About us / Over ons

Castle in Leefdaal, Belgium
Leefdaalkasteel – Castle in Leefdaal, Belgium – Image via Wikipedia

Belgian ecclesia or church community of Christadelphians or Brothers in Christ of the Low Countries

The Belgian Christadelphian Ecclesia is the space of the ecclesia or church community of the Christadelphian parish from the region of the South Low Countries, where serious lovers of the Word of God, Biblestudents or Bibleresearchers come together and  want to take time to study the Word of God, to pray and honour the Only One God our Father who is in heaven, and express our hope in the return of Christ Jesus, our Saviour, the Messiah,  our Mediatior between God, and in the Kingdom of God.
We want to show each other that we follow our master teacher the rabbi from Nazareth Jesus Christ, who we really want to know.

On these pages we want to give a picture of what we believe and give more information about our activities. Our main meeting places are Leefdaal-Bertem and Heverleee-Leuven in Flemish Brabant, Brussel Center in the Brussels Region, Nivelles in Frech Brabant and Mons in Hainaut. Every three months we also have a joint meeting in Paris (France) where we also come together on Easter Sunday.

You shall be able to find how, when and why we hold our services, and how we want to be under the New Covenant.

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Belgische Ecclesia of Kerkgemeenschap van de Broeders in Christus in de Lage Landen

U bent hier op de ecclesiaruimte of bij de kerkgemeenschap waar Broeders in christus met anderen samen komen in congregatie of broederschap alsook de parochie of plaatselijke kerkgemeenschap vormen van het zuiden der Lage Landen.

One of the meetingrooms at the ecclesia Leuven
CBM meeting in één van de vergaderzalen van de Leuvense ecclesia

De Belgische Christadelphian Ecclesia of de Gemeenschap van Broeders in Christus is gehuisvest in het Leuvense, Vlaams-Brabant.  Brussel, Leuven, Leefdaal, Nivelles, Mons en Paris zijn onze bijeenkomst plaatsen maar wij staan steeds open eender waar bijeen te komen om de Bijbel te bestuderen. In onze bijeenkomsten of kerkdiensten nemen wij tijd om het Woord van God te bestuderen en God te prijzen en te eren alsook om dank te zeggen vooral voor het zoenofer van Jezus, en te bidden. Wij delen daar onze hoop in Jezus Christus onze Verlosser, de Messias, die in het vlees is gekomen en voor ons is gestorven en nog zal terugkeren, alsook in onze verwachting van het Koninkrijk van God. Tijdens onze diensten herinneren wij ook het Laatse Avondmaal van onze heer en leermeester Jezus van Nazareth en drukken wij onze hoop uit op het eeuwig leven. Als broers of broeders en zusters van elkaar voelen wij ons verenigd als ledematen van het Lichaam van Christus aan wie wij willen toebehoren, en voelen wij onze verbondenheid met de wereldwijde Christadelphian gemeenschap en de deelgenoten van het Koninkrijk Gods onder het Nieuwe Verbond. Met elkaar willen wij onze levenslessen delen en met liefdemaaltijden het Nieuwe Verbond bezegelen.

Op deze pagina’s willen wij ook ons geloof in Jezus Christus en redding door hem uit drukken, verkondigen en anderen een beeld geven van wat wij geloven, hoe wij georganiseerd zijn en welke relatie wij met onze medemensen willen aangaan. Om te weten wie Christadelphians of Broeders in Christus zijn, verwijzen wij u graag naar onze pagina: Wie,wat & hoe Christadelphians.

45 thoughts on “About us / Over ons”

  1. Mijn vriend komt half februari vanuit Amerika naar Nederland. Hij is Christadelphian en daardoor ben ik opzoek gegaan naar een plek voor hem in ons land om met andere christadelphians samen te komen of zijn bijbelstudie te kunnen doen. Helaas kan ik er maar weinig over vinden in Nederland. Kunt U mij misschien vertellen welke opties er voor hem zijn straks?

    Hij zal woonachtig zijn in de omgeving Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant.

    Met vriendelijke groet,

    M. Verhoeven

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    1. Beste Mevrouw Verhoeven,
      Zoals u zal gemerkt hebben zijn er slechts weinig plekjes waar Christadelphians regelmatig samen komen. Voor Eindhoven liggen Den Haag en Voorburg het dichts bij. Dan denken wij dat onze ecclesia in Leuven (België) in aanmerking komt en vervolgens Amersfoort, Ede en Assen.
      U kan best de heer Rijkeboer contacteren in Voorburg 070.3867887 of Mark Hale mark.hale@net.hcc.nl die misschien een huisadres van een Nederlandse broeder kunnen opgeven. In Breda woont o.a. de familie Hazir met wie er dan misschien contact kan opgenomen worden om verder af te spreken om toch samen te komen.
      Hopelijk zal u iemand voor hem kunnen vinden om samen de bijbel te lezen en te bespreken alsook het Brood te breken.
      Veel succes,
      Met vriendelijke groeten,

      Like

  2. Fascinated by your site and your adherence to the ways of the early church. I’m only now discovering the christadelphian church (movement?).

    Wishing you all the best for now.

    United in Christ,
    torcello

    Like

    1. Dear Torcello, we do hope you shall be able to find some interesting and inspiring postings on this and our other websites. We do hope we can stimulate you to read and look further in the Word of God, the Bible, where you shall be able to find most of the answers; but when in doubt do not hesitate to ask us.

      Like

    1. You are welcome. Thanks also for coming along. That God may be with you, your work and our work, giving us opportunities to let others get to know the Creator of heaven and earth and the provision of His son, fitting His Plan for the Kingdom of God.

      Like

  9. hellow bro,if im at far country and iam much interesting to join your fellowship so that i,buld together with you the body of christ what can i,do?

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    1. Dear friend,

      The best way is to start following our writings on our different sites, this ecclesia one, our Brethren website where we do present the Christadelphian beliefs and attitudes, Stepping Toes the website where we go deeper in on specific matters and a more general website: From Guestwriters.

      When we bring up some things of which you have questions or want to know more about, please do not hesitate to ask it there, so that we can give answers which could not only suit you, but also others who come along on these sites.

      Most important is starting to read the Bible every day and wondering about what is written in it. When you come up with questions you can always write to us and tell us what you think or how you understand a passage or tell us how you come confused by a certain writing.
      It is with reading the Word of God and by coming to dialogue with us or others that you can come more to understanding what is written in the Bible and get more insight of what is expected of a Christian.

      We do hope you shall follow us on our different sites and shall take enough time to investigate everything we write.

      Wishing you good luck with your quest for the truth.
      God Bless.

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Beste,
    Ik en mijn man komen uit Iran maar we wonen al 6 jaar in Belgie,Roeselare .We zijn Christadelphian en daardoor zijn we opzoek naar een plek in West vlaanderen om met andere Christadelphian samen te komen of bijbelstudie te kunnen doen .kunt u ons vertellen welke opties er voor ons zijn ?

    Like

    1. Beste, Sjalom,
      Fijn te horen dat jullie Iraanse Christadelphians zijn die op de zes jaar in België al goed Nederlands kennen.
      Zijn jullie gedoopt door de “Man van het Noorden”? Het zou heel fijn zijn moesten wij jullie dichtbij een plaats kunnen aanbevelen om samen te komen met andere broeders en zusters. In België zitten wij echter met het probleem dat de organisatie Carelinks en broeder Duncan Heaster hun gedoopte leden niet met ons in aanraking willen laten komen. Zij willen ons de adressen van hun ecclesia in Oostende, Gent, Antwerpen en Brussel niet laten weten en wensen ons niet in contact te brengen met door hen gedoopte Christadelphians; Dit is een pijnlijke smet op de gemeenschap waarmee wij echter moeten leven. Daarom, indien jullie door Carelinks tot het Christadelphianisme zijn gekomen raad ik jullie aan om met hen in contact te treden om hun gemeenschappen hier in België en Nederland te leren kennen.
      Wij van onzentwege heten iedereen welkom, maar zijn erg gelimiteerd. Wij hebben geen eigen ontmoetingsplaats en zijn heel beperkt in aantal. Onze bijeenkomsten vinden plaats in Leuven (Heverlee), Nivelles/Nijvel en Mons en als er andere leden van uit het buitenland komen kan het ook gebeuren dat wij ergens anders in een hotel samen komen, zoals in Brussel en Brugge.
      Wij zouden het ten zeerste waarderen indien jullie met ons willen contact onderhouden en staan open om jullie te ontmoeten in Roeselare of ergens naar jullie keuze.
      Laat ons maar weten wat jullie voor een mogelijkheid zien.

      Like

    2. Beste Iraniërs,
      In Antwerpen zou een grote Iraanse gemeente moeten zijn die u hopelijk gevonden hebt.
      Hebben Duncan Heaster and Carelinks u de nodige adressen bezorgd? Wij hebben ze niet van hun kunnen loskrijgen waardoor wij ook in de onmogelijkheid zijn, zoals de Vrijde Christadelphians om gelovigen door te sturen naar de andere gemeenschappen in Oostende, Gent, Antwerpen en Brussel.
      Wij betreuren ten zeerste deze onchristelijke houding (naar ons toe) maar hopen dat individuele burgers toch door hen moge opgevangen worden. Wij zouden het fijn vinden als u ons laat weten hoe jullie zoektocht is verlopen en of dat Carelinks wel degelijk de verzorgende taak heeft opgenomen welke zij in hun naam dragen.

      Like

    1. Poetry is one of the many gifts the Creator has given to mankind.

      We do hope you also shall come to see the poetry and music in the creation and we would appreciate it you delving into our articles which may shed a light in our purpose and in the way we have to relate to each-other and to our environment.

      Liked by 1 person

    1. When you believe there is no God and it does not matter which religion you belong to is it than not best to look for aid by non-believers in God?
      Reacting on this request and the article “Worsening drought in Africa means Christadelphians should NOT resign from the CBM” where this comment could not be placed:

      Counting on aid from a group like the christadelphians after you have blackened them and calling others to leave that group does not encourage them to come to your help. And now asking them, after you and the ex-christadelphian group you are in called them names and accused them falsely, seems very hypocrite and even more false when you now call non believers even to join the Christadelphians just to receive aid.

      Like

    2. Sir, we have looked at your request but also at the link you gave and at other articles on your site. To our surprise certain linked articles disappeared after Mr. Marcus Ampe and our reaction on our Facebook page and after our reactions on the accusations of Mr. D.H., the “Man from the North”, which you consider as one of your friends (according your own sayings in one of the articles).

      Before the article we are going to quote disappears from the net also we quote your saying:

      White CBM workers, link brethren and the CBM committee impose on the black Africans harsh and repressive rules and regulations without telling them that in white liberal ecclesias in the rest of the world, many of those rules do not apply and that many white Christadelphians are allowed by their ecclesias to believe and to behave in ways that are forbidden to black Africans.

      Being mainly white Caucasians, and accused of racism ourselves by you in an article which disappeared after the remarks of Immanuel Verbondskind on your request here and after the remark and defence of Mr. Ampe on the Christadelphian Facebook Page on your request and Mr. D.H. his accusations. Is this not a strange co-incidence that the articles mentioned by you and linked at by Verbondskind suddenly are not available any more on your site?

      Your site also claims to be a publication of a group of Ex-Christadelphians who are a coalition of Atheists and Theists who reject Christadelphianism, which follows mostly an Atheist agenda, even when a considerable number of Ex-Christadelphians may be Theists. You and your colleagues also claim to be an international network of friends and fellowship who have no leadership or organisation.

      Your website claims also to be dedicated to the memory of its founder Almon (Corky) McCann (1947 – 2016) who created it in 2008 and who first established the concept of an Ex-Christadelphians community. Corky was also the founder of the Ex-Christadelphians Facebook Discussion Group that has hundreds of members.

      Strangely enough when some of those members dare to knock at the doors of Christadelphians, would you not think?

      Funny that a person would come to ask money or financial support to work against those who are requested to give help!

      You and some other Africans who requested us money the last few weeks, even trying to put us under pressure because we should not refuse to give them money because we call are self Christian and than we should be giving help. So them and you demanding us to offer you money to help (using the words from an article on your website) “to deconvert Christians or Christadelphians” even when your pages say “It’s primary purpose is to help the reader to think rationally and objectively about faith based religion. It does not seek to dictate what people should think about these issues, but rather it explains a better way to consider the probabilities. ” {‘Unbelievable’ – A new book by Ex-Christadelphian Rob Hyndman}

      Strangely enough your site does not allow non-members to react, which also allows a one sided view.

      In Christadelphian fideism and some similar articles you want to give your readers the impression that we as Christadelphain community want to press certain thoughts onto our members. The opposite is true we just ask every person to think seriously and to examine their self the truth. We are just one of the few Christian denominations who just reject all human dogma’s. For us it is clear that the Bible says it all and that nothing else has to believed than that what is clearly written in the Bible. Our denomination allows also to have people different opinions and say to all that those things we do not know we can never demand others to believe and when we look at such discussions we always should remember that it are thoughts but no necessary truths. That is why so many complain that there are so many different thoughts in Christadelphianism and some accuse have to have no unity because we allow one Christadelphian to say this and an other Christadelphian to say that. It is just in our community that there is no place for indoctrination, like you seem to want ot give the impression to your readers.

      At your site it is even quoted what we say and think

      “We have the Bible because that is God revelation about His work with us relating to salvation. His work in nature; well we don’t have anywhere near the same level of revelation, and you can have all the degrees you like and really all you have acquired is “the wisdom of this world”, which unfortunately is “foolishness with God”……………In reality, man with all his learning is never even going to come close to understanding what God has done (Rom 11v33), so with man’s limited scope there is not much to put faith in…………….Most of this is just the musing of man, with little (if none) scriptural support and so the vain babblings fill more and more pages by the minute.

      Funny that you consider that a bad element and a so called indoctrinational element. We warning people that our and other writings form other Christians are always to be considered ideas or human thoughts, which always should be examined, you seem to consider a danger for the community? It is just showing our openness and our awareness of our own weaknesses and of our consciousness that of certain things we ourself may have wrong ideas and that other people or even other denomination may be right on certain points.

      Christadelphians throwing the dices in the hands of the want to be believer, you seem to find a wrong system and we do agree that is the part on which the most people stop following us or stop their way to conversion. Because we teach them that each individual is responsible for their own choice, and that nobody can blame some one else for the faults they do. By us there is no Satan or devil to blame, but the evil is within each individual.

      We accept you can not agree with our way of thought, and we are willing to accept that our way of living and our way of worshipping is not liked by you. We even would not hate you for you not liking us, but you being part of a group telling all lies about us, our community and our other brethren and sisters worldwide, make us question how you dare to ask for financial help whilst we would not mind you would ask us to give you spiritual help, which we are very much pleased to give you.

      So please, be welcome at this and other sites of yours and we do hope you might learn something from our writings.

      That God may bless you and give you more insight and wisdom.

      Like

  21. Dropping a note that I stopped by and read. Found this part about the Trinity, over on your right-side panel interesting:

    Find out in this article and its links how Jews, Christians and Muslims may have been influenced by the pagan gods and false teachings and how they have to separate them from such pagan teachings.

    Several other Bronze and Iron Age cultures and certainly into the Classical Age of Greece and Rome also had variations of gods, demi-gods, or “prophets” sent by the Divine to humanity and some of them also had “holy” Scriptures as well recording over multiple centuries those peoples relationship(s) with their god/gods. The real simple question is this: If several or many of them claim to be right and exclusively the “only true religion,” how do they prove their claims and what best way for outsiders/non-believers to fairly examine and judge? And there is the GLOBAL problem all human religions face and have faced throughout all of history. To be more precise…

    By what verifiable authority does the Belgian Free Christadelphian Ecclesia Brussels-Leuven claim to state as “truth” the quote above when by what is written on your What Do Christadelphians Believe and Teach page(s) is clearly mainstream Judaeo-Christian in origin, perhaps Mormon (LDS), Unitarians, United Church of God, or Christian Scientists? That’s quite perplexing, forked-tongue if I’m honest based on the 4th-century CE canonical New Testament.

    But for a person who is independent of cultural, or familial, or psychological/emotional attachments and can critically analyze more objectively a subject and/or person, all these fluid Bronze, Iron, and Classical Age legends and mythology very prevalent in the aforementioned canonical New Testament and Old Testament actually does demonstrate the convoluted, confusing, and contradicting content of an already amputated and erroneous “Bible.” In that light, it isn’t a mystery in the least when “Jews, Christians and Muslims” and all their various splinter groups throughout history have polluted, or most of them proclaim, have correctly interpreted or have the “true exegesis” of Scriptures and legends. Hence, the reason there are today some 4,000 variations of Christianity! The same fragmentation holds true for Judaism and Islam too. No one agrees on any of the “religious truths” and no one can prove they are exclusively right beyond reasonable doubt, much less NO proof whatsoever.

    Best regards to you.

    Like

    1. Dear Professor Taboo,

      Thank you very much for your reaction, which is very much appreciated.

      You rightly question

      “If several or many of them claim to be right and exclusively the “only true religion,” how do they prove their claims and what best way for outsiders/non-believers to fairly examine and judge?”

      According to our believes the only doctrine, or matter we do have to accept without much proof is to accept that there is an Unseen Eternal Being Who is behind everything, Him being the divine Creator. Because each person is created in the image of their Creator or the One Who allowed them to exist, each individual has an internal feeling, call it “instinct” which gives him or her some feeling of what is right or wrong, good or bad. Everybody is free to look for background books that can give him or her wisdom. We believe the Books of the Bible are the best ones to take as a “Guide for life”.

      If you would look at our different articles on our different sites you shall be able to notice that we never claim to be the only right and exclusively the “only true religion”. We consider religions as a way to make something of your life and to come into a good relationship with The God or for some with their gods, though for those last ones we consider them (when they worship pagan gods) to be worshipping in vain. We also do believe it is God that calls people and as such we also believe there are different ways or different denominations to come closer to God. We also believe every person is on a point in his life on a different step on the ladder to God and therefore in one stage of his life may be in an other denomination than ours, but still on the right track. What may be a good way for you might be not the best way for an other person.

      Following the Hebrew God, the God of Israel, we totally agree we are based on the Judeo-christian tradition and based on the first century group The Way which did not worship a Trinity like many of the later Christian trinitarian denominations.
      We do believe that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, which we do believe people can find in the Bible. The difference of our denomination and other non-trinitarian denominations of Christianity with the trinitarian denominations in Christendom is that we consider that Word sufficient to give us light and wisdom. You might say we take the words like they are written in Scriptures, and as such we believe, when there is written “the only begotten son of God” the word tells us about a son of God and not about a god son (like trinitarians twist those words). In the light of leaving all human doctrines aside there is no contradiction at all in the Bible Canon or Old and New Testament.

      Because we are all human beings with different thoughts and different attitudes, brought up in different cultures, there always shall be differences in opinion. Often it is the human pride and lack of humility that makes that people do not come to accept or agree with other teachigns or do not come to agree on any of the “religious truths”. We also think your end conclusion is right because

      no one can prove they are exclusively right beyond reasonable doubt

      We namely also believe no man can ever have all wisdom in him or her. We all have deficiencies and all our thinking is also influenced by the culture where we live in and how we our brought up. It is nearly impossible to have a totally neutral mind. Plus our personal mind is limited in what it can grasp and do and as such we have to live with such limitations and often limited knowledge.

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      2. Plus our personal mind is limited in what it can grasp and do and as such we have to live with such limitations and often limited knowledge.

        Indeed. Just these last 16-months I completed an extensive introductory study and research of a fairly recent field called Agnotology. I hope to continue and advance these studies over the coming years. I see TREMENDOUS value in doing so, not only for my own humble benefit, but more so for my community, colleagues, and others I will fortunately meet in my future! What is Agnotology you might ask? If I may, this is the opening introduction from my 4-part blog-series on the subject. Out of courtesy CDs, I will not include the link to the series.

        “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance,
        it is the illusion of knowledge.”
        — Stephen Hawking

        How much do we know? How much do we not know? How much or how little should we know or shouldn’t know? Why do we either know it or don’t know it? What creates ignorance, keeps it alive, hidden, distorted, or used for political-military purposes?

        Agnotology, according to Wikipedia, is a recent new field of study about culturally induced ignorance or doubt. Renown cosmologist and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking (above) sums up our task well. In our current age of technological devices and data, the internet (particularly social media) and the speedy access to and dissemination of information, as well as the instability or unavailability of quality broader education, it has become more paramount than ever before in human history for us to recognize, grapple, dissect, and understand exactly what state, who for, and how well knowledge and ignorance coexist or are imbalanced, and if it is significant or insignificant and why.

        You see Chirstadelphians, it isn’t simply about “limited knowledge” for all of humanity, it is just as equally, if not more, about ignorance or what we don’t know OR choose to not know OR make difficult what to know or not know for others. Please ponder on this concept thoroughly. It is truly profound and can serve each of us in immeasurable ways!

        Best regards to you. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

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