Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses – Kanisa la Christadelphian huko Anderlecht

Saturday January 6 was the time. It could be said that the Christadelphian ecclesiae have had a new brother or sister in Belgium.

Méthode Belanwa and his wife have expressed their willingness to provide their living space to build a house church. With their still unbaptised friends, they followed preparations every Sunday evening every Sunday evening to start a baptism soon.

Together they want to form a community of brothers and sisters in Christ and this was the official starting shot this Saturday.

After the welcome and opening prayer, Brother Marcus Ampe gave the youth and Bible reading and discussion of the Creation of the world and the first commission God gave to mankind. Reference was therefore made to the important task that we as Christadelphians should fulfil, showing respect for every living being, be it plant, animal or human.

Then we discussed how we would build our ecclesia in the future and hold services to serve God.

Two courageous women dared to ask some important questions, such as who conducts or dictates to us what and how we should do everything, this compared to the administrative body of the Witnesses of Jehovah (the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses) or the Watchtower (Bible and Tract Society), and the role of the Pope in the Catholic Church.

It was made clear that there are many different Christadelphian groups, such as the Amended, Unamended, CBM, Carelinks, Berean, Xanga, Logos, Old Path, Restoration, Living Hope, Williamsburg Christadelphans as well as the Thomasites and other Christadelphian groups, each with their own organisation and ways of church conduct.

It was made clear that we do not have a worldly governing body or governing body, as the Christian Congregation of Witnesses have their Faithful Slave, and that we are completely independent here in Belgium. We are fortunate to be able to count on the patronage of the English ecclesia in Newbury, which has expressed its willingness to support us further. By the way, they have already done a lot of preparatory work, for the baptisms, when Marcus Ampe had been eliminated for a while for health reasons. Their support is therefore greatly appreciated.

Our independence means that we are also open to anyone from the Christadelphian communities and beyond. By the way, one does not have to be baptised to celebrate services with us. Only are not baptised people, not allowed to participate in the symbols, but they may be present.

A selection of Bibles presented for the ecclesia – Een selectie van bijbels gepresenteerd voor de ecclesia – Une sélection de Bibles présentées pour l’ecclésia – Uchaguzi wa Biblia uliowasilishwa kwa ajili ya eklesia

Everyone is also invited to read together from the « Sainte Bible Gros Caractères Segond -NEG », which we took as the standard Bible for the service. In addition to this French-language Bible of the « Société Biblique de Genève » (Genfer Bibelgesellschaft), many Bibles were proposed, under which the members of the ecclesia can choose to use for Bible studies. In doing so, we indicated that everyone is free to use any Bible translation for those study moments or beyond.

For the children’s service, the choice was made for « La Bible pour les enfants » published by Mame. But the question was also asked whether a Dutch-language Children’s Bible could also be provided. Brother Marcus had already searched for this before, but had not yet found a solid version that always kept a clear difference between God and Jesus.

Singing at Leeds Grammar School in 2001 — The Northern Christadelphian Choir singing at Leeds Grammar School in 2001

The question arose among the women about songs, hymns or anthems, cantiques and gospels in our services. The African men also came forward with their wishes that they like lively music, in which dance also plays a role. Brother Marcus who was a dancer by profession and previously was able to attend services full of dance and lively music in the non-trinitarian Baptist community, had ear for this and assured that if good African and European music could be found, never testifying to the wrong person, we could also use it in the service.
Brother Marcus and Steve Robinson assured those present, that in our services we would also use the excellent source of music produced at the Williamsburg Organisation, Christadelphian music organisation, The Northern Christadelphian Choir, and many Australian Christadelphian music groups owned by Brother Marcus al Cd’s. For the music recorded by brother Peter Clausen from Ohio, on mp3 system for the Christadelphian Hymns, we have yet to find a French version.

In any case, I now also have the music of Joel Lwaga of which we will use his « You are the Way » at our next meeting.

It was also quoted that, as in the other ecclesiae that Brother Marcus is going for, he will also regularly open the service with some Psalm, as there.

Furthermore, it was indicated that in our independence how to perform the service, and without a fixed order, our services will not always run the same, but different sequences may be followed. By the way, that variation keeps the whole thing fresh and makes it adaptable to the events of the day.

Subsequently, it was discussed how to work towards the upcoming baptisms and where and how we would let them take place. It was agreed to check whether we could use the church of the Philadelphia faith community or the Free Protestant Church in Anderlecht on a Saturday afternoon in February. That would be the most ideal if we could use a baptismal basin in such a church building without idols. In case this would not work, it was proposed to have baptism in a public swimming pool or in a bath, provided it will still be too cold for a pond or water outside.

We were able to conclude that everyone was very enthusiastic about the start of the ecclesia, as well as the good prospects of soon welcoming several members and baptised people into our community.

Steve Robinson then gave the prayer for the evening meal, after which everyone could chat with the tasty food that the women had foreseen.

Preceding