At its sunday, September 28, Meeting, the JWHA board voted unanimously to adopt the journal Restoration Studies. This fine journal was founded in 1980 by the Community of Christ’s former Temple School, just one year prior to the first volume of the JWHA Journal. Since that time the Temple School and the Graduate School of Religion at Park College have published a total of nine volumes.

The discontinuance of the Temple School had previously left the status of Restoration Studies in question. However, following up on the success of last April’s Restoration Studies Symposium, the JWHA board has agreed to revive the journal and publish it as an annual. The Community of Christ owns the copyright to volumes i-ix of Restoration Studies. The church’s First Presidency has agreed to allow JWHA to continue the journal with the understanding that if the church decides to resume the project, it has the right to do so.

The budget and production schedule of Restoration Studies will mirror that of the JWHA Journal. Just as the JWHA Journal is published each September with articles from the previous year’s JWHA conference, Restoration Studies will be published each April, drawing primarily from articles presented at the Restoration Studies Symposium. Volume x is expected to be published and available at the next symposium, April 17–18, 2009, in Independence, Missouri. This volume will include Wallace B. Smith’s address "Experiences in Growing a Faith: Reflections on a Twenty-Year Journey, 1976-1996."

Peter Judd has been selected as the first editor of the revived journal. Peter currently serves as associate editor of the JWHA Journal and as senior Herald House editor for Mark Scherer’s three-volume Journey of a People series. He is the author of numerous articles and books on church issues including An Introduction to the Saints Church, Distinctives Yesterday and Today, and The Worshipping Community. Peter is also a retired member of the First Presidency of the Community of Christ. If you have an article that you would like considered for publication in the next Restoration Studies, you must submit it to Peter Judd at PJudd@CofChrist.org no later than December 15, 2008.