One historian says in the early days of the settlement 'it was long remembered in Melbourne that its three leading clergymen, the Rev James Forbes (Presbyterian), the Rev AC Thompson (Episcopalian) and the Rev PB Geoghegan (Roman Catholic), had been seen walking in Melbourne streets with their arms linked'.

Baptists

Episcopalian

Captain Lonsdale reported to the Bishop that there was no clergyman at the Settlement, and stated that "some of the inhabitants read the Church service at their own residences to such as were disposed to attend, and that he did the same to the soldiers and the convicts." (7). Two laymen however, were responsible for occasional ministrations; George Langhorne who had been appointed Missionary to an Aboriginal Mission Station on the banks of the Yarra Yarra, beyond Anderson Street, South Yarra; and James Smith who became secretary of the subscribers for the erection of a wooden church in William Street, when that subscription was started after the first death and funeral at the Settlement. The building was offered to Captain Lonsdale for use as a church and schoolroom, as he stated subsequently "for Church of England service." The Commandant collected further subscriptions, and the sum spent in plastering the walls and installing a cedar pulpit and pews raised the total expenditure to about £100. It was, however, "a mere wooden shell, and incapable of keeping out the cold." In December 1838, the building was moved to the westward, and rebuilt with additions on the site adjoining that of the future pro-Cathedral, St. James' Church. It was "surmounted by something very like the traditional gallows, carrying a large and sonorous ship's bell." (8). The [13/14] foundation stone of the pro-Cathedral itself, was laid on November 9th, 1839, by Mr. La Trobe, the newly appointed Superintendent of Port Phillip District. The cost of the church was about £6,000, of which £1,560 came from the Colonial Treasury. Further extensions were made in 1840, increasing the sittings to 200. At this period, there were three churches in Melbourne; St. James' Church of England; one Wesleyan Chapel; and a temporary wooden building which was the precursor of St. Francis' Roman Catholic Church. There were also 16 public houses, three butcher's shops, and three baker's shops.

Until the arrival of a resident minister, James Smith and George Langhorne conducted the services at St. James' Church. The Reverend James Clow, a Presbyterian minister officiated there for several months in 1838.
Bishop Broughton sent the first Church of England resident clergyman, the amiable Reverend James Couch Grylls, on October 12th, 1838, the building used by all would be required exclusively for Church of England use. Mr. Grylls received a Government stipend of £150 a year. During that first year of the Rev. J. C. Grylls' ministry in Melbourne there were 55 baptisms, 42 marriages and 42 burials amongst his parishioners, who numbered between 700 and 800. There was also a day school at St. James', with an average daily attendance of 30 males and 20 females under the schoolmaster, William W. Abbott, whose salary was paid from a combination of tuition fees, voluntary subscriptions and a grant from the Colonial Treasury.
On January 7th, 1840, the Reverend James Yelverton Wilson, a missionary from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in England, arrived via Sydney, and relieved the Rev. J. C. Grylls, who obtained leave of absence to go to England in order to bring out his family, and in the meantime his place was occupied by Rev JW Wilson who was soon moved to Portland Bay. On his return to Australia, Grylls remained in Sydney, where he died in 1854.
On September 26th, 1840 the diplomatic Reverend Adam Compton Thomson arrived in the brig "Jewess," and on November 30th, he was able to open a little stone building at Brighton. Dr. W. B. Wilmot, a layman, carried on the services, until the Reverend Brickwood was appointed to minister there in 1849, after the arrival of Bishop Charles Perry.
Rev Adam Compton Thompson/Thomson served for many years at St James Church, Melourne.
In The Book of Common Prayer among the Nations of the World, in Chapter 32, "Translations Into Dravidian Languages" being Sanskrit, the form of speech of Southern India, the 9th paragraph ends with the sentence - The Thirty-Nine Articles were translated by the Rev Adam Compton Thompson, and published in 1842.
In 1842 prisoners were attended by the Colonial Chaplain the Rev. A. C. Thompson, who continued till the arrival of the Bishop of Melbourne, he then moved to Van Dieman's Land and afterwards back to England.
"I have known," says a contemporary, "that most excellent pastor and worthy man, the Rev. Adam Compton Thomson, perform the burial service over six persons, the marriage ceremony on three couples, baptize several children and visit sick persons in town and its suburbs, all in the course of one day."
In 1843, Bishop Broughton again visited the colony, landing first at Geelong,
By early 1846, the Colonial Bishopric's Fund, founded by Bishop Blomfield, of London, had borne fruit and three bishops had been selected for Australia, and when Bishops Charles Perry, William Tyrell, and Augustus Short were consecrated for the Australian church, and Robert Gray for South Africa, on St. Peter's Day in June, 1847, it became popularly known as "the birthday of the Colonial Church."
On the 18th June, 1846, that the foundation stone of St. Peter's, Eastern Hill, was laid by Superintendent La Trobe, in the presence of the Reverends Adam Compton Thomson, incumbent of St. James', Melbourne, and Ebenezer Collins, of Geelong.
Rev G Collier arrived on the 'Australia' from Liverpool, with his wife, 2 chn and 2 servants. Source Melbourne Courier 27 Feb 1846
For Melbournians of 1847, the appointment of Perry as first Bishop of Melbourne, showed the growing importance of a town, now to become a city, the residents of which were appealing to the Queen to shake off what was called the incubus of Sydney control.

Independents

Methodists

Standing up for the Aborigines resulted in James being regarded as a failed colonist, a lonely figure who attracted derision as he stood against the weight of colonial opinion on Aboriginal rights. After just seven months on the Goulburn he tendered his resignation under controversial circumstances which highlight the rift between his humanitarian views and the Port Phillip of 1840.
In June 1840 James Dredge returned to Melbourne to settle back into his beloved Methodist community. He returned to preaching but maintained a strong desire to help the Aboriginal people. He kept close contact with the Wesley Mission and by 1842 had begun to appreciate the importance of the land not just as a source of food for Aboriginal people but as a place of immense cultural significance.
Dredge was appointed head teacher of a new Methodist school and opened a small chinaware shop in the front room of his Collins Street house in August 1840. Financial problems still plagued him, however, and he was advised to declare himself bankrupt in October 1841. He died in 1846 on board the Arab, two days before reaching Land's End. Where Robinson acquired wealth and prestige through his work with the Aborigines, returning in comfort to Bath, Dredge lost both his health and his livelihood.

Presbyterian

John Dunmore Lang, (1799-1878), a Presbyterian clergyman, was the Colony’s first Presbyterian minister, becoming also a politician, educationist, and supporter of free immigration. He arrived in Sydney in May 1823 from Scotland and through private funds begun the Scots Church, which was finished in 1826.
Wilhelmina Mackie (1812-1891) was born in Greenock, Scotland on the 24th September, 1812. Rev. Lang was escourting his cousin Wilhelmina Mackie to Sydney to marry his brother, Andrew. However he persuaded her to marry him whilst on board the ship 'Stirling Castle' in Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope on the 25th August, 1831. The wedding took place before their arrival in Sydney to avoid opposition from Lang's mother, anticipated because of the difference in their ages. The marriage and family life was happy, marred only by tragedies involving their children; of ten, five died in infancy. Wilhelmina died at Blackheath, N.S.W. on 6th October, 1891.
Rev Dr Laing make visits to Port Phillip in 1841. He was based in Sydney, and is recorded in Book Review as The Presbyterian clergyman Rev. Lang, a vocal critic of existing missions in the colony, founded Zion Hill, the first Aboriginal Mission in colonial Queensland, in 1838. Lang organised the establishment of a Moravian style mission settlement in convict Moreton Bay, administered by twenty Protestant volunteers from Germany. Upon arrival Lang’s missionaries took up a section of land seven miles to the north of the convict settlement, and cleared the area for farming and the construction of houses. The resulting settlement, Zion Hill, reflected the German origins of the missionaries in both design and arrangement of its fields and buildings. The early years of the mission were marked by hardships and difficulties, including the absence of Lang from the colony, the subsequent neglect of the mission committee and Aboriginal raids on the crops. Lang’s return in 1842 revitalised the mission, with the Germans gaining farming equipment and additional livestock. An economic downturn resulted in the withdrawal of Government funding from all colonial missions and the Zion Hill community made the decision to support itself through market gardening. The strategy enjoyed immediate success, with the missionaries finding strong demand for their produce.

Roman Catholics

Wesleyan Methodists