BAPTIST CHURCH CAMPAIGN

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27303, 20 March 1954, Page 2

BAPTIST CHURCH CAMPAIGN

AUSTRALIAN TO TAKE PART

VISIT OF THE REV. J. C. RIDLEY

The Rev. John C. Ridley, one c»l Australia’s leading preachers, who has been engaged in international evangelism for 10 years, will be one of the .principal speakers at the simultaneous evangelistic campaign to be held by the Baptist Church in Christchurch from Mardh 21 to 28. The campaign will include addresses by the leading Baptist ministers of New Zealand at churches in Christchurch every evening, and a special rally in the Civic Theatre tomorrow. Mr Ridley had a distinguished military career in World War I. A serious wound suffered >t Fromelles in July.

1916, threatened to deprive him of his speech for life. However, he recovered and served for another two years, being personally decorated with the Military Cross by King George V. After the war Mr Ridley was a student pastor for some time before he was forced by his War injuries to become a “jackaroo” on stations in the back country of New South Wales. He then became an independent bush missionary, first with a horse-drawn van, and later with a motor-van, travelling through Australia as an interdenominational preacher. In World War 11, Mr Ridley served as a chaplain with the Australian Forces. He was for a time attached to the hospital ship Wanganella. Later he was chaplain with troops in Northern Australia. Mr Ridley visited New Zealand tn 1946 for a series of campaigns conducted by the Baptist Union. He also toured Britain and the United States in the course of a world lecture tour in 1949-50. His home is at Mount Pleasant, on the southern coast of New South Wales.