Updated
15 May 2005

Who Are We?

Introduction
Christadelphians In Coventry

Introduction

The name "Christadelphians" was first given to a community of Bible students about 130 years ago. It means "Brethren in Christ". Today we have Christadelphian communities throughout the world, and our fellowship together is based on an agreed Statement of Faith, a statement of the things we believe, taken entirely from the Scriptures - Old and New Testaments.

We meet regularly to study the Bible, to remember our Lord by taking emblems of bread and wine, and to proclaim the Gospel message to others. We have our Sunday Schools and Youth Groups. There are no paid ministers - members are appointed to preside, speak and perform a range of other duties. We do not wear ecclesiastical robes, or have individuals or councils to dictate our affairs. Our ecclesias (as we call them - the New Testament word for church) organise themselves in a similar way throughout the world. We have a monthly magazine called The Christadelphian, which contains articles, letters and ecclesial information. There are also other magazines. We have our welfare and preaching organisations, and members make voluntary contributions to keep the work going.

These things in themselves are not particularly remarkable, and there are other denominations who claim, like Christadelphians, that their communities are Bible-based. However, we do have a very different understanding of Bible teaching from all other churches and religious sects. In modern times this difference arose from the studies of a man called Dr John Thomas, who, in the last century, made a detailed study of Scripture and became convinced that the Gospel taught in the Bible was not being taught in the churches of his day. Christadelphians after him have always made the same claim.

Our starting point is always that we believe the Bible - the whole Bible. We believe it to be reliable, and that its fundamental teaching is clear, if only we are prepared to approach it without preconceived ideas (as far as that is possible). We have to be willing to be instructed by it, and to submit to its teaching. Our community has a Bible Companion reading planner which takes us through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in a year.

Christadelphians In Coventry

Christadelphians have been meeting, and witnessing, in Coventry on a regular basis since 1895. The ecclesia first met in Spon Street. As numbers increased, the members moved to a larger room in Priory Street, and then in 1905 to the new Masonic Buildings in Little Park Street. By this time the ecclesia numbered sixty. Regular Bible talks were given which usually attracted a large amount of interest, and in the first twenty-five years of the Christadelphians being in Coventry, their numbers rose to over 200. The ecclesia moved to Wycombe Hall, Upper Well Street, in the early 1940s, by which time there were over 350 members.

Plans for the post-war reconstruction of Coventry meant that Wycombe Hall had to be demolished to make way for a new ring road. Consequently, a new meeting hall was built at Grosvenor Road, and sixty-two years after the Coventry ecclesia's inception it finally had its own hall. This opened in 1957, and it is still the meeting place for over 100 members. In the meantime, two more meetings opened up in Coventry - West and East Coventry Christadelphian ecclesias.