Faces

New South Wales

I Archives

Baptist Archives of NSW Inc.

The research and repository department of the Baptist Historical Society of NSW

(See Special Note below on Canberra and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT))

Location: Morling College, 122 Herring Road, Macquarie Park NSW 2113
Tel: (02) 9878 0201 Fax: (02) 9878 2175
archives@morling.edu.au
Website: dead link baptisthistory.org.au/societies/nsw

Archivist: Ernest Windschuttel

Access: 9.30 am to 2.30pm Mondays and Wednesdays; other times by arrangement. Contact the Archivist. It is expected that research will be carried out on-site by clients (under supervision); for those unable to visit, Archives staff may be able to assist with smaller projects, time permitting, but without assurance of time response, but major projects require attendance by clients. Privacy conditions apply - details on application.

Fees: No set charges, but donations for services given are invited.

Holdings

Records

  • Baptist Journals from 1877 (incomplete), containing much historical information especially obituaries, church formations and details of ministers
  • Baptist Union of Australia and Baptist World Alliance Year Books - few
  • Baptist Union of NSW Minute Books, from 1867
  • Baptist Union Year Books, from 1901
  • Church pamphlets, bulletins, annual reports, anniversaries, etc
  • District Associations’ minutes
  • Essays submitted to the Biennial Historical Essay Competition
  • Lectures given at meetings of the Baptist Historical Society of NSW
  • Marriage Registers - limited number (ministers, not church)
  • Ministers’ Fraternal minutes
  • Minute Books of churches
  • Minute Books of Executive Committee of Baptist Union of NSW; State Department of Missions 1833-; Department of Home Missions 1904-; Theological College; Homes Trust; Community Services

Note:

Central Baptist Church/Bathurst Street Baptist Church: the Archives holds considerable records, including some original correspondence by John Saunders and subsequent 19th cent ministers and members, records of pew rentals, photographs of the 1938 demolishing and other photos, but minute books and other records of the Bathurst Street Chapel from 1831 are held in the Mitchell Library, Macquarie St, Sydney - see more below]

BaptistCare (Baptist Community Services/Baptist Homes Trust) records are held at BaptistCare office, Level 2, 22 Brookhollow Ave, Baulkham Hills (PO Box 7626), NSW 2153 ask@baptistcare.org.au

Website: https://baptistcare.org.au/ Phone: (02) 9023 2500

Miscellaneous

Biographies: more than 1000 Baptist biographies, ranging from brief to full family histories

Church Histories: Several hundred church histories held, including some churches which no longer exist

Other:

  • Baptist (British) Tracts, Pamphlets, Reporter, Baptist Messenger (19th Century)
  • Baptist history, Australian and British
  • Old books - sermons, lectures etc (17th-19th centuries)
  • Royal Australian Historical Society: magazines and journals
  • Material also relating to US, New Zealand, Baptist World Alliance and other Australian states

C H Spurgeon materials
Autobiography, C.H. Spurgeon (8 vols)
Life and Work of C.H. Spurgeon (6 vols)
Metropolitan Tabernacle Sermons, C.H. Spurgeon
New Park Street Pulpit, C.H. Spurgeon

Church Archivists’ Society Newsletters

Photographs
Many photographs - many unsorted
Some “illuminated addresses”

Artefacts and Memorabilia: a considerable collection

Baptist Union of Australia records

The records of the Australian Baptist Ministries (Baptist Union of Australia) were formerly located in Melbourne but have been transferred to Sydney. Check with NSW Baptist Archives for exact details.

Minutes
Baptist Union of Australia: Executive and Council 1947 - 1987
Educational Board 1929 - 1971
Publication Board 1942 - 1948
Literature Board 1946 - 1956
Business and Finance Committee: Board of Christian Education 1957 - 1981
Young People’s Board/Board of Christian Education and Publication/Board of Publications 1929 - 1983

Handbooks
Handbooks 1938-1984

Publications
Sunday School literature
Clifford Press publications

Other
Documents relating to -
Australasian Congresses 1908, 1911, 1926
Triennial Assemblies 1926 -
Family Conventions 1975 -

II Historical Society

Baptist Historical Society of NSW

(Est. 1974; incorporated in NSW and affiliated with the
Association of Baptist Churches in NSW and ACT
(Formerly: Baptist Union of New South Wales)

C/- Morling College, 122 Herring Road, Macquarie Park NSW 2113
Tel: (02) 9878 0201 ext. 129
Email: archives@morling.edu.au
Website: http://www.baptisthistory.org.au

Objectives

  1. To encourage research into the history of Baptists, especially those in NSW
  2. To seek and obtain custody of important Baptist records, and to provide for their careful preservation
  3. To encourage the collating and recording of Baptist history
  4. To foster interest in Baptist history at the local church level
  5. To assist research students at schools, colleges and universi­ties
  6. To publish articles and historical information
  7. To be alert to Church jubilees, centenaries and other signif­icant anniversaries for Baptists and where possible, to assist in the provision of relevant historical details
  8. To promote care of buildings and sites of historical interest to Baptists.

Chair: Dr Alan Rice
Secretary: Mr Ron Cardwell
Archivist: Ernest Windschuttel
Meetings: Held Feb, May, Aug and November.

Publications

Periodical: The Baptist Recorder (quarterly)

Books

  • And One was a Doctor: A Life of Rev. Dr. A.J. Waldock Roy B. Henson,(2003)
  • Australian Baptists and World War I (2009), Michael Petras (Editor)
  • Australian Baptists Past and Present, Michael Petras (ed.) (1981)
  • Baptists in the Cradle City: The Story of the Parramatta Church 1838-1986, Hubert Watkin-Smith (1986)
  • Born to be a Soldier; War Diary of Lieutenant John Gotch Ridley, M. C. A survivor of Fromelles, edited by Jean Kelshaw and Bruce Thornton (2010).
  • Extension or Extinction: Baptist Growth in New South Wales 1900-1939, Michael Petras (1983)
  • George Henry Morling our beloved principal by E Ron Rogers, edited by John M Stanhope, (Greenwood Press, & Macquarie Park, BHS of NSW Inc.,2014)
  • George Henry Morling, The Man and His Message for Today (Greenwood Press, 1995)
  • Making their Mark: NSW/ACT Baptist Biographies, I B Thornton (2012)
  • Religion in Colonial New South Wales Kenneth J. Cable (1993)
  • Soldier and Evangelist: The Story of Rev. John G. Ridley, M. C., Harold E. Evans (1980)
  • The First Australian Baptists, K. R. Manley & M. Petras (1981)
  • For the Highest – a history of Morling College by Victor J Eldridge (BHS of NSW Inc, Macquarie Park, 2015)
  • The Quest for Serenity (Young and Morling 1951. Second Edition Morling Press, 2002)
  • Living with the Holy Spirit (Morling Press 2004).
  • The Franciscan Spirit and other Writings (Baptist Historical Society of NSW. 2008).
  • The Upper Room Discourses (B.H.S. 2010)
  • The Incomparable Christ (B.H.S. 2010)
  • Journeys with God. (B.H.S. 2010)
  • The Romance of the Soul. (B.H.S. 2010)
  • Jesus and the Life of Prayer (B.H.S. 2010)
  • Faith and Works, (B.H.S. 2010)
  • Living in the Will of God, (B.H.S. 2010.)
  • The Acts of the Holy Spirit (B.H.S. 2011)
  • Amos/Hosea (B.H.S. 2011)

III General

a. Current Publications of Baptist Union
Baptist Union of NSW Handbook
The New South Wales Baptist
The Recorder (Baptist Historical Society of NSW, quarterly)

b. Standard Publications\ “Attitudes towards Calvinism among Baptists of NSW 1831-1914”, Michael Chavura, (CSAC Working papers Series 1/2 1991)

“Attitudes towards Calvinism among Baptists of NSW 1831-1914”,  Michael Chavura, (CSAC Working papers Series 1/2 1991)

“The Baptist Church in NSW 1890-1901: its response, debate and action to social reform”, Vivian Grice, (BA Hons, University of Sydney, 1974)

Extension or Extinction: Baptist Growth in New South Wales 1900-1939, Michael Petras (1983)

The First Australian Baptists, K. R. Manley & M. Petras (1981)

For the Highest – a history of Morling College by Victor J Eldridge (BHS of NSW Inc, Macquarie Park, 2015)

George Henry Morling: the man and his message for today, E. Ron Rogers (Sydney: Greenwood Press, 1995)

A History of Baptists in NSW, W. Higlett, A. J. Waldock and A. L. Leeder (Unpublished MS in possession of Baptist Historical Society of NSW)

“A History of Calvinism in the Baptist Churches of NSW 1831-1914”, Michael Chavura (PhD, Macquarie University, 1994)

“A History of the Baptist Church in NSW from 1831 to 1936”, B. G. Wright (MA, University of  Sydney, 1953)

In the Heart of Sydney: Central Baptist Church, 1836-1936, Ken Manley (Sydney: Central Baptist Church, 1987)

Invitation to Fellowship, J. Saunders, (Sydney ,1842)

“James Greenwood MA - Clergyman, Journalist, Reformer and Politician”, G Hilton, (M.Ed., University of Sydney)

Some Fell on Good Ground, A. C. Prior (Sydney: Baptist Union of NSW, 1966)

William Higlett papers - bound copy Baptist Historical Society of NSW Archives


IV  Other Relevant Bodies


Morling College Library, 122 Herring Road, Macquarie Park NSW 2113  

Tel: (02) 9878 0201 Fax: (02) 9878 2175

The library holds Baptist periodicals, histories, denominational reports and yearbooks as well as general studies of the denomination in NSW, Australia and overseas.


State Library of New South Wales, including The Australian Research Collection (Mitchell and Dixson Libraries, Macquarie St,  Sydney  (open 7 days, not including public holidays)  Tel: (02) 9273 1414 Fax (02) 9273 1255

Web address: http://www.slnsw.gov.au


Mitchell Library holds a large collection of monographs, (especially those 19th cent., local church histories, biographies, denominational reports, devotional works and addresses) periodicals, and images for NSW and other states; the manuscript collection includes the letter book of Rev John Saunders (1834-56) and minute books and other records of the Bathurst Street (Central Baptist) Church from 1831-1933]


Special Note - Australian Capital Territory:

Churches in Canberra, located in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), are affiliated with the Baptist Union of New South Wales. However, there is also an “Association of Baptist Churches of the ACT” - see its website at http://baptistact.asn.au/ for a list of churches with their websites and other links. Some records are housed at Canberra Baptist Church and others at the Canberra Heritage Library:   http://www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/search/Manuscript_Collections/Canberra_Baptist_Church

 

For the history of Baptist work in Canberra:


R.K. Robb (ed.), Fifty Capital Years. A history of the foundation of Baptist witness in the Australian Capital Territory (1979)

Russell Holly, Further Capital Years

Val Spear, Canberra Baptist Church: the First Seventy Five Years 1929 – 2004

R.W. Hughes, Recalling with Gratitude (on memorials in the church)

Website of Canberra Baptist Church history page

See also the private papers of Rev Dr A.J. Waldock - private papers, Baptist Union of NSW.