Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The Rev. A. H. Teece, B.A., began his ministry on Sunday, August 29, 1909. He was born in Sydney, and educated at the Sydney Grammar School and the University. Later he went to Hackney College (affiliated with the University of London) and did part of his theological course there. The climate by this time had warned him to seek a change, and he returned to Sydney and finished his course at Camden College. After his ordination in 1905 he received the appointment of minister to the Congregational Church at New Town, Hobart, where he remained four years. From New Town he came to Clayton Church, and his six years' ministry in that charge has shown splendid results. All the activities of the church are flourishing and new ones have been brought into being. Mr.Teece greatly interests himself in the young men of the district, and through his exertions a building was erected for a gymnasium, reading room, and lounge at a cost of £1,450, and on week nights these rooms are well patronised. The Rev. Leonard Eobjohns. B.A., writes: — 'Mr. Teece preaches a broad evangelical gospel, avoiding inflated oratory and cant phrases, and has a happy manner in his talks to children. His sermons, though written out in full, are delivered without reference to manuscript or notes, and his voice can be distinctly heard in any part of the large building. He is an energetic and devoted pastor, visiting the various members of his flock without distinction.' Mr. Teece, accompanied by his wife, paid a second visit to England last year, spending some time in Italy, Austria, and Germany. He visited Vienna and the Austrian Tyrol, went through Bavaria, and the trip down the Rhine he describes as one of the wettest and coldest he has ever experienced. He was in England for six weeks after the outbreak of war, and went to Hyde Park every day to witness the drilling of the recruits. The London Scottish, the reading of whose exploits at the front has thrilled every unit of the British nation. Mr. Teece describes as a splendid body of men. Their drill ground was adjacent to his hotel, and he frequently watched them at their evolutions. Mr. Teece is a chaplain to the Australian forces, with the rank of captain, and he experts to go to the front with the Fifth Contingent. Asked as to the effect of the war on the spiritual life of the people in England, Mr. Teece replied that be was struck by the deep religious sensibility of the people, and that feeling had, of course, been deepened since the Zeppelin raids and naval bombardments. The increased attendances at the churches had been most marked. In this country the war had not the same effect upon the people from a religious point of view. In England all parties in the State had sunk their differences of opinion and joined together. Hence if the State was united the same could not be said of the churches, and a moltitude of religious denominations were largely wasting their efforts. One great drawback to the welfare of the churches in Australia was that there was no unity. He did not want uniformity. It was a lamentable fact that in some of the small country districts especially one sometimes saw four or five separate denominations at work where there was room for only one. Such competition — for competition it was — should not exist. All non Anglican or non-Catholic bodies, for instance, should parcel out the country and do away with the present disabilities which meant that ministers had to spend all their time carefully granting their own congregations and matching over a variety of organisations, and have had to stand aloof from the great social and industrial questions which the churches ought to grapple with and which alone can be settled by the application of Christian principles. With more mutual agreement and less petty rivalry the church's work would be carried on with greater success and without the present waste of money and needless dissipation of energy.

The Mail Saturday 17 April 1915 page 9

"THE REV. A. H. TEECE.

The news has been received that the Rev. A. H. Teece, who has been serving as chaplain with a Light Horse Regiment, has been awarded the Military Cross for his services at Romani. The Rev. A. H. Teece, who was in charge of the Clayton Congregational Church, Kensington, for some years, was born in Sydney in 1879, and he accepted the pastorate of Clayton Church in 1909. Mrs. Teece, who before her marriage was Miss M. K. Giblin, the youngest daughter of Mr. Justice Giblin, of Tasmania, is staying in Hobart while her husband is serving as chaplain, and she was informed by cable last week of the honor he had received." - from the Adelaide Chronicle 04 Nov 1916 (nla.gov.au)