N O R TH N S W CO N FE R E N CE N E WS
DEC 2015
Commemoration of Ellen White’s life at Avondale Memorial as in numerous books and papers.
Dr Hammond says of Ellen and her life, “I believe that it was important to present the human side of a person with extraordinary responsibilities and a wonderful message. She loved living in Australia and would have been happy to stay here. We are privileged to have so much history around us, and it is important that we garner what bits have yet to be published and documented.”
Over the weekend of 23 to 25 October, Avondale Memorial Church hosted a series of seminars to commemorate the life and work of Ellen White (1827–1915). Under the title of “Ellen G White: One Hundred Years On,” Avondale Memorial joined other centres around the world in honouring the life, writings, experience and influence of one of the most prominent founding members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
In being asked to speak about her life in Australia, Dr Hammond notes that there has already been much documented about it. “I decided to dig into her personal life by looking at unpublished documents from her time here,” he says. “These were in the form of her diaries, journal, many letters and correspondence, and reminiscences of those who knew her here in Australia. The opportunity thus presented itself to adopt a narrative with human interest that would intrigue people. They are more likely to remember that.” He was able to remember conversations with people who have passed away who recalled stories about her, as well as sourcing original family archives of people who (Continued on page 3)
At Memorial, four seminars were presented over the weekend: Dr John Hammond spoke on the Friday night on Ellen’s experience and influence in Australia; Dr Allan Lindsay and Pastor Ross Goldstone gave presentations on the Sabbath afternoon on how to read and understand a 19th Century prophet in 2015, and Ellen’s experiences in New Zealand respectively; and the final presentation was given by Dr John Skrzypaszek, Director of the Ellen White Research Centre at Avondale College, at Sunnyside. Sunnyside was the home of Ellen when she lived in Cooranbong in the 1890s, and Dr Skrzypaszek spoke about the impact she had on the Adventist Church. All of the presenters were experienced, interesting speakers who had lectured or authored books and papers on the life of Ellen. Their presentations were all wellattended, with the combined attendance for the weekend exceeding 700 people — including some from the local community. On the Sunday morning, a family who live next door to Sunnyside joined the celebrations. There were also attendees present from other Adventist churches in the Cooranbong area and beyond — including some who came from Queensland for the weekend. An interesting visual feature of the weekend was the writing desk used by Ellen when she was in Australia (pictured top right with Dr Lindsay, Pastor Goldstone and Dr Hammond). This desk was supplied by the Pascoe family and brought along by Pastor Daron Pratt, Director of Children’s and Family Ministries for the North New South Wales Conference. The desk was a reminder of the extensive writings of Ellen. Her legacy lives on in the life of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as well
In this issue:
Page 2: From the President: Paris, France Pages 3: Safe Places Training held around NNSW Conference Pages 7: “Sunday for Summer” shines brightly in Kingscliff In this issue: Big Camp 2016 application forms
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