Alan Tippett Symposium

 Alan Tippett Symposium on Mission & Cross Cultural Ministry 13-14 September 2013 | Alphacrucis College | Sydney, Australia

 The Story

His writing was nothing short of prolific (500 books and articles, published and unpublished) and also very insightful. It is those insights that will be be highlighted at this symposium.

Some of the last words that Dr Ralph Winter wrote before his death in 2010 were about Alan Tippett. In writing the series introduction to Tippett’s material about to be published by William Carey Library, he said,

“…in the field of anthropology, he didn’t miss a thing and had a compendious knowledge, especially of the Southern Pacific sphere. His alert mind took him in many directions, some complete surprises and from volume to volume in this series you will find very little overlap and much that is rich for contemplation.”

Although so much of his ministry was served overseas, which meant he wasn’t known well in Australia, Alan Tippett never lost his heart for his homeland, or his intention to assist the world of missions in and from Australia. That was most clearly demonstrated by the fact that he returned to Australia for his retirement, and that he brought his incredible library and archival resources home to Australia with him, which he donated to St Mark’s Library in Canberra as a research collection.

The Symposium

Hosted by Alphacrucis College, the inaugral Alan Tippett Symposium on Mission & Cross Cultural Ministry is supported by the Australian Association of Missions Studies (AAMS),Missions Interlink, and St. Mark’s National Memorial Library, Canberra.

Now 25 years since his passing away, this event celebrates the significant legacy of Alan Tippett. Since then individuals have done work in and through his collection, including “Raicakacaka”, Rev Dr Colin Dundon’s historical PhD thesis on Tippett, completed in 2000. Rev Kev Hovey is working (part time) on a PhD on Tippett’s missiology. More recently, a team of Tippett’s colleagues and protégée in the USA arranged with Dr Ralph Winter for William Carey Library to publish a number of his unpublished works. One of these was published in 2012 (The Jesus Documents), and there will be others published by the time of the symposium.

With the “timelessness of Tippett’s missiology” as Dr Charles Kraft describes it highlighting the enduring worth of his material, this symposium - an anthology of Alan Tippett’s works - has come from the convergence of all of these factors to conduct this missions and missiological symposium in Australia in 2013.

The Australian missiologist, Dr Alan Tippett, passed away in Canberra on 16 September 1988 after a productive life as a field missionary with the Methodists in Fiji for 20 years, then as a missiologist. In his time as a missiologist, he was first linked with Dr Donald McGavran’s Institute of Church Growth at Eugene, Oregon, USA, and then, along with McGavran at Fuller Seminary’s School of World Mission.