A Minister's Minutes

About the Book

After 60 years in Christian ministry, Bernard Thorogood reports on significant meetings, travels, and issues met along the way. Beginning his ministry in the islands of the South Pacific at the end of the colonial period, he describes Polynesia before the tourist rush as a paradise with deep scars. Called to take responsibility for the world work of the mission society, he needed to meet other parts of the world church in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Here Bernard Thorogood faces some key issues for Christian mission today. The third part of his ministry was in the United Reformed Church in Britain, involving much ecumenical activity, as the movement for unity shifted from the central organs of the churches to the congregations. Thorogood also tells of personal joys and heartaches. From Sussex to Polynesia, from London to Sydney, this is a spiritual as well as a global journey.

About the Author

Trained in Scotland and ordained in the Congregational Church, Bernard Thorogood served with the London Missionary Society from 1953 for 18 years in the islands of the South Pacific. For ten years, he was then responsible for the global work of the mission as this pioneering society was reformed into an international council of churches, in which each has gifts to share and needs to express. He was called in 1980 to be the General Secretary of the United Reformed Church in UK, a post which entailed much ecumenical involvement both in Britain and with the World Council of Churches. Bernard married an Australian, Joan, in 1991 and so on retirement the next year moved to Sydney, becoming a minister within the Uniting Church; his sons live in England. Bernard was awarded the OBE and made a Doctor of Divinity in 1992. Previous books include: Risen Today, the Flag and the Cross, Letters to Paul, One Wind, Many Flames, and A Guide to Amos, and he edited the last history of the LMS called Gales of Change.