From Brother John M. Hellawell by post received on 17 May 2021
13th May 2021
Dear Bro Ian & Sis. Averil,
I write to acknowledge the receipt of
your open letter to which I hope to respond more fully in due course*. As it is
a large document of some 32 pages it may take some time to undertake a
consideration of it and, if appropriate, prepare a response.
As a member of the Christadelphian Magazine Committee, you will
appreciate that, along with the other seven members, I am fully satisfied by
the position adopted by the Editor and Assistant Editor.
I note that you cite Bro. John Thomas at the foot of your first page.
What was the situation of sisters in his day?
Your brother by grace,
[Signed]
John M. Hellawell
* It is highly likely that there will be a combined response from the
CMPA Committee. If so, I shall consider that this to be sufficient and
therefore not necessary for me to respond any further.
From Averil and Ian to Brother John
Hellawell by email on 17 May 2021
Dear Brother John,
Many thanks for replying to us so promptly. We realise that it will take
a while to respond to our long Open Letter and we express our thanks for the
time that you and the others on the committee will spend in examining it.
We
quoted from Dr Thomas’ magazine, Herald of the
Kingdom and Age to Come, 1859, because the
principles for Bible interpretation printed there are very relevant to all
ages: use “passages which speak ... in positive and unequivocal
language”; “No doctrine should be predicated upon mere inference,
neither upon one isolated text of Scripture”.
These were not composed by Dr
Thomas himself. They were sent in by a brother, but Dr Thomas obviously
approved.
We consider these
principles are not observed in the three articles in March, April, May 2021 in The Christadelphian.
You ask us a question: “What was
the situation of sisters in his day?”
That would probably take
several books to answer. In our book All One (published in 2010) we give
a detailed analysis of positive and negative attitudes towards sisters. We
attach our book to this email. [Click here for] chapter 30: “Attitudes to Women inChristadelphian Writings” (pages 255-280).
Here is one quote from The
Christadelphian, in 1883 (admittedly after Dr Thomas’ time as he died in
1871). It suggests that “circumstances alter cases”:
...
I want to tell you of these humble, simple worshippers that I met with that
summer. To begin with, I wonder if “circumstances alter cases” in matters of
the truth as in everything else. Be that as it may, I do not see how that
little ecclesia ever could have lived had the sisters not taken an active part
in the worship. …. Those
eight, each and everyone, took a part in the meeting, and I have never since
seen such zeal, enthusiasm, and devotion. One brother read the lesson, a second
prayed, a third took charge of the table, and a fourth led in singing. One
sister read from the Christadelphian;
second, the thoughts she had noted down during the week, when reading her daily
lessons; third, selection of hymn; and fourth, she always did the same
thing—read a few verses from the Bible (“A
Sister’s Narrative for Sisters, On Attaining the Truth Under Difficulties”, The Christadelphian,
July 1, 1883, page 315).
We are sending this to
the members of the CMPA whose emails are available to us, and as we explained
in our Open Letter, we are placing the responses we receive on the Internet.
With many thanks, again,
for the considerations you and the others give to examining these matters.
With love and best wishes
in Jesus,
Averil & Ian
