James Rickard
James Rickard was an Australian Congregationalist minister, remembered as the founder of the Council of Churches in the state of Victoria, Australia.
History
Rickard was a son of James Rickard of Stawell, Victoria.He studied for the Methodist ministry in the early 1870s and served in the Fingal circuit in Tasmania in 1873, transferred to Toolamba, Victoria in 1875.
He began his Congregational ministry at the Glebe, [New South Wales], church in August 1875. Living at the pastorage, St John's Rd Glebe.
He transferred to the Congregational Church of Brighton, Victoria, in 1885.
He was largely responsible for the creation and early success of the Victorian Council of Churches, serving as secretary from its inception to 1906, when he relinquished that position due to illness, and was elected president.
In 1907 he accepted a transfer to the less demanding pastorate of Surrey Hills, and died a few years later.
Recognition
A memorial tablet dedicated to his memory was unveiled at the Brighton Congregational Church in November 1909.Family
Rickard married twice:- to Elizabeth Smith on 4 October 1875.
- to Elizabeth Clark of Hobart on 24 September 1880. They had at least one child:
Other daughters were Harriet "Hattie", Irene, Elizabeth, Mabel "Maisie".
James E. Rickard was a son, perhaps the same person as E. Rickard, who was accepted as a probationary student of the Congregational College of Victoria in 1900, and as James E. Rickard was Congregational minister in Queensland.