In EnglishFÖrsamlingen
Den första skandinaviska gudstjänsten i Australien hölls Pingstsöndagen 21/5/1856 på guldfälten i McIvor, som låg ca 117km norr om dagens Melbourne.
The United Scandinavian Church startades 1883 av 16 medlemmar i Melbourne, de flesta av dessa var norrmän. Efter diverse problem med präster samt upplösningen av den svensk-norska unionen, så bildades en svensk församling 7 mars 1908.
17 januari 1909 öppnades Svenska Kyrkan i Clarendon Street, South Melbourne. Efter nära femtio år i den gamla tegelbyggnaden i South Melbourne, flyttade Svenska Kyrkan 1956 till sina nya lokaler i Toorak House.
Scandinavians at worship in Melbourne. By Prof. John Martin
1. The foundation of the United Scandinavian Congregation
Unannounced, like a prophet from the wilderness, there arrived in Melbourne in early 1880 Pastor Lauritz Carlsen, who had come to preach the Gospel to the scattered Scandinavians in various Australian ports. This Norwegian pastor from a parish in Alexandra in Minnesota had been working for some years as a seamen's pastor in San Francisco. He visited Australia for a few months over a number of years.
It was in Melbourne that Carlsen gained the greatest response, where, on the 6th June 1883, a group the 16 people, mainly Norwegians with a few Swedes and Danes, met in the house in Port Melbourne, belonging to a Swede called Lauritzen. At this gathering all present unanimously agreed that Our Saviour's Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church should be formally established. From then on services were held in the Mechanics' Institute in William Street in the city.