Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

evangelists."
Who Are We
We are the Reformed Presbyterians of North
America, spiritual descendants of the Covenanters of
Scotland; and of John Knox whose prayers shook
the throne of papacy in Medieval Europe and brought
to Scotland public education rooted in the Bible.
What Do We Believe
We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, the only
infallible rule of faith and life.
We believe in the one living and true God
Father, Son and Holy Spirit as revealed in the
Scriptures.
We believe in the Reformed Faith which empha
sizes the Sovereignty of Christ, the Presbyterian
form of church government, and the exclusive use of
the Psalms in worship, sung a cappella, as set forth
in the New Testament.
Spiritual Renewal Amid Changes
By
Mrs. T. M. Hutcheson
New Year's greetings to you all from your rep
resentatives in the Mediterranean! May you each
one individually, as congregations, and as a church
enjoy the fullness of our Lord's blessing the coming
year ! We would like to take the opportunity to send
the thanks from all of us here for your kind re
membrances throughout the past year and especial
ly for your Christmas greetings and messages at
this season, so many of which assured us of your
continued interest and prayers on our behalf. We
assure you that without these our efforts here would
fall far short and although we do know you are
praying for us, it strengthens us anew when we
receive renewed assurance to that end.
Our Christmas vacation is drawing to a close.
And as usual it has been full of various activities
and at church. But it has been
at home, at school,
very enjoyable as well as spiritually profitable,
as I hope to be able to point out to you.
On December 19, which was Rev. Sagherian's
last Sabbath with us before he and his family left
us for Lebanon where he will take up his duties
as Youth Secretary for the Armenian Evangelical
Churches in Lebanon and Syria, we observed Com
munion. The congregation had requested that we
have it at this time before the Sagherians left. There
was one accession to the church, Rupen Berberian.
On the following Sabbath one of our new babies
Victoria Ann Chopourian.
was baptised,
Both the Larnaca and Nicosia congregation had
evenings of fellowship honoring the Sagherians and
bidding them farewell. Mr. Sagherian said in his
remarks that he wanted us to understand that he
was not leaving the Lord's work, he was simply
moving to another part of His vineyard where he
felt the Lord wished him to be. It would not be
easy, he said, as it would require him to be away
from home and family about half of the time. I am
sure that the young people whom he will be serv
ing will be greatly blessed for he excels in this
type of service. We will miss them very much
but we wish them God's speed. We hope that it
will not be long
until the Lord's choice of someone
to replace him will be found though as yet no one
February 2, 1955
is definitely chosen. We have invited one candi
date from Egypt to hold Evangelistic services here
in February.
Our annual Sabbath School Christmas program
was held on the night of December 31. There were
about 120 who fellowshipped together that even
ing. After devotionals there was a program put
on by the various classes of the Sabbath School.
This was followed by games for the children, re
freshment and a visit from Santa with a treat for
each of the children. The Armenians observe Christ
mas by the old calendar on January 6, so in the
next few days there will be calls to make, which is
a very enjoyable part of their Christmas.
Noon today, January 4, brought the end of our
winter Youth Conference. The winter conferences
were revived last year after some years lapse and
have proved to be a truly spiritual feast time for
those who could attend. I'm sure everyone has left
the conference with renewed spirit and the reso
lution to be sanctified for the Lord's work. The
conference theme was "Sanctified Meet for the
Master's Use." The three evening meetings were
divided into two parts. The first hour was a mes
sage. These were given by Rev. Hutcheson, Rev.
Moissides, who is one of our teachers and Mr. Cross
who is a Christian business man in the Island.
The first two speakers dealt with the subject of
our theme while Mr. Cross challenged us with a
talk on "The Christian in Businesss." The second
hour was an informal period of praise and prayer
and of sharing testimonies as we sat around the
fireplace in the teacher's lounge of the new build
ing. All the meetings were held here and the en
vironment added greatly to the enjoyment. Each
evening we also had a short time of social fellow
ship before breaking up and enjoying a cup of cocoa
and a cookie together.
Three periods of Bible study were led by Rev.
Copeland on First Thessalonians and were very
helpful. Other periods were discussion groups for
both younger and older people, a Psalm sing, and
a panel discussion which had before it some vital
questions which were handed in by those in at
tendance. Some of these question were: 1 "What
is God's purpose for the whole world Is His plan
to save as many as possible or those that He has
elected Are those excluded responsible for their
fate 2 "I believe in Jesus as the Son of God. I
have accepted Him as my Saviour but I cannot
witness all the time as so many here (at the con
ference) say I must do. How can I learn to witnes
Must everyone witness in words Or am I
mistaken about my Salvation The Bible says only
some are
3 "Are there contradictions
in the Bible If there are and they are brought up,
how should a Christian tackle them" Those and
other questions proved so thought-provoking that
it was difficult to confine the answering to the
panel the audience wanted a share in it, too ! The
panel had as members a school teacher, a social
worker, a minister, a Christian business man, and
a student. Mr. Copeland had charge of the closing
consecration service and his text was Isaiah 50:
4,5.
Christmas for the missionaries was here in Lar
naca this year. At noon the Larnaca Academy facul
ty and their families, together with the missionaries
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