Roy Raymond was a minister with Churches of Christ, in South Australia from 1912 to 1932 and then in Western Australia from 1932 onwards. He died aged 103 in 1993. In 1970, at age eighty, he wrote his autobiography, titled A Preacher's Progress, describing a life of hardship and faith.
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The author, Roy Raymond, was born in the South Australian copper-mining town of Moonta in 1890, the sixth child in a large family. Struggling against poverty, the family moved to nearby Wallaroo Mines where Roy continued his primary schooling until he was afflicted with blindness. After having had his sight restored by a visiting physician some two years later, he went to work at the Devon Mine, above ground, just before his twelfth birthday, for a wage of five shillings and sixpence (55 cents) a week.
Roy and his brother Sid had their brushes with the law - amusing they seem now - and also enjoyed sporting activities. But life was real and life was earnest: Roy became an active member of the Kadina Church of Christ, and wondered what talents he might have and how he could use them. Against the deafening roar of heavy mining machinery he spent long and lonely hours in teaching himself, and practising, public speaking. Eventually, his pastor called on him in an emergency to deliver the Sunday morning sermon. To his astonishment, he learned some weeks later, visitors from a farming community on Eyre Peninsula had heard him deliver his one and only sermon and wanted him to become their minister. Recklessly he agreed.
Taking up his appointment shortly before his twenty-second birthday, he travelled great distances on horseback or by bicycle over rough bush tracks in his efforts to meet the needs of his church circuit. The farmers were too poor to pay him a salary, but promised him the proceeds of part of their crop. Unfortunately, it was a drought year, so the preacher had to support himself from his meagre bank account. When that was nearly exhausted he decided that he would have to leave his friends, many of whom had become very dear to him, and return to the mines.
But he received a call to serve, again as a home missionary, in the burgeoning Murray River settlement of Berri. He arrived inauspiciously one morning in April 1914, before daybreak, on foot, and without luggage. He tells of pioneering work in the district, his hardships, misadventures, successes, the thrill of getting married and the disappointment of having to take his bride, Mary, to live in a tent. The building of a church and a home, the recognition of his work, the friendships - all these have a place in his fascinating story.
Next he moved down river to Murray Bridge, where a warm welcome and engaging prospects awaited him. Dreams of a settled ministry were shattered when his wife lost her health and, on doctor's orders, the family moved on to a circuit in the Adelaide Hills and later to another country town. Disaster followed a few years later when, in the midst of a successful suburban ministry, the death of Roy's beloved wife left him and his two young sons in mourning. He struggled on for two more years, then married his second wife, Bessie, a widow also with two young sons. In 1932 the combined family moved to Fremantle, Western Australia and a new life.
The years of ministry in Western Australia were years of hard but appreciated work, bringing recognition of the author as a leader among Churches of Christ in the State and, indeed, nationally. He retired in 1956 and wrote his modest autobiography in 1970, the year in which he turned eighty.
Roy Raymond's vocation was preaching, and there are many church-goers who remember his powerful utterance. He was also an inspiring teacher, an understanding pastor, a sympathetic friend to many, and a wise counsellor. He was a man of great faith, strong convictions often strongly expressed, and a gifted raconteur. His story, a truly human document, is told factually, graced with pathos, humour and self-deprecatory wit, and is engrossing to read.
The author lived twenty-three years after writing this account, dying "full of years" in 1993. With an epilogue to summarize relevant events since 1970, these are the memoirs of the preacher and the story of his progress.