Biographical data included in this segment relates to E. L Williams and R.N. Gilmore.

      Further information on E.L. Williams will be found in: E.L. Williams, From the Perspective of a Stroke, The Pamphlet Club, 1985, No. 339 and A. E. White's biographical introduction to E. L. Williams, Living Responsibly, Melbourne, Vital, 1976.

1. E. L. Williams
2. R. N. Gilmore

1. E. L. WILLIAMS

A.C., 1973, p. 503.

      While I was a student at university, it was compulsory for me to take one science subject. Botany was chosen because of the completely erroneous impression that it would benefit me in some future manse garden. One of the few things I still remember is sharing a microscope with a fellow student in the practical room. It was some weeks before he learned that I was a minister.

      He was an agnostic, but he was friendly to me because of another minister he had known, one of our ministers, who had impressed him tremendously with the quality of his life and the integrity of his faith. That minister was Lyall Williams.

      The agnostic had learned what so many of Lyall's Christian friends, neighbors and colleagues also learned quickly and treasured long. Principal Williams is a man of rare quality in life, faith and works.

      Lyall Williams came to the Australian brotherhood from the Victorian town of Kaniva and his course was set for Christ in the strong fellowship of the church there.

      He entered the College of the Bible from Ballarat in 1925. He had a distinguished college career in the classroom and on the sports field. After completing the course he went on to the University of Melbourne where he gained his degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts.

      No one who has been close to Lyall William as lecturer, preacher, teacher, friend and colleague, can have any doubt as to his firm adherence to the principles of the Restoration Movement. It was the call to unity at the core of our brotherhood that has motivated his sharing in the ecumenical movement, and he is still convinced that the future of our churches depends upon encounter with Christians who differ from us in some ways but who hold in common with us a true allegiance to the Christ who gave us the gospel. In isolation we could wither and become "the people who might have been."

      Within our churches Mr Williams has held, among others, the following offices: Federal Conference President, Victorian Conference President, Chairman of the Federal Conference Executive and a member of that Executive since 1948; Chairman of the Department of Christian Union from 1944 to 1972, and now its treasurer; member of the Advisory Board, and member of the Department of Home Missions and Evangelism.

      In the wider church, Mr. Williams was Chairman of the Victorian Council of Churches, Churches of Christ representative on the Australian Council of Churches; first Chairman of the Australian Division of Inter-Church Aid, Refugee, and World Service, Deputy Chairman of the Victorian inter-Church Aid (now World Christian Action). He also represented our churches at World Council Assemblies at Evanston and New Delhi.

      In Lyall Williams' student days, A.R. Main, R.T. Pittman and T.H. Scambler, had all been part-time lecturers. Conscious of the limitations and the demands of such part-time educational ministries, when he became principal in his old college, he worked consistently and sacrificially towards the target of a full-time adequate faculty. He has achieved this aim, and although the college team still has to meet heavy demands, there are now four full-time faculty members.

      The Principal has seen many changes, the most significant being in the shape of the ministry itself. This has moved from a limited pastoral and preaching concept to a ministry in which the pastor-preacher has to meet calls for experimentation, programming and specialisation. Through all the changes, Principal Williams has been flexible and ready to accept any new form that was designed to exalt Christ and the gospel.

      Lyall Williams has always been a man of great mental and physical energy and it is inconceivable that he will exchange the arena of faith in action for a spectator's seat on the sidelines.

      When a performance is over, then is the time for applause, but the performance is not yet over, and Mr. Williams will yet have much to do for Christ. This word, therefore, is not one of applause and praise. As Lyall Williams closes his deeply significant ministry as Principal of the College of the Bible, it is time rather to give thanks for a man of faith in our time, and this we do with great enthusiasm as brothers in Christ.

      In expressing appreciation for Lyall's ministry we also acknowledge the strong support always given by Lila William. Theirs has been a rich partnership in faith, ministry, mission, home and family, and we know that their partnership in Christ will continue to enrich the church.

Alfred White.      

A.C., 1974, p. 195.

      Even though Paul asked to be allowed to boast a little (II Cor. 11:16) I wish not to boast but simply to give evidence of ecumenical involvement and speak out of that experience.

Ecumenical Involvement and Outlook

      As I remember, in 1945 I became a representative of Churches of Christ on the Victorian Council of Churches before it was known by that name. During 28 years of membership I served as an Executive member, a vice-chairman, chairman of the Executive and chairman of the Council as well as a member of various sub-committees. For many years I was involved in the Australian Council of Churches as a representative of Churches of Christ. In 1951, as President of the Federal Conference of Churches of Christ, I became the first Chairman of the Australian Commission for Inter-Church Aid, as it was then known. This position, according to the Constitution, was held by the "Federal Head" of a member Church during his term of office. When another "Federal Head" became chairman I became deputy chairman and chairman of Executive. When the Australian Commission for Inter-Church Aid transferred to Sydney as the Division for Inter-Church Aid the former Commission became the Victorian Committee for Inter-Church Aid (now World Christian Action). On this committee I have served as Chairman and remain a Deputy Chairman and am constantly involved in sub-committees.

      In 1954 and 1961 I served as a representative of Churches of Christ at World Council of Churches Assemblies at Evanston and New Delhi. On both occasions I visited centres of World Christian Action activities.

      I cannot help but register my gratitude for the experience and enlargement of this involvement.

2. R. N. GILMORE

A.C., 1973, p. 365.

      Neil Gilmore, B.A., B.D., minister of our Brighton church in Victoria, was elected as President of the Australian Council of Churches at the General Meeting of the Council on August 10-14th. This is the first time that the president has been a member of Churches of Christ.

      Mr. Gilmore succeeds Bishop David Garnsey, of Gippsland, and will hold office until the next General Meeting of the Council in February 1975. Then he will be eligible for re-election for a further term.

      Neil Gilmore's personal involvement through the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches with Christians in Africa and Asia has led him to plead strongly for justice, especially for those oppressed by racial discrimination. But the motivation is the conviction that this is an essential part of the ministry of Christ in reconciling the world.

      When an interviewer from Channel O asked what new moves he would like the Council to make, Neil Gilmore's reply was typical--short and to the point. Initiatives were needed in the field of witness, he said--that is in evangelism. He sees that as fundamental to the ministry of reconciliation.

      Those who have worked closely with him know that he will bring positive but balanced leadership to the Council. He will be broad in his appreciation of others, but he will be firm in his insistence that all must stand under the lordship of Christ. His deep concern for sound Biblical scholarship will continue to cause him to call for facing differences realistically. That will help all churches to consider again the witness of the Scriptures.

      He will value your prayers for this important task to which God has called him at this time.

A.C., 1976, p. 99.

      As politicians, we are accustomed to fool some of the people some of the time, but there's one moment when our fooling, our posturing, our facade and pretence is of no avail at all!

      That moment is when we stand in the presence of God, the God who sees, and knows, and reads us as we really are.

      Before Him, to pretend is not only folly, it is the ultimate absurdity. That is why Jesus placed demand upon us at the moment of worship, that we should worship "in spirit and in truth." That is to say, it is not the posture we adopt, not the clothes that we wear, but the attitude of spirit that is essential to real worship--the penitence that we feel for our failures, the repentance over our wilfulness, the humility that we feel in his presence.

      These which allow us to be true--truly ourselves, as we really are--these are the essentials that we may be true and open to the truth. Thus it is that if this service is to have any integrity, if my words are to have integrity, we cannot meet here today and pretend that all is well between us.

      There is division, even polarisation, not only in the Parliament but among the people and the society. However, I want you to reflect with me upon this fact of the polarisation that exists among us. Polarization is not intrinsically bad, not evil of itself. This very planet on which we live is possessed of polarity--it is one giant magnet whirling through space and we are the passengers. If it were not for the polarity we would not be here--life would be impossible--we would be flung off into space, into an ever receding isolation. That is true in the whole field of electro-magnetism. It is precisely the polarization that holds the potential and allows the dynamic and the power to be in the system. It is not different in the field of human relationships.

      Polarization in the human encounter becomes evil, destructive, bad, only when one pole is marked by a bitterness that is not open to reconciliation and the other pole by a triumphalism that sees no need of reconciliation in that it denies the worth of its opposite.

      I remind you that it was in the greatest polarisation gap of all--the pole of human nature and sin on the one hand and the pole of the divine nature and love on the other--it was in that gap that there emerged the most dynamic, the most creative life ever to be lived on the face of this earth. In that gap lived Jesus of Nazareth on his mission of reconciliation. Note, if you will, that he came not in triumphal power, nor yet in better judgement--He came in responsibility--in humility, not power. I dream of that day when we shall grow up and be so set free of ourselves that we can conceive of government, whether of church or nation, of business or union, not in terms of power, but in terms of responsibility. It is the lust for power and the desire to hold on to that little power that we do have which causes the worst examples of 'man's inhumanity to man' today. It is not strange, then, that the Bible reserves its harshest words of denunciation for the powerful, the arrogant and the proud.

      The prophet Zephaniah, along with Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah and Amos, these all make plain that God sets his face against the powerful. Their pride and their arrogance are an offence before him. The New Testament does not lag behind the prophets--Mary's great song of the Magnificat, the most revolutionary document ever penned, Jesus and his platform enunciated so sharply in the Nazareth synagogue sermon, find their climax in a single beatitude, "The meek shall inherit the earth," supported by a second showing that the blessing of the kingdom is upon the poor.

      It is the poor and the powerless that are the special responsibility of government, even as they are the special preserve of the care of God. Never has this been more true than today--I find it among those of the streets of Canberra, even as I find it among the poor of Africa, of Asia and the rest of the world. The people are marked by a great sense of personal insignificance and the powerlessness in the face of the giants of war, industry, transnationals, governments and so on--the rapacious exploiters of our resources both human and material.

      "What can one person do?" is the cry, and that is our powerlessness. In the Biblical understanding, the poor, the powerless, the oppressed, the insignificant--these are the special preserve of God's love and the special preserve of government responsibility. For it is these who so readily fall victim to the injustices of the systems and the structures to the exploitations of the greedy.

      In the words of Jesus the ultimate test that faces us as individuals, that faces our institutions, our churches, our governments and whatever . . . the ultimate test is "What did you do for one of the least of these my little ones?" What did you do for the least? That is the test!

      In conclusion, when times are bad and my own resources begin to fail--ministerial stipends being what they are, that happens--and when the wells of my charity, never too deep, begin to run dry, I often reflect upon those words from the musical 'Fiddler on the Roof.'

      The beggar, one of the 'types' of the little village, is making his rounds, "Alms for the poor! Alms for the poor," he cries as he goes. He comes to one of his regular benefactors who gives him one kopeck.

      "One kopeck!" protests the beggar, "Last week you gave me two kopecks!"

      "I had a bad week," justifies the benefactor.

      "So! You had a bad week! Why should I suffer?" the beggar enunciates a deep challenge and asks the unanswerable question of the poor. Why should I suffer? So Australia has bad times--inflation runs high, our resources begin to be short in some areas--but from India, from Indonesia, from Guatemala, I hear the cry, "Why should we suffer?" The unanswerable question of the poor!

      Two words from the Bible . . . "The meek shall inherit the earth!" and God? He stands at the side of the poor!

[NOF 755-759]