Telling the whole story of West Islip would require the testimony of everyone who made the remarkable Exodus journey, beginning in the spring and summer of 1963, and continuing with the subsequent waves that followed - many single people and many families with husbands, wives, children, and the occasional in-law. Telling the whole story would also require the perspectives of converts. A relative few, pilgrims and converts, stayed the course, but many left - some perhaps, returning to former places of worship, others moving on to other callings and ways of believing. Some who went with the Exodus wholeheartedly embraced their new culture and declared it their own. Others, for one reason or another, returned quickly to their former roots. No one knows "the whole story," but some of us "know in part," and parts of the story of the Church in West Islip can and will be told here. Not all the parts are easily told, and some we might wish not to tell or to read. Yet the story of "West Islip," like the stories in the Bible that inspired it, is useful for our learning.

- Excerpt taken from Freda Baker's manuscript A Church Called West Islip.

As you will see, these audio reels lack substantive metadata or descriptive information. We know these reels pertain to the West Islip (New York) Church of Christ and date to the 1960s. Here is where you can help. On the sidebar you will see a link which will take you to a form where you are then able to provide us with information concerning the audio. We appreciate any content, backstory, or information you might be able to provide. Further, as you will notice from gaps in the numbering sequence, evidently there were at least eleven reels in this series. We do not have all of the reels. Some of the reels have recordings on both sides of the tape; others have content on only one side.

We thank Dwain Evans for his assistance in ensuring the preservation of these reels.

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Submissions from 2019

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Exodus/Bay Shore: How an Idea Became a Reality, Freda Elliott Baker

Submissions from 2015

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 001, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 002 - Side 1, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 002 - Side 2, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 003, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 005, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 006 - Side 1, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 006 - Side 2, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 008, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 009, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 010, Dwain Evans

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West Islip (New York) Church of Christ, Reel 011, Dwain Evans