Sarah Jane Lancaster

Sarah Jane Lancaster (1858 – 1934) was the leader of Australia's first Pentecostal congregation. An evangelist and administrator, she established a printing press in her meeting hall to produce evangelistic tracts and pamphlets. Lancaster also published Australia's first Pentecostal magazine, Good News. Lancaster became president of the nation's earliest attempt to organise Pentecostalism into a denomination, the Apostolic Faith Mission of Australasia. Although she is recognised as the founder of Australian Pentecostalism and contributed to the unique prominence of women in the founding of Australian Pentecostal congregations, many of her doctrinal ideas were quickly abandoned as the movement developed. For the next two years she experienced a deepening consecration as she prayed for the baptism of the spirit. Convinced that glossolalia – speaking in tongues – was intended as a permanent gift to the church, and not a brief manifestation in the apostolic era, she eventually began to speak in tongues. Spirit baptism evidenced by speaking in tongues became the defining Pentecostal experience of the 20th century. Accounts of her healing and spirit baptism were published in Good News magazine and were part of her testimony often repeated in her preaching and teaching. although in establishing in Australia there had been a clear decision by Methodists to distance its practice from the English dissenter flavour of 'chapel' worship, in order to maintain good relations with the Established Church. There were no women leaders in the Methodist church in Victoria at that time, although women's leadership had been significant in England from the inception of Methodism. Lancaster believed the equality of males and females in preaching, teaching, and church leadership was evident in scripture.

In 1908 Lancaster bought a shop-front at 104 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne, a former temperance hall, and began to gather a congregation. The building was known as the Good News Hall, and she lived there for the rest of her life. Her ministry began with all-night prayer meetings and attendance rapidly grew to the capacity of the hall which seated 300. As the founding editor of a monthly Pentecostal magazine, Good News, she reproduced material from international sources, including accounts of Pentecostal revivals in the US, prophetic interpretations of world events and testimonies of healing. In 1926 she aligned her congregation with the newly created Apostolic Faith Mission of Australasia (AFM). In 1930 she became president of the AFM, but it was already splintering over doctrinal quarrels, particularly about the role of women in the church, and it closed shortly after her death. An organisation known as the Pentecostal Churches of Australia was established about this time by a remnant of followers of the eccentric American evangelist John Alexander Dowie (25 May 1847 – 9 March 1907). Although Van Eyk initially travelled with his family, when his wife and four children returned to South Africa he formed what he claimed was a platonic friendship with a pastor's daughter. There were whisperings of sexual misconduct that offended churches founded in holiness teaching. A local newspaper in Queensland reported the scandal. In 1928 and 1928 the Queensland Advisory Council began to remonstrate with Van Eyk about his personal behaviour, without success, which led to the withdrawal of many congregations, while others split taking sides for and against Van Eyk. The AFM decided to remove his name from the organisation, but it was too late. Lancaster assumed the presidency of the AFM while the evangelist continued his own work independently. However, many churches were disillusioned both by the Van Eyk legacy and Lancaster whose name was forever linked with Van Eyk's scandal. The AFM began to decline as did the Good News Hall meetings. Her unorthodox teachings, including purported annihilationism, were raised in discussions among a group of churches that collaborated to launch what became the Assemblies of God in Australia. By 1937 the Assemblies of God held its first Australian conference with 180 delegates. Lancaster's daughter, Leila Buchanan, became editor of its official publication, The Evangel.

Decline of the ministry and death Lancaster's first husband had died during the Van Eyk controversies, and she became depressed as her congregation dwindled. In 1931, the Good News Hall celebrated 21 years of ministry. Although Lancaster was feeling discouraged to the point of death, she rallied and remarried in June 1932, to Richard Hocking, whose motives were questioned by Lancaster's congregation. Lancaster believed the marriage would reduce her workload, but it brought controversy and opposition. Hocking soon wrote a lead article for the Good News magazine, but it was criticised for a lack of passion.

Lancaster died suddenly of diabetes mellitus on 6 March 1934.