This compilation represents the first publication of the annual indexes of The Church Advocate as a separate publication. It is also the first step toward a cumulative index of this periodical.

      The indexes have been transcribed from copies of the issues in which they were first published. Thanks to Jean Leathers, Archivist of the Churches of God Historical Society and Museum, for providing the issues or copies of the pages containing the indexes. Without her invaulable assistance, this work could not have been produced.

      The annual indexes are arranged topically and chronologically, with the topics listed alphabetically. The topic titles are set in all-capital boldface letters and are centered on the page; titles of subtopics, departments, and series are set off, with the title set in boldface and are centered on the page. Citations for articles may appear under more than one heading.

      To facilitate searching the indexes, variations of formatting of the citations in the printed text have been standardized in the electronic edition. In general, titles of articles are set in boldface type; the author is preceded by the preposition "by" the date of publication is presented with three-letter abbreviations for the months and a four-digit number for the year.

      There are, of course, special cases: (1) Where the author is designated as "Anonymous" or "Name Withheld," this information is enclosed within parentheses immediately following the title. (2) Where the citation is for a book review, the author of the book (and sometimes the publisher) is placed within parentheses after the title of the book, followed by reviewer's name. (3) Where the name of the author of a series of articles has been placed only after the series title in the printed indexes, the name has been inserted in each part of the series. (4) Where the compiler of the printed indexes has offered an annotation, that description of the contents of the article has been enlcosed within parentheses following the title.

      The names of months in the date field have been normalized by using the first three letters of the month without a period. Thus, in the printed text, the ninth month may be designated as September, Sept., or Sep.; in the elctronic edition, it is also given as "Sep" (no period following the abbreviation).

      Editorship of series and department in the printed text is designated as "edited by" or "ed." preceding the name, or with the title "Editor" following the name. The latter has been preferred in the electronic edition.

      The printed texts uses various abbreivations for the names of states. Pennsylvania, for example, is abbreviated Pa., Penn., Penna., Penn or PA. In the electronic edition, the names of states have been rendered in their complete forms.

      Other abbrevations have been eschewed: FC has been rendered as Findlay College; UF or TUF, as University of Findlay; WTS, as Winebrenner Seminary.

      Prior to the index for Volume 144 (1979-1980), no page numbers are offered in the citations; thereafter, the beginning page of each article is provided.

      Some topic headings have been renamed for the sake of consistency. For example, the heading for news items about the local churches is variously given as "Churches of God Advance," "News of the Churches," and "News--Churches"; in this case, the last is preferred throughout the index. The headings also follow a stricter alphabetizing than in the printed versions.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 14 February 1997.
Updated 9 July 2003.