Fellowship focus 1 - November 1996
Abbawiffwiff (as it was called on the way)
We - my family and I that is - went once again to the conference of the Evangelical Movement of Wales held at Aberystwyth. It happens every year during the second week of August. There are big meetings (about 1100 people) each morning and evening, and you are free for the rest of the time to go to the beach, or for a walk or drive, or even shopping (if for some reason you wanted to). This is our 7th year in a row - we didn't want to go the first time (I won't go into why we went if we didn't want to!) but we were hooked after the first year.
We stay in the Theological College, which holds about 45-50 people. It's a grand old building right on the sea front, next to the pier. It was built as a posh hotel in 1897. The rooms are a bit spartan but it is in a marvellous situation. We arrive on Saturday afternoon and start bumping into old friends - Spencer and Wendy Cunnah for Gorseionon near Swansea whom we met here 6 years ago - and friends we see somewhere else like Geoff and Margaret! They met here 2 years ago (as you may have heard). A number of other people we know joined the party on the Saturday or over the next two days, including my sister Judy and her husband and their 11 month old baby.
Breakfast and evening meals are provided, and we all eat together in the dining hall, served at our places most of the time: it's really quite civilised. You look at the sea from your table, and because there are only 45 people in all, you actually get to know quite a few people just by eating (and talking and listening a bit too, of course!). It's like living in a community, rather than just a very small castle called a house! I don't know that I'd feel the same if it was 50 weeks a year rather than just one, but I'm strongly inclined to think that some kind of communal living would be much better for us than the way most people in the West now live.
There are people here (just in our accommodation, let alone in the whole conference) from Kidderminster as well as Hull and from near Bristol, and a couple from Southampton - it's not an all Welsh affair plus a few nutty types from Hounslow! On the Sunday, two churches are packed morning and evening with about 500 conference-goers each, Monday morning is free, and the conference starts officially on the Monday evening. The 5 evening meetings are generally aimed at declaring the gospel, with the perhaps hundreds of unconverted young people in various church parties especially in mind. The 4 morning meetings (Tuesday-Friday) are aimed more at believers. This year Sinclair Ferguson spoke in the mornings on the book of Ruth. It was very illuminating; I've ordered the tapes in order to put them in our church tape library. He regards Naomi as rather impatient in her conduct, whereas Boaz was a model of control, faith, etc. I guess he is right, though I'd never seen it before.
What is so good about it all then? Excellent ministry of the Word, and a nice big congregation to sing in, with a sense of reverence for God as well as enjoyment of the things of God. We always feel that God has spoken to us there. It's a lovely place to be on holiday. The accommodation is very well suited to children, because they can play with other children inside the building more or less unattended; they love it. You meet other Christians from all over the place and have time and opportunity to get to know them. This is a great thing for any Christian, but especially for those from a fairly small church. So you get more of a feeling that there are Christians all over the place. One may even meet friends that you go out of the way to see at other times - this has happened to us, and even affected a number of you, since Spencer Cunnah preached in our church 4 or 5 years ago!
Being on holiday with other Christians means there is also the opportunity to unwind and talk - a bit later sometimes than one would normally! Thus you reach a relaxed, unhurried sort of depth of fellowship and friendship that is probably quite rare in our ordinary, ordered, responsible lives. When we first went in 1990, I experienced what I consider a legitimate and indeed highly beneficial joy in relaxed Christian friendship that came as a bolt from the blue and has been a general encouragement in life ever since. One other good thing about Aberystwyth is that we - Evangelicals in England - do have something to learn from Welsh Christians that is not merely a temperamental matter: a balance in their faith between knowledge and emotion. There is often an emotional intensity about their services, yet without fanaticism and with the mind still plugged in, which is from the Spirit, and which we need more of.
So I hope we'll be able to go again next year!
Chris Bennett.