• Title Page
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Contents

      This book is an attempt at documenting the history of Churches of Christ in Australia. It is a companion volume to One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism: A History of Churches of Christ in Australia.

      The choice of subjects and the selection of specific documents for inclusion in the book is highly personal. Others may have chosen to highlight activities and emphases that I bypassed or to have included documents I omitted. To treat all that happened and to follow through everything that was believed or debated would have required us to republish our entire literature. This would have been both impossible and unnecessary.

      I have tried to capture the broad sweep of our history, to highlight significant events and to focus on critical doctrinal developments. The early chapters detail activities. The later chapters focus on the development of core beliefs.

      Part of the reason for compiling this documentary history is to make available periodical and occasional literature that is not easily accessible to researchers. I have included quotations from pamphlets and books only where the subject matter was important enough for inclusion or where the material was out of print I have drawn attention to articles or books that have treated some of the critical issues but which are too extensive to be included. It has not been easy to omit this material as it is often superior to what has been selected.

      I need to state at the outset that I have largely excluded organizational developments, particularly in the later chapters. These developments can be traced m conference handbooks, where changes are frequently commented on in one or two lines. I am also aware that I have given little space to our overseas missionary activity, apart from tracing beginnings. One of the reasons for this is that the area has been adequately researched, by Keith Bowes and others. It could also be argued that our overseas mission work is worthy of a documentary history of its own.

      Finally I hope, in reading through the documents, that you will capture something of the unique flavour of Churches of Christ in Australia and be enthused by the movement's core convictions. With strong and vibrant personalities stepping from the book, to catch your ear and to carry you along with them, such an eventuality will be hard to avoid. Venture at your risk!

      Churches of Christ have argued that they have no creed but Christ. It has been their intention to give him pre-eminence. The name they wear, the message they preach, the ordinances they celebrate, all announce his Lordship. They have sometimes gone off at tangents and denied the love that brought them into existence. They have, however, always sought to turn the focus to him in the hope that people, seeing him, would open their lives to his presence and their hearts to his love. They have known that he represents their only secure foundation.

      In preparing these documents for publication I have enjoyed the encouragement of Mr. Ken Clinton and the Historical Society. I would also like to express my thanks to Mrs. Margaret Watkins, who typed up documents that were included in Vol. I, to Mrs. Ethel Rankine, who, in a magnificent labour of love, typed up the remaining 600 pages that comprise volumes II and III, and to Mr. Ken Barton, who generously offered to photocopy the material and see it through to publication.

Graeme Chapman      

[NOF 1-10]