Missionaries in the Family

Good morning Mr Croucher

I came across your website while doing my usual Saturday morning ‘trawl’ (much nicer than ‘surfing’ for old retired blokes, I think. I was searching for China Inland Mission references.

Two quick items for your own information and perhaps for dissemination to your substantial contacts, if you will.

(1) There is to be what I believe to be the first ever missionary conference devoted to Australian and New Zealand missionaries, At Home and Abroad. The broad details are:

ANZ Missionaries, At Home and Abroad

Program

* Draft Profram [16.03.04]

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Presentation Proposals

The closing date for papers is 30 May 2004. Notice of acceptance of proposal 30 July 2004

Registration

Registration and Conference Fee: $A200

Fee includes morning and afternoon tea. All other meals available at the many food service points on the ANU campus Accommodation and meals available at University House.

Conference registration closes 30 July 2004

New Lecture Theatre, Coombs Extension, Australian National University, Canberra 8-10 October, 2004

You are invited to share in the 1st Biennial TransTasman Conference on Australians and New Zealanders in Christian Missions, at Home and Abroad.

Presentations on any aspect of New Zealand and Australian contributions to Christian missions are invited. A wide variety of presentations is expected, with a focus expected on the contribution of women to the missionary cause.

The Advisory Panel

Professor Andrew Walls, Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World, University of Edinburgh Professor John Fitzgerald, Head, School of Asian Studies, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria Dr Allan Davidson Director of Postgraduate Studies, School of Theology, University of Auckland, New Zealand Associate Professor Hilary Carey, Deputy Head, School of Liberal Arts, University of Newcastle, New South Wales Dr Darrell Paproth, Lecturer, Bible College of Victoria, Croydon, Victoria Hugh Morrison, Postgraduate Student, New Zealand Bill Edwards, Postgraduate Student, South Australia Conference Organiser Ian Welch, PO Box 7034, Farrer ACT 2607, Australia Email: ian.welch[at]anu.edu.au

The state of play is as follows:

An update on progress with the TransTasman Missionary Conference on Australian and New Zealand Missionaries, At Home and Abroad.

TOTAL PAPERS. There are now 27, possibly 28 papers being offered.

ORIGINS: NZ 6; NSW 3; ACT 2; SA 2; VIC 6; WA 2; QLD 1; TAS 1. Eight papers are being presented by post-graduate students.

TOPICS/FOCUS Please note that some papers are counted under more than one heading.

WOMEN: SEVEN papers with primary reference to women. ABORIGINAL EIGHT papers dealing with Aboriginal Australia. MORAVIAN TWO papers discussing the Moravian role in Aboriginal Missions. MELANESIAN TWO papers discussing the Melanesian Mission. CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY THREE papers referencing the CMS. BAPTIST MISSIONS ONE paper specific to Baptist missionaries. CHINA. ONE paper discussing Australians in China. AUSTRALIA AND ASIA. ONE paper examining the Australian Council of Churches and relationships with Asia. CATHOLIC MISSIONS. ONE paper relating to the Columban Fathers. PAPUA/NEW GUINEA ONE paper. Possibly a second. MAORI ONE paper relating to the Maori People. EVANGELICALS AND MISSIONS THREE papers., 2 Australia; – 1 NZ. MISSION ARCHIVES TWO papers, one dealing with the Presbyterian Archives in NZ and film archives held by Screensound Australia (Australian sound and film archive).

The second item is set out below. It is essentially a search for the family history records of Australian missionaries. Australia lags far behind the other English-speaking missionary countries in the preservation of such material. With the substantial shift in missionary emphasis symbolised by agencies such as World Vision, it is important that the ‘okd’ generation not be lost and forgotten. Any publicity would be appreciated.

The following message was sent to many Australian newspapers recently. There are hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Australians who have missionaries in their family tree. They may have left letters, photographs, books, pamphlets, and so on that turn up as families pass on boxes of ‘bits and pieces’, often wondering what to do with them.

Far too many of these ‘bits and pieces’ are disappearing and it is important, not only to family history, but also to our national history, that the contributions of our home-grown missionaries are not lost forever.

The rapid growth of computers means that records such as letters, pamphlets, and photographs are being recorded electronically. Many families have done that already as part of collecting and publishing family histories.

To ensure the preservation of these very important electronic records, an archive is being established in Canberra to collect as much as possible for future generations.

People who have electronic records on CD-Rom disks are invited to send a copy of the disk or disks for archiving to Dr Ian Welch, Missionary Archives Project, PO Box 7034, Farrer ACT 2607. All donations will be acknowledged. No use will be made of disks with out prior approval by the donors.

Please do not offer paper records such as letters as there is no way these can be stored or processed at this stage. It would be useful to know of the existence of such collections, where they are held and under what circumstances they can be made available for historical research at some future time.

Donations of books and pamphlets not electronically recorded are invited. Where they have been scanned, ‘pdf’ copies on disk would be particularly valuable as part of the electronic archive.

All items will be placed in an academic library for preservation. No funds are available to process or purchase records or to cover postage or other costs.

Ian Welch, Australian National University, Canberra

It is good to see how busy you are in your nominal ‘retirement’. Its nice to keep busy, they say it beats off Alzheimers, etc.

With best wishes

Ian — Ian Welch, Division of Pacific and Asian History Research School of Asian and Pacific Studies Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Email: ian.welch[at]anu.edu.au Postal Address: Dr Ian Welch, PO Box 7034, Farrer ACT 2607, Australia.