James E. Thomas
Australian preacher
Rev. James Edward Thomas (28 May 1879 – 27 November 1944) was an Australian Churches of Christ preacher whose career began in Adelaide, and developed in Melbourne. He was reckoned "one of the foremost Churches of Christ preachers in Australia".
History
Thomas was born in Adelaide, a son of George Edward Thomas (died June 1913) from Devon, a veteran of the Crimean War, and Sarah Ann Thomas, née Emerson (died 1912)
He spent his early youth in the City of Unley, attending a local school and the Sturt Street School, then some training in a business school.
He "got religion" early, and by age 16 was preaching at the Church of Christ, Unley. At age 21 he became the pastor at the Point Sturt church, near Milang, and at Stirling East (between Stirling and Aldgate), both churches recording greatly increased attendance under his pastorage.
For four years he studied at College of the Bible and School of Philosophy at Kentucky University, from which institution T. J. Gore, Ira A. Paternoster, and other Adelaide preachers graduated. While in America he conducted services at various churches every week. While there, he served as president of the Australia Club and editor of its magazine. A highlight of his stay in America was conducting the marriage of Rev.
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This entry incorporates text from “James E. Thomas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.