'At the 1960 Assembly, I was appointed as the first General Superintendent of the Baptist Union of Victoria.... The idea of becoming a pastor to pastors... attracted me... in view of the number of men who were seeking my counsel. I said at my induction... that if the Lord had intended me to be an administrator, he would have given me a few more gifts in that direction.

All was not plain sailing. The new position was imposed on a structure ill-fitted to receive it. Jack Manning, Home Mission Superintendent, had been nominated by some friends, although I was the nomination of the special committee appointed for that purpose. I went to see him before the election, and we agreed that this should in no way be a personal contest, but a means of discovering God's will in the matter.The existence of two such long-established positions as his and that of Cliff Thompson, the General Secretary, created great problems for me, although I wish to make it quite clear that they both treated me in a brotherly manner, Cliff being most generous in references to me in his reports at Assembly, and Jack, with his capacity to laugh at himself, was a good colleague...

I had no office, being accommodated in the Board Room at the old Albert Street headquarters, which I had to vacate when meetings were held, and which might be entered without warning when I might be conducting an interview with somebody. Some leaders of departments were determined to preserve their own little empires, regardless of Assembly determinations. For example, at a dinner held by the state committee of the Australian Baptist Missionary Society, Cliff and his wife were placed at the head table with the V. I. P's, while the general superintendent and his wife sat where they could among the rank and file where, between ourselves, they much preferred to be. This was indicative of an attitude which took time to break down. It should be said that the Thompsons were very embarrassed by this.'

(Tom Keyte: The Chronicles of a 'Luckie Fellowe' 2nd edition, 1991 pp. 104-5).

(I'll post more from these interesting memoirs from time to time).

~~~

'In 1963 Rev. Ashton Jones was sentenced to eight months in gaol for seeking to enter the First Baptist Church of Atlanta in the company of a black student. In 1966 Sam Oni an African student was refused entry to, and forcibly turned away from Tattnall Square Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia, while the congregation sang:

Where cross the crowded ways of life

Where sound the cries of race and clan,

Above the noise of selfish strife,

We hear Thy voice, O Son of Man!

It is true that the ministers of the church disagreed with this action, but they were ejected from their posts by the vote of the congregation.

Benjamin Mays, (MA and PhD from the university of Chicago, holder of 28 honorary doctorates including from Harvard, one of the four chosen representatives of the U.S. to attend the funeral of Pope John, and for 27 years President of Morehouse College) was only ever invited to speak at two white churches in his home town Atlanta in 30 years. In his autobiography 'Born to Rebel' (Scribner's), he writes: 'I have never sought "acceptance" as such, but I have wanted respect... Love is wonderful, but if I could not have both I would prefer respect.'

(William Barclay, Expository Times October 1971, p. 32).

Shalom! Rowland Croucher

April 2006