Letters

Dear Bro. Hemingray,

Letter to the Editor in response to Peter Hemingray’s “Our Self-Inflicted Problems” (The Tidings, Dec. 2015)

I feel that I can shed some outside perspective on one of the issues that you raised in your editorial, that is, outreach into the community. Raised Christian in both the Evangelical and Anglican Church, I first heard of the Christadelphians in 2001 when I met my future husband, Matthew Harrison. It became my touch­stone faith community in my twenties, carrying me forward in my walk with Christ through a stringent Bible study for which I was hungry. I was baptized Christadelphian in 2008. While I felt more intellectually stimulated than ever before and my eyes were opened to new truths within the Biblical text, there are elements that I found — and still find — lacking within the practices of the body. I believe that these hinder growth and are damaging to our ability to outreach beyond our own members. I will name a few:

For one, the music is outdated and though there is some effort, there is mostly reluctance to embrace modern forms of worship and even to consider singing as a legitimate form of prayer to our Heavenly Father. It feels as though Bible study is seen as the only outlet for growth, and people’s spiritual and emotional needs are left largely neglected. In Christianity, prayer and praise services are used to foster, feed and develop people’s spiritual sides.

Though admittedly controversial, many brethren believe that there is no Biblical foundation to the requirement for women to cover their heads, and for many it is not an issue that has any bearing on salvation. Yet it is generally enforced as the norm, despite its abhorrence as a practice to any incoming outsider as representative of long-out-of-date societally-based gender hierarchies.

Finally, though the King James Bible is a beautiful text, its value is akin to that of Shakespeare. It should be appreciated privately, but when it comes to meetings that should be considered publicly accessible, colloquial translations should be employed. This particularly comes to mind when brothers, sisters or outsiders join the meeting from other countries and English is not their first language.

Despite our important message of hope, Christadelphians often act as though we are a private club. To turn outward, to appear inviting, accessible and public, should be the goal, in my humble opinion, of a truly evangelical ecclesia. From my perspective, the message is too valuable to be lost because of a petty clinging to non-Biblically founded traditions. Your call to focus on the “true simplicity of the gospel” was refreshing.

Catherine Harrison (nee Sinclair)

(Ottawa, ON)

Dear Brother Peter:

This note is to thank you for your bold and challenging editorial in the December Tidings 2015 Magazine. I have read it several times and felt how accurately you have assessed the general character and trends of our ecclesial community. The strength of your article is evident in each of the topics you addressed. And so I thank you for writing and publishing such perceptive and helpful editorial.

I have often thought about the institutionalization of functions in the Christadelphian Community. There was a time when there were no organized mission activities. Now we have four mission organizations that have annual budgets that sometimes exceed half a million dollars or more. In the past there were no organized care facilities for the aged. Now, in several countries there are modern well run facilities for seniors and those in need of care. Again, these are expensive operations to run. The combined nursing home network in the UK likely has the Community’s highest annual budget. There was a time when there were no vacation “Bible Schools”. Now they are abundant throughout the world. Once there were no “Study Days”. Today many ecclesias hold these on an annual basis. They seem to have replaced many large Fraternal Gatherings. In recent years, Christadelphian schools have been established in several countries which again requires resources from the Community to operate.

All of these functions require an infra structure, staffing and substantial financial resources to support. While each of these initiatives has merit, there are perhaps some elements that account for some of the trends you described in your editorial.

Thank you again for your provocative editorial.

With kind regards in the Lord,

Ken Curry (Toronto East, ON)

Dear Bro. Peter,

Thank you for your recent editorial in The Tidings, December 2015, Our Self-Inflicted Problems. You did a fantastic job issuing a wakeup call to our community, correctly identifying some real shortcomings and the ramifications if we continue to neglect Jesus’ example and commands. However, we wanted to share a story of hope.

In 2008, Christadelphians in central Illinois founded a new ecclesia with the specific purpose of outreach and preaching. Then, in 2009, we founded the first English-speaking Bible Education Center (BEC) in North America, modeled after the successful BEC models overseas. Our prayer was God’s blessing on spreading the Gospel, and also showing that the BEC model can succeed in North America.

The BEC is located in a community shopping mall and is open five days a week. Hundreds of people walk past the BEC each day, with both familiar and new faces regularly stopping in just to sit and talk. We hold Bible classes 3 nights a week, and a daytime women’s Bible study. We also use the Bible to teach English