Touchstone  December 2003

By Yvonne Wilkie
Archivist

Writing a history for a parish, organisation or a person requires a number of questions to be answered before writing can begin. Why do we want to write a history? What aspects of our faith journey do we want to tell?  How does our story relate to the wider church and society? Who are we telling our story to? How long should it be?  What costs will be involved in research, writing and publishing? Are there accessible resources such as minute books, correspondence, ephemera, or photographs? Is our faith journey story to include interviews from past and current members? Who will write it?  And what form and lay out will it take?

Most of these questions were not asked by the Young Men's Bible Class Union who had considered writing a history on at least three occasions.  As a consequence none of them eventuated.  The ‘majority year' of the Union in 1926 invoked little support for a history.  The Dominion Council believed the obvious writers of this history would be the founder George Troup and the first Travelling Secretary and Evangelist, the Rev. John C. Jamieson.  No discussion took place outlining this history and there is no evidence it was ever completed.

In the meantime the Rev. John D. Salmond advised the Dominion Council that he along with J. Gregory would write four pages on the men's Bible Class Union for John Elder's official Presbyterian Church centennial history.

The movement towards a history took on a greater momentum in 1948 with the approaching 50 year Jubilee celebrations.   For the first time the question was asked as to the type of history to be written.  The current Council confessed that, ‘as the majority of them were accountants', they had ‘no set ideas' but would give ‘some thought to the matter'.   Districts had been requested on several occasions to compile a local history and to locate useful resources.  With no guidelines only North Otago district responded and few other resources came to the fore.  Efforts to find an historian to write the history had failed also, yet without saying why the belief for a history continued.

In May 1950 Clive Sage, a lecturer in English from Ardmore Teachers College, offered his services.  The Council continued to have only vague ideas of the type of history they wanted.  Ideas conflicted as some saw a history that recalled the stories of past members with of a large number of ‘group and team' photographs throughout.  Others wanted a ‘bird's eye view' of the movement as it developed including biographical information of significant leaders.  They were equally vague as to the length of the history but thought 150 pages may suffice and one year sufficient time to compile it.

Sage, however, believed that the history should consider the contribution of the Union to the life of the Church and society as a whole.   He wanted some analysis as to the Union's successes or failures as a guide to future Bible Class development.  These initial comments should have been warning enough that his history would be unacceptable to some.

Sage submitted his draft to the Editorial Committee late 1952, one year after the closing date.  The scattered nature of the collection and the lack of significant resources delayed the completion of the final draft by a year.  The Committee's response to Sage must have been disappointing.    It took a different stance from his interpretation and believed the history to be ‘somewhat depressing and felt that if it were a true picture of the Union, there would be no value in publication.'  No doubt Doug Spence's comment reflected the Committee's view of what the history should be.  ‘I feel that the main emphasis of a Jubilee History should be that of humble and thankful appreciation of the splendid achievement of the YMBC movement in the service of Jesus Christ.'

Sadly, no history has yet been published of the Young Men's Bible Class.  As a consequence the present and future generations will be unaware of the rise and fall of this movement. A study of it will inform us a great deal of the post WW2 church and its decline as many of our ministers, their wives and church members were and are products of this movement.
 

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