There is a certain poignancy to these two
advertisements from the Washington DC Evening Star for October 7, 1922, page
10. In the Church Notices under Bible Students you were given two choices.
There were the regular meetings of the IBSA group at
the Pythian Temple Auditorium. G W Walters was a local man, whose lectures were
often advertised at this venue over 1921-1922. The visiting speaker was W E Van
Amburgh.
But there was also a meeting being sponsored by
the Associated Bible Students, which was the name now used by those who separated
from the Watch Tower Society. The speaker here was F H Robison. Robison and Van
Amburgh had been at Bethel together for many years and were jailed together as
part of the “Brooklyn 8” in 1918. But Robison had left Bethel and his position
on the Watch Tower editorial committee early in 1922. His journey would lead
him into Universalism by 1923.
Here they were at the same city, lecturing at
different venues. Interestingly, the timing as advertised would have allowed
any wavering or curious to attend both meetings.
1 comment:
Thank you for posting this article Jerome and the advertisement which is profoundly sad. It might be useful to add that prior to the split, the term 'Associated Bible Students' was used by individual Ecclesias (Congregations, as we would say today), who enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy while being supportive of the IBSA. I suspect that, for a while, some of these Ecclesias loyal to the IBSA continued to use the term after the split, which must have caused considerable confusion since, as you note, those who broke away also used it (and, I suspect, presumably took pride in the detachment suggested). It is a supreme irony that ultimately those that retained the title 'Associated Bible Students' had by then, through their actions, detached themselves from the IBSA. From the perspective of the IBSA the term 'Disassociated Bible Students' would have been more appropriate for those who left. Arguably this period heralded one of the most important changes leading to what we now term 'the organisation' as the IBSA saw need to take increasing control of the individual Ecclesias that remained loyal.
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