| Church leader is killed in Mildura accident |
| Monday, 05 May 2008 | |
An influential member of the worldwide Seventh Day Adventist Church was one of two people killed in Friday’s accident at the intersection of 19th street and Benetook Avenue. Confirmation of the death of Dr Russell Standish was placed on the world wide Wikipedia Internet encyclopedia on Sunday morning.He had been living at Mt Dandenong, near Melbourne while his equally famous and involved brother Colin Standish lives at Rapidan, Virginia in the USA where the brothers operate Hartland Publications, a self supporting Independent Ministry of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Dr Russell Standish had caught a commercial flight from Melbourne on Friday afternoon and arrived at Mildura Airport around 4.20pm. He was met there by 78 year old Irymple man Cliff Cocks, who is listed as a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. Mr Cocks was the driver of the car which cut across the path of a vehicle being driven north along Benetok Avenue around 5.25pm. He was the local person who died instantly in the accident. Dr Standish generally made two or three trips to Mildura each year and these were sponsored by Mr Cocks, who also was part of a ministry group which holds meetings of conservative theology at the Anglican Church Hall at Red Cliffs. The Red Cliffs group has around 10 members, all also being members of the main Mildura Seventh Day Adventist Church.. Dr Standish (pictured) was to speak at a private meeting at the home of Dany Wilson at Sunnycliffs on the Friday and then at a 10am gathering the next morning at Red Cliffs meeting at 7pm.  Although Dr Standish was a recognised public speaker on theology worldwide and came to Sunraysia a few times each year he had never been invited to speak the Mildura Seventh Day Adventist Church. Not long after 6pm – half an hour after the crash which killed the two men – Dr Standish’s wife Glenys telephoned Mrs Heather Cocks at Koorlong to check that her husband had arrived safely. It was then that Mrs Cocks began calling other members of the Red Cliffs group. One family said they would go to her place and try and find out why there had been a delay in advising of the Doctor’s arrival. But their son had located information about an accident near Mildura airport on an internet News website and decided physically to go to the accident scene. At the accident scene he recognized the Mazda as being the vehicle normally driven by Mr Cocks. He informed police that he knew the driver who had gone to the airport to collect Dr Standish and police said that while positive identification had not been made, the names he gave them matched identification found in the wreckage. By this time the Sunnycliffs man’s parents had arrived at the Cocks house and were comforting a stressed Mrs Cocks who was worried about her husband. It was then that police arrived – around 7pm – to inform her that her husband had been killed in the accident. Her two sons David and Michael – who both live in Melbourne – drove to Mildura overnight arriving around 5am Saturday. A daughter Elizabeth, who lives in Sydney, travelled by plane to Mildura Saturday and her husband and family will join her once funeral arrangements are known. The late Dr Russell Standish had three sons – Stephen, James and Timothy – who are from his first wife Enid, who now lives in England. Dr Standish and his twin brother Colin Standish were born in Newcastle in 1933 and at 17 went to a meeting held by evangelist George Burnside and were both impressed with his theology. In 1950-51 the twins both went to Avondale College where they befriended another enrolled student, Queensland born Desmond Ford, who later became one of the most influential men in the Seventh Day Adventist Church and during his time in America in the 1960’s became embroiled in “Awakening” debates with Pastor Robert Brinsmead, another Australian, at world leadership level.. Colin Standish was ordained in 1971 to an independent Ministry of the Adventist Church and Russell Standish was ordained in 1980, after being a primary teacher, author and a medical doctor who served in senior administrative roles at major Australian Hospitals, including Melbourne's Austin Hospital, and as a medical missionary in South East Asia. The late Russell Standish also established his own self supporting Remnant Ministry and founded the drug rehabilitation clinic Highwood in the vicinity of, but not connected to the previously owned Seventh Day Adventist Sanitarium project at Warburton. Together the twin brothers wrote at least eight books based on Christian theology and lifestyle by corresponding with each other via the internet and these books are available from Hartland Publications at Rapidan, Virginia, where Colin has a huge book publishing operation. The late Dr Standish also is the sole author of the book “Georgia Sits on Grandpa’s Knees”. His funeral this month is likely to draw one of the biggest international gatherings of Seventh Day Adventist Church followers in Australia for many years. But a lot of the work of Dr Russell Standish and his brother Colin Standish has not been given the stamp of approval by the Seventh Day Adventist Church. In fact an American committee was established by the church in 1998 to investigate the Hartland Institute (run by Colin Standish in Virginia), another American operation and Dr Standish’s Remnant Ministeries in Australia. The Committee "observed in conversations that they affirmed agreement on many of the major elements of the Seventh-day Adventist faith, however, the method they have used to express their concern has resulted in what is perceived by many to be a spirit of constant criticism directed against the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” In Sunraysia the Mildura Seventh Day Adventist Church operates Henderson College, (previously the Adventist School in Deakin Avenue) but which was given a new name to attract and serve more students from various Christian families. Source: http://www.milduraindependent.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3370&Itemid=54 ********************* |
Ute driver dies in highway crash
Posted
A man has died in single car crash in south-west New South Wales, between Wentworth and Coombah.
The man's utility rolled and burst into flames about 200 metres off the Silver City Highway, about 100 kilometres north of Wentworth.
The crash happened on Saturday afternoon.
It is believed the man might have been from South Australia.
Meanwhile, police have released the names of the two elderly men who died in a two-car crash near Mildura on Friday afternoon.
Clifford Cocks, 78, from Irymple died when his car and another car collided at the intersection of Benetook Avenue and 19th Street.
A passenger in Mr Cocks' car, a prominent member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Dr Russell Standish, 74, also died in the crash.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/05/2235029.htm
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May 4, 2008
Dr. Russell Standish, RIP
I was sorry to hear of the passing of Dr. Russell Standish, killed in a car accident in Australia on May 2. He and his twin brother Colin are well known in Adventist circles–Russell for his missionary service, Colin for his academic leadership, and both for their strong defense of what they regarded as historic principles of Seventh-day Adventism. I became aware of them thirty years ago when I was in high school, but only met them this past fall, at the “Questions on Doctrine” 50th anniversary conference at Andrews University. Though they are known for their fighting spirit, in person they are two of the gentlest, kindest, most grandfatherly gentlemen I have ever met. My sympathies to Colin and their families and friends.
Update: Be sure and read Julius Nam’s eulogy.
Source: http://billcork.wordpress.com/
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