The development of the SDB Denomination in Australia

Seventh Day Baptists in Australia trace their beginnings to the efforts of a disaffected Seventh-day Adventist couple in Bundaberg who in 1975 contacted the Seventh Day Baptist denominational headquarters in America seeking information. The couple were put in contact with the SDB Church in Auckland and subsequently a fraternal bond between the SDBs of New Zealand and Australia was formalised by four Australians’ acceptance into membership of the Auckland Church. The two families of the Bundaberg fellowship were at that time introduced to another family living in Warrimoo, west of Sydney, who had a long-standing family connection with the SDB Church in Holland. Not long after this meeting a Spanish- speaking migrant family in Melbourne also became Seventh Day Baptists and the work in Australia grew from these three points. In 1980 the Australians joined with the two New Zealand churches to form the Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists. The cooperation resulted in a period of rapid growth and by 1985 more than a dozen Seventh Day Baptist fellowships had been formed stretching from Adelaide to Bundaberg. The rapid expansion brought several Australian Churches together in a spontaneous spirit of cooperation and plans were made to accommodate the growing interest with resources and assistance in evangelism. At this time the leadership of the Australasian Conference was centred in New Zealand and for several reasons, including expediency, the work of “Australian Fellowship” largely bypassed official Conference channels, much to the dismay of the Conference leadership. To the Australians, the freedom to work outside of the established bureaucratic structures was regarded as the inherent privilege of autonomously governed churches. The resultant conflict and ensuing unpleasantness brought disastrous consequences which ended in the disbandment of Australia’s largest congregation and a rapid deceleration of growth in Australia. The Conference consolidated by formalising the common beliefs and practices of its member churches in the Australasian Statement of Belief, 1988. Since that time the Australian churches have struggled to establish themselves against a number of ecclesiological and theological challenges. While outreach efforts from Auckland in the late eighties did result in the establishment of a new church in Queensland, inherent difficulties in facilitating cooperation between existing churches, exacerbated by a desperate lack of trained leadership, has resulted in negligible numeric growth in the last decade.

INTRODUCTION

Seventh Day Baptists are “Seventh Day” because they embrace the primordial sanctity and blessedness of the seventh day Sabbath. They are “Baptist” because they hold historic Baptist and Anabaptist ideals in their concepts of the supremacy of Scripture, the nature of the church, church polity, the place of baptism, and the principle of liberty.[1] In Australia, Seventh Day Baptist Churches are few in number and their congregations small. This study traces their short history with particular reference to the theological, social and ecclesio-political issues which have impinged upon their growth and development. The study begins with a brief account of Seventh Day Baptist beginnings in England and an overview of the rise to denominational status in America. This background is not intended to be a balanced presentation of Seventh Day Baptist history but is merely a sketch for the purpose of informing readers of certain significant historical events which have directly shaped the development of the Seventh Day Baptists in Australia. Its value will become apparent in the later analysis of the Australian Seventh Day Baptist Churches’ development toward denominationalism.

While this study will briefly outline the history of each of the individual Seventh Day Baptist Churches in Australia, it will pay particular attention to their corporate activities. Where relevant, the doctrines and beliefs of Seventh Day Baptists will be compared and contrasted with those of the Baptist and Seventh-day Adventist denominations and the relationships between them discussed.

Much of Australian Seventh Day Baptist history still resides in the memories of persons still living and only a small proportion of this has been committed to print. For that reason, details of certain events have been gathered from the actual participants. However, to avoid subjectivity and inaccuracy wherever possible, information has been crosschecked by reference to primary sources such as Church, Association, and Conference correspondence, minutes and records. Details found within published news items appearing in official journals and newsletters have been incorporated and a number of unpublished manuscripts have been consulted and referenced.

The motivating factors behind the establishment of individual Australian Seventh Day Baptist Churches will be examined so as to form a basis for understanding the external and internal influences affecting their later development. Additionally, the circumstances attending the decline of certain Australian churches will be examined. An analysis of the data collated will aim to identify the major contributing and inhibiting factors of Seventh Day Baptist denominational growth in Australia.

SEVENTH DAY BAPTIST ORIGINS

It is somewhat difficult to fix the birth date of the Seventh Day Baptists. In common with several nineteenth century Baptist historians,[2] Seventh Day Baptist writers[3] have tended to adopt a defensive historiography that aims to identify an ecclesiastical heritage which harks back to the first “Sabbath-keeping Baptists” – Jesus Christ and his disciples.[4] This inclination is to some extent encouraged in SDB apologetics by the need to answer the plethora of anti-Sabbatarian polemics which label Seventh-day Sabbatarianism a modern innovation and appeal to catholic Church history to establish the religious observance of the first day. Hence, a catalogue of references to the Sabbath in Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene literature, coupled with examples of Sabbath-observance among certain minority sects of the Middle Ages are commonly used to show the regular recurrence of Sabbath observance throughout the broader history of Christianity. SDB writer Alva L. Davis explains,

The task however is found to be more difficult by the fact that evidence of both major distinctives of the Seventh Day Baptists are less often found together in the brief remarks of recorded history.[6] Nevertheless examples such as that of the Sabbatarian Anabaptists of East Central Europe[7] afford sufficient evidence for many Seventh Day Baptists to circumvent Luther in tracking their spiritual heritage and to identify their distinctive theological roots as emanating from a ‘history’ which precedes the recorded beginnings of their seventeenth century English Sabbatarian Baptist predecessors.[8]

Tangible evidence of the origins of the Sabbatarian Baptists, though still the subject of dispute,[9] locates the movement in London sometime around the early 1650’s.[10] As the doctrine of believer’s baptism had already been widely disseminated by Anabaptists for over hundred years, it would be presumptuous to consider Seventh Day Baptists as an “offshoot” of the early English Baptists congregations such as that organised by Thomas Helwys, 1611. The Sabbatarian movement had notably unconnected beginnings which: arose out of the fomentation of the controversy instigated by the Puritan’s favourable reception of Nicholas Bownde’s 1595 work entitled The Doctrine of the Sabbath; were furthered by the preaching of John Traske and others[11]; and were introduced to the public forum by the writings of the Anglican priest, Theophilus Brabourne.[12] Thus it would be unwise to dismiss the probability of independent origins for the First and Seventh-day Baptists.[13]

It may be asked why such an ardent proponent of the Sabbath as Brabourne did not put his theological convictions into practice. Despite the threat of persecution and the imprisonment which he had suffered for his outspokenness, Brabourne remained devoted to the goal of the conversion of the entire Church of England to the hallowing of the Sabbath. His position on the Sabbath was reasoned primarily on theological grounds and directed as a polemic to the Anglican Church at large. To the individual convicted of the sanctity of the Sabbath a rift is created between the personal demands of piety and the customary practice of the non-Sabbatarian church. Hence one’s concept of ecclesiology plays an important role in determining the religious practice of the Sabbatarian. To persons subscribing to the “free church” position exemplified in Anabaptist and Separatist communities of faith, a break with established tradition is somewhat less difficult. The theology of the “Radical Reformation” had, since the sixteenth century, opened the way for a re-evaluation of the basic concept of church. Liechty refers to the restitutionist pattern of thinking found among Anabaptist communities:

Among Anabaptists an identifiable and momentous wrong move in the history of the church was seen in the marriage of church and state generally located in the reign of the Emperor Constantine.[15] Sabbatarians strengthened their theological arguments for the Sabbath with the belief that the state church had, without scriptural authority, adopted the custom of First-day worship to the eventual detriment of Sabbath observance, and with the 321 edict of Constantine,[16] had allowed the observance of the Sabbath day to lapse.[17] When convicted of the Sabbath those who had previously thrown off the shackles of the state church encountered no impediment to the establishment of local Sabbatarian Churches. Liechty explains the connection between conviction and practice in restitutionist thinking.

In view of these facts it is hardly surprising that seventh-day Sabbatarianism took root in the soil cultivated by ‘believer’s church’ ecclesiology and theological emphasis.

At several points the pioneer First and Seventh-day Baptists were known to have interacted. In 1659 Jeremiah Ives, a popular Baptist controversialist, challenged the Seventh Day Baptists to a debate to be held in the Stone Chapel beside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Dr. Peter Chamberlen, personal physician to three British Sovereigns,[19] Thomas Tillam, a Fifth Monarchist,[20] and Rev. Matthew Coppinger a follower of Traske,[21] represented the Sabbatarian standpoint. The debate was well attended and Sanford suggests that several Baptists were thereby convinced of the Sabbath. Another early connection is found in the Seventh-day Sabbatarian views of Henry Jessey of the famous Jacob-Lanthrop-Jessey Independent Baptist Church in London who practised “open membership”[22]. Ball suggests that Jessey’s sabbatarianism began in the mid 1640’s[23] and considers that it was on account of “his tolerant broadmindedness and fear of division” that he did not make an issue of either the Sabbath or Baptism. In the eighteenth century, due to a lack of suitable ministers, several Seventh Day Baptist congregations were served by First-day Baptist pastors. Conversely some Sabbatarians, such as the Stennett family, served as pastors for both First and Seventh Day Baptist congregations. Samuel Stennett, an accomplished hymnist, composed several popular hymns, two of which are found in hymnals widely used by Australian Baptist Churches - “On Jordon’s Stormy Banks I Stand”, and “Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned Upon the Saviour’s Brow”.

Many of those early Sabbatarians suffered for the cause of the Sabbath including John Traske, who in 1618 was sentenced by the Star Chamber “to be removed from the ministry, imprisoned for life, fined £1000, whipped from the Fleet prison to Westminster and to Cheapside, pilloried in both places, and branded on the forehead with the letter J to signify that he had ‘broached Jewish opinions’.”[24] Traske’s wife Dorothy was also imprisoned for keeping the Sabbath, and despite her husband’s recantation remained faithful, choosing rather to suffer a miserable existence in prison until her release by death in 1645.[25] It is said that Richard Lovelace who was confined in the same prison because of his royalist sympathies referred to Mrs. Traske in the poem, “To Althea from Prison” in the lines: “Stone walls do not a prison make. Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for heritage.”[26] Another, Francis Bampfield, whose brother Thomas was an able defender of the Sabbath and a Speaker in the Cromwellian Parliament, organised the Particular Seventh Day Baptist Church known as Pinners Hall Seventh Day Baptist Church. Francis was arrested for preaching in violation of the Conventicle Act of 1670[27] and died in Newgate Prison in 1684 on account of its deplorable conditions.[28]

In 1661, John James, the pastor of the Mill Yard church, suffered martyrdom, not on account of the Sabbath, but on account of his preaching of the eschatological Kingdom of God.[29] On Sabbath, Oct 19, he was dragged from the pulpit, and sentenced

Differences encountered over the doctrine of election were not the only theological diversities apparent among early English Sabbatarians. Having opposed the notion of the abolition of the Ten Commandments, several, as early as Traske, extended the relevance of Old Testament law to include dietary laws and appointed feasts. Sadly, a few including Hamlet Jackson[31] were reported to have eventually embraced Judaism.[32] Thomas Tillam too became so engrossed in his apocalyptic enthusiasm that several leading Sabbatarians in England were prompted to officially disassociate themselves from Tillam and his teachings.[33] In keeping with the prevailing restitutionist ideology, and in response to the support given to infant baptism by the later Church Fathers, many placed the perceived “fall” in the history of the Church of God at a point many years prior to the fourth century Council of Nicea. Hence some came to suspect the traditional doctrine of the Trinity as an impious invention of the corrupted Church. Anti-trinitarian thinking rose to prominence in Baptist circles with the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and was not without its Sabbatarian proponents. Among these was Edward Elwall who in 1726 wrote a tract entitled, Dagon fallen upon his stumps, which, though suffering from a lack of clarity, overtly embraces Unitarian theology.[34] That same year Robert Cornthwaite was appointed pastor of the Mill Yard SDB Church. As a result the Calvinist Pinners Hall SDB Church withdrew from joint worship with Cornthwaite on account of his alleged Socinian sympathies.[35] Despite persecution from without and diversity and struggles within the movement grew in numbers and influence.

Following the rapid growth of English Sabbatarian Baptist churches in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries came a sudden decline that left a mere handful of adherents by the mid-nineteenth century. Sanford attributes this demise which began in the eighteenth century to: a lack of organised fellowship, reliance upon endowment, reliance on first day ministers, persecution and discrimination.[36] Ball maintains that the disintegration which set in at the beginning of the eighteenth century and was complete by it close was the consequence of several of contributing factors: 1. The Seventh-day Sabbath stands on the unquestioned authority of the Scriptures, a concept which suffered under the destabilizing effects of “rationalism, deism, empiricism and the Enlightenment.” 2. A lack of foresight for the training of the ministry which resulted in the demise of those congregations which lacked suitable leadership. 3. Lack of investment in church buildings. (meeting houses and/or parsonages.) 4. Failure to organise a denominational or inter-congregational structure. 5. The ill effects of a reputation for extremism and fanaticism.[37] 6. Joint pastorates with First-day Baptist churches deprived Seventh-day Churches of a ministry dedicated to Sabbatarian distinctives. 7. A failure to promulgate the doctrine of the Sabbath. 8. A failure to instruct and cater for the young members and children. 9. Internal strife, dissention and bickering among members. 10. Civil and ecclesiastical opposition and persecution resulting in the relocation of Sabbatarians in the Continent and the New World.[38]

Not until well after their establishment in America did Seventh Day Baptists approach the semblance of a viable denomination. In 1664, Stephen Mumford and his wife who had been Sabbath-keepers in the mixed congregation of Tewkesbury Baptist Church in Gloucestershire emigrated to Newport, Rhode Island. They joined John Clarke’s Baptist Church and were soon joined in their conviction of the Sabbath by several others including Samuel and Tacy Hubbard. A seemingly irreconcilable dispute involving communion with ex-Sabbath-keepers resulted in separation and the formation of the first Seventh Day Baptist Church on American soil.[39] New churches were subsequently founded and followed in 1696 by the establishment of yearly meetings for the purpose of inter-cooperation.[40] In 1802 the General Conference of the Seventh Day Baptists was formed for the purpose of: providing the people with an identity, helping to define doctrine, serving as a communicating agent, providing a means for education, and initiating programs.[41] For the first hundred and sixty years of their existence in America, Seventh Day Baptists avidly avoided making a statement of their beliefs “lest the result become a binding creed”.[42] Their position was clearly stated in 1811:

any prescription of man...as to rules of faith and morals (are generally esteemed) not only useless but nearly presumptuous. And not withstanding they are harmoniously agreed in the important, fundamental and essential points of the Christian Religion; yet as to smaller matters and mere circumstantial points there may be a great variety of beliefs.[43]

Nevertheless, by 1831 it was generally agreed that a statement of belief was appropriate and such a statement was adopted in 1833 with the following understanding,

However, in response to concerns, it became necessary in 1852 to expressly redefine the function of the statement. Thus it was resolved,

THE MILLERITES EMBRACE THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH

William Miller, a licensed Baptist preacher published a book in 1836 entitled Evidence from Scripture and History of the Second Coming of Christ, About the Year 1843.[46] Miller figured that 2300 years (Daniel 8:14) from the date of Ezra’s return to Jerusalem 457 B.C. pointed to 1843 as the year of Christ’s return to “cleanse the sanctuary”. His predictions sparked great interest and gave rise to a large group of enthusiasts who expectantly counted down the days to the imminent advent of their Lord. After Christ failed to return by 1845 Miller admitted his error and returned to farming. But Hiram Edson was convinced that the 1844 date was not in error.[47] The non-appearance of Christ could be better explained as a misinterpretation of “the sanctuary” as a reference to earth. When Adventists reinterpreted “the sanctuary” as a reference to the Heavenly Sanctuary the “Great Disappointment” of 1844 took on a new and far-reaching theological meaning. The notion gave rise to the unique Adventist doctrine known as the “Investigative Judgment”.[48]

While Miller had effectively caught the attention of those persons predisposed to religious radicalism it was Hiram Edson who skimmed off the “cream” of those still loyal to the eschatological hope. It was to the Minister of one such group in 1844 that Rachel Oakes, a middle-aged Seventh Day Baptist woman, brought the teaching of the Seventh-day Sabbath.[49] The doctrine gradually spread from congregation to congregation until a large number of “Millerites” became known as Seventh-day Adventists. In 1869 the General Conference of Seventh Day Baptists in America agreed to cooperate with the Seventh-day Adventists and from 1870 the two bodies began to send delegates to each other’s Conference sessions. However, cooperation between the two bodies has been of little significance. In addition to several theological incompatibilities, a wedge of resentment and distrust had been driven between the denominations in the mid-1850s by the disharmony caused by denominational competitiveness. One example of this is found in the case of the Hayfield SDB church which split on account of the deliberately divisive and unscrupulous methods of an overzealous Adventist.[50]

The following extract from a tract, Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists Compared published by the American Sabbath Tract and Communication Council, succinctly compares the two denominations.[51] The important differences noted are first, in regard to the inspiration of non-biblical writings and utterances.

Seventh Day Baptists are often quoted as saying that “the Sabbath is the only significant point of belief on which Baptists and Seventh Day Baptists differ”.[58] Denominational pamphlets such as A Baptist Church that’s a little different[59], tend to perpetuate this concept as do SDB Statements of Belief which are purposely generic and rarely betray any major theological variants. However, this definition fails to take account of the diversity of belief and practice which is tolerated by the Baptist ethos. Hence, while the mainstream Baptist Churches have drifted toward an ever-increasing semblance of orthodoxy, there is, especially among their laity, a wide range of opinion of any given subject.[60] Diversity of belief is perhaps more marked in Seventh Day Baptist Churches than in most union-regulated Baptist churches (especially in Australia) because of the priority given to the ‘autonomy of the local church’.[61]

The Churches of God

In 1884 a group of Sabbath keeping churches which had emerged from the Second Advent movement organised themselves in what later became known as the General Conference of the Church of God (Seventh Day) presently located in Denver, Colorado.[62] It was from this denomination that an energetic minister named Herbert W. Armstrong departed to form the Radio Church of God which later became the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong’s major doctrines include: A God family comprised of Father and Son (the Holy Spirit is the power of God), The Bible as infallible Word of God and the only rule of faith and practice, the Christianised observance of the weekly Sabbath and biblical Holy days (Lev. 23), absence of all consciousness at death, Conditional Immortality dependent on a future resurrection, British Israelitism, The present value of God’s dietary laws, The Millennial Reign of Christ on earth, The opportunity for salvation at the White Throne Judgment for all those who have not previously been called by God, Annihilation for those who wilfully reject Christ.[63]

SEVENTH DAY BAPTIST BEGINNINGS IN AUSTRALIA

It is impossible to speak of the history of Seventh Day Baptists in Australia without prior reference to the Seventh Day Baptists of New Zealand. The Auckland Seventh Day Baptist Church began in the 1930s with a group of ex-Adventists under the leadership of Rev. Francis Johnson.[64] It was admitted in to the General Conference (U.S.A.) in 1940.[65] Around the same time another group of Sabbath-keepers was gathered in Christchurch under the leadership of Rev. Edward Barrar M.A. B.D. who had trained at the Melbourne College of Divinity and the Australian Missionary School and was ordained in Auckland in 1941.[66] In 1942 Edward Barrar published a magazine called The Gospel Messenger. In that same year he travelled to Australia on an English troop ship and was able to make contact with several Australian Sabbatarians.[67] In 1944 the Christchurch Church was admitted into Conference.[68] In 1946 Pastor Barrar’s son Ronald answered a call to the mission-field of Nyasaland (Malawi). In 1951, Rev. Emmett H. Bottoms and his wife were commissioned by the SDB Missionary Society (U.S.A.) for evangelistic work in England and Auckland, and to visit Sabbath-keepers in Perth and the Makapwa Mission in Nyasaland headed by Rev. Ronald Barrar.

In 1975 a young Seventh-day Adventist couple, Mervyn and Mavis Rudd of Bundaberg, Queensland, began to see what they termed “contradictions, inconsistencies and error” in their Adventist teachings and beliefs. In particular they saw the doctrine of the “Investigative Judgment” as a denial of God’s promise that sins are blotted out when forgiveness is sought and confession is made. (Isaiah 44:22, Col 2:13, 14.) Mavis wrote,

Resigning their membership on 15th August, 1975 they sought alternative avenues for fellowship. Recalling the existence of American Seventh Day Baptists from their knowledge of SDA History they inquired of some Baptists visiting from America and were given an address to which they could write. A reply came from SDB Pastor A. Wheeler, who sent literature and the contact address of Pastor Francis S. Johnson in Auckland, New Zealand. Pastor Johnson replied in July, 1975 with an encouraging letter which succinctly highlighted the Seventh Day Baptists’ major contention with Adventist doctrine.

As a result of further study and acceptance of Seventh Day Baptist Beliefs and Polity, the Rudds, together with Doug and Rosemary Mackenzie applied for membership into the Auckland Seventh Day Baptist Church and on 23 August 1975 they duly received the right hand of fellowship (by proxy).[71] Pastor and Mrs. Johnson visited the nucleus of interested families (now 3) on October 27, 1975 and stayed around two weeks in which time they were able to meet with Stefan Kube, a Polish immigrant also from an Adventist background. His wife Vicky Kube who had been raised a Seventh Day Baptist in Holland had been living in Australia with her husband since April 1960. As far as is known, Vicky was the first person of Seventh Day Baptist provenance to live in Australia. Mavis Rudd writes,

It is known that a William Ayars who perhaps immigrated to Australia in the gold rush lived at Creswick, Victoria (died 1909) and was a descendant of the Ayars family which had been involved in the Seventh Day Baptist Church since its inception at Newport. Unfortunately it is not known whether he was a practising Seventh Day Baptist.[73]

In March 11, 1976 Mervyn and Mavis Rudd received a letter and notice of a package of booklets and tracts from John D. Beavis of the American Sabbath Tract Society encouraging them to “establish an independent, freethinking, Baptist Sabbathkeeping witness in the great land of Australia”. John shared that he too was a former Adventist as was half the membership of his own church. In December 1976, Edward Horsley M.D. was sent from America to support the new work in Australia.[74] Dr. Horsley a former Adventist met on Sabbath with the three young couples and their eight children . In the afternoon he met with 12 or 15 spokesmen of the local SDA group, including their pastor, and preached on the subject of Judgment. Dr. Horsley was well prepared to speak on the issue which had precipitated the Rudd’s departure from Adventism. He had recently written an article for the Sabbath Recorder in which he shared his views on the controversial subject.[75] From Bundaberg Horsley travelled to Sydney to spend time with the Kube family in the mountainous outskirts of Sydney. A meeting was held to which neighbours were invited. On the worth of his adventure ‘Down Under’ Horsley comments,

The visit was followed up by another in 1978 by Pastor Leon Lawton. Thus we see a glimpse of the empathy and encouragement that was offered to those who wished to leave Adventism for a more evangelical fellowship without forsaking the Sabbath. The enthusiasm and vision which marked the beginning of the work in Bundaberg surpassed the actual growth which was relatively slow for several years.

In December 1977 an Argentinian family from Melbourne, Victoria wrote to the American Sabbath Tract Society for information. Contact was then made with Mavis Rudd in Bundaberg who, in August 1978, visited Jose and Betty Alegre and family for the occasion of the first public meeting of Seventh Day Baptists in Melbourne. Pastor Leon Lawton from the U.S.A. was also able to meet with the Alegres during his visit to Australia in 1978. The Alegre family “did an intense publicity through posters, home visits and announcements on the Spanish newspaper and radio”.[77] So began the work in Melbourne under the leadership of Jose Alegre. Unlike most of the other Australian SDBs, the Alegres were not former Adventists. Their special interests lay in evangelism, particularly within their own Spanish-speaking community in Melbourne.

In May 1994 Pastor Alegre left Melbourne for Argentina in order to plant a new Seventh Day Baptist Church in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Leadership of the Melbourne Church was left to Esperanza Cardona. The Church caters for both Spanish and English speaking members and has zealously supported the establishment of the SDB Church in Argentina.

Over the holiday break in the years 1977 and 1978 the families from Bundaberg met at Nature's Health Centre, Bruxner Park, Coffs Harbour, N.S.W. with the Kube family from Sydney and Pastor Ronald Barrar from Auckland, for mutual fellowship and edification. Families from the area were also able to meet with them and in 1978 they included representatives from Sydney, Melbourne and Bundaberg. An article entitled, Church with a bloody history meeting at Bruxner Park, appearing in the local newspaper during the 1978-79 meetings illustrates the fledgling church’s struggle for recognition and acceptance in the face of the prevalent suspicion of “cults”.

The article continues with details of the origins of the church in 1617 and a graphic description of the martyrdom of John James which may have been added for the purpose of giving a degree of authenticity to a relatively new and unknown entity.

The Warrimoo group under the leadership of Stephan Kube began with meetings at the Kube’s home in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. Mervyn and Mavis Rudd moved to Sydney early in 1980 and assisted with the work there. The Kubes located a church building suitable for Sabbath meetings. Through advertising and personal witness, many contacts were made in the Sydney area including an elderly gentleman Mr. A. C. Sampson, a Sabbatarian who had for many years, been in contact with Seventh Day Baptists in New Zealand and other parts of the world but had never previously become a member. Mavis Rudd writes,

As Rev. L. Richard Conradi died in 1939, Mr. Sampson’s contact must have been no later than the 1930s.[80] The Warrimoo Church was accepted into conference as a church in January 1990.[81]

In 1996 the Church secured the use of the Uniting Church Hall at North Parramatta, Sydney. Since its official Opening Service March 30, 1996 it is has been known as the Sydney Seventh Day Baptist Church. Since January 1998 the Church has been led by Pastor Alegre’s son Gabrielle.

Theo and Elsie Hawkins, an ex-Adventist couple living at Morisset, N.S.W., had been seeking the fellowship of like-minded Sabbatarians for some years prior to their contact with Seventh Day Baptists. The Hawkins and several others joined company with the Seventh Day Baptists around the time of the inception of the Australasian Conference in 1980. Theo had long cherished an interest in publishing and had compiled a number of polemics against certain key Adventist doctrines. Though never large in number the group was very active in the production of literature, primarily due to Theo’s prolific writing on detailed theological issues.

MOVES TOWARD DENOMINATIONALISM: A PERIOD OF EXPANSION

In 1979 the Auckland Church extended an invitation to the Seventh Day Baptists in Australia to meet together with the New Zealand churches. The meeting took place in July, 1980 where members of the two New Zealand churches and several Australians adopted a constitution for the purpose of forming the Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists. Pr. Charles Graffius of U.S.A., sponsored by Dr. Edward Horsley was able to be present at this historic gathering.[82] In 1981, Conference commenced publication of its official newsletter, Link. The Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists was accepted into the fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance by the General Council in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 83.[83]

In December, 1980 Mervyn and Mavis Rudd moved back to Bundaberg where during their absence the Bundaberg SDB meetings had reverted to home gatherings. The Rudds believed that for the best effect meetings should be held in a public building. In 1981 they secured the use of the Kepnock Progress Hall and eventually regular advertising and outreach resulted in increased numbers. One of these was Richie Elwall who was baptised on May 1, 1983. Interestingly, Elwall’s membership in the Bundaberg Fellowship gave it a link with the revered history of the English Seventh Day Baptists. A Link report relates,

In October 1983 the Fellowship relocated to Orange Hall, Bundaberg,[85] and on November 6 adopted a Covenant and Constitution and became the Bundaberg Seventh Day Baptist Church with 12 members rising to 17 members by 1985[86] at which time Kevin Keogh was elected to the position of Leader.[87]

In 1981 Graham Duffin an ex-Adventist who trained at Avondale College [S.D.A.] replied to a Warrimoo SDB newspaper advertisement. Graham was then a business executive with four years Gospel radio broadcasting experience in the U.S.A. and Sydney. Graham and his wife Margaret shared a keen interest in evangelism and together ran an independent ministry producing a 20min Sunday evening broadcast, “Good News Forum”, on 2 SER – FM 107.5Mhz. By July 1982 he had completed over 100 programs.[88] In 1983, faced with a threat to his ministry by the allocation of inferior timeslot for his Gospel broadcast, Graham considered organizing an “independent” Sabbath-keeping church. After an invitation to speak at the Warrimoo fellowship in August 1983, Graham became attracted to the Seventh Day Baptist denomination by its non-creedal ethos, its polity, and the prospects of making even greater achievements in cooperation with the resources of a larger organization. In a circular to his co-workers he wrote,

Graham started the new Sydney Church with an attendance of 30 – 11 being supporters from the Warrimoo Fellowship. Graham’s first sermon was entitled “The Open Door”, taken from Rev. 3:8.[90] The new group utilised the Regents Park Chapel (former Uniting Church) a well situated venue in the centre of Sydney in close proximity to rail transport.

The Regents Park Church became actively involved in outreach and evangelism and established several contacts with isolated Sabbath-keepers throughout N.S.W. and the A.C.T.

At their annual Vision Meeting held March 1, 1986 the Regents Park Church set for themselves the following goals in order of priority:

In June 1986, the second of these goals was realised with the employment of Pastor Graham Duffin on a full time basis.[92]

Ian and Rosalie Tremaine were unaffiliated Sabbathkeepers who held fortnightly Bible studies in their home in Adelaide. In 1983 they decided to affiliate with Seventh Day Baptists and for that purpose obtained a post office box and rubber stamp. Rosalie writes,

We stamped hundreds of tracts which were given to new contacts and left all over Adelaide. Then, 6 months later, in October 83, we took another bold step and started advertising in Adelaide's leading daily, The Advertiser. This advertisement has appeared without fail every week since then, and has been the greatest single catalyst in initiating the church.[93]

The first official meeting of the Adelaide Seventh Day Baptist Fellowship was held on January 21, 1984. This inaugural meeting was attended by Chris James, his wife Maxine, and their children. Ironically, Chris had been looking for a church to pastor, and actually thought of starting a church to be called Baptist 7th Day. Chris later commenced a three-year ministerial course at the Adelaide College of Ministries. The new group was able to procure the Glenelg Salvation Army hall for a regular meeting place.[94] In mid-1984 the leadership passed to Ian Tremaine. In the second quarter of 1985 meetings reverted to home meetings. Weekly meetings recommenced August 24, 1985, at Glenelg Salvation Army hall following a joint effort by the Australian churches to hold outreach meetings in Adelaide. Mervyn and Mavis Rudd were sponsored by the Regents Park Church to minister in Adelaide as missionaries for a period of six weeks.

The Bundaberg Church sponsored an outreach at Hervey Bay, Queensland, with ex-Adventist minister Pastor Joe Harvey as speaker. As an outcome of this crusade meeting held on Dec 11, 1983, a new SDB Fellowship commenced meetings January 7, 1984, with an attendance of 21 people from more than six familes. The new group under the leadership and sponsorship of the Bundaberg Church met each Sabbath at 3.00pm in the Undenominational Christian Fellowship Hall, Scarness, Queensland. In the first quarter of 1985 the Fellowship reverted to home meetings under the leadership of Gordon Bear.

Following the success of the Hervey Bay meeting, the Bundaberg Church planned another crusade which was held on February 18, 1984 at the R.S.L. Hall in Coorparoo, Brisbane with an attendance of about 60 people.[95] From the sermon content, “1844 and the New Theology in the Light of the Gospel”, it is clearly seen that the outreach with typical SDB evangelical emphasis, was directed toward Adventists. Pastor Joe Harvey was the main speaker[96] and from this crusade regular bible studies began in his home and under his leadership. The October 1984 issue of Link indicates that in the previous quarter the group began weekly Sabbath meetings at the Wesleyan Chapel, Wynnum West. In 1987 Pastor Harvey and his wife moved to Townsville and by one report, back in the Adventist Church.[97]

In 1983 Peter John Neivandt answered a Melbourne SDB Church advertisement in NEW LIFE magazine.[98] At this time Melbourne was holding services in both Spanish and English but the presence of Peter Neivandt as Assistant Pastor allowed Pastor Jose Alegre to hand the pastorate of the English speakers to Peter and concentrate more on the needs of the Spanish speakers. On August 18, 1984 at the 6^th anniversary of the Melbourne Church, Peter Neivandt was appointed as leader of the English speaking group[99] who in 1985 changed their name to the Sabbatarian Baptist Fellowship and began to meet weekly in the Baptist Church at Coburg, They also instigated monthly youth / outreach meetings at Frankston.[100] Coburg ceased operation as an SDB Fellowship in 1987.

The October 1984 issue of Link advertised additional meetings in Whyalla, South Australia, with the contact address of Pastor Chris James who, in 1985, accepted a call to Assistant Pastor of the SDB Church at Christchurch.[101]

An outreach was held in November 17 1984 in Canberra and resulted in one family willing to assist in the establishment of an SDB fellowship in the Canberra area.[102]

Jan-Feb-March 1985 issue of Link carried the news of a new Fellowship at Baulkham Hills on Sydney’s Northside under the direction of Pastor Duffin. Sabbath meetings were held in the afternoons at the Recreation Building, Seven Hills Rd, Baulkham Hills. Meetings reverted to home meetings by April 1985 and were discontinued prior to July 1985.[103]

A new SDB Spanish-speaking fellowship opened at Clayton, Melbourne, on January 12, 1985 under the direction of Pastor Alegre. Afternoon meetings were held each Sabbath at the Uniting Church, Clayton. The meetings reverted to home meetings prior to July 1985.[104]

Saturday March 2, 1985 marked the beginning of an additional (English-speaking) fellowship for Melbourne meeting at St. James Church of England, Mount Eliza, under the leadership of Stuart Farrow and his wife Pat.[105] In the second quarter of 1985 the Fellowship reverted to home meetings and the Farrows began an outreach to the Jewish Community in Melbourne.[106] In July 1986 Pat and Stuart Farrow reported that they had commenced weekly meetings in the Mechanics Institute Hall in Frankston. It is evident in this report that the Farrows were firmly committed to the evangelism of the Jewish Community and the breaking down of anti-Semitism.[107] Frankston ceased operation as an SDB Fellowship in 1989.

In the first quarter of 1986 after Pastor Chris James returned from Christchurch, the James family joined with another Whyalla Fellowship family, the Middlecoats, in Taree, N.S.W. to form a new SDB Fellowship. Their first four meetings were held in a tent and then in Robyn and Peggy Middlecoat’s home.[108]

The January 1986 issue of Link reported the possibility of the formation of a new group in Grafton. Pastor Duffin planned to visit the Grafton contacts over the Australia Day long- weekend. The directory of SDB contacts in the April 1986 issue of Link lists Grafton and Bega (Bemboka) as area contacts.[109]

On August 15, 1986 Rosemary Mackenzie wrote to the editor of Link informing him that a fellowship had been meeting independently of the Bundaberg Church “for the past six months”.[110] In October 1985, Bundaberg Church Secretary G. Littlewood reported that there had been some “problems in the church” prior to Mervyn and Mavis Rudd’s mission in Adelaide. At that time the official telephone contact number had been that of Doug Mackenzie. On the April issue of Link the contact number was changed to that of Mervyn Rudd and it would thus appear that the return of the Rudds coincided with the separation of the Oakwood Fellowship. As a result of a leadership dispute in Bundaberg, the Oakwood Fellowship became the only remaining SDB group in the area and in 1990 it was accepted into the Conference as the Bundaberg Seventh Day Baptist Church. The Church ceased to operate in 1993.

INTERACTION OF AUSTRALIAN OF CHURCHES INDEPENDENT OF CONFERENCE

The first of these Australian meetings was held over the Easter break (April 5-7) in 1985. As stated by Pastor Duffin, “The purpose of the fellowship weekend was to get to know one another better, learn more about our faith and to leave refreshed and energised for the Lord’s work.”[112] This first Yearly Meeting was attended by Bundaberg, Brisbane, Warrimoo and Adelaide Church members.

The second Australian Fellowship meeting was held March 28 – 30, 1986 at the Regents Park Church and was attended by Adelaide, Regents Park, Bundaberg and Warrimoo members.[113] It is worthy of note that the Melbourne churches were absent from both Meetings and that most of the attendees shared a common background in Adventism.

It is evident that the pace of growth in Australia at this time demanded more frequent discussion and planning of the work than the biennial Australasian Conferences could provide. Furthermore, the division of Conference leadership between Australia and New Zealand, produced difficulties in the logistics of communication and travel which made the wheels of Conference turn all the more slowly. It is to be noted that among Seventh Day Baptist Churches frequent efforts were made by several key persons to visit and encourage the various Church groups around Australia. Mervyn and Mavis Rudd also saw a need to provide literature and other resources for both evangelistic and denominational interests. In 1985 they set up the SDB Literature Centre and produced a history of the first twenty-five years of SDBs in Australia.[114] In 1986 they purchased a computer and multicolour printer and set about producing evangelistic tracts.[115] It has previously been noted that on August 24, 1985, there was a joint effort by the Warrimoo, Bundaberg and Regents Park churches to assist the Adelaide brethren in revitalising the work there and this was typical of the spirit of cooperation and mutual concern between those Churches which attended the Australian Fellowship meetings.

However, this Australian cooperation, having proposed some seemingly grandiose schemes which bypassed official Conference channels, did not endear itself to certain members of Conference, the leadership of which from January 1983 to January 1988, (due to the resignation in 1985 of Stephan Kube of Warrimoo) was largely in the hands of Daniel Barrar of Christchurch and his elder brother Ronald Barrar of Auckland.[116] The Australians did not see any impropriety in this spontaneous cooperative action but saw it rather as an inherent right of those churches which upheld the principle of autonomy and non-hierarchical polity. Mavis Rudd commented in the 1985 preface to the first edition of her work, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia,

In 1985 some of the Australian Churches and Fellowships withdrew their membership of the Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists.[117] These were Regents Park Church, Adelaide Fellowship and Bundaberg Church, who were notably the major players of the Australian Fellowship. In this same year Stefan Kube, President of the Conference, resigned his office. In Mavis Rudd’s opinion,

It is significant that between key individuals in the Conference and in the Australian Fellowship there were major differences in theology, in ecclesiology, in the perception of denominational identity, and the strategies of evangelism, predominantly rising out of the unique perspective of those Seventh Day Baptists who shared an Adventist background. It is evident that at the inception of the Australian Fellowship the leadership of the major Australian Churches, with the exception of Melbourne, were adequately equipped to provide a viable alternative church for the many Adventists who were at that time questioning the doctrines of Adventism in the light of the work of S.D.A. reformers such as Desmond Ford, Robert Brinsmead, and Walter Rea.[119] Seventh Day Baptists, such as Graham Duffin, Mervyn and Mavis Rudd, Joe Harvey and Theo Hawkins, were motivated by a desire to see their former brethren come to a better knowledge of the Truth. They saw a unique window of opportunity among disaffected Adventists. This fact is well attested by the encouragement and voice given to the spokespersons of Good News Unlimited by certain Seventh Day Baptist Churches at that time.[120] In the Regents Park Church’s first months of operation regular advertising had begun in the Good News Unlimited Bulletin, Dr. Desmond Ford had been invited to speak, and at least one third of the membership were ex-Adventists.[121] Pastor Ron Allen (of Good News Unlimited) preached at Regents Park on January 28, March 17, in the April-June quarter spoke twice at a seminar held near Taree in June 9, 1984, and was invited as a guest speaker to the Hervey Bay Fellowship.[122] Ex-Adventist SDB, Dr. Ted Horsley, visited again from U.S.A. in March 1984. From his accession, Pastor Duffin assumed an official and dynamic denominational leadership role and was eagerly promoting church growth strategies and inter-church cooperation.[123] All this occurred prior to Regents Park Church’s official acceptance into Conference on July 5, 1984 and the liaison with Good News Unlimited continued with a special meeting with Des Ford in February 22, 1985. The organization of the Australian SDB Fellowship, Easter, 1985 marked the beginning of a determined effort to denominationalise the Seventh Day Baptist Churches in Australia at a national level. This organization was clearly born out of a desperate need for interchurch cooperation in the management of growth.

Unfortunately, within the Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptist Churches, this spontaneous cooperation created a faction whose members shared a vision and a set of objectives which were shaped by their common background in Adventism. As a less unwieldy organization, the Fellowship was able to assume responsibilities and propose activities which intruded into Conference “territory” and perhaps pre-empted initiatives that Conference would have envisaged had it been a more dynamic and vibrant organization. That the Fellowship undermined both the essential function of Conference and the commission of its elected officials and excluded the New Zealanders from “the action” was of little relevance to the Australian SDB circle whose prime movers had not been elected to any executive positions at the 1984 Conference. The “ex-Adventist faction” welcomed the freedom of non-hierarchical polity of the Seventh Day Baptists and interpreted it as a mandate to establish whatever organisational structures were necessary to further the higher goal of evangelism. It is timely to recall the major points Pastor Duffin’s initial interest in and expectation of Seventh Day Baptists.

Indeed there were precedents in the history of SDBs for the formation of Associations and Yearly Meetings, these however, were generally subordinated to or preceded the establishment of Conference and in no way rendered the existence of Conference redundant.

The Australian Fellowship “faction” generally represented a perspective of those who began as Sabbath keepers and afterward embraced evangelical theology and Baptist polity. The Conference “faction” was largely operated and “staffed” by evangelicals who had embraced the practice and theology of Sabbath-keeping. To both groups the preaching of the gospel was of paramount importance. To the Fellowship this could be achieved by working with the churched (especially Adventists) as well as the unchurched. Conference Seventh Day Baptist’s saw this integration and cooperation with quasi-Adventist groups such as Good News Unlimited as a threat to the denominational identity which they had for a long time struggled to free from a continuing confusion with Seventh Day Adventism.

The Fellowship’s ecclesiology saw the Seventh Day Baptist Church as a singular “worldwide fellowship” and were not hesitant to call upon the larger family for “support”. To this end Regents Park established a sister-church relationship with the Seventh Day Baptist Denver Colorado Church in February 1985[125] and were directly supported with funds from Dr. Ted Horsley.

The “Conference” ecclesiology saw the Seventh Day Baptist Church as a plurality consisting of a loose union of many local Seventh Day Baptist Churches sharing common convictions. Denominational activity was merely the combined effort of the individual churches in a specific area. For Conference that designated area was Australia and New Zealand and all the churches should to work together through the official channels of Conference for a more effective witness.[126] Conference saw itself as the intermediary between Australasian Churches and the larger Seventh Day Baptist bodies including the Seventh Day Baptist World Federation.[127] It is therefore understandable that the international activities of the Fellowship and the Regents Park Church were not welcomed by Conference.

The Australian Fellowship appeared to be performing Conference functions and with the withdrawal of the Regents Park Church, Adelaide Fellowship and Bundaberg Church from Conference in 1985[128] seemed to have set itself up as an Australian “Anti-Conference”. Exchanges were heated, emotive, and retaliatory and were exacerbated by misunderstanding and poor communication between the parties involved.

Finally the Regents Park congregation financed Pastor Duffin’s trip to the Seventh Day Baptist Minister’s Conference in America in order to seek a resolution to the impasse.[129] During his tour of the Seventh Day Baptist Churches the matter was put before officials of the General Conference who explained their inability to give directions to the Australasian Conference and indicated unwillingness to make recommendations on the matter or to interfere in the debacle. On his return Pastor Duffin related his disappointment to a meeting of a number of the members of the Regents Park Church who, seeing no other way out of the predicament, unanimously voted to disband the church on June 27, 1987.[130]

The news of Regents Park’s decision sent shockwaves throughout the denomination and was a watershed in Australian Seventh Day Baptist history. At this point growth seems to have halted. The number of fellowships and churches listed in Link in October 1986 totalled 13. Within a year of Regents Park’s closure that number was reduced to 5[131]: Melbourne (Spanish - East Brunswick) Frankston, Bundaberg (formerly Oakwood), Warrimoo, and Morriset.

SUBSEQUENT MOVES TOWARD DENOMINATIONALISM: A PERIOD OF CONSOLIDATION

A new period of consolidation began with the 1988 Melbourne Conference’s adoption of an Australasian Statement of Belief. A comparison of the General Conference 1937 Statement[132] (top line) and the Australasian Statement reveals some of the theological distinctives of the Australasian Conference in 1988.[133]

We believe in God, the one personal, perfect, and eternal Spirit, Creator, and Sustainer of the universe, our Father, who manifests a holy, redeeming love toward all men.

We believe in God, the Supreme Being; personal, perfect infinite, spiritual, eternal; the Creator, Sustainer and Sovereign of the universe; our Heavenly Father who manifests a holy redeeming love towards all mankind, forgiving the repentant, condemning the unrepentant; and who desires to share His love in a personal relationship with everyone.

In these changes we observe an emphasis on the sovereignty of God without the implication of double predestination.

We believe in Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, our Savior, Teacher, and Guide, who draws to himself all men who will come to him in love and trustful obedience.

We believe in Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, Our Saviour, Teacher and Guide who gave Himself on the Cross as a complete and final sacrifice for sin, and draws to Himself all who will come to Him in love and trustful obedience. As our risen Lord, He is the one Mediator between us and the Father.

Herein is an assertion of Christ’s full and complete atonement made at the Cross along with a reference to his present work as our High Priest.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the indwelling God, the Inspirer of Scripture, the Comforter, active in the hearts and minds of men, who reproves of sin, instructs in righteousness, and empowers for witnessing and service. 8

We believe in the Holy Spirit, God dwelling within; the Inspirer of Scripture, the Comforter, active in the hearts and minds and lives of mankind; who convicts of sin, gives spiritual rebirth, instructs in righteousness, and empowers for witnessing and service.

In place of the expression the indwelling God, the phrase, God dwelling within is used to avoid a tritheistic interpretation of this article.

We believe that the Bible is the inspired record of God's will for man, of which Jesus Christ is the supreme interpreter; and that it is our final authority in matters of faith and conduct.

We believe that the Bible is the inspired record of God's will for mankind ‑ the Word of God, of which Jesus Christ is the supreme Interpreter, and that it is our final authority in matters of faith and practice.

Against liberal concepts of inspiration the Bible is nominated as the Word of God.

We believe that man was made in the image of God in his spiritual nature and personality, and is therefore the noblest work of creation; that he has moral responsibility, and was created for divine sonship and human fellowship, but because of disobedience he is in need of a Savior.

We believe that mankind was created in the image of God, and is therefore the noblest work of creation. We also believe that human beings have moral responsibility, and are created to enjoy both Divine and human fellowship as children of God.

Against an Augustinian understanding of “original sin” references to man’s nature before and after the fall are deleted and are treated under the heading, “Sin and Salvation”.

We believe that the Ten Commandments are ten divine precepts ‑ applications of the eternal and universal principle of love; established by God, and given to mankind at creation, written by His ‘finger’ at Mt. Sinai, and magnified by Jesus Christ, and shown by Him to be the moral code for all mankind.

At this point the Australasian Statement inserts a reference to the Decalogue which supplements the abridged version of the “Sabbath” article.

We believe that sin is any want of conformity to the character and will of God, and that salvation from sin and death, through repentance and faith in Christ our Savior, is the gift of God by redeeming love, centered in the atoning death of Christ on the cross.

We believe that sin is the transgression of the law of love ‑ disobedience to God, and failure to live according to His will. All who refuse to repent of their sins, and receive Christ as their Saviour will be punished at the time of the final judgement. We also believe that salvation from sin and death is the gift of God by redeeming love, accomplished by Christ's death and resurrection, and is received only by repentance and faith in Him.

The Australian Statement exhibits a firmer stand against any interpretation of universalism or salvific additions to the accomplished work of Christ.

We believe that Jesus rose from the dead and lives eternally with the Father, and that he will come in heavenly glory; and that because he lives, eternal life, with spiritual and glorified bodies, is the gift of God to the redeemed.

We believe that eternal life, being conditional, is available to us only through our Saviour Jesus Christ, and is granted on one's acceptance of salvation in Him who, having conquered death, will gather together, not only those who have died righteous, but also the living righteous, and will bestow upon them immortality in glorified bodies, at His return in heavenly power and glory.

A complete reworking of this article indicates a desire to set forth a statement on eternal life that will emphasise the importance of the resurrection and will neither promote the “immortality of the soul” nor exclude the concept of “conditional immortality”.

We believe that the Church of God is the whole company of redeemed people gathered by the Holy Spirit into one body of which Christ is the head; and that the local church is a community of Christ's followers organized for fellowship and service, practicing and proclaiming common convictions.

We believe that the church of God is all redeemed believers gathered together by the Holy Spirit and joined into one body, of which Christ is the Head. We also believe that the local church is a community of believers organised in covenant relationship for worship, fellowship and service, practising and proclaiming common convictions, while growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We believe in the priesthood of all believers and practise the autonomy of the local congregation, as we seek to work in association with others for more effective witness.

The addition of worship is a correction of an obvious oversight in the 1937 statement. The second addition reflects a strong belief in Baptist polity.

We believe that baptism of believers by immersion is a witness to the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and is a symbol of death to sin, a pledge to a new life in Christ. We believe that the Lord's Supper commemorates the suffering and death of the world's Redeemer, "Till he come," and is a symbol of Christian fellowship and pledge of renewed allegiance to our risen Lord.

We believe the baptism of believers, by immersion, is a command of Christ, being a witness to, and the consummation of one's acceptance of Him as Saviour and Lord, and is a symbol of death to sin, and rebirth to a new life in Christ.

The word sacrament is dropped. A strong stand for Baptism is made against those who would see it as an optional extra.

We believe that the Lord's Supper commemorates the suffering and death of our Redeemer until He comes, and that it is a symbol of our union with Christ, and a pledge of renewed allegiance to our risen Lord.

Rather than a “symbol of Christian fellowship” this statement sees it as “a symbol of our union with Christ”.

We believe that the Sabbath of the Bible, the seventh day of the week, is sacred time, antedating Moses and having the sanction of Jesus; that it should be faithfully kept by all Christians as a day of rest and worship, a symbol of God's presence in time, a pledge of eternal Sabbath rest.

We believe that the Sabbath of the Bible, the seventh day of the week (Saturday), is sacred time, a gift of God, instituted at creation, affirmed in the Ten Commandments, and re‑affirmed by Jesus and the apostles. We also believe that, in loving response to God's grace toward us, as revealed in Christ, the Sabbath should be faithfully observed as a day of rest and worship, and that it is a reminder of God's presence in time‑ His pledge of eternal rest in the paradise of God.

A more positive statement on the divine origin of the Sabbath is made. The belief that it should be faithfully kept by all Christians with its legalistic overtones is replaced by a positive rationale for Sabbath keeping. The covenantal aspect of God’s pledge of eternal rest is highlighted.

We believe that Jesus Christ by his life and ministry and his final command to the disciples, commissions us to promote evangelism, missions, and religious education, and that it is through these agencies that the church must promote Christianity throughout the whole world and in all human relationships.

We believe that the church's chief aim is as Jesus commissioned us: to proclaim the Gospel of Salvation and of the Kingdom: making disciples, baptising and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded: witnessing to our faith throughout the world and to every person.

A reworking of this final article demonstrates the perceived priority of evangelism in the life of the church. Instead of simply promoting evangelism and Christianity, the church is commissioned to proclaim the Gospel of Salvation and of the Kingdom.

CURRENT THEOLOGY AND PRACTICE

A discussion of the theology of the Seventh Day Baptists in Australia must be prefaced by a reiteration of the overarching non-creedal principle. That is to say that the very structure of the church, which encourages liberty of thought under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, disallows definitive theological statements. What can be examined are the trends of thought and the basic philosophies and systems operating within the church environment. Even so, churches must be examined as units and even within these only an approximation of its beliefs and practices can be identified.

To assist an understanding of Seventh Day Baptists in Australia it is necessary to recall the restitutionism of the Sabbatarian Anabaptists. For Sabbatarians the early denigration of the Sabbath by apologists such as Justin Martyr and the introduction of Sunday services, places the beginning of the corruption of the Catholic Church at least as early as the second century.

Indeed Sabbatarians hold that the conviction that Paul’s statement that “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work”[136] indicates that the corruption had already set in in the first century. Seventh Day Baptists generally are of the opinion that isolated pockets of believers maintained certain aspects of the untainted Apostolic faith and practice throughout the centuries albeit under increasingly difficult circumstances.[137] They refute the concept of an Apostolic rejection of Sabbath observance and the notion of a transference of the blessing and sanctity of the Sabbath day to Sunday on the grounds of a lack of biblical support and an inconsistency with recorded history.[138] While the Sabbath is a major distinctive of Seventh Day Baptists its promotion among other Christians is not seen as a priority of the SDB Church which sees its major outreach function as the preaching of the Gospel to the unsaved.

In accordance with the perception of the early corruption of the Catholic Church the Australasian Seventh Day Baptists reject all non-biblical creeds. This includes the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds. Hence, in general they avoid the use of the word Trinity as a non-biblical appellation for the Godhead. Nevertheless Rowland Ward correctly lists the Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists under the heading of “Trinitarian Christian: Evangelical Protestant”[139] as Seventh Day Baptists are not anti-trinitarian per se. It may be more accurate to say that they generally consider that the Godhead cannot be adequately defined or understood via traditional Trinitarian terminology which depends on an engagement of the concepts and language of Greek philosophy. At this point it is appropriate to mention that the trend of Seventh Day Baptists in America has been toward an identity as “Baptists who worship on Saturday”. With ever increasing frequency Australasian SDBs are confronting new literature which generally does not accord with their beliefs or practices. A booklet, You and Your Church, first published by the Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Alfred, New York in 1961, explains the use of the word “Trinity” in semi-modalistic terms,

In February 1992, a publication of the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference’s Tract and Communication Council (U.S.A.), Sabbath Recorder, was dedicated to the doctrine of the Trinity which, after “discussion”, was warmly endorsed. The issue sparked debate in several areas and an objection by Scandinavian Thomas McElwain to some of the presumptuous literary grounds used was published in the September 1992 issue of the Sabbath Recorder.[141] But McElwain wrote more freely in two articles in The Sabbath Observer, the official organ of the Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church, London.[142] The controversy prompted Edward Barrar of Christchurch to devote the next issue of The Gospel Messenger to a rebuff of McElwain’s Unitarian claims.[143] Edward Barrar’s rebuttal opens with the statement that he “was shocked and saddened” by the articles. However, Rev. Barrar’s concern is not directed toward McElwain’s attack on the doctrine of the Trinity, but rather at his denial of the divinity of Christ. While Edward Barrar’s concept of the Godhead fully endorses the divinity of Christ it is hardly orthodox. In a follow-up article[144] he advocates that in the Godhead there is God the Father, and God the Son who, as the only begotten Son, has “inherited” the Father’s own divinity and attributes. He does not ascribe individual personality to the Holy Spirit which is seen as simply God’s Spirit. Similar views are held by other New Zealand pastors. The subject was again broached in the 1992 Autumn and Summer editions of Christian Credo, a publication sponsored by the Australian Association of Seventh Day Baptists. In July 13 - 18, 1996, an Australasian Pastors’ retreat was held in Auckland at which the subject was discussed in detail, however no official position has been adopted or recommended.[145]

A rejection of the non-biblical institutions of Christendom raises the question of the propriety of the festivals of the Catholic Church. As Christmas and Easter were not instituted by the Apostles nor mentioned in Scripture, and on account of their origin and association with pagan practices, Seventh Day Baptists generally do not incorporate these two festivals into their church calendars.[146] Furthermore, after a study of the typology of Old Testament feasts and rituals some have come to the conclusion that, as figures foreshadowing the plan of salvation, these are infinitely more meaningful to Christians than their traditional counterparts. Awareness of the relevance of these ‘appointed times’ may reflect the influence of fellow Sabbatarians from the Church of God tradition. Consequently, within some groups the feasts of Leviticus 23, in their appropriate seasons, have featured in the content of sermons and to a lessor degree in practical expression.[147] This has been particularly true of the feast of Passover. Early Seventh Day Baptists were accustomed to observing the Lord’s Supper at several regular intervals throughout the year but as early as March 1984, the date of Passover was being advocated as an appropriate time to observe the Lord’s Supper.[148] By April 1990 Warrimoo spoke openly of Passover services[149] and the Passover/ Lord’s Supper was celebrated at the first Australasian Association Camp at Redland Bay, Queensland, 1991.[150] While the Brisbane and Sydney Churches hold the Lord’s Supper once a year at the time of Passover, the Melbourne Church has not adopted the practice. In the Lord’s Supper unleavened bread is used and the wine is generally non-alcoholic. Foot-washing customarily accompanies the ceremony. The practice became an issue for discussion at the 1993 Australasian Conference held at Mount Tamborine in response to a remit from Warrimoo Church that the Lord’s Supper be included in the Conference program. Conference did not come to an agreement to include the observance as a regular feature of its program. It was suggested as a compromise that Conferences be held at the time of Passover, but that option was not taken up.[151]

Given the strong emphasis on vegetarianism found in Seventh Day Adventism it is to be expected that the subject of appropriate diet should be highlighted in circles where Sabbatarians interact. Among Seventh Day Baptists tobacco smoking is generally discouraged. Some are strict teetotallers, others follow what they believe to be the biblical guidelines for healthy living by abstaining from unclean meats, and still others observe no external guidelines. Wherever possible catering arrangements have endeavoured not to cause offence and the issue has not been a major problem.[152]

Australasian SDB publications generally avoid artistic depictions of Christ. Some churches are opposed to the use of crosses and this has resulted in the removal of the symbol from the Seventh Day Baptist logo in Australasian use. Applications of iconoclasm vary greatly. Seventh-day Adventists traditionally avoid the use of the cross, yet freely adorn their literature with representations of Christ. Some remnants of this background teaching have carried into Seventh Day Baptist Churches but by far the strongest feelings against icons and symbols come from those with no connection to Adventism.[153]

While there is some variation on the subject of the intermediate state, many Seventh Day Baptists believe that immortality is not inherent in the soul but is the gift of God to the Believer and is realised in the incorruptible resurrection body at the time of Christ’s Second Coming.[154] In this they see a connection, not with the Seventh-day Adventists, but with the Anabaptists of Europe.[155] The doctrine has never become a major issue in Australia.[156]

By far the most significant theological issue to be debated at Conference level does, at first glance, appear to be no more than a petty wrangling over non-essential issues. However, underpinning the debate is a matter which lies at the very core of the essential difference between old school Adventism and Seventh Day Baptist Evangelicalism.

Theo Hawkins, of Morisset, a former Adventist and relatively prolific writer, had long been working toward establishing a printing facility for SDB literature.[157] As outlined in his book, The Seventh-day Adventist ‘Platform’ Examined, Hawkins had written against the SDA doctrine of the Investigative Judgment pointing out what he found to be an error based on an assumption made in interpreting the types in the Day of Atonement ritual. Hawkins advocated that, when at the Yom Kippur ceremony, the goat ‘for the LORD’ was slain, atonement was made for confessed sin, not UNconfessed sin. This ritual foreshadowed the atoning death of Jesus Christ by whose death complete atonement was made for sin. The blood of Atonement is applied to our sin upon our confession of sin and thus forgiveness is received. In Theo Hawkins’ opinion Christ’s application of atonement cannot extend to unconfessed sin otherwise it must, by necessity, result in universal salvation.[158] In his further development of the Day of Atonement typology, he advocated that the goat for ‘Azazel’ which is not killed and therefore cannot effect an atonement, represents Satan upon whom the responsibility for all UNconfessed sin will be laid, and at whose ultimate banishment from the presence of God, sin will be entirely removed from God’s Heavenly Kingdom.

An opposing interpretation of the Day of Atonement ceremony identifies both goats as representing Christ. The goat ‘for the LORD’ is the crucified Christ by whose death atonement is made for the sin of the world. The second goat (scapegoat) which remains alive represents the risen Christ, the one who takes away our sins. Proponents of this view were offended by the identification of the Scapegoat with Satan as this seemed to suggest that the Devil played some role in the atonement process. After much heated debate on the issue at the Conference of Jan 1990, it was resolved:

That this Conference confirm that we believe the Atonement was fully completed on the Cross. And that there is to be no further Sacrifice for the cleansing of the Earthly or Heavenly Sanctuary. And that Satan has no part in bearing the sins of the individual, the Priesthood, or the corporate, or unknown sins of God’s people.[159]

Theo Hawkins believed that he had been grossly misunderstood and had not had a chance to fully explain the complexities of his position. On August 15, 1991, the Morisset Fellowship (Amangelia Seventh Day Baptist Church) wrote to the Conference requesting the the Executive “to take action to have the remit repealed” on the grounds of inadequate discussion.[160] As a result of the ill-feeling that the matter generated the Amangelia Seventh Day Baptist Church withdrew from Conference.[161] Several attempts at reconciliation were made including a one hour session at the 1993 Australasian Conference devoted to Theo Hawkins for a comprehensive lecture on the subject.[162] At that same Conference a successful remit resolved that,

On the matter of the atonement, the Conference set in motion a procedure to include this in the Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists Statement of Belief.[163]

In July 5–9, 1994, a Pastor’s Retreat held in Christchurch, to which Theo Hawkins was invited, considered the matter again at length. The tenth Conference of Australasian SDBs held at Wellington, New Zealand, January 1996, proposed the relevant changes to the Statement of Belief which were welcomed by Theo Hawkins.[165] The magnitude of the problem is an indication of the sensitivity in an area which may be said to define the essential difference between SDAs and SDBs. The matter has been put thus:

DEVELOPMENT SINCE 1988

The October 1988 issue of Link reported that Andrew and Lyn Goulding of Auckland had accepted the call to go as missionaries to Malawi. That call was later accepted by Ian and Trudy Ingoe, and the Gouldings, instead of setting out for Africa, set out for Brisbane, Queensland in 1989. They were encouraged to establish an SDB fellowship with two other Seventh Day Baptist contacts one of whom, Dorothy d’Apuget was a former member of Regents Park and the other, her niece Barbara Eldred, an extension member of Auckland Church who was formerly involved in Pastor Harvey’s Brisbane SDB Fellowship. The Fellowship began with fortnightly meetings at the Goulding’s home in Browns Plains[167] but by early 1990 they had secured the use of the To the Cross Lutheran Church in Beenleigh[168] and numbers slowly grew with the addition to membership of Dr. Fred Mazzaferri and his wife Ladelle, Donnah Eldred, and David and Wynita Hill.[169]

Dr. Mazzaferri, a former Seventh-day Adventist Pastor, lived in the area and was well qualified to carry out a teaching and preaching ministry in the Church. David and Wynita Hill however, lived to the north of Brisbane in the town of Beerburrum. As distance made it impractical for the Hills to regularly attend services it was decided that a Brisbane Northside Fellowship be formed.

Dr. Mazzaferri soon began Saturday afternoon bible studies and was instrumental in bringing several others to the Church through personal contact and via a successful seminar held in November 1991 in the nearby suburb of Shailer Park. Deacons were appointed in November 1991.[170]

Newspaper advertising brought the Church to the attention of several newcomers including Steve and Joan Hart. This couple were strongly dedicated to evangelism and were directly responsible for the introduction of several new families and individuals to the Church. Steve and Joan had a special rapport with the socioeconomically disadvantaged section of the community.

In 1991 Dr. Mazzaferri began to publish a theological journal called Christian Credo. The first issue was published in Spring 1991 and was sponsored by the Australian Association of Seventh Day Baptists. The controversial content of the journal caused significant concern among Australasian Seventh Day Baptists. Christian Credo ceased to be a publication of the Australian Association of Seventh Day Baptists in 1994.[171] Dr. Mazzaferri and his wife left the Brisbane Church that same year.

In conjunction with the Beerburrum group the Beenleigh Church was involved in attempts to evangelise in Bundaberg 1993, Gympie July 1993, and Caboolture, Sept 1993. These meetings had little apparent effect. In Bundaberg, no local Seventh Day Baptists attended the meeting. In Gympie and Caboolture, few contacts resulted. The Church’s focus on Overseas Missions included the sponsoring of Bible College students in Malawi at $600 per annum beginning in 1992, and financial support given to the SDB church in Argentina through Conference. Gifts of booklets and other materials were sent to Zambia, Malawi, the Philippines, and the Mill Yard Church in London.[172]

In 1993 Pastor Goulding and his wife Lynne purchased the Lutheran Church and hall in Church St. Beenleigh and built their new home adjacent to the Church building. In 1998 the Brisbane Seventh Day Baptist Church became an incorporated body affording the legal grounds to purchase the Church and hall in its own name in 1999.[173]

In the latter half of 1990 the Brisbane Seventh Day Baptist Church held several meetings in the community hall at Mooloolah as two of its members resided in that area. In October 1990 it was decided that regular meetings should be held at the Beerburrum Hall beginning 17 November 1990. Weekly newspaper advertising brought several regular attendants most of whom were ex-Adventists. Graham Duffin, former Pastor of Regents Park Seventh Day Baptist Church, was in regular attendance until 1992. In April 1992 the Fellowship,[174] under the leadership of David Hill, met weekly in ‘Neighbourhood Centre’ Caboolture. At the closure of the Centre in March 1993 the group returned to Beerburrum.

The group maintained a close and friendly affiliation with the Brisbane SDB Church and never sought to organise itself as a SDB branch church under its own constitution. In the later months of 1996 the group welcomed Theo and Elsie Hawkins who had moved from Morisset NSW to Burpengary. From February 1997 to July 1997 David Hill took on the position of Acting Pastor at the Brisbane SDB Church and around that time meetings were relocated to Burpengary under the leadership of Theo Hawkins.

THE AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION OF SEVENTH DAY BAPTISTS

The Australian Association of Seventh Day Baptists was formed as a result of meetings held in Brisbane on April 15, 1990.[175] Its first camp was held March 29 – April 5,1991 at Kindillan, Redland Bay, Queensland. The Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane churches were represented and the Australasian Conference President was able to attend. The meeting celebrated the Passover/ Lord’s Supper together on the Friday evening. A draft constitution was discussed.[176] Since its inception the Association has held regular camps between Conferences in order to maintain relationships between the Australian Churches and to promote the common aims of evangelism, missions and church planting. The Association has taken a particular interest in the work in Argentina. In 1996 the Australian Association was officially accepted by the Australasian Conference of SDBs.[177]

The growth of SDB churches in Australia has depended to a large extent on the availability of dedicated leadership. Generally speaking, while there has been altogether too few Seventh Day Baptist Leaders for the maintenance and growth of the work in Australia, those who have come forward to do the Lord’s work have been inadequately trained, under-resourced and poorly supported.[178] Most, by necessity have had to become bi-vocational in order to support their families. Some have faced the strains and stresses of the ministry to the detriment of their family lives and/or occupations. As early as 1977 Horsley noted that,

In 1983 The Seventh Day Baptist Ministerial Education Center at Janesville, U.S.A. made correspondence courses in Sabbath Philosophy, S.D.B. History, and S.D.B. Polity available to Australian and New Zealand students.[180] These were the first modules of the Training In Ministry and Extension (T.I.M.E.) program which was specifically designed “to provide effective training in ministry for those who must continue their present occupation or who are retiring and fell the call to pastoral ministry.”[181] Completion of these three modules has become a criterion for accreditation of pastors by Conference.[182] Unfortunately, programs such as T.I.M.E. while valuable, add the strain of study to the already demanding task of managing church and full-time employment commitments. The option of seconding trained leaders from other denominations has some inherent difficulties for Australasian Seventh Day Baptists as the experiences of Regents Park and Dr. Mazzaferri adequately demonstrate. The third Australasian Conference in Christchurch 1983 reported that,

The problem does not end with the provision of adequate training which is at present available under the guidelines of Austudy from a number of accredited colleges. The completion of a theological degree may necessitate resignation from a vocation which a prospective pastor may need for financial support during his future ministry. The small numbers of Seventh Day Baptists in Australia at present do not offer a large pool of ready candidates for the ministry. The Melbourne Church has for many years appealed to the Association and to the Conference for the provision of a Pastor to head up their outreach to the larger English-speaking community in Melbourne. To date there has been no acceptance of that call.

CONCLUSION

It would appear from Sanford’s assessment that the major difference between the English and SDB American experiences is that the English never became a true denomination but guarded their local autonomy and remained as a collection of sects, eventually to their own destruction.[184]

Recalling Dr. Bryan Ball’s enumeration of ten specific factors which contributed to the decline of the English Seventh Day Baptists in the eighteenth century, it is evident that Australian Seventh Day Baptists are faced to some degree with at least 7 of these. 1. “the Enlightenment”. The absolute authority of the Scriptures, the bulwark of the Sabbath doctrine, is more than ever under attack by modern and post-modernism scholarship and culture. 2. The lack of “training of the ministry” which “resulted in the demise of those congregations which lacked suitable leadership” is a recognised deficiency in Australian SDB Churches. 3. “Lack of investment in church buildings”.[185] 4. “Failure to organise a denominational or inter-congregational structure” may be applicable if that structure needs to be an effective governing denominational body. 5. “The ill effects of a reputation for extremism and fanaticism.” Causes such as Seventh-day Sabbatarianism which demand a high level of commitment and call for antipathy to established religious norms by nature to recruit their adherents from the more radical end of the social spectrum. Hence extremism is an inherent danger which must continually be kept in check. 6. “Joint pastorates with First-day Baptist churches deprived Seventh-day Churches of a ministry dedicated to Sabbatarian distinctives.” (Not Applicable to Australia) 7. “A failure to promulgate the doctrine of the Sabbath.” 8. “A failure to instruct and cater for the young members and children.” While not evident as an area of neglect, a significant number of SDB church member’s children have not continued in the church. 9. “Internal strife, dissention and bickering among members”. 10. “Civil and ecclesiastical opposition and persecution resulting in the relocation of Sabbatarians in the Continent and the New World.”[186] (Not applicable to Australia.)

From a sociological perspective, individual Australian Seventh Day Baptist Churches answer many of the criteria of Ernst Troeltsch’s definition of a sect.[187] Moberg’s summary of that definition is most fitting.

It has been noted that the sect, rigorously defined, “cannot last beyond the founding generation”.[189] This grim forecast is particularly applicable to those sects whose existence and cohesion are dependent on charismatic leadership.[190] It is the general opinion of sociologists that the charismatic leadership which is often found in new religious sects rarely survives the death or demise of the leader unless it is “accommodated and routinised”.

Hence, while past growth has depended on the work of a small number of independent charismatic leaders, Seventh Day Baptists should be warned that they cannot expect to sustain such growth through a long-term dependence upon this phenomenon.

The process of accommodation and routinization of a sect transforms it into a denomination.[192] Australian Seventh Day Baptists admittedly have the trappings of a denomination. The structures of the Association and Conference adequately answer the sociologists prediction of bureaucratic routinization. However it would not appear that the ‘denomination’ has developed these structures in response to a need for mutual cooperation for the purpose of managing the demands of the work, but rather, as a response to isolation from the broader Christian community brought on by unorthodox beliefs and practices such as Sabbath observance. Hence when gathered together as a Conference there often appears to be a greater desire for fellowship than for business. While apart from each other there is a marked yet unnoticed diversity between churches in practice and belief and an individualism which largely ignores denominational obligations in the two year period between Conferences. There may after all be some truth in the summation of Mavis Rudd that,

It was correct to avoid the error of the English SDB Churches who failed to organise. Yet it would appear that there was a degree to which the Australasians simply mimicked the structures of the American Seventh Day Baptists without allowing time to accommodate into the routinization of the bureaucracy of an organised Conference. This premature organization may have been the most influential factor in the stifling of the growth of Seventh Day Baptists in Australia in 1987. Certainly it can be said that on account of the Conference, the window of opportunity for an accommodation of an influx disaffected Adventists was firmly shut. Had the movement in Australia been allowed to run its course the face of the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Australia may have been markedly different but not necessarily better.

The highly valued Baptist principle of “local autonomy” can be used as a shield behind which churches may hide when calls for denominational cooperation are made. It is evident, at least in the example of the Baptists of Queensland, that steps toward denominationalism must necessarily be achieved at the cost of some local church autonomy and a voluntary surrendering of power to a governing body.[194] Until local SDB churches are willing to recognise the authority of Association and Conference, without pining for their loss of autonomy, denominational effectiveness will be obstructed. In 1980 Australasian Seventh Day Baptists adopted a semblance of their American counterparts’ denominational structure. The challenge that faces Australian Seventh Day Baptists in the new millennium is one of continuing to grow up into that structure to a point where they can truly consider that they have developed into a denomination.

Appendix A

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(Copies of Letters and Financial records of Brisbane (Northside) SDB Church held by David Hill, Brisbane. Minutes held by Secretary/Treasurer of Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists, Capalaba, QLD.)

Conference Programme, Ninth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Mt. Tamborine, July 5 1993.

Correspondence from Amangelia Seventh Day Baptist Church to the Australasian Conference of SDB, 15 August, 1991.

Minutes of the Eighth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Auckland, January 5-15 1992.

Minutes of the Ninth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Mt. Tamborine, July 5, 1993.

Minutes of the Seventh Conference of Australasian SDBs, Christchurch, January 5-12 1990.

Minutes of the Tenth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Wellington, January 16, 1996.

Minutes, of the Annual General Meeting of the Brisbane SDB Church, 12 November, 1991.

Minutes, of the Ministry Council of Brisbane Seventh Day Baptist Church, December 3, 1991.

Photocopy of newspaper clipping in Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia.

Photocopy of newspaper clipping. ‘The Canberra Times. 14 Nov, 1984’. In Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia.

Responses to Questionnaire, D. Alegre, Melbourne, 1999; E. Cardonna, Melbourne, 1999; G. Alegre, Sydney, 1999; D. Shettel, Sydney, 1999; D. d’Alpuget, Canungra, 1999; Barbara Eldred, Capalaba, Brisbane, 1999.

‘Australasian SDB Conference Joins BWA’, Sabbath Recorder (September 1983)

‘New work begins in Melbourne, Australia’, The Sabbath Recorder (October, 1978): 23.

‘Seventh Day Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists Compared’, Sabbath Recorder (May 1999): 9.

‘Seventh Day Baptists have work in Adelaide, Australia’, Sabbath Recorder, (July 1984).

‘Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists Compared’, Sabbath Recorder (May 1999): 8-9.

Dorothy Goulding, ‘Australasian Conference Business’, Sabbath Recorder (May 1983): 7.

Horsley, Edward J. ‘A Visit with Seventh Day Baptists Down Under’, The Sabbath Recorder (March, 1977): 6-8.

McElwain, Thomas ‘The many forms of “Elohim”’, Sabbath Recorder (Sept 1992): 11-12.

‘Bundaberg: SDB Literature Centre Gears Up For Work’, Link (July 1986): 10.

‘New Publication: History of S. D. Baptists in Australia’, Link (Oct 1985): 11.

Alegre, Betty. ‘Bro. Peter-John Neivandt appointed Leader of the English Speaking Church in Melbourne’, Link (Oct 1984): 10.

Alegre, Betty. ‘Inauguation of the New S.D.B. Fellowship in Frankston’, Link (April 1985): 4.

Duffin, Graham. ‘Sydney – Australia and Denver – U.S.A. become “Sister Churches”’, Link (April 1985): 5.

Elwall, Anne E. ‘Bundaberg Gains Three New Members’, Link (April 1985): 9.

Farrow, Pat and Stuart Farrow, ‘News From the Frankston SDB Fellowship’, Link (July 1986): 12.

Neivandt, Peter. ‘Rich Blessing in Melbourne’, Link (Jan-Feb-Mar 1985): 4.

Neivandt, Peter. ‘What the Lord has done for me in `83’, Link (Jan-Feb- Mar 1984): 3.

Rudd, Mavis ‘Bundaberg Fellowship Becomes a Church’, Link (Jan-Feb-Mar 1984): 7.

Rudd, Mavis. ‘Bundaberg Fellowship’s New Meeting Place’, Link (Oct-Nov-Dec 1983): 7.

Rudd, Mavis. ‘Links with Mill Yard’s History’, Link (July-Aug-Sept 1983): 3.

(Copies of Christian Credo held by Editor Dr. Fred Mazzaferri. Copies of The Gospel Messenger held by Rev. E. Barrar, P.O. Box 12067, Beckengham, Christchurch, N.Z. Copies of The Sabbath Observer held by Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church, 41 Vicarage Road, Totenham, London.)

Mazzaferri, Fred. ed. ‘God Communicates With Us’, Christian Credo 1 #1 (Spring, 1991), 9.

Mazzaferri, Fred. ed. ‘Introduction’, Christian Credo 1 #1 (Spring, 1991): 6.

McElwain, Thomas ‘Beliefs and Practices of the Mill Yard Church’, The Sabbath Observer (Summer 1992), 14-16.

McElwain, Thomas ‘Is the Son of God God the Son?’, The Sabbath Observer (Summer 1992), 11-14.

(Publications available from Seventh Day Baptist Center, Janesville, WI. U.S.A. Copies of other items listed below held by David Hill, Brisbane.)

A Baptist Church that’s a little different. 5^th ed. Janesville: Seventh Day Baptist Center, 1991.

Elwall, Edward. Dagon fallen upon his stumps: or the Inventions of men, not able to stand before the first commandment of God, Thou shalt have no other gods but me. London: The Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church, first printed 1726.

Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists Compared. Janesville: American Sabbath Tract and Communication Council, 1989.

Seventh Day Baptists are Christians. Distributed by the Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists. Undated.

Rudd, Mavis. Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia. 2^nd ed. Bundaberg: Unpublished, 1986.

You and Your Church (Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Alfred, New York, 1961), 28.

‘Seventh‑Day Baptist’. In Schaff‑Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1891.

Cairns, Earle E. ‘William Miller’. In The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by J. D. Douglas. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974.

Newman, Robert C. ‘Churches of God’. In The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by J. D. Douglas. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974.

(Copies of theses held by Queensland Baptist College of Ministries, Brookfield, Qld.)

Armstrong, Herbert W. The Early Writings of Herbert W. Armstrong. Edited by Richard Nickels. Neck City, Missouri: Giving and Sharing, 1996.

Ball, Les. Precepts, Practices, and Perceptions within the Baptist Church in Queensland. B.A. thesis: University of Queensland, 1988.

Ball, Les. Queensland Baptists in the Nineteenth Century: The Historical Development of a Denominational Identity. PhD Thesis: University of Queensland, 1994.

Bettenson, Henry. (ed.). Documents of the Christian Church. 2^nd. Edition. London: Oxford University Press, 1963.

Cottrell, Raymond F. ‘The Sabbath in the New World’. In The Sabbath in Scripture and History. Edited by Kenneth A. Strand. Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1982.

Cairns, Earle E. Christianity Through The Centuries: A History of the Christian Church. 3^rd Edition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996.

Ford, S. J. A World View of Baptist History. Bristol: Rankin Brothers Ltd., 1928.

Herbert E. Saunders. The Sabbath: Symbol of Creation and Re-Creation. Plainfield, New Jersey: American Sabbath Tract Society, 1970.

Justin Martyr, ‘First Apology of Justin Ch. LXVII’. Ante-Nicene Fathers. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, Reprinted 1993.

Lewis, A. H. and J. Lee Gamble, Charles H. Greene, Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America. Plainfield, New Jersey: American Sabbath Tract Society, 1909.

Lewis, Abram Herbert. A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday in the Christian Church. Plainfield, New Jersey: American Sabbath Tract Society, 1903. (Available online http://www.ozemail.com.au/~davhill)

Liechty, Daniel. Andreas Fischer and the Sabbatarian Anabaptists. Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History No. 29. Scottdale: Herald Press, 1988.

Moberg, David. The Church as a Social Institution. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1962.

O’Dea, Thomas F. The Sociology of Religion. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1966.

Rood, Wayne R. (ed.). A Manual of Procedures for Seventh Day Baptist Churches. Plainfield: The Seventh Day Baptist General Conference, 1972.

Sanford, Don A. A Choosing People: The History of the Seventh Day Baptists. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1992.

Rogers, Albert N. Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America: Volume III, 1900-55. Plainfield: Seventh Day Baptist Publishing House, 1972.

Sozomen, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. Second Series, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, Reprinted 1989.

Troeltsch, Ernst. The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. 2 vols. Translated by O. Wyon. New York: Harper Row, 1960.

van Braght, Thieleman J. Martyrs’ Mirror. Scottdale: Herald Press, Reprinted 1950.

Ward, Rowland and Robert Humphreys, Religious Bodies in Australia. 3^rd Edition. Melbourne: New Melbourne Press, 1995.

Weber, Max. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. Translated by M. Henderson and T. Parsons. New York: The Free Press, 1964.

[1] Henry Cook, What Baptists Stand for (London: Kingsgate Press, 1947).

[2] E.g. S. J. Ford, A World View of Baptist History (Bristol: Rankin Brothers Ltd., 1928).

[3] A. H. Lewis, J. Lee Gamble, and Charles H. Greene, Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America (Plainfield, New Jersey: American Sabbath Tract Society, 1909). The first 146 pages of volume 1 of this work may be found at http://www.ozemail.com.au/~davhill.

[4] Of Seventh Day Baptists, the Schaff‑Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge states, “There is not wanting evidence that an unbroken chain of observers of the seventh day was preserved, in the face of detraction and persecution, all through the dark ages, and that they appeared in the dawn of the Protestant Reformation, and were represented in that movement by a number of its prominent actors. In the Abyssinian, Armenian, and Nestorian churches the seventh day has not yet been supplanted by the first day of the week.” ‘Seventh‑Day Baptist’, in Schaff‑Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge (1891 Edition, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1891), 2165.

[5] From a 35 page tract entitled, The Sabbath and Sabbath Keeping Baptists, written by SDB pastor, author and Conference President (elected 1924), the Rev. Alva L. Davis (1870-1954).

[6] The absence of a specific mention of adult baptism by immersion among known Sabbath observers or an imprecise knowledge of the practice of those groups accused of Sabbatizing or “Judaizing” incurs a risk of owning certain groups which may not in fact fit the criteria.

[7] Daniel Liechty, Andreas Fischer and the Sabbatarian Anabaptists (Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History No. 29, Scottdale: Herald Press, 1988).

[8] One SDB pamphlet, Seventh Day Baptists are Christians, widely distributed amongst Australian SDBs, states, “We trace our theological ancestry to neither Roman Catholicism nor Protestantism; …. As a denomination we owe our existence to the Anabaptists”.

[9] Some Seventh Day Baptists associate the founding of the first SDB church with the preaching of the Seventh-day Sabbath doctrine by John Traske in 1617. However Bryan W. Ball, Seventh-day Men (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 59, disagrees on the grounds of the “lack of any evidence that he ever opposed infant baptism”.

[10] Don A. Sanford, A Choosing People: The History of the Seventh Day Baptists (Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1992), 58.

[12] Brabourne, who never actually kept the Sabbath himself, argued for its validity. He wrote the following works:

A Defence of that most Ancient, and Sacred ordinance Of GODS, the Sabbath Day. Consequently, and together with it, 2. A Defence of the iiiith Commandement: 3. A Defence of the integrity and perfection of the Decalogue, Morall Law, or X Commandements. 4. A Defence also, of the whole and intire worship of God, in all the partes thereof, as it is prescribed, in the first Table of the Decalogue. 5. A Discovery of the Superstition, impurity and corruption of Gods worship; yea, and Idolatry, committed by multitudes, in sanctifying the Lords Day for a Sabbath Day, by the iiiith Commandement. Undertaken against Anti‑Sabbatbarians, both of Protestants, Papists, Antinomians, and Anabaptists:; and by name and especially against these X Ministers, M. Greenwood, M. Hutchinson, M. Furnace, M. Benton, M. Gallard, M. Yates, M. Chappel, M. Stinnet, M. Johnson, and M. Warde ([Amsterdam], 1632).

A Discourse upon the Sabbath Day; wherein are bandied these particulars ensuing:‑1. That the Lord's Day is not Sabbath Day by Divine institution. 2. An exposition of the iiii Commandment ... and particularly here it is shown at what time the Sabbath day should begin and end ... 3. That the Seventh‑day Sabbath is not abolished. 4. That the Seventh‑day Sabbath is now still in force. 5. The author's Exhortation and reasons, that nevertheless there be no Rent from our Church as touching practice (1628).

An Answer to M. Cawdry's two Books of the Sabbath (Norwich, 1654).

An Answer to Two Books on the Sabbath. 1. To Mr. Ives of London, his Book Intituled Saturday no Sabbath Day. 2. To Mr. Warren of Colchester, his book intituled, the Jews Sabbath Antiquated, and the Lords day Instituted by Divine Providence (1659).

Of the Sabbath Day, which is now, the Highest Controversie in the Church of England. For on this Controversie, Dependeth the Gaining or loosing one of Gods Ten Commandments, by name, the 4th Command, for the Sabbath day (1660).

[13] Although several prominent Sabbatarians were formerly Baptists, there is insufficient evidence to hand to suggest that the Seventh Day Baptists were originally affiliated with other English Baptists.

[14] Daniel Liechty, Andreas Fischer and the Sabbatarian Anabaptists, 85-86.

[15] While the genuineness of Constantine’s conversion is a matter for debate it is generally agreed that this event marked a significant point in the union of Christian and political interests of the Roman Empire.

[16] “All judges, city-people and craftsmen shall rest on the venerable day of the Sun. ….” Henry Bettenson, ed., Documents of the Christian Church (2^nd. Ed., London: Oxford University Press, 1963), 18. Of Constantine, the historian Sozomen (circa 450 A.D.) writes, “He also enjoined the observance of the day termed the Lord's-day which the Jews call the first day of the week and which the Pagans dedicate to the sun, as likewise the day before the seventh, and commanded that no judicial or other business should be transacted on those days, but that God should be served with prayers and supplications. He honored the Lord's-day because on it Christ arose from the dead, and the day above mentioned because on it he was crucified.” The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Second Series, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, Reprinted 1989) 2: 245.

[17] “Such is the difference in the churches on the subject of fasts. Nor is there less variation in regard to religious assemblies. For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.” Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, Book 7, chap. 19, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2: 132. “Assemblies are not held in all churches on the same time or manner. The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.” Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, Book 7, chap. 19, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2: 390.

[18] Daniel Liechty, Andreas Fischer and the Sabbatarian Anabaptists, 86.

[19] Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, 1: 72. The tombstone of Dr. Peter Chamberlen (1601 – 1683) is extant and bears witness to his Sabbath keeping from around 1651. Chamberlen was baptised in 1648.

[21] Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, 1: 73.

[26] Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, 1:111.

[27] After the manner of the Anabaptists, Francis Bampfield refused to take the oath at his trial. Francis Bampfield, The Lord’s Free Prisoner, London, 1683.

[28] S. J. Ford, A World View of Baptist History, 28.

[29] The arrest can only be properly understood against the background of the failed coup of Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchy movement with which many Baptists and dissenters were mistakenly identified. Sanford, A Choosing People, 56.

[31] It was Jackson who introduced Traske to the Sabbath doctrine.

[32] As all Sabbath keepers were accused of reverting to Judaism it is difficult to judge the accusation from the evidence of hostile witnesses. Bryan Ball’s footnote on page 56, Seventh-day Men, remarks that the case for Jackson’s admission to the Jewish community in Amsterdam is discussed in Phillips, Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England 15: 70-71.

[34] Edward Elwall, Dagon fallen upon his stumps: or the Inventions of men, not able to stand before the first commandment of God, Thou shalt have no other gods but me. (London: The Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church, first printed 1726).

[35] Ball notes that Cornthwaite’s successor Noble, also shared his views which may have been promulgated earlier by Mill Yard Pastor, John Savage who “declined to subscribe to a Trinitarian statement of belief which had been prepared at the 1719 conference of Baptist churches to settle the Trinitarian-Unitarian dispute.” Seventh-day Men, 90, 97,98.

[36] Sanford, A Choosing People, 76-82.

[37] Ball includes Mill Yard’s Unitarianism as a possible cause of its decline. Seventh-day Men, 97.

[40] Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, 1:127

[42] Wayne R. Rood (Editor), A Manual of Procedures for Seventh Day Baptist Churches (Plainfield: The Seventh Day Baptist General Conference, 1972), 99.

[46] Earle E. Cairns, ‘William Miller’, in The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1974), 660.

[47] Earle E. Cairns, Christianity Through The Centuries: A History of the Christian Church (3^rd edition, Grand rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 435.

[48] According to this doctrine Christ, since 1844, has been engaged in the work of judging all men, from Adam up to and including those who are presently living.

[49] Raymond F. Cottrell, ‘The Sabbath in the New World’, in The Sabbath in Scripture and History, ed. Kenneth A. Strand (Washington: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1982), 247.

[51] A revised addition of this tract appears in Sabbath Recorder (May 1999): 8. It carries the following disclaimer: “Characterizing Seventh-day Adventist beliefs is difficult because of movements within the church today which interpret the writings of Ellen White differently. Also, the summary of Seventh Day Baptist beliefs touches on areas not specifically addressed by the Conference's Statement of Belief, thus it is a characterization of the beliefs of the majority of churches and individuals.” (USA)

[52] Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists Compared, (Janesville: American Sabbath Tract and Communication Council, 1989).

[54] It is to be noted that nothing is said here in regard to the S.D.A. doctrine of “soul sleep”, “annihilation”, identification of Christ with the Archangel Michael, or their unique eschatology, their dietary precepts, etc.

[55] Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists Compared.

[58] Raymond F. Cottrell, The Sabbath in Scripture and History, 254. In support of this statement Cottrell quotes Herbert E. Saunders, The Sabbath: Symbol of Creation and Re-Creation (Plainfield, New Jersey: American Sabbath Tract Society, 1970), 10 who is in turn quoting A.H. Lewis.

[59] A Baptist Church that’s a little different (5^th ed. Janesville: Seventh Day Baptist Center, 1991).

[60] This has been adequately demonstrated in the case of Queensland Baptists by Dr. Les Ball, Precepts, Practices, and Perceptions within the Baptist Church in Queensland (B.A. thesis: University of Queensland, 1988).

[61] This fact is adequately demonstrated in A Manual of Procedures for Seventh Day Baptist Churches, 81. “It is not common among Seventh Day Baptists to observe communion often. Most celebrate the sacrament quarterly, although this practice varies according to the wishes of the local church. Some feel that the celebration should take place only once a year, and at the time of Passover, as that was the time of its institution.”

[62] Robert C. Newman, ‘Churches of God’, in The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, 228.

[63] H. W. Armstrong, The Early Writings of Herbert W. Armstrong (ed. Richard Nickels, Neck City, Missouri: Giving and Sharing, 1996), 29.

[65] Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America: 1900-55 (Plainfield: Seventh Day Baptist Publishing House, 1972), 3:102.

[66] Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America: 1900-55, 3:160.

[68] Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America: 1900-55, 3:103.

[69] Mavis Rudd, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia (2^nd ed. Bundaberg: Unpublished, 1986), 1.

[70] Transcribed from a photocopy in Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia, 2.

[71] Letter of Acceptance, 27/8/75. Ibid., 3.

[73] From a communication seeking genealogical information from Walt Ayars Box 279, Summerdale, PA 17093.

[74] Edward J. Horsley, ‘A Visit with Seventh Day Baptists Down Under’, The Sabbath Recorder (March, 1977): 6-8.

[75] Edward J. Horsley, ‘The Judgment’, The Sabbath Recorder (Nov, 1976).

[76] E. J. Horsley, ‘A Visit with Seventh Day Baptists Down Under’, The Sabbath Recorder (March, 1977): 8.

[77] ‘New work begins in Melbourne, Australia’, The Sabbath Recorder (October, 1978): 23.

[78] Photocopy of newspaper clipping in Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia, 9.

[79] Mavis Rudd, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia, 10. As Rev. L. Richard Conradi died in 1939, Mr. Sampson’s contact must have been no later than the 1930s.

[80] Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America: 1900-55, 3:175.

[81] Minutes of the Seventh Conference of Australasian SDBs, Christchurch, January 5-12 1990.

[82] Mavis Rudd, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia, 13.

[83] ‘Australasian SDB Conference Joins BWA’, Sabbath Recorder (September 1983)

[84] Mavis Rudd, ‘Links with Mill Yard’s History’, Link (July-Aug-Sept 1983): 3. Reprinted in Sabbath Recorder (Sept 1983) under the heading, “Australian Link to Mill Yard History”.

[85] Mavis Rudd, ‘Bundaberg Fellowship’s New Meeting Place’, Link (Oct-Nov-Dec 1983): 7.

[86] Mavis Rudd, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia, 16.

[87] E. Anne Elwall, ‘Bundaberg Gains Three New Members’, Link (April 1985): 9.

[91] Graham Duffin, ‘Sydney News’, Link (April 1986): 4.

[92] Graham Duffin, ‘Sydney News’, Link (July 1986): 9.

[93] ‘Seventh Day Baptists have work in Adelaide, Australia’, Sabbath Recorder, (July 1984).

[95] Also at this time, early 1984, Greg and Paula Charleston began advertising in the Gympie area with a view to forming a SDB Fellowship. Allan Ford, ‘New SDB Contacts in Gympie’, Link (April 1984): 8.

[96] Allan Ford, ‘News From Qld.’, Link (April 1984): 9.

[97] Questionnaire completed by Barbara Eldred, Brisbane.

[98] Peter Neivandt, ‘What the Lord has done for me in `83’, Link (Jan-Feb- Mar 1984): 3.

[99] Betty Alegre, ‘Bro. Peter-John Neivandt appointed Leader of the English Speaking Church in Melbourne’, Link (Oct 1984): 10.

[100] P. Neivandt, ‘Rich Blessing in Melbourne’, Link (Jan-Feb-Mar 1985): 4.

[102] Notice printed in The Canberra Times, (14 Nov, 1984).

[103] As indicated in the list of church meetings on the final page of Link.

[104] As indicated in the list of church meetings on the final page of Link.

[105] Betty Alegre, ‘Inauguation of the New S.D.B. Fellowship in Frankston’, Link (April 1985): 4.

[106] Stewart Farrow, ‘Outreach to the Jews’, Link (July 1985): 9.

[107] P. & S. Farrow, ‘News From the Frankston SDB Fellowship’, Link (July 1986): 12.

[108] Chris James, ‘News’, Link (April 1986): 12.

[109] Patrica Milne of Grafton and Roger and Pat Jones of Bega were members of the Regents Park Church. Graham Duffin, ‘Sydney News’, Link (July 1986): 9.

[110] Rosemary Mackenzie, ‘Letter From Bundaberg’, Link (October 1986): 6.

[111] Mavis Rudd, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia, 16.

[112] ‘Sydney Newsbriefs’, Link, (July 1985): 5.

[113] Graham Duffin, ‘Sydney News’, Link (April 1986): 4.

[114] ‘New Publication: History of S. D. Baptists in Australia’, Link (Oct 1985): 11.

[115] 1000 copies of the tract, How many ways to Heaven? were produced for evangelism in the Grafton area. ‘Bundaberg: SDB Literature Centre Gears Up For Work’, Link (July 1986): 10.

[116] Under the Constitution of the Australasian Conference of SDB, when a President is from one country the Vice-President is elected from the other country. The Vice President is automatically the next President, thus the presidency alternates between Australia and New Zealand. If a President resigns the Vice-President fills the position until the next Conference at which he/she becomes President for a further term of two years.

[117] Mavis Rudd, ‘Preface to 2^nd Edition’, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia.

[119] The book by Walter T. Rea, The White Lie (Turlock, California: M & R Publications, 1982) attacked the credibility of S.D.A. Prophetess Ellen G. White by effectively demonstrating the extent of her blatant plagiarism in her writings which Adventists revered as “the Spirit of Prophecy”.

[120] Good News Unlimited was the name of the ministry of evangelical Adventist Reformer Dr. Desmond Ford.

[121] Graham Duffin, ‘Sydney Off to a Good Start’, Link (Jan-Feb-Mar 1984): 6.

[122] Graham Duffin, ‘News from Sydney’, Link (July 1984): 6; Allan Ford, ‘News From Qld.’, Link (April 1984): 9.

[123] Graham Duffin, ‘Church Growth Ideas’, Link (Jan-Feb-Mar 1984): 11.

[125] Graham Duffin, ‘Sydney – Australia and Denver – U.S.A. become “Sister Churches”’, Link (April 1985): 5.

[126] This perspective is reflected in the wording of the Australasian Conference Statement of Belief, adopted at the Melbourne Conference of SDBs in 1988.

[127] Furthermore, it was considered improper to some that Pastor Duffin should draw a stipend, which, being supported by American funds, equalled his former salary in secular employment.

[128] Mavis Rudd, ‘Preface to 2^nd Edition’, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia.

[129] Graham Duffin, ‘Sydney News’, Link (April 1987): 9.

[130] ‘Regents Park SDB Church Disbands’, Link (July 1987): 13

[132] Wayne R. Rood (Editor), A Manual of Procedures for Seventh Day Baptist Churches,102.

[133] Differences in wording are here presented in bold type for ease of comparison only.

[134] th/ tou @Hliou legomenh hJmera/. Footnote 1 on page 186. Justin Martyr, ‘First Apology of Justin Ch. LXVII’, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, Reprinted 1993), 1:186.

[135] Justin Martyr, ‘First Apology of Justin Ch. LXVII’, Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1:186.

[137] This concept frequently appears in the writings of nineteenth century Baptist historians.

[138] A. H. Lewis, A Critical History of the Sabbath and the Sunday in the Christian Church, (Plainfield, New Jersey: American Sabbath Tract Society, 1903). Available http://www.ozemail.com.au/~davhill

[139] Rowland Ward and Robert Humphreys, Religious Bodies in Australia (3^rd edition, Melbourne: New Melbourne Press, 1995), 126.

[140] You and Your Church (Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Alfred, New York, 1961), 28.

[141] Thomas McElwain, ‘The many forms of “Elohim”’, Sabbath Recorder (Sept 1992): 11-12.

[142] Thomas McElwain, ‘Is the Son of God God the Son?’, and ‘Beliefs and Practices of the Mill Yard Church’, The Sabbath Observer (Summer 1992), 11-16.

[143] Edward Barrar ed., The Gospel Messenger 10 #54 (Aug 1992).

[144] Edward Barrar ed., The Gospel Messenger (undated).

[145] The Seventh-day Adventist Church accepts the doctrine of the Trinity.

[146] Queensland Baptists of the nineteenth century held similar views. L. Ball, Queensland Baptists in the Nineteenth Century: The Historical Development of a Denominational Identity (PhD Thesis: University of Queensland, 1994), 216-218.

[147] Some see support for the practice in the example and teaching of Paul.

[148] Mavis Rudd, ‘Bundaberg Fellowship Becomes a Church’, Link (Jan-Feb-Mar 1984): 7.

[149] Stephan Kube, ‘Sydney Area News’, Link (April 1990):11.

[150] ‘Our Association’s First Family Camp’, Link (April 1991): 11.

[151] Minutes, Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists, July 5, 1993.

[152] Note the general American viewpoint. “Dietary laws - Seventh Day Baptists make a distinction between the moral laws of the Old Testament (such as the Ten Commandments, given for all mankind) and the ceremonial laws (given for the developing Israel nation). Hence they do not consider that such things as dietary laws are still obligatory. Seventh‑day Adventists consider that regulations such as the Old Testament dietary distinctions between clean and unclean meats are still required of Christians.” ‘Seventh Day Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists Compared’, Sabbath Recorder (May 1999): 9.

[153] Questionnaire responses from the Melbourne Church indicate a strong iconoclasm.

[154] As reflected in the wording of the Australasian Statement of Belief, 1988.

[155] Confession of Faith, According to the Holy Word of God, circa 1600 A.D. Thieleman J. van Braght, Matryrs’ Mirror (Scottdale: Herald Press, 1950), 406-407.

[156] Note the general American viewpoint. “State of the dead - Seventh Day Baptists in general believe that upon death, the souls of the righteous go to be with God. They believe that the redeemed will be given spiritual and glorified bodies at the Resurrection. Seventh‑day Adventists teach that both the spirit and the body fall asleep in death, not to waken until Christ returns. Until that day, the dead are (literally) unconscious.” Sabbath Recorder (May 1999): 9.

[157] ‘A Step Forward Towards “SDB Publications”, Link (Jan 1982): 6. A fire totally destroyed the literature centre in 1991.

[158] Correspondence from Amangelia Seventh Day Baptist Church to the Australasian Conference of SDB, 15 August, 1991.

[159] Minutes of the Seventh Conference of Australasian SDBs, Christchurch, January 5-12 1990.

[160] Correspondence from Amangelia Seventh Day Baptist Church to the Australasian Conference of SDB, 15 August, 1991.

[161] Minutes of the Eighth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Auckland, January 5-15 1992.

[162] Conference Programme, Ninth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Mt. Tamborine, July 5 1993.

[163] Minutes of the Ninth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Mt. Tamborine, July 5 1993.

[164] Minutes of the Ninth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Mt. Tamborine, July 5, 1993.

[165] Minutes of the Tenth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Wellington, January 16, 1996.

[166] ‘Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists Compared’, Sabbath Recorder (May 1999): 9.

[167] Questionnaire, Barbara Eldred, Capalaba, Brisbane, 1999.

[169] Barbara Eldred, ‘Brisbane’, Link (April 1991): 5.

[170] Deacons/ Deaconesses were David Hill, Lynne Goulding, Dorothy d’Alpuget, Barbara Eldred, Wynita Hill. Minutes, Annual General Meeting of the Brisbane SDB Church, 12 November, 1991.

[171] Volume 3, No. 4, Summer 1993-94 was the last issued under the sponsorship of the Australian Association of SDBs.

[172] Financial records of the Brisbane (Northside) Seventh Day Baptist Church.

[173] Dorothy d’Alpuget, ‘Brisbane Church News’, Link (April 1999): 4.

[174] The Beerburrum Fellowship was then known as the Brisbane (Northside) Seventh Day Baptist Church.

[175] ‘SDB Consultation Meetings in Brisbane’, Link (April 1990): 5.

[176] ‘Our Association’s First Family Camp’, Link (April 1991): 11.

[177] Minutes of the Tenth Conference of Australasian SDBs, Wellington, January 16, 1996.

[178] Graham Duffin has been the only paid pastor for an SDB church.

[179] E. J. Horsley, ‘A Visit with Seventh Day Baptists Down Under’, The Sabbath Recorder (March, 1977): 8.

[180] In the nineteenth century the Seventh Day Baptists in America had several denominational schools and seminaries including Alfred University and Milton and Salem Colleges. None exist as Seventh Day Baptist institutions today. For their histories see Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America, Vol 1., 488-583.

[181] Quoted in Sanford, 358 from, Council on Ministry, Conference Minutes, SDB Yearbook (1988), J5.

[182] Constitution of the Australasian Conference of Seventh Day Baptists.

[183] Dorothy Goulding, ‘Australasian Conference Business’, Sabbath Recorder (May 1983): 7.

[184] Sanford, A Choosing People, 76-82.

[185] The Brisbane Church is the only building which has been purchased by Australian Seventh Day Baptists. While the Melbourne Church has been responsible for raising funds for the building of a church in Argentina it has no building of its own.

[187] E. Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches (translated O. Wyon; 2 Vols; New York: Harper Row, 1960), 1:331-381.

[188] David Moberg, The Church as a Social Institution (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1962), 74-75.

[189] Thomas F. O’Dea, The Sociology of Religion (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1966), 69. (quoting H. Richard Niebuhr.)

[190] Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (translated A. M. Henderson, T. Parsons; New York: The Free Press, 1964), 364.

[191] Thomas F. O’Dea, The Sociology of Religion, 23.

[193] Mavis Rudd, ‘Preface to 2^nd Edition’, Seventh Day Baptist 1975 – 1985: A Decade in Australia.

[194] Les Ball, Queensland Baptists in the Nineteenth Century: The Historical Development of a Denominational Identity, 374 - 393.

Appendix

Additional information on Australian SDB History received 27/09/2002:

Dear David

In the years 1956 –1962 in Maclean on the Clarence River NSW my father and I met a Baptist Minister who was a pastor at Maclean but I think he lived at Lawrence. His name was Soper or Sofa something like that. He was English or Scottish, I remember an accent. He was short with graying hair. In the early days I went to Sunday School and later asked to stay so I could sing the hymns in ‘big church’. My Dad didn’t attend Church Service but the pastor and Dad would often talk at the house. They came to know one another as my father owned and drove a school bus and would also take church congregations to Yamba or Broom’s Head for Church picnics etc. In those days not many people owned cars.

At the time my father was searching for a church who kept the Sabbath besides S.D.A.s and so in chatting to the Baptist minister the subject of Sabbath came up. I remember Mr. Soper or Sofa said he came from a background of Sabbath keeping Baptists but for a job in the ministry preached on Sunday so he could minister to people but privately believed and kept a (sic) Sabbath. I remember because after this chat the Church picnics were on Sunday so Dad could be paid for the hire of the bus. Prior to this Dad worked Sabbaths on and off. Bus hire wasn’t a weekly occurrence. As a family we started observing the Sabbath from 1957 onward and in that same year came across H.W.A. and in 1960 the Radio Church of God – H.W.A. set up offices in Sydney and we started attending Holy Day Feasts.

Margaret Manwaring

	Date	Conference / Meeting Venue	President during previous term	Theme	Significant outcomes /Actions (As recorded in Link and/or Conference Minutes)
1	July 1980	Auckland, New Zealand			Inaugural Constitution
2	June 81	Camp Carey, Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains	Ron Barrar	Forward in Action	Link newsletter begun
3	January 1983	Motukarara Conference Centre, Christchurch	Mervyn Rudd	No Turning Back	Decision to join Baptist World Alliance
4	July 1984	Bargara Youth Centre, Bundaberg Youth Camp 27 June to 4 July	Daniel Barrar	Make Straight a Highway For Our King	Acceptance of Regents Park as a Church; Morisset and Adelaide as fellowships Discussed employment of extension pastor and voluntary field worker.
	Easter 1985	Regents Park host Australasian SDB Meeting
5	January 1986	Camp Motu Moana, Green Bay, Auckland	S. Kube R. Barrar	From Darkness to Light	Statement of Beliefs discussed
	Easter 1986	Regents Park hosts Australasian SDB Meeting			Discussed employment of itinerant Evangelist.
6	January 1988	Mount Valley Salvation Army Conference Centre, The Basin, via Melbourne	R. Barrar	Peace Through Evangelism	Adoption of Statement of Belief
7	January 1990	Living Springs, Christchurch	J. Alegre D. Goulding	Jesus Christ is Lord	Settlement on Atonement issue Bundaberg and Warrimoo accepted as churches
	April 1990	Consultation Meeting with view to establishing Australian Association	D. d’Alpuget		Association formed.
A1	March 1991	Australian Association Meeting, Kindillan, Redland Bay, Qld.	D. d’Alpuget		First Association Family Camp
8	January 1992	Willow Park, Auckland (Preceded by SDB World Federation)	D. Goulding	Give me this Mountain	Brisbane Church accepted Uzamara Mission Project.
9	July 1993	Camp Tamborine, Nth. Tamborine, Queensland.	D. d’Alpuget	At Work with Christ	Reconciliation with Morisset
10	January 1996	Akatarawa, Wellington, NZ.	I. Ingoe	Seek ye first the Kingdom of God	Publications approved Malawi Bible College support
11	January 1998	Morning Glory, Sydney.	A. Goulding D. Barrar	I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel	Statement on Marriage proposed

Date

Conference / Meeting Venue

Theme

Significant outcomes /Actions