It is exciting when an ecclesia builds their first ecclesial hall after many years of renting halls and meeting in homes. It is exciting when you host a missionary effort around your town. Baptisms are welcomed by angels. So many wonderful, blessed events happen in our ecclesial lives. We are thankful. Over time an ecclesia has many of these special events as well as the every week Memorial Service and Bible Class. Sometimes it is worthwhile to reflect on all of these blessings from God and consider how our walk in the truth has borne fruit.
An ecclesial history records these blessings and brings to mind the long term commitment to the truth of our brethren who have labored in this vineyard of the Lord. It reminds of their persistence in providing a meeting place, where we can remember our Lord in our memorial services. As a result, we can grow in understanding and wisdom by sharing our study of the Holy Bible, and this has resulted in the current membership.
We in the Honesdale Christadelphian Ecclesia, PA, have compiled our history and used it. There are many other ways of doing the same and perhaps this has already been done by numerous ecclesias, but perhaps it might be a new idea to some and it might provide some inspiration.
Our ecclesia dates back to the late 1880’s in the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania. We have been fortunate in that our recording brothers have been diligent in providing notices to the various Christadelphian magazines throughout the long years. In the 1990’s Sister Esther Dunn and Sister Esther Garing compiled a history of our ecclesia. They wrote a summary of our history which was followed by a complete listing of all of the notices published in the magazines. They also included photographs, letters, and a listing of baptisms. I think they left a legacy of memories of the blessings bestowed upon our brethren over the years of waiting for our Lord and Savior to return. They wrote “It has been a labor of love for all our brothers and sisters. Those of us who worked on this feel a close bond with our faith and our fellowship.”
Sis. Esther Dunn was moved to bring this history to our congregation recently. She and I hosted two classes in 2012 reviewing this history with all of our brethren, their families, and our friends. It was a wonderful reunion where we all reminisced about what our ecclesia had done with God’s help, what our grandparents had accomplished, and the benefits that our ancestors bestowed upon us. It was an eye opener and we all felt thankful for God’s providence throughout thick and thin.
It was amazing to learn about a trainload of Christadelphians who visited us in 1893 from New Jersey who brought encouragement and education, the early years of meetings in houses, quarterly tea meetings, the letter from the commanding officer of a WWI conscientious objector brother commending his character, the great flu epidemic following that war which caused our meetings to be suspended, meetings in a rented Odd Fellows Hall, the memories of an elder brother about his WWII conscientious objector status, the effort to support their alternative service in the Civilian Corps (no pay), the erection of our current chapel in 1963, the support by visiting brothers from other ecclesias, the work in aiding the establishment of Camp Ladore and the Shippen sburg Bible College, and many other events that are new to younger brethren. It was uplifting to think about the many faithful years of upholding the Word of God and how it brought so many into the light and baptism. This set the ground work for our 50th anniversary of the dedication of our chapel last year. We went into this celebration with a better knowledge and understanding of the spade work of our early brethren. Several elderly sisters reminisced about carrying the foundation stones over to the chapel construction to aid their brothers. Now when we look at our chapel we see their hands in the building that provides us shelter from the outside world.
Other ecclesias might want to consider the value in remembering the labors of brethren past. Newer ecclesias can start this right now by publishing their events in the Christadelphian magazines, collecting important letters, taking photographs of events, recording exhortations, and more. The magazines these days have databases of on-line ecclesial notices that can be easily searched and compiled into a chronological history. While we patiently wait for our Lord’s return you will be continuing to prepare the newer brethren to also wait patiently; soon we pray.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One