MEMORIAL TO: W. OLIVER HARRISON

This annual, W. Oliver and Nell Betty Harrison Memorial Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival is a tribute by First Christian Church to Oliver and Nell Betty Harrison. He was minister of First Christian Church from December 1941 until January of 1978. During these more than 36 years of faithful ministry he gave his life for our Church and this community that he loved. Mrs. Harrison, his family and members of the Church have contributed to make possible this gift "to the community" in honor of this long and faithful ministry.

What his ministry held as its goal are best expressed in his own words from what he wrote concerning "some personal convictions at the close of my ministry":

   As I come to the end of my pastoral ministry, I do so with much gratitude to God for allowing me to walk the paths He has given me to walk. Out of this pilgrimage, there have been many satisfactions. I seem to have forgotten the disappointments along the way.
    Looking back I can say with conviction that I believe in a personal God and I believe that Jesus is the full incarnation of this great God. So, therefore, Jesus becomes the Messiah in my own experience.
God has revealed himself to many people and to me. This in spite of the fact that many throw up road blocks much of the time. I rejoice in friendship with many whose path to God has taken a different route than mine. Even so, I think mine may have been the best, at least for me.
    I believe in the Church, the mother of us all, I see the Church not as an agent to make people good, or to move her people to serve the needs of the Church. The Church must send her people out, not in goodness or in piety, but in compassion to minister in Christ's name.
    Most of the time, I think, I have tried to direct my will and the will of others over whom I have influence, towards the will and purpose of God. Equally as important, I have sought earnestly to embody, and to urge others to embody, the servant image of Isaiah best exemplified in Christ. My greatest hope is that I have succeeded to some extent on this point.
    One final conviction, I would share. I expect life to continue here, and in the world to come. The form it takes in that other world I do not know, nor does anyone of us. But I do know this. If it is a happier life than this one has been, then it must indeed be great.

W. Oliver Harrison

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