This issue is perhaps one of the most historically significant in the entire collection of Our Life Together for it contains the description of the joint Catholic and Baptist communion service. I will discuss this as we get to the appropriate page in the issue. Pictured on the cover is the priest who celebrated holy communion with us, Father Garcia-Herreros from Bogota, Columbia.
Ken Pagard introduces the visit of Father Garcia-Herros. He also mentions that we had a household in the community of El Minuto de Dios which is a part of the Father's ministry. Sam and Elizabeth Ballesteros were the heads of that household with Dale and Bev Hunter, John Gudino, Sally Trejo and perhaps one or two others that I can't remember who were members of that household.
Father GH (Sam Ballesteros used to refer to him that way -- and it will cut down on my typing) begins his article here. It is certainly a word of affirmation to our community -- and specifically to the ministry of Ken Pagard. Ken made at least one trip to El Minuto. He and the Father had similar visions for the unity of the church and the fullness of the Holy Spirit in bringing about that unity.
On this page, Ken continues his article about the Friday evening service. There were four Catholic Priests present (including Father GH), one of which was from the office of Cardinal Suenens of Belgium who was over the Charismatic Movement within the Catholic Church. I will say more about the Cardinal later when we get to the issue about the Kansas City Conference in 1977. Ken goes on to describe the communion service. This was monumental! I was interviewed by the New York Times several years later. We didn't have a clue of how monumental the experience was. This was all done appropriately within the guidelines of the Catholic Church with the permission of the Bishop of San Diego. I don't know all of the rules but I do know that the celebrant was Father GH. Anything that the elders (including Ken) were in assisting. Those were the rules -- but the experience was actually breath taking.
In the middle of this momentous event, we have an observation on Christian art by McFoone.
Ken finished the article with some interesting thoughts about the future of our cooperation with the Catholic Church. None of these events happened; the future doesn't always work the way that we think it will.
This page also concludes the article by Father GH. I am still overwhelmed to read how much we were held in esteem by this humble, but very important person from Columbia.
Ken also starts a separate article that is really about repentance. He wrote it because we seemed to be in a stagnant place. This seemed to be the way things went all during the 70s; lots of growth and excitement and moving forward followed by a time of complacency (stagnation.)
Ken states that the sins that should bring about our repentance were a critical spirit, moral laxity and worldliness. We really believed that we should be in unity -- this was big. We were also to be holy and holiness required that we not be like the culture around us.
We had several editions of the song book. I'm not sure which edition this was.
The next two pages are the conclusion of "The Lizard" by C.S. Lewis which was started in the last issue.
The next page and a half is a prophecy received by Eleanor Burger. She is still alive and well and lives in Oregon. She and George were heads of Bethel Household; George was one of our elders. In her introductory words she mentions a prophecy that come up over and over again concerning a word that we wouldn't receive God's power until we fully embraced Submission, Obedience and Discipline. This became quite controversial as the days of our community came to an end. At this time they were not controversial, they were just difficult for all of us to embrace.
Mike Shaw provides a list of guidelines for participation in the non-residential household meetings. They are pretty good for most church "small group" meetings. Mike continues to serve in FBC ChulaChula Vista. Vista along with his wife Linda. They are still good friends of my Linda and I. Mike is now retired from his position in the city of
As I have mentioned before, anyone who was around during this time will enjoy reading the "In the Family" section although there is nothing earth shaking in this issue.
The next little article by Ken was very important. He explains the rationale for licensing all of the elders as "lay ministers." This was probably a good thing at the time, although I take issue with Ken's statement about how well prepared we were. I can only speak for myself; I wasn't.
Dolan and Ramona Wolford along with their family were a really important part of our church. DolanWolford's house. We owned it for several years, but never lived there. was an Elder, and he and Ramona were heads of the Third Avenue Household. They still live in West Virginia and are still serving the Lord. From time to time we see them. Incidentally one of the problems was the fact that they owned the house; we didn't want it to leave the community. When Linda and I moved into community, we owned a house, so we sold it and bought the
Then we have the announcement about the Green Lake Conference. We took quite a team. I always envied these teams; I wanted to go. I got my chance in 1979 -- and I still like to go.
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