From the 1920s through the 1940s, many eastern U.S. ecclesias distributed leaflets in their neighborhoods advertising lectures. But it was not until the weekend of May 30, 1954, that the first planned inter-ecclesial door-to-door campaign was held in the eastern United States.
Bro. John Carter, Editor of The Christadelphian magazine, came to North America from Great Britain in the early 1950s to help promote reunion between the Central and Berean ecclesias. During his visits, Bro. Carter encouraged a group of us to organize teams of workers to go door to door with thousands of leaflets. He compared the work to the biological growth of a single cell: from one nucleus to two, from two to four, and so on until a colony of cells is created. He asked us to think of our work as “cells of truth”, multiplying and propagating Christadelphian Bible teaching.
At that time there was no organizing committee for this work. We had to find ecclesias that would host campaigners, pay for the printing of thousands of leaflets, and conduct the public lectures. Bro. Ernest Hardy had recently been transferred by his company from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Baltimore, Maryland. He was in virtual isolation, except for brother Andrew Eliason and some young members of the Link family. Bro. Hardy responded to our appeal, and we arranged for a small number of campaigners to work in the Baltimore area on the three-day, Memorial Day weekend of May 30, 1954.
Although we do not have a precise record of all who took part in the campaign, some of the workers were Bro. John and Sis. Mary Sommerville, Bre. Ernest Hardy, Bill Link, Sr., Wilbur and Al Brittle, and Sis. Edith Bailey.
In the years between 1954 and 1960, additional door-to-door campaigns were held in Moorestown, New Jersey; Meriden, Connecticut; Canton, Ohio, and again in Baltimore. For these efforts we welcomed more workers: Bro. Gene and Sis. Gertrude Turner, Bro. Don Lipfert, Sis. Marie and Sis. Ellen Forsythe, Bro. Doug Egles, Bro. Don Styles, as well as other local brothers and sisters.
Bro. Dennis and Sis. Faye Ford joined us at the Canton, Ohio, campaign. Bro. Ford’s relentless zeal for preaching impressed all of us. Shortly after that, in the late 1950s, he went to work in Pittsburgh and continued to join us on campaigns in Pittsburgh and elsewhere. Frequently, Bro. Ford would take business trips from Pittsburgh to New York City, not far from where we lived. After each day’s work he would come to our house for dinner, and many evenings were spent discussing future preaching activities. He would then catch a 10:30 P.M. flight back to Pittsburgh, ready for work the next day.
Besides door-to-door campaigning, Bro. Ford came up with the idea of placing Christadelphian ads in every county newspaper in the United States. The first ads were placed in newspapers in Ohio, and a good response was received from the Piketon area. In 1960, Bro. Gar Cooper, Jr. moved to Pittsburgh and joined Bro. Ford in the follow up work in Piketon. The effort involved weekend trips to Ohio for several years. However, due to local church opposition and a locally oriented provincial outlook, no baptisms resulted.
On a rainy October day in 1961, Bro. Dennis and Sis. Faye were killed in a collision with a huge commercial truck. By God’s blessing the lives of their two young children were spared. Their deaths and funeral were one of the saddest moments in the lives of many of us. We questioned why God had taken away from us the most zealous leader of our Gospel campaigns.
A period of less activity followed the loss of Bro. and Sis. Ford. Then we learned about the start of Truth Corps in California. Truth Corps offered to send teams of young people who were on summer vacation to work and stay in our ecclesias for weeks at a time. The teams were willing to do the same door-to-door campaigning work that had lapsed after the Fords’ deaths. This faithful work has continued year after year, and a multitude of ecclesias have benefitted from these efforts. The pioneer work of Bro. Dennis and Sis. Faye Ford has been faithfully carried on by the Truth Corps. May it continue to prosper until the day of the Lord’s return.
Our brief history may have some omissions, but God has an accurate record of all the Gospel campaigners that have served Him down through the years.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One