It happened the summer that I was 11 years old. I was bicycling along the shoulder of the highway that ran close by our home when I saw a cardboard box lying in the ditch. I stopped to take a closer look and saw that there were three or four Crispy Crunch bars inside. I … Continue reading Questions
Faith and life
English Christianity – Part 7
SO WHAT’S THE POINT? What is there to learn from this tracing of the tangled threads of church history? First, that God is able to work in wonderful and mysterious ways to bring the Gospel to people. This would accord with our Saviour’s statement in Luke 9:50 that “he that is not against us is … Continue reading English Christianity – Part 7
A Rock of Refuge
In 1951, when I was nine, my parents bought a small farm just outside of Craik, Saskatchewan. Our living was provided by the cream and butter from a few cows, the eggs from 200 hens and garden produce from two acres of market garden. My father also worked as janitor at the local eight-bed hospital. … Continue reading A Rock of Refuge
English Christianity – Part 6
METHODISTS Returning briefly to the Moravian Brethren, it was at one of their meetings in London that John Wesley felt his heart “strangely warmed” one evening in 1638. From that time he began to preach the Gospel wherever people would listen. He visited Count Zinzendorf and the Moravian settlements in Germany, and learned much from … Continue reading English Christianity – Part 6
English Christianity – Part 5
ENGLISH MENNONITES IN HOLLAND In May of 1610 there was a conference between the Waterlanders and John Smyth’s congregation. At this time a confession of faith was drawn up and signed by those participating and it appears that the Englishmen were now accepted as part of the Mennonite church. It may be that they were … Continue reading English Christianity – Part 5
English Christianity – Part 4
JOHN SMYTH AND THE MENNONITES John Smyth, a minister of the Church of England, was dismissed as a preacher of that church in 1602. He continued to preach without a license, becoming the spiritual leader of a number of like-minded people from Lincolnshire and adjoining areas of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. For a time these people … Continue reading English Christianity – Part 4
English Christianity – Part 3
CHURCH OF ENGLAND In 1529, while the Catholic church was under attack from Lutherans and Zwinglians on the continent, King Henry VIII persuaded Parliament to pass an act separating the Church of England from the authority of the pope. There were many in the English Church who hoped for a reformation, some motivated by true … Continue reading English Christianity – Part 3
English Christianity – Part 2
INFLUENCE OF WYCLIFFE IN BOHEMIA - HUSSITES The writings of John Wycliffe reached as far as Bohemia, where they were adopted, at least in part, by Jan Hus. Hus was appointed rector of the University of Prague in 1401 and chaplain of Bethlehem Chapel in Prague in 1402. Hus preached in the Czech language and … Continue reading English Christianity – Part 2
English Christianity – Part 1
PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY The exact time when the Christian faith first reached the British Isles is lost in the mists of time. Traditions that the Apostle Paul or Joseph of Arimathea first brought the Gospel to England seem somewhat dubious, but cannot be proved or disproved at this distance in time. There is evidence, though, that … Continue reading English Christianity – Part 1
Imaginary Sympathy
Around 50 years ago The Readers’ Digest carried an article suggesting that the word “sympathy” had become so degraded in common usage as to make the word unacceptable to many people. As I recall, the writer felt that “sympathy” had taken on too much of a connotation of superiority towards the person one felt sympathy … Continue reading Imaginary Sympathy
Flatlander Faith 