RALLY BEFORE CRUSADE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31840, 19 November 1968, Page 16

RALLY BEFORE CRUSADE

The Kinsfolk, a wellknown Australian singing group, the Rev. Gordon Powell, a minister once prejudiced against Billy Graham-type crusade evangelism, and a crusade choir will feature in a rally in Christchurch preceding the Billy Graham Crusade. The rally will be held in the Civic Theatre on Friday at 8 p.m.

The theme will be “Christ Seeks Christchurch.” Admission will be free, but contributions toward the expenses will be welcomed. The Kinsfolk three brothers and a sister—sang before more than 50,000 people at each of the youth nights in the Sydney crusade and recently appeared in “The Sound Of Music,” a national television programme in Australia. They are the children of the Chaplain-General of the Australian Armed Forces (Canon A. E. Begbie) and Mrs Begbie. The Begbie family was active in both the 1959 and the 1968 Billy Graham crusades and Canon Begbie was a member of the executive committee of the Sydney Crusade on both occasions.

The group became interested in folk singing in 1964. Ross, a high school music teacher, aged 31, plays the guitar, sings tenor and does all the musical arrangements for the group. Richard, a curate in North Sydney, is 25. He plays the six and 12string guitar, banjo and flute and sings bass. Tim, a medical student, aged 21, plays the double bass and is the lead

singer. The youngest member, Marion, a kindergarten teacher, is aged 21. She plays an assortment of recorders and tin whistles, sings alto, and shares solos with Tim. Mr Powell, who will be the speaker at the rally, is a minister of Scott’s Presbyterian Church, Melbourne, and a Graham team associate on visits to the United States in 1960 and 1963. In the first 24 years of his preaching career Mr Powell did not believe in appealing to people to “commit their

lives to Christ,” because of some of the abuses of the method he had seen. The change in his attitude came during Dr Graham's visit to Australia in 1959. Mr Powell was then a minister in Sydney and after the crusade meeting he had more than 600 converts referred to his church. This was one of the facts which contributed to the change in his attitude. Mr Powell will also speak at other pre-crusade rallies to be held in Dunedin and Auckland. With him will be the com-

pere for the rally, Mr Harvey Thomas, who is a crusade associate. Mr Thomas is an Englishman who has assisted with Billy Graham crusades in .California, Hawaii and more recently in the Greater London and AH Britain crusades. At present Mr Thomas is assisting Mr Dan Piatt with the co-ordination of the tour of New Zealand and Australia next year. The photograph shows the Kinsfolk. From left are Ross, Marion, Tim and Richard.