Eider Books

13/11/2024

$500 prize - it's enough to make a duck get quacking! 🦆

The Evangelical History Association is pleased to announce the establishment of the Robert D Linder Evangelical History Prize. The Robert D Linder Evangelical History Prize is to serve as a...

08/05/2024

When Eider Books is not publishing a book I'm researching and writing for my website on Colonial Philanthropy. Later this year the website Colonialgivers.com will celebrate its 10th birthday.

19/04/2024

Lady Lucy Forrest Darley (1839-1913), social position, charity and a glass of champagne

My latest article on my blog Philanthropists In Australian Colonial History. Not your average lady.
https://colonialgivers.com/2024/04/15/lady-lucy-forrest-darley-1839-1913-social-position-charity-and-a-glass-of-champagne/

A great photo from The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW)) 30 Mar 1895, 643

09/03/2024

Light Overcoming Darkness
God’s Healing and Hope in the Shadow of Abuse and Moral Injury

Jason Summers

When we’re trapped in the darkness, despair takes control. We desperately need the light. Margaret’s nightmarish personal darkness started with the horrors of childhood trauma, were exacerbated by appalling medical abuse but finally, totally, overcome. A loving husband and a simple faith longed for a miracle. In Light Overcoming Darkness, Jason Summers authentically shares his mum’s incredible journey and gives us a gentle and kind compass to navigate the storms of emotional hurt and personal pain. This book makes a profound and encouraging impact.

May be purchased through https://eiderbooks.wordpress.com/

09/03/2024

New from Eider Books: PLACED IN OUR CARE Millie Shankelton, missionary to Aborigines: her role in the Stolen Generations story
Douglas Brown

Amelia Shankelton, born in 1902, was an Aborigines Inland Mission (AIM) missionary from 1927 to 1984. In 1996, Lorna Cubillo and her supporters initiated the ‘Stolen Generations’ test case in which she claimed that, as a child, she was illegally removed from her family and placed in a cruel institution, the Retta Dixon Home in Darwin, presided over by Shankelton.

Why did the Stolen Generations case fail? In this book, Douglas Brown explores statements made by Cubillo and other children brought up in Retta Dixon. He also examines the actions of Shankelton, members of her staff, AIM head office and government officials, empathising with people negotiating child welfare challenges in very different times, in places few people can now imagine.

From 1940 to 1980, at Retta Dixon, Shankelton gave hundreds of poor, wretched, malnourished Aboriginal children – and sometimes their young, single, frightened mothers – love and care. She taught them her evangelical Christian faith but, more importantly, she showed them, through her life and dedication, that same evangelical Christian faith.

Available through Eider Books https://eiderbooks.wordpress.com/

24/08/2023

In 1993, the PCA was subject to fierce, widespread, and sustained criticism from the media and others for laying disciplinary charges against one of its own ministers, the Rev Dr Peter Cameron the Principal of St Andrews College, Sydney. Cameron was found guilty of making statements that were inconsistent with chapter one of the Westminster Confession of Faith. In 1994, Cameron terminated his appeal against his conviction and resigned and published “Heretic” his account of these events. The Presbyterian Church’s side of the story has never been told until now.

PRINCIPLE & PRINCIPAL the other side of the Rev Dr Peter Cameron heresy trial is Edited by Paul F Cooper and David A Burke (245 pages, $28 plus $9 postage within Australia) and available from Eider Books

Purchase through the Eider Books website at

books.wordpress.com/

20/03/2022

Eider Books is happy to support the EHA and donates its services for the publishing of Lucas - the journal of the EHA, issued in June and December each year.

Dr Sarah Irving-Stonebraker (keynote speaker) with (left to right) Hugh Chilton (EHA VP), Rhys Bezzant (EHA President) with fellow panelists Michael Neate and Paul Roe at the conclusion of another excellent EHA Conference

04/01/2022

Got a plan to encourage the Eldership of your church in 2022?

You could use EFFECTIVE ELDERSHIP: A Handbook for Shepherding God’s Church which is now available through the Eider Books website at https://eiderbooks.wordpress.com/ where it is on sale for $26 AUD per copy with $10 postage for anywhere in Australia.

For Sessions who may wish to make a bulk purchase for use by its members, there is a special price.

4 (or a multiple of 4) copies of EFFECTIVE ELDERSHIP: A Handbook for Shepherding God’s Church may be purchased for $23 AUD for each copy plus $20 postage for each set of 4 posted to one address in Australia.

EFFECTIVE ELDERSHIP: A Handbook for Shepherding God's Church Edited by Murray Smith for The Elders and Deacons Committee of the Presbyterian Church in NSW Introduction, 32 Chapters, 288 pages and 18 authors Available 3 January 2022 Order yours today $26 plus $10 postage. There is a special price for...

17/12/2021

One response to receiving Effective Eldership

"... this book is gold !!!! ..... I'm going to suggest a whole of book read over Christmas/January and then we will work through it as a Session (perhaps chapter by chapter)."

Available through https://eiderbooks.wordpress.com/

09/12/2021

Eider Books’ new publication EFFECTIVE ELDERSHIP: A Handbook for Shepherding God’s Church has arrived early from the printer. Pre-ordered copies will be in the mail shortly.

If you have not ordered go to the Eider Books website at https://eiderbooks.wordpress.com/ where it is on sale for $26 AUD per copy with $10 postage for anywhere in Australia.

For Sessions who may wish to make a bulk purchase for use by its members, there is a special price.

4 (or a multiple of 4) copies of EFFECTIVE ELDERSHIP: A Handbook for Shepherding God’s Church may be purchased for $23 AUD for each copy plus $20 postage for each set of 4 posted to one address in Australia.

30/11/2021

Eider Books is pleased to announce that Gracious Survival by Emily Ward is once again available. Eider Books in response to popular demand has produced a digital version of this encouraging and inspiring book. It is available for $10 at

EFFECTIVE ELDERSHIP: A Handbook for Shepherding God's Church Edited by Murray Smith for The Elders and Deacons Committee of the Presbyterian Church in NSW Introduction, 32 Chapters, 288 pages and 18 authors Available 3 January 2022 Order yours today $26 plus $10 postage. There is a special price for...

24/11/2021

EFFECTIVE ELDERSHIP: A Handbook For Shepherding God's Church will be available from 3 January 2022. Edited by Murray Smith for the NSW Presbyterian Church Committee on Elders and Deacons is a book designed to encourage elders in their leadership. Order your copy at https://eiderbooks.wordpress.com/