This year, the PMSA commemorates 100 years of ecumenical co-operation between the Presbyterian Church of Queensland and what is now known as the Uniting Church of Australia, Queensland Synod.
100 years ago yesterday, after months of negotiations between the school owners, the Churches and fund raisers, on the 1 July 1918, the formal transfer of ownership to the PMSA took place of Clayfield College – now known as Brisbane Boys’ College and relocated to Toowong in 1931 – and the Brisbane High School for Girls – now known as Somerville House and relocated to South Brisbane in 1920.
In a letter to parents at the time, Somerville House joint Principals Misses Harker and Jarrett wrote that they had “decided to transfer its [the school’s] control to a Council representing the United Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, and this assures the School a really great future.”
The inaugural ceremony of the PMSA was held in the Brisbane Exhibition Hall on 22 July 1918 and the official statement, in part, said:
The education of our young people is to us a matter of vital concern and we felt we ought to be doing more than we have done to surround them with influences which would help to strengthen their Christian faith and to form in them Christian character.
At the 100th PMSA AGM last week, Chairman Greg Adsett said that one hundred years on, the PMSA schools continue to provide an outstanding education and guiding young people with values for life.
“We look forward to reshaping and reforming the PMSA into a body that is at the forefront of education in Queensland that will carry the PMSA and our schools successfully through for another 100 years of history.”
For more information on the PMSA history, visit the PMSA history page.
The PMSA also has a limited number of “For the Good of the Community” books which cover the first 75 years of PMSA history. If you would like a copy, please contact the PMSA corporate office on communications@pmsa-schools.edu.au.