Two welcoming families

Zetland Road Church – (Both images in this article are from Google maps)

developing faith – 2

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We left part one of this series with our discovery that the weird-looking place near our flat in St Andrews in Bristol, was in fact Zetland Road Fellowship (now Zetland Evangelical Church) – and not weird at all. Judy and I had hunted high and low, all over the city, and not found what we were looking for. Somehow, we had known all along that we would know the right place when we found it. And so it turned out to be.

Zetland Road Fellowship

The first thing we noticed on walking into Zetland was that several people took the trouble to talk to us. There were smiles and we felt welcome amongst these people. This in itself was a novelty, different from everywhere else we had tried. When the meeting began things were pretty much as expected; there was a welcome, a mix of prayers and hymns, some notices, a Bible reading, thoughts and teaching on topics from the reading, and after the closing prayer an invitation to remain for tea or coffee, a biscuit, and a chat.

The conversation over a drink and biscuit was good too, welcoming, not pushy, but friendly and we had a chance to speak with several different people before we left.

After going along to Zetland for several Sundays, I decided to try an evening meeting on, I think, a Wednesday. I was blown away by what I found there! The text was from one of the books of Samuel and concerned King David, though I no longer remember the details. What I do remember is that it was a passage that I had read for myself in the past and that the way it was explained in the meeting was very striking. I remember being greatly impressed at the convincing thoughts expressed, the fact that there was more to know than I had seen for myself, that what was being said acted like a telescope, helping me see further and in more detail than before. I wanted to hear more – and more was being offered the following week.

Judy and I were hooked, more and more so as we spent further time with the lovely people at Zetland Road. They felt like a welcoming family. We discovered that the origins of Zetland were with the Brethren as that movement spread from the south-west peninsula of Cornwall and Devon. Both Zetland and (later) Horsecastle were Open Brethren assemblies. A lot of small, independent chapels were built in the Bristol area during Victorian times. There were a few things that we questioned privately – the insistence that women should wear hats for example, and the irritating fact that they were not permitted to speak in meetings. To some degree this spoiled the lovely Open Meetings they held once a month. And the belief they had that the spiritual gifts were no longer present in church life was also a problem for us, but they had so much clearly right that we were happy to ignore these niggles. We were not entirely happy, but more than happy enough to stay. Our spiritual and social lives benefitted enormously from being part of the Zetland fellowship. We particularly cherished the experience of each assembly governing itself. There was absolutely no higher level of authority apart from the Bible – no hierarchy whatsoever, no bishops, no pastor, no circuits, no rules, no limitations. From what Judy and I had read in the New Testament this seemed right to us.

We were only with the Zetland Road church for about two years because we wanted to move up the housing ladder from our unfurnished flat in St Andrews, Bristol, to a small mid-terrace 1960’s house in Yatton, twelve or so miles west of the city. Our first daughter, Debbie, was born shortly before the move and was dedicated at Zetland Road Chapel, a simple expression of gratitude not involving water or godparents. We’d already planned to share a caravan in Ilfracombe for a late summer holiday with Cliff and Ginnie, another young couple from the Zetland fellowship, and although we moved to Yatton before that holiday, we were still able to get away with them later. Cliff and Ginnie collected us from Yatton on their way to Ilfracombe (they had a car, we did not), but for the return journey they dropped us off at Barnstaple Railway Station and we caught the train back part way, but the Barnstaple train was delayed and we missed our connection to Yatton, the last one of the day. We had to ask a friend to rescue us from Bridgewater Station.

Horsecastle Chapel

We were absolutely up against the financial buffers when we made our bid for our first house in Yatton. We were only able to offer £7000 and it was a time of rapid inflation which made saving very hard. The asking price was higher than we could afford: quite a lot higher (perhaps £7500 or so, I don’t recall the exact figure). So when we put in our offer of £7000 we expected it to be rejected. Much to our surprise it was accepted straight away without discussion or argument. This seemed strange, but it was exactly what we needed and so we were relieved and excited as well as a little puzzled. But you don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth, so we just said thank you and the paperwork went through.

Two of my friends from work, Ruth and Peter helped us move. We hired a self-drive van and filled it with our hand-me-down three piece suite; our double bed funded by my grandmother, Nor; all our clothes, books, LPs etc; our cheap second hand dining table and four chairs; cooker and more. We set off for Yatton and and then discovered at the first right hand bend that a rear tyre was rubbing under the wheel arch and making a terrible noise. We had to take all right handers as slowly as possible, and with great relief arrived outside our new home.

With Ruth and Peter’s help we soon had everything indoors or stashed in the garage, and Ruth and Peter left us to it. By now it was late on Saturday and the shops had closed. As the evening light began to fail we turned on the light in the lounge only to find there was no bulb! We looked round the entire house and found all the bulbs removed and of course the shops would remain closed all day on Sunday. Finally, I checked the garage and found a bulb in the light fitting there, took it up to the house and fitted it so we had light at last, at least in one room.

Much later, we learned that the previous owners of our new home were Mark and Jean, members of the local Evangelical Chapel (Horsecastle). They had prayed about selling their home and moving to a bigger house in the village, and felt quite certain that they were supposed to accept whatever price we offered them!

What wonderful ways our heavenly Father has, working unexpectedly and often leaving us in ignorance until the time is right for us to know. He really is amazing!

Of course, one of our first thoughts was finding another gathering of people like those we’d been so delighted to find at Zetland. When they knew we were going to live in Yatton, the Zetland folk had told us about Horsecastle Chapel near the railway station in Yatton, and Claverham Chapel in the nearby village of Claverham. They recommended we take a look at these two places. We found we liked both, but Horsecastle was closer and larger so that’s where we ended up (a second welcoming family).

Our time at Horsecastle was good, we were both baptised while we were there, in a small pool underneath the raised dais at the front of the main meeting room. This was an exciting time and an important step in our journeys. For both of us it felt like a time of triumph and of belonging. We learned a lot at Horsecastle, we grew in faith and in knowledge, and we became deeply involved in the church community at a time when our young family was thriving . When our second child (Beth) was born she was duly dedicated at Horsecastle. But not everything was good.

Horsecastle held quarterly meetings when the entire church would meet to discuss planning for the future. We would talk about what had gone well, any issues that needed attention, that sort of thing. There was no single person in charge, no minister, no lead elder or pastor or anything like that. There was a small group of elders, all older men, but their role was informal, limited to providing advice, and perhaps speaking from the front a little more often than others.

At one of these quarterly meetings we discussed the idea of finding and employing someone to lead the church on a full time basis. Judy and I thought this would be an unwise move, and I expressed this as clearly as I could. I suggested that we already had a full-time leader whose name is Jesus, and pointed out that Israel had demanded a king ‘like all the other nations’ and Saul had been chosen, undermining Israel’s reliance on Yahweh alone. It had not worked out well for ancient Israel and it would not work out well for us, either.

In the end, as you might guess, a pastor was appointed. It was a factor that, over time, led Judy and me to feel a little less comfortable at Horsecastle. There were undeniably some good things about the move; the new pastor, Peter Cresswell, initiated an annual Holiday Club for children from the village with fun and exciting Bible-based crafts and activities, sports events in a local field, and these proved very successful. Judy and I helped with the first two of these events.

But more and more we felt sure that the teaching about spiritual gifts having been present in the early church but now no longer active was incorrect, as was the choice of employing a pastor. These niggles turned into something stronger as we began to experience the gifts for ourselves. And it seemed to us that if you are given something, you should also be using it. But that could not be part of our journey with the good folk at Horsecastle. For that we would need a different environment, with different friends, people open to receive, rejoice in and benefit from the presence of the Spirit of Jesus in our meetings and beyond.

How we found those friends, and what happened next will have to wait for the next part of this series.

See also:

• Plymouth Brethren – Wikipedia
• Horsecastle Church – Website
• Open Brethren – Wikipedia
• Yatton – Wikipedia
• Zetland Road Church – Website

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