John Davis Jones

The first appearance of Stone-Campbell Movement churches in the Southern Hemisphere occurred in 1844 via Glaswegian colonists to Nelson. These colonists traced their religious lineage through the UK back to Alexander Campbell and his American Restoration Movement. Central to their identity was the appeal to “primitive Christianity,” emphasizing unity among denominations by returning to apostolic doctrines which included: believer’s baptism, congregational autonomy, Christian nonviolence, and other issues. This paper will show the gradual process in which Churches of Christ in NZ adopted the peace of ecclesial union, even when it annulled their previous theological commitment to the peace of Christian nonviolence.

John Davis Jones is a first year doctoral student at Victoria. He and his family lived in Wellington for six years prior to a two year teaching stint at Freed-Hardeman University (Henderson, TN, USA). The Joneses are thrilled to be back in New Zealand.