The Kingdom in Miniature: Building a Colonial Theology

Abstract

Among the most important occasions in colonial New
Zealand Baptist life was the address of the President of
the Baptist Union, given at the Annual Conference.
These were often insightful ‘state of the union’ pieces.
They were also a vehicle for the articulation of Baptists’
sense of themselves, their mission and their theology.
This 1908 address by F.G. Buckingham reveals the de
veloping ecclesiology of New Zealand Baptists and the
challenges they faced. Many of the issues will seem
familiar to readers nearly a century on. It is reprinted
from the 1908/9 Yearbook of the N.Z. Baptist Union.