Presbyterian Church, Foster Street

The Chinese Presbyterian Church (CPC) in Australia started in 1883 when the Presbyterian Church of NSW appointed John Young Wai (周容威) to preach Christianity to the Chinese migrants.

Presbyterian Church, Foster Street

Image Courtesy of: Howard Wilson

The Chinese Presbyterian Church (CPC) in Australia started in 1883 when the Presbyterian Church of NSW appointed John Young Wai (周容威) to preach Christianity to the Chinese migrants. In its early days, services were held in Young Wai’s house on Nithsdale Street (1884) and later at the premises of a Chinese firm in Goulburn Street (1889), with 30-40 worshippers. Young Wai travelled to market gardens to visit Chinese workers and started an evening service to meet their schedules. 

As the Chinese congregation grew (with regular worshippers increasing to 70-80 people at the Sunday evening services, in 1892, Young organised a music festival to raise money to build a new church. He received donations of around £600, and about half of them (£342) came from the Chinese community.

In 1893, a new church was built and commenced operation on Foster Street, Surry Hills, and Reverend John Young Wai became the first minister there. A night school was started to teach the English language to Chinese immigrants, which later became the largest teaching organisation for Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century (Kuo, 2013). 

The Chinese in the congregation included Ma Ying Piu Ma (马应彪), George Bew (郭标), James Choy Hing (蔡兴) and Ma Wing Chan (aka Mark Joe) (马永灿) and James Gock Lock (郭乐), who were founders of Wing Sang and Wing On. They continued their Christian faith after they returned to Hong Kong.

The church on Foster Street was demolished after the Sydney Council resumed the land in 1910 as part of a slum clearance program. The church purchased a piece of land nearby at 108 Campbell Street and continued to operate there until the late 1950s

1905 Congregation, Foster Street

Image Courtesy of: Howard Wilson