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Serena Thorne
Title : Serena Thorne Serena Thorne
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Source : Chronicle pictorial pages, 19 July 1902, p. 40
Date of creation : 1902
Format : Newspaper
Catalogue record
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Description :
Serena Thorne was the grand-daughter of the Cornishman, William O'Bryan, who had founded the Bible Christian Church in 1815. The Bible Christians were one of the first Christian groups to allow women to preach. As a young woman Thorne obtained an impressive reputation as a preacher and in 1865, at the age of 23, she was sent to Brisbane to help establish branches of the church there. In 1870 she came to Adelaide and was heard by large crowds in the Adelaide Town Hall and other places. Here she met the Rev. Octavius Lake, whom she had known in Devon some years before, and in 1871 they were married. In 1892 Lake founded the Bible Christian Women's Missionary Board. She was also a leading member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, founded in South Australia in 1886, and travelled the colony setting up new branches. In just four years Lake was largely responsible for establishing 22 branches of this social reform group. She died in 1902 after a long illness.
Subjects
Related names :

Lake, Octavius, 1841-1922

Lake, Serena

Adelaide Town Hall

Bible Christian Church of Australasia

Bible Christian Women's Missionary Board

Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Coverage year : 1902
Place : Adelaide (S. Aust.)
Further reading :
Hunt, Arnold D. The Bible Christians in South Australia, Adelaide: Uniting Church Historical Society, South Australia, 1983
Hunt, Arnold D. 'Lake, Serena (nee Thorne)', Australian dictionary of evangelical biography, Sydney: Evangelical History Association, 1994, p. 208
Jones, Helen. In her own name: a history of women in South Australia from 1836, Kent Town, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1994
Jones, Helen. 'Lake, Serena (1842-1902)', Australian dictionary of biography, supplementary volume, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2005, p. 226
'Miss Thorne's preaching', South Australian register, 23 May 1870, p. 5
Thorne, James. James Thorne of Shebbear: a memoir: compiled from his diary and letters, London: Bible Christian Bookroom, 1873
Thorne, Serena. Diary of Serena Thorne [microfiche], 1870-1871, 1876, D8072 (L)
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