20170422 – Saturday – Post Easter Camp

20170422 – Saturday – Post Easter Camp

Am sitting in Vilis, my “office” and mentally doing a review of the year. Christmas was at Jesia’s place, then the year to now seems to have flown away on wings. I have been to Werri Beach, just below Sydney for my sister-in-law’s 80th birthday, spent time with my very dear friend, Gail Brinkerhoff at Morriset near Newcastle, been to Melbourne to spend time with my daughter Helen and family and catch up with my son James and wife Colleen’s family, or those who were in Sy deny at the time. Then wandered down the Ocean Road on my way home and then to Port Hughes camp and then to Port Elliott to see Alison and Trevor Gore and Leigh and Sherree Samwell who were on holiday there. This last week was at the Glenlock Easter Camp, and now I am gooing through my web-site, tidying up my posts and trying to catch up on all the “maintenance” of my web-site. The Easter camp has had a profound affect on me. The studies were so relevant to how I am feeling right now, and I just loved Neville Clark’s studies.

My Daughter Deb has sent me a photo of her receiving the Award for her degree in Theology and I have posted that on fb, with the expected result; those in CD who do not understand her motivation for doing a degree in Theology or appreciate the amount of work she is putting into her Bible studies and PhD, have condemned her for doing the degree in the first place, and me for saying I am proud of my daughter for what she has achieved. But never mind, it is not really any of their business to be so critical of Deb and of me. Deb is a wonderful daughter and an amazing student. She has the skills and memory that my husband Jeff Berry is famous for. She has been ousted from CD because of her views on women’s issues, so that living in WA as she does amongst ecclesias who are very rigid and unbending to someone like her, she has nowhere to go really.

She has lost so much as a result of being barred from CD for her views on women’s issues. She believes that women should be ble to “speak” and that women’s voices should not be silenced in the ecclesias, and she was also not prepared to wear head-coverings at memorial meetings because she believes the one scripture used to support this has been misused and misinterpreted.

She has virtually lost two children and two grandchildren because her children were so upset at the treatment their mother received at the hands of the WA ecclesias. As an extreme reaction, her two sons have both become atheists, and so she no longer sees her two sons or her two grandchildren and nor do I which is a grief to me.

The only way “back” would have been for Deb to “recant” her beliefs and she found she could not do that. She has read and re-read the McHaffie’s book “All one in Christ,” and with them and many others believe that the two main scriptures which are used to support the silencing of women and the covering of their heads in submission are capable of other interpretations. Anyway, whoever is “right” it is up to Deb to follow the course she chooses and God will be her judge when Jesus returns and it would be the wisdom of her “adversaries” in Christadelphia to just leave Deb and Jef and I and my children alone and not spend thei time judging us, perhaps they can find better things to do with their time.

Well I do feel somewhat better having expressed my angst. I understand a lot more about Job after the last week end. He had to endure the “advice” of his three friends, but in the end, they needed Job to “pray for them” else God judge them according to their folly.