After many years of editing the exhortation section of The Tidings, Sis. Patricia Bartle finds it necessary to retire from this aspect of her work in the Lord. We greatly appreciate the many hours and days of faithful work performed by our sister.
Before Sis. Pat took on this activity, it regularly took Bro. Don Styles, the recently retired editor, a full day to work up this section of the magazine. Given the objective of having exhortations from all over, it meant working with other people’s exhortations that had been submitted in a wide variety of conditions — notes, extended written texts, and even audio material on tapes and CDs. It didn’t take Don long to realize he had bitten off more than he had expected.
There is first of all the challenge of condensing a 30-minute talk into three or four magazine pages. In addition, what sounds good from the platform does not always read so well as an article, and some brethren give excellent addresses from rather sketchy notes which means fleshing out the other person’s ideas without changing the sense. It was therefore with a great sense of relief that he accepted Sis. Pat’s offer to help.
Bro. Derek Bartle, Sis. Pat’s husband, was also vital to the activity — acting as sounding board and computer expert when there were occasional problems in transmitting the finished piece.
From time to time, readers would comment on the exhortations and remind us they were being used intact or as the basis for talks at ecclesias small and large throughout many countries.
We are thus speaking for many brothers and sisters when we convey a hearty thanks to the Bartles for a very good work performed over many years.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One