Possibly a bright prospect for the Belgian community of Brothers in Christ

Revival for French-speaking Brothers in Christ

Man from the North, Duncan Heaster at AC Herverlee-Leuven meeting, February 2006

At the hands of Duncan Heaster, the leader of Carelinks, our Belgian association suffered greatly in 2014 and subsequent years.

The whole affair surrounding a dispute that was mainly between CBM and Mr D. Heaster totally undercut us when we tried to get all the different Christadelphian groups in Belgium under one roof. Several brethren did not agree to amalgamate the different associations or did not agree to disclose the difficulties, and therefore they broke off relations with us. So we lost a lot of members and found ourselves alone.

If that wasn’t enough, some years later the Corona virus came throwing a spanner in the works and made it even more impossible to meet bodily. Because of the lockdown, we had to turn to Zoom to meet via the internet. In doing so, we did notice that more people followed the service than usual in the hall. But the illness also affected our brothers and sisters who were already of a certain age. They were affected by the disease, which further weakened our community.

The Covid pandemic has not yet seen its last days. A tenth wave is underway, affecting far fewer people. Only 2,750 severe cases of Covid remain to be treated in hospitals.

The less severe infection rate does now allow us to meet again, although we still keep a sufficient distance and there are still several brothers and sisters who prefer to attend services (breaking of bread and Bible study) from home.
This breaking of bread is mentioned in the New Testament as a fundamental gesture of the memorial of Christ’s death in remission of sins, and is part of one of those significant acts or actions as a baptized person or member of the body of Christ.

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to gather with some in Anderlecht, one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, to talk together about the Word of God, the mission of a follower of Jesus Christ and how we can fit in.

It was a very unifying and edifying meeting in which important goals were put first. With the realisation that followers of Christ need to come together regularly and spread the word of God as well as the Good News, it was decided that towards the future we will provide more French-language articles on our websites as well as give French-speakers more opportunity to come together to study the Bible and fellowship under Christ, giving them the chance to also break bread together and share the symbols of faith together.

On Saturday, March 11, it was decided to go for it to create a French-speaking ecclesia in Anderlecht. In the coming weeks, we will now consider how we will be able to achieve this further.
In any case, we are grateful to the Belanwa family for making their flat available for us to meet there at least once a month on Sundays anyway.

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