The World Convention
I was 26 when I left my work as a country parson to take up the prestigious position as the Minister of Cheltenham Church of Christ Victoria. This Church had the reputation of being a very large and alive Church. But that was a mirage. The reality was quite different as this young country parson was soon to discover. The life of a suburban Minister has some real surprises.
Early in my ministry at Cheltenham I became involved in preparations for the huge World Convention of Churches of Christ which was to be held in Adelaide during October 1970. I well remember the previous World Convention which was held in Melbourne in 1952. More than ten thousand people came from forty or fifty countries of the world to Melbourne for that grand occasion and meetings of upwards of twenty thousand people were held in the Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
On one night that I attended as a thirteen year old, a photographer took a photograph from the front platform designed to show everybody in the congregation. It was one of those very long and wide photographs covering fifteen thousand or more people. I never thought that anyone of us would be recognisable in such a photograph. But twenty years later in doing some research in the Archives of my Theological College’s library I came across a copy of that photograph more than two feet wide and sure enough in the third front row was my rather angelic thirteen year old face. That was my first introduction to meeting people from many different countries of the world who had a similar call of God on their lives as did myself, and who worshipped God singing some of the same hymns.
In 1966 we started preparation for the World Convention to be held in Adelaide in 1970. My role was part of a world study program to discuss important issues, to write papers and make Christian presentations that would then be formulated into a study book for use by the thousands of delegates at the Conference. Being still in my twenties it was a heady experience to meet together with many of the Theological heavyweights of the denomination and discuss the great issues affecting the Christian’s life and work in the world. I wrote a number of position papers that eventually were accepted by the Australian Committee and passed onto the National Committee and these in turn eventually became part of the study booklet.
The members of the Cheltenham Church of Christ were excited with the prospect of the World Convention in October, 1970 and many of them booked to take their holidays to go to this Eighth World Convention. I had two responsibilities: organising the transport of people coming from all of the various countries of the world via aircraft and ship and organising their ongoing passage to Adelaide. As most of them were planning to spend a few days in Melbourne I was also involved in organising people to meet them at the airport or at the dock, arrange transport for them, accommodation with Church families and introducing them into some Christian activities so that they could see what happens in Australia. The largest contingent of course, were coming from America and I guess the Americans were the most popular of our International visitors because they required little hospitality and generally wanted to look after themselves.
Many of our other International visitors from India, Africa, South East Asia, the Pacific Islands and Europe came from very poor backgrounds and depended upon the hospitality entirely and had little money to spend on public transport.
Looking back on my journals I see that there were people from fifty four countries. Almost all of the ten thousand International Visitors came through Melbourne and so consequently I had massive lists of names, transport arrangements and had assigned them to various Melbourne homes. To do this I had a whole selection of subcommittees because Melbourne being an International Airport with no curfew had flight arrivals twenty-four hours a day and the logistics of meeting and moving and housing so many people was a major task. I never realised what a great privilege it was to be in charge of such an organisation because it certainly developed my organisational skills and capacities. We needed more than five thousand homes to provide hospitality and more than a thousand volunteers as car drivers, meeters and greeters.
We also had several hundred interstate travellers particularly those coming from Queensland and New South Wales who had to be met, greeted and provided with hospitality. The Australian Financial Review wrote about the movement of International Visitors at the time, saying it was the largest crowd of International visitors ever to come to Australia for any event including the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
It was a heady experience for a young suburban minister, especially meeting with some of the great theological heavyweights of that era. I met, heard and held discussions with Dr. Martin Niemoller, the famous German Pastor who defied Adolf Hitler face to face and even though he had won Germany’s highest decoration as a U Boat Commander in World War 1 defied Adolf Hitler and was his personal prisoner right throughout World War 11. He made a great impression upon me.
Another hero of the era, Dr. Garfield Todd who had been Prime Minister from 1953 to 1958 in Rhodesia was the minister and missionary who entered politics. He had been subjected to house arrest under the Ian Smith regime and had spent many years confined to his house. To meet with the great Garfield Todd was a distinct honour. Thirty years later, at a World Convention in Brighton, an International Citation honouring his memory was announced. It was to be awarded to one minister, who like Sir Garfield, had a profound impact on the social, political and inter-church relations of his or her own country. To my amazement, It was then announced that I was to be the first recipient of the Citation.
Back in 1970, from Celyon came Dr. D.T. Niles the famous Sri Lankan Theologian, a tall gracious gentleman who deeply appreciated anything done for him. From Jamaica and Bossey in Switzerland came Dr. Philip Potter the Secretary General of the World Council of Churches and a fine International Statesman. These distinguished Church leaders meant a great deal to me in my personal conversations and meeting with them gave me an inkling of the stature of outstanding Christian leaders.
After the ten thousand had been duly fed, housed and dispatched on to Adelaide it was time for us to go as a family. We hauled a large caravan owned by my parents and parked it in a Church member’s backyard. The week of the Eighth World Convention will always live in my memory.
The World Pageant of Flags was televised by the ABC as the various International delegations followed their flags into the Apollo Stadium in Adelaide. The ABC telecast this opening live and followed it by two half hour television programs on subsequent days.
There were three ABC radio programs of fifteen thousand of so people singing hymns in the great Pavillions of the Adelaide Show Grounds. Work at the local Church was not forgotten because apart from meeting all of the International delegates and making sure they moved on their way from Melbourne to Adelaide, we also organised an evangelistic rally in the local area with a visiting American Evangelist.
Dr. Lloyd Lambert was a forty one year old preacher from Enid, Oklahoma. We organised nineteen Churches in a southern suburbs crusade in the Moorabbin Town Hall. There was a great choir, plenty of good music and about a thousand people present each night. Lloyd preached well and became somewhat of a mentor and an encourager to the young suburban minister at Cheltenham.
I kept in contact with him over many years subsequently and in 1972 made my own way to the United States of America. It was here that a unique experience occurred. Lloyd Lambert had invited me to preach in his own huge Church seating a couple of thousand people in magnificent style in Enid, Oklahoma. Just before we were due to go onto the platform Lloyd said to me “Would you mind wearing a preaching gown? I realise you haven’t got one with you while you are travelling but it is our custom for the preacher here to wear such a gown. I have a preaching gown in the cupboard here that was worn by my predecessor and if you don’t mind I would suggest that you wear it.”
I readily agreed to fit in with the customs of the local natives following the dictum “When in Rome do as the Romans do”. As Lloyd Lambert got his predecessor’s preaching robe from the cupboard and placed it on my shoulders he commented “This preaching robe was worn by my predecessor, Dr. E.Ray Snodgrass. He ministered here for more than thirty years.” I swung round on Lloyd. “Did you say E. Ray Snodgrass? He was a visiting American to the Melbourne Convention in 1952 and he preached at an evangelistic crusade in Wirth’s Olympia Melbourne, where I made my commitment to Christ following his preaching.”
Lloyd confirmed that the man who had preached in the service when I committed my life to Christ as a young thirteen year old was indeed the man whose preaching robe I now had on my shoulders.
That morning in the great First Christian Church of Enid, Oklahoma I preached a sermon to the best of my ability. At the conclusion of the sermon I gave a call to people to commit their lives to Jesus Christ and said to them “When I was a thirteen year old boy in Melbourne Victoria, a visiting United States preacher by the name of E. Ray Snodgrass came visiting our town. At the end of the sermon he held up his five fingers and enumerated that there are five things you need to do –
1.You must believe that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
2.You must accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour of your life.
3.You must repent of your sin and ask God to forgive your sin.
4.You must be baptised in obedience to Christ’s command and live a life following His way.
5.You must receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who will equip you and empower you in your Christian Ministry.”
I then said “At the end of Dr. Snodgrass’ presentation I committed my life to Jesus Christ, have been a Christian ever since and now as I’m standing here in his preaching gown, I make that same call to you.”
Many people came forward and committed their lives to Jesus Christ that morning. But on the way out as I stood at the front door of the Church greeting those friendly Oklahomans as they went out into the heat of the surrounding countryside to get into their air conditioned cars, I had person after person with tears in their eyes say to me that I brought them great happiness that morning with memories of their beloved former Pastor and to think that I was standing in his pulpit in his preaching gown, just like him was one of the most meaningful moments in their Christian experiences.
One very wealthy lady (please keep in mind that Enid, Oklahoma is one of the great oil producing centres of the world and this Church had among it’s membership, Lloyd told me, more than a hundred millionaires), one lady, wearing diamonds and fur, clasped me to her bosom and said “It was just so wonderful to hear you. When you were preaching those five points I just closed my eyes and I could hear Dr. Snodgrass preaching”. I looked at the lady as the tears rolled down her face and said “Ma’am, he was.”
As the Eighth World Convention of the Churches of Christ in Adelaide drew to a close in October, 1970 the final communion service in the Great Showgrounds Pavilion was conducted by a layman of Churches of Christ in Adelaide, a brilliant surgeon by the name of Sir Philip Messant who was a direct descendant of the first member of Churches of Christ in South Australia. There were forty five communion tables set up with more than seven hundred stewards to dispense the elements to fifteen thousand people in the congregation. The great Choir sang magnificently and released that evening a twelve inch long playing record which still brings me back happy memories of those days, twenty two years ago.
For a young man the opportunity to be part of a World Convention, to write study material and to organise travel and hospitality for thousands of International visitors was a great thrill indeed. I also think it gave experience and management principles which were to last throughout my life and to be part of my ministry as Superintendent of Wesley Mission. When our children were married, Beverley and I saved hard, and every four years attended the relevant World Convention and will continued for so long as we are able. We now have a wide international circle of friends.
That night in my study I spent some time writing up my journal and looking out of the window at the never ending stream of cars stopping at the traffic lights at the corner of Nepean Highway and Chesterville Road, that wide intersection that was dominated by the lovely white Church with the high white tower noting down the events of another day as a suburban minister.
GORDON MOYES