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Graeme Chapman No Other Foundation, Vol. II. (1993) |
NO OTHER FOUNDATION
A Documentary History
of Churches of Christ in Australia
1846-1990
Volume II
1864-1930
GRAEME CHAPMAN
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PREFACE
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
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ABBREVIATIONS
AC | Australian Christian |
ACP | Australian Christian Pioneer |
ACS | Australian Christian Standard |
ACWn | Australian Christian Watchman |
ACWs | Australian Christian Witness |
BMH | British Millennial Harbinger |
CE | Christian Echo |
Circuit | A. McLean, A Circuit of the Globe, St. Louis, Christian Publishing Co., 1897 |
CM[NSW] | Christian Messenger[NSW] |
COC | J. T. Brown [Ed.], Churches of Christ, Historical, Biographical and Pictorial History of Churches in the United States, Australia, England and Canada, Louisville, Ky, J. Morton, 1904 |
CP | Christian Pioneer |
CPl | Christian Pleader |
CTY | H. R. Taylor, The Story of a Century: A Record of the Churches of Christ Religious Movement in South Australia, 1846-1946, Melbourne, Austral, n.d. |
EL | E. Davies, The Story of An Earnest Life, Cincinnati, Central Book Concern, 1881 |
EO | Ecclesiastical Observer |
JH | A. B. Maston [Ed.], Jubilee Pictorial History of Churches of Christ in Australasia, Melbourne, Austral, 1903 |
MM | Melbourne Medley |
OHY | A. W. Stephenson [Ed.], One Hundred Years: Churches of Christ in Australia, Melbourne, Austral, 1946 |
One | T. J. Gore [Ed.], That They All May be One, Melbourne, Austral, 1909 |
SA | H. R. Taylor, The History of Churches of Christ in South Australia, 1846-1959, Churches of Christ Evangelistic Union, Inc., n.d. |
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CONTENTS
I. Early History: 1846-1864 | 11 |
A. The Colonies | 13 |
B. Beginnings in South Australia | 20 |
C. Beginnings in New South Wales | 89 |
D. Beginnings in Victoria | 119 |
E. Beginnings in Queensland | 204 |
F. Life and Beliefs | 207 |
1. The Ethos of the Movement | 209 |
2. Attitude to the World | 212 |
3. Visit of T. H. Milner | 226 |
G. Relationships with Other Groups | 238 |
1. South Australia | 240 |
2. New South Wales | 254 |
3. Victoria | 265 |
II. The Advent of American Evangelists: 1864-1975 | 286 |
A. Evangelists | 286 |
1. Requests for Overseas Evangelists | 286 |
a. New South Wales | 286 |
b. Victoria | 287 |
c. South Australia | 288 |
2. The Earl Era | 288 |
a. H. S. Earl | 288 |
b. L. W. Webb | 296 |
3. Later Arrivals | 297 |
a. Further Calls | 297 |
b. G. L. Surber | 298 |
c. T. J. Gore | 299 |
d. O. A. Carr | 299 |
4. Australian, British and American Evangelists | 300 |
a. S. H. Coles | 300 |
b. J. Strang | 302 |
c. J. J. Haley | 303 |
d. G. B. Moysey | 304 |
e. M. W. Green | 305 |
5. Training Colonials | 307 |
B. Doctrinal Issues | 310 |
1. The Plea | 310 |
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2. British and American Traditions | 320 |
a. Mutual Edification | 320 |
b. Elders and Evangelists | 323 |
c. The Communion Question | 327 |
d. Money from the Unimmersed | 328 |
3. Eternal Punishment | 328 |
C. Annual Meetings | 334 |
D. Relationships with Other Religious Bodies | 337 |
1. South Australia | 337 |
2. Victoria | 367 |
3. Tasmania | 373 |
III. Growth, Development and Challenge: 1875-1910 | 373 |
A. Organisational Developments | 374 |
1. Conferences | 374 |
a. Victoria | 374 |
b. South Australia | 375 |
c. New South Wales | 375 |
d. Intercolonial | 375 |
2. The Austral Printing and Publishing Company | 375 |
3. The Federal College of the Bible | 377 |
a. South Australia | 377 |
b. A. B. Maston's Essay | 378 |
c. Further Initiatives | 380 |
d. A Federal College of the Bible | 385 |
B. Mission | 386 |
1. Home Evangelism | 386 |
a. Local Initiative | 386 |
b. Tent Missions | 388 |
c. Queensland | 388 |
d. Western Australia | 390 |
2. Overseas Missions | 393 |
3. Ethnic Minorities in Australia | 396 |
a. The Chinese | 396 |
b. The Kanakas | 398 |
c. The Aborigines | 400 |
C. Doctrinal Developments | 401 |
1. The Plea | 401 |
a. The General Scope of the Plea | 401 |
b. Where the Scriptures are Silent | 402 |
i. Societies | 402 |
ii. Instrumental Music | 406 |
iii. An Object Lesson | 410 |
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c. Union | 410 |
i. General Comment on Union | 410 |
ii. Roman Catholics | 412 |
d. Self-Awareness and Self-Criticism | 413 |
2. Other Doctrinal Issues | 420 |
a. Church Ministries | 420 |
b. The Role of the Evangelist | 422 |
c. Mutual Edification | 427 |
d. Theology | 428 |
e. Discipline | 429 |
3. The Darwinian Revolution | 430 |
a. Evolution | 430 |
b. Higher Criticism | 433 |
c. R. J. Campbell | 436 |
d. Unitarianism | 438 |
e. Secularism | 439 |
D. Social Questions | 441 |
1. Social Ills | 441 |
a. Dancing | 441 |
b. The Theatre | 442 |
c. Gambling | 443 |
2. Social Problems | 444 |
a. Sunday | 444 |
b. Militarism | 445 |
c. Alcohol | 446 |
d. Unemployment | 448 |
3. Social Issues | 448 |
a. Socialism | 449 |
b. The Churches and Labor | 450 |
E. Biographical Information | 451 |
1. Stephen Cheek | 451 |
2. D. A. Ewers | 453 |
3. F. G. Dunn | 453 |
IV. The A. R. Main Era: 1910-1930 | 455 |
A. The War Years | 455 |
B. Preacher Training | 462 |
1. The Federal College of the Bible | 463 |
2. Local Institutes | 464 |
3. Reaction to Biblical Criticism | 464 |
4. Biblical Authority | 465 |
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C. The Plea | 468 |
1. Reiteration of the Plea | 468 |
2. Unity | 471 |
3. A Reinterpretation | 473 |
4. Proselytism | 475 |
5. Baptism and Forgiveness | 476 |
6. Congress on Union | 477 |
7. Churches of Christ and Baptists | 480 |
8. Wider Ecumenical Developments | 482 |
9. Roman Catholicism | 483 |
D. The Role of the Preacher | 484 |
1. Mutual Edification | 484 |
2. Preachers and Preaching | 485 |
3. Salaries and Manses | 486 |
4. The Preachers' Provident Fund | 488 |
E. Social Issues | 488 |
1. Social Ills | 488 |
a. Public Entertainment | 488 |
b. Literature | 489 |
c. Dancing | 490 |
d. Gambling | 491 |
e. Alcohol | 492 |
f. The Church and the Working Man | 492 |
g. Industrial Relationships | 493 |
h. Migration | 494 |
i. The Betterment of Society | 494 |
F. Biographical | 494 |
1. A. R. Main | 494 |
2. H. G. Harward | 511 |
V. Strains and Opportunities: 1930-1950 | 515 |
A. The Depression | 516 |
1. Unemployment | 516 |
2. The College | 518 |
3. Preachers | 520 |
B. The Second World War | 523 |
C. The Existence of the Church Threatened | 530 |
D. The Plea | 534 |
1. Reiteration | 534 |
2. Unity | 537 |
3. Shifts of Emphasis | 540 |
E. The Ministry | 544 |
1. Ordination | 544 |
2. The Teaching Elder | 546 |
3. Well-Trained Leaders | 547 |
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F. Conflict | 547 |
1. Main and Scambler | 547 |
2. A Motion of No-Confidence | 550 |
3. The New South Wales College | 550 |
4. R. L. Williams | 551 |
5. The College Curriculum | 552 |
G. Foreign Missions | 554 |
H. The Aborigines | 556 |
1. The Problem | 556 |
2. A Federal Aborigines Mission Board | 562 |
I. Biographical | 562 |
1. T. H. Scambler | 563 |
2. A. P. A. Burdeu | 564 |
VI. A Transitional Era: 1950-1970 | 565 |
A. Organisational Development | 565 |
1. New Guinea | 565 |
2. Kenmore Christian College | 566 |
B. Authority | 569 |
1. The Word of God | 569 |
2. The Virgin Birth | 572 |
3. The Resurrection | 574 |
4. Theology | 576 |
C. The Plea | 579 |
D. Unity | 582 |
1. WCC | 583 |
2. Billy Graham | 588 |
3. Baptism | 590 |
4. WCC and ICCC | 591 |
5. The Uniting Church | 592 |
6. The Australian Christian | 596 |
7. Standard Lessons | 598 |
8. Billy Graham Again | 600 |
9. The Uniting Church | 603 |
10. Consultation on Union | 603 |
E. Intercollege Co-operation | 610 |
F. The Ministry | 613 |
G. Political and Social Issues | 616 |
1. Politics | 616 |
a. Korea | 616 |
b. Race Riots | 618 |
c. Vietnam | 619 |
d. Biafra | 622 |
e. Northern Ireland | 623 |
f. Rhodesia | 624 |
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2. Social Concerns | 624 |
a. Women | 625 |
H. Non-instrumental Churches of Christ | 625 |
VII. New Directions: 1970-1990 | 626 |
A. Mission | 627 |
1. Local ministry | 627 |
a. Church Growth | 627 |
b. A National Strategy | 631 |
c. Multiple Ministries and Large Churches | 631 |
d. Leadership | 634 |
e. Growing Diversity | 637 |
f. Inner-City Ministry | 648 |
g. Migrant Work | 653 |
h. Darwin | 654 |
2. Ministry Overseas | 655 |
a. Indonesia | 655 |
b. New Hebrides | 658 |
c. Mission Philosophy | 658 |
d. Fiji | 659 |
3. Ministry Among Aborigines | 659 |
4. The Role of Women | 666 |
B. Theological Education | 674 |
1. ETA | 674 |
2. ICEM | 675 |
3. ICCL | 676 |
4. American Colleges | 676 |
C. The Plea | 677 |
1. Self-Analysis | 677 |
2. The Future | 685 |
D. Unity | 692 |
1. The Charismatic Movement | 693 |
2. "Christians in Fellowship" | 696 |
3. WCC | 704 |
4. Churches of Christ and Baptists | 710 |
5. Ecumenical Dialogue | 714 |
a. Roman Catholics and the VCC | 714 |
b. BEM | 715 |
c. The Uniting Church and Churches of Christ | 721 |
d. The Anglican Church and Churches of Christ | 727 |
E. Social and Political Issues | 732 |
1. Social Concerns | 732 |
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a. Social Issues | 732 |
i. Divorce | 732 |
ii. Unemployment | 738 |
iii. Homeless Youth | 740 |
iv. The Disabled | 740 |
v. Migration | 740 |
vi. Decentralisation | 743 |
vii. Human Relations | 744 |
b. Social Ills | 744 |
i. Drugs | 744 |
ii. Alcohol | 744 |
iii. Films | 745 |
iv. Television | 745 |
v. Literature | 745 |
vi. Poker Machines | 745 |
vii. Pornography | 746 |
viii. Sex Education | 746 |
2. Political Issues | 746 |
a. Overseas Aid | 747 |
b. Peace | 747 |
c. Racism | 748 |
d. Capitalism | 749 |
e. Rhodesia | 749 |
f. South Africa | 751 |
g. Political Prisoners | 751 |
h. Party Politics | 752 |
i. Trade Unions | 754 |
j. Uranium | 754 |
F. Biographical Data | 755 |
1. E. L. Williams | 756 |
2. R. N. Gilmore | 757 |
[NOF 1-10]
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