| home.
Crusaders at school and holiday Bible classes at home were further
opportunities to learn. In 1980, during a children's mission, I
saw clearly the difference between knowing about Jesus and owning
him as Lord and Saviour. All that my parents and others had taught
me pointed to this, and at last I understood it for myself. From that time on I knew I would enter full-time Christian work,
though for a while it was with rather romantic ideas of what this
might entail. Soon after, we moved to Wolverhampton, where my father
had been appointed Vicar of St Luke's. Here, in time, I was able
to get work with a jobbing printer, and so was able to develop
a hobby that began at school. When University and I parted company
it was to the printing industry I looked for employment while trying
to decide what I was going to do in life. Work was not so easy
to come by in the West Midlands, and so I took a job in Reading,
where my uncle, the Rev Allan Bowhill, was Minister at St Mary's,
Castle Street. The congregation had a youth group (with ages ranging from about
twelve to about seventy!) which met to study the Bible and to play
table tennis. As we were leaving the chapel one dark, wet, foggy
night, a girl appeared. She was a young Christian from New Zealand
who was looking for a church in Reading, and who had been invited
along by someone from the group, but had been delayed. Some two
years later I saw her again and discovered that she had been back
to New Zealand in between. Her name is Katrina, and we married
the following September, in 1992. We have since been blessed with
four daughters. This was the time that the Church of England took its historic
and unprecedented decision to part with catholic orthodoxy and
accept women as suitable candidates for the ordained ministry.
The historic Protestant and Reformed faith of Scripture, the Thirty-nine
Articles and the Book of Common Prayer clearly stood for nothing.
Our minister at that time, Dr David Samuel, announced his inability
to accept this new ruling, and returned his licence to the Bishop
- in effect resigning his living. The congregation was virtually
unanimous in its support for him and voted to leave the structures
of the Church of England, asking him to continue as minister, which
he did. In 1994 the Church of England (Continuing) was brought into being,
and Dr Samuel was appointed as the first Presiding Bishop. In 1996 three events coincided, in the providence of God. I
had been employed in the printing industry for a decade, Dr Samuel
announced his retirement, and I knew finally that I was called
to the ordained ministry. I was accepted as a candidate for training
by the Continuing Church, and was sent to the London Theological
Seminary, where I spent two happy years being instructed in the
history and doctrine of the Christian faith. When the course ended
I was ordained as Assistant Curate at Castle Street, and two years
later was appointed as Minister. In May 2000 I was invited to join
the Council of the Protestant Truth Society, and have been glad
to serve in this capacity since. The need for the PTS is undiminished.
Edward Malcolm |
