New Church for Langley Messenger
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MESSENGER CHURCH PAPER FOR SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS IN THE BRITISH ISLES VOLUME 87 NUMBER 13/14 25 JUNE 1982 NEW CHURCH FOR LANGLEY by Pastor R. H. Surridge FOR J4-The opening of an Adventist church is a great experience wherever and MARRIEDS whenever it takes place. On Sunday, 25 April, the opening of the brand new Langley church in the • West Midlands was not only a special experience, but a unique event. BBC and A CEMETERY newspaper reporters were there to cover the story of the first new Asian " Adventist church in Great Britain. Some of you may have glimpsed a picture of IN EVERY it on BBC 1 Television early on Sunday morning, 2 May. The Assistant High Commissioner for India and the Mayor of Sandwell were HOME _ among those who wished the new congregation well. by Pastor R. H. Pierson After an historical review of the origins of this company of Indian believers I stood by the graveside of a friend by Pastor K. A. Elias, Pastor H. L. Calkins, the British Union Conference recently and watched as the coffin was president, addressed the members and visitors, pointing out the effect of the lowered into the rich black earth. Here, 'Dower and influence of a Christian church within the community. He also made buried some six feet deep, his earthly a special point of commending the local pastor, Dalbir Masih, and the Langley remains would be well sheltered from members for their tireless work and unstinting sacrifice which have played such all earthly predators until the Life a. a vital part in making this church a reality. Giver calls. It was a sad time, even for We can be sure that the blessing of God will rest on this church, where, on Christians with hope of a soon coming resurrection. I am glad every day { several occasions, members have brought unopened wage packets for the doesn't bring another funeral, building of the Lord's house, and where, though the English language has to be -6, • separation from someone I love, and interpreted, the language of Christian love is so clearly understood. another trip to the cemetery. _*.The Assistant High Commissioner for India and the Mayor of Sandwell open the new Langley church . But the Lord's messenger says that every home should have a cemetery of its own. Listen: The heart of his wife should be the grave for the faults of the husband, and the heart of the husband the grave for his wife's faults' — The Adventist Home', page 177. You see, God knows that predators stalk the land of the living in greater numbers than they haunt the land of the dead. Whenever we live intimately, as we do in the family, weaknesses soon become evident. And just outside the family circle lurk the predators, ready always to gather titbits about the weaknesses and failures of our loved ones, eager to parade them for all to see. But Christian love requires daily funerals, deep burials, permanent gravesites for the faults of our loved ones. These, however, are not sad occasions! At this cemetery scene, our loved ones find out what real love is like and are given courage to grow. Minute Manna for Marrieds is a service provided by the Home and Family Service, General Conference . Disabled People thirteen million children starved to death. Any cause connected with the disabled is ipso facto a good EDITORIAL cause. But when will the starving capture the popular imagination as the disabled have — finally — done? During the three and a half years in which I have been sitting at A. S.,Edj Maxwell's desk, three issues raised in this 1.1 paper have captured the imagination of its readership — and elicited three bumper SAVE THE CHILDREN! bundles of mail. 1. The racy style of a certain missionary Thirteen million children starved to death work through us? paper published in August 1979 (which, last year. 'We go out Ingathering, don't we?' incidentally, sold twice the number of The statistic is easily said and almost as For a fortnight once a year. that's true. copies that even the best of its successors easily forgotten. Not so the pictures of And let us not minimize the importance of have done). 2. Why we should or should hideous, emaciated, not-quite-human that fortnight's work. It is the one period in not be loyal to a certain health food little forms shovelled up for burial in the the year when a majority of the Church's company in Watford. 3. The Papal visit. far-away places with strange-sounding able-bodies are mobilized on one Wouldn't it be marvellous if the issue of names. Those who have seen them never missionary task. However, the funds the starving captured the imagination of forget. collected during Ingathering are the 15,000 committed Adventists and 'Suffer the little children to come unto apportioned, as you would expect, to the readers of MESSENGER in the British me; and forbid them not,' says the evangelistic, educational and medical — Union? No. I'm not requesting another Saviour, 'for of such is the kingdom of as well as welfare — areas of the Church's bumper bundle of mail. I haven't finished heaven.' outreach. coping with the last one. (Yes. I know . I And we have a mental picture of plump Is a fortnight's hard labour in the cause asked for it.) Wouldn't it be marvellous if little bundles in romper suits clambering of the least of these the brothers and during the 'witnessing season' of the onto the lap of the children's Friend .... sisters of our Lord enough for one year? summer and autumn of this year, we got Think of the anguish in His heart when He Our behaviour would seem to indicate ourselves mobilized on as many projects sees tiny beings with skeletal heads, that we believe that it is. The extent of the as our imaginations could throw up to protruding bones covered by thin, medical and economic problems of the raise funds for the starving — and outdid parchment-like skin and outstretched world say that it isn't. Not to mention the the good help we provided for the bird-foot hands appealing for bread . corpses of thirteen million children per disabled last year? If 15,000 of us were a Thirteen million children died of annum. mobilized it would pull the carpet from starvation and malnutrition in 1981. That By the end of last year only those away under the 'little old me' argument! is the equivalent of a Hiroshima every on a package tour of the galaxy had any At the beginning of this year certain three days! Think of it! If a Hiroshima excuse for not knowing that it was the newspapers and relief organizations occurred every three days, imagine the International Year of Disabled People. It made a brave attempt to get 1982 labelled, scenes in the UN Security Council, caught the public imagination. It certainly hundreds of parliaments and national caught the imagination of the 15,000 assemblies, the demonstrations in the Seventh-day Adventists in the British streets, the banners, the slogans, the Union. Representing a lot of hard toil, interviews on Nationwide, the specially fat cheques were presented to extended news bulletins, the feature representatives of all the major charities documentaries at prime time, the connected with the disabled. And that is newspaper headlines, the rhetoric of the exactly as it should be: the people of God A politicians, the mounting international showing, unintentionally, what it means to pressure . be saved by grace through faith. But since it is only a case of children But when will there be an International starving to death the reaction is — what Year for Those Who Are Starving to shall we say? — philosophical? Death? When will that capture the public Can we afford to be philosophical about imagination? The Save the Children Fund thirteen million children starving to death have written to tell me that, not only did — just because they are doing it discreetly thirteen million children starve to death in parts of the world out of sight of the rest last year— but around the same number (if of us? not more) of adults! The Adventist Family settles down to Perhaps the sheer scale of the problem Sabbath lunch. The table groans under boggles the mind. Yes. That's it. It's not the steaming food. Dad: 'Lord we thank that we don't care. It's that the problem is Thee for this good food. We pray that so vast that we don't see how 'little old us' Thou wilt bless it to our body's use and us can do much about it. to Thy service. And remember those less OK? fortunate than ourselves. Amen.' Then, Will that serve as the stuff of an after a momentary wave of piety has excuse? swept over us, we get stuck in. Let's face it, if you're looking for an Is that the limit of the attention we plan excuse anything will serve. If you're in the to give to 'those less fortunate than business of manufacturing excuses, ourselves'? Does the Lord need you're bound to churn out one that looks reminding about them? May He not, custom-made for the situation sooner or rather, be of the opinion that it is we who later! need reminding? Are we in a position to But no amount of excuses will alter the do something about it? Does He want to fact that during the International Year of 2 'The Year of the Refugee'.