace with God. A total change of lifestyle signalled his commitment to 'saving souls'. When not engaged with his business, Pidgeon devoted himself to studying and sharing the word of God. He regarded 'the present mode of preaching (as) ... unscriptural ... and a hindrance', sought Divine inspiration and saw, in the many conversions that followed his preaching, 'proof' of his 'ordination' (Pidgeon, 1857:34).

While in England in 1840 the shape of his future ministry emerged: he started home visitation and open-air preaching, and decided to migrate to Australia. The voyage, though arduous and eventful, proved a fertile missionary opportunity. He and his family arrived in Sydney in 1841. The evils of convictism were still evident in colonial society, and they felt they had landed on 'the borders of hell'. Pidgeon found work and linked up with the Wesleyans, but having no formal accreditation, was forbidden to preach. However, when the Australian Methodists broke away and sought preachers, permission was granted. His open-air ministry was successful and provided for his needs despite crippling business losses. Despite economic recession in the 1840s, 'coldness' from the church—many objected to his unorthodox methods and loud praying—and opposition in the streets—he was often pelted with 'noisome missiles'—Pidgeon and his band of helpers persevered. They distributed tracts, held chapel and camp meetings, worked among sailors and immigrants, and drew encouragement from the evident response to their work and the 'mighty outpourings' of God's Spirit.

Urged by his co-workers and with his wife's approval, Pidgeon early in 1850 sold his business and became a full-time city missionary. The Mission was supported by voluntary donations and functioned independently until 1853, when the Wesleyan Church assumed responsibility. Pidgeon laboured day and night, fasting and praying, preaching and building up new converts, confronting formal religion and seductive cults, and reaching out to the destitute, sick and outcast. Vice and crime, drunkenness, poverty and misery were rampant. The Mission set up a poor-fund, acquired land for tent meetings and in 1854 erected a small chapel in Sussex Street.

Constraints placed on Pidgeon by the Wesleyans let to a mutual severing of their association in 1857, but the work survived and grew. He built two more chapels, in Paddington and at Botany, and extended his outreach to the needy. When the Sydney City Mission was formed in 1862, he welcomed this new venture and, from his wide experience and with 'prophetic accuracy', was able to warn the committee of difficulties they would face in maintaining interest and support. On his death, he bequeathed to them the Sussex Street chapel (Owen, 1987:17).

This 'genial, ready-witted Irishman 'became a friend to those for whom and with whom he laboured (Roseby, 1919:1). A deep compassion for 'the lost' shines through the pages of his journal. Privation and danger, slander and persecution could not quench his 'missionary spirit', and although often tempted to give up, Nathaniel Pidgeon held firmly to his motto: 'No surrender'. It is his spirit, rather than an institution, that has endured.

J Owen, The Heart of the City. The First 125 Years of the Sydney City Mission (Sydney, 1987); N Pidgeon, The Life, Experience, and Journal of Nathaniel Pidgeon, City Missionary (Sydney, 1857); Rev Dr Roseby, 'Sydney's First City Missionary', Sydney City Mission Herald, 1 March 1919, 1-2.

HELEN RUTH WOOLCOCK