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Pepperdine Establishes the Jerry Rushford Center for Research on Churches of Christ and the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement

Pepperdine University, in the model of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, announces the establishment of the Jerry Rushford Center for Research on Churches of Christ and the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.

The Rushford Center is an umbrella for several scholarly programs, services, and resources, including:

Churches of Christ Heritage Center: This center was established by Jerry Rushford in 2009 and is housed in the Payson Library on the Seaver College campus in Malibu. It collects and catalogues various periodicals, publications, papers, photographs, and memorabilia regarding Churches of Christ, especially congregational histories, photos, and records from churches in Western America and Canada, and throughout the Pacific Rim.

Restoration History Archives, a collection of books, records, and documents available for those doing research on the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.

William M. Green Distinguished Christian Scholar Lecture Program, which annually brings to the Pepperdine University campus a scholar from Churches of Christ as a resource for students, faculty, ministers, and the general public.

Frank Pack Distinguished Christian Scholar Lecture Program, which annually invites to the Pepperdine community a scholar from the broader evangelical world as a resource to faculty, students, ministers, and the general public.

Symposium for Church Historians in the Stone-Campbell Movement, which annually calls together scholars specializing in church history to deliver, listen to, and comment on scholarly papers intended to advance the knowledge and understanding of the Christian heritage, and especially the heritage of the Stone-Campbell Movement.

Annotated Bibliography of the Stone-Campbell Movement, which is maintained and made available to all those interested in studying the American Restoration Movement.

In addition to these programs and services, the Rushford Center plans to publish articles and lectures in Restoration history; periodically produce a Restoration History newsletter; maintain biographical folders on church leaders and Pepperdine alumni related to the Restoration Movement; and maintain therushfordcenter.com Web site, connecting historians and students to multiple sites regarding Restoration Movement resources and communications.