The Didache and Traditioned Innovation: Shaping Christian Community in the First Century and the Twenty-First Century

Church leaders, both lay and clergy, shape Christian community. Among their central tasks are: building communal identity, nurturing Christian practices, and developing faithful structures. When it comes to understanding the approach of the earliest Christian communities to these tasks, the Didache might well be the most important text most twenty-first century church leaders have never read. The Didache innovated on tradition, shaping the second generation of Christians to meet the crises and challenges of a changing world.

Most likely composed in the second half of the first century, the Didache served as a training manual for gentile converts to Christianity, preparing them for life in Christian community. This brief document, roughly one third the length of Mark’s gospel, developed within early Jewish-Christian communities. It soon found wide usage throughout the Mediterranean region, and its influence endured throughout the patristic and into the medieval period.

The Didache outlines emerging Christian practices that were rooted in both Jewish tradition and early Jesus material, yet were reaching forward in innovative ways. The Didache adopts historical teachings and practices and then adapts them for an evolving context. In this respect, the writers of the Didache, as well as the community shaped by its message, exemplify the pattern of thinking described by Greg Jones as “traditioned innovation.”

The Didache invites reflection on the shape and content of Christian community and Christian leadership in the twenty-first century. As churches and church leaders engage a rapidly changing world, the Didache is an unlikely and yet important conversation partner from two millennia ago. A quick read through its pages – a task accomplished in less than half an hour – brings the reader face to face with a brand of Christianity both very familiar and strikingly dissimilar to modern Christianity. Such dissonance challenges current assumptions about the church and creates a space in which to re-imagine our situation in light of this ancient Christian tradition. The Didache provides a window through which we might re-examine current conceptualizations of Christian life, liturgy, and leadership.

This thesis begins with an exploration of the form and function of the Didache and an examination of a number of important background issues for the informed study of the Didache. The central chapters of this thesis exegete and explore select passages in each of the three primary sections of the Didache – the Two Ways (Didache 1-6), the liturgical section (Didache 7-10), and the church order (Didache 11-15). In each instance, the composers of the Didache reach back into a cherished and life-giving aspect of the community’s heritage and shape it anew into a fresh and faithful approach to living the Christian life in a drastically different context.

The thesis concludes with three suggestions of how the Didache may provide a resource for the way the Church in the present thinks about training disciples, shaping community, and developing leadership structures. These conversation starters offer beginning points for a richer, fuller discussion of traditioned innovation in our current church context. The Didache provides a source of wisdom from our spiritual forebears that modern Christian leaders would do well not to ignore. With a look through the first century window of the Didache, twenty-first century Christians can discover fresh insights for shaping Christian community in the present.

The Reformed and Presbyterian world.

Mode of access: Internet.

Demonstrators and Semper press car during Moratorium in Brisbane 1970

Demonstrators in Brisbane, Australia with banners and flags during Moratorium march 1970. Semper press car (Volkswagon Kombi) can be seen. Protestors are outside the Presbyterian Church of Queensland (now Uniting Church) in Ann Street, Brisbane. In the background, scaffolding can be seen at the construction site of the Crest Hotel. Semper Floreat is the student newspaper of the University of Queensland.

St. Catharines and District Council of Women fonds

The St. Catharines and District Council of Women was founded in 1918 and elected as its first president, Mary Malcolmson. In 1910 Mrs. Malcolmson founded North America’s first Girl Guide Association in St. Catharines. The aim of the organization was to work for the betterment of conditions pertaining to the family, community and state. The Council is an umbrella group for various women’s organizations in the area and functions at the provincial, national and international levels and is associated with the United Nations. In the early years the National Council brought in the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) and started the Women’s Canadian Club. The St. Catharines Council initiated Child Welfare Centres in local churches that grew into the Well Baby Clinics. Women were encouraged to take political office and join committees with much success. In 1929, “Shop at Home” exhibition became an annual event highlighting the services of local merchants. Money raised by the Council was donated to local charities and in 1930 the Council assisted the local Armenian community in building the first Armenian Church in Canada. In 1932 the Council started the Maternal Welfare programme in which Mothers’ Meetings were held weekly with various speakers from the Public Health Department. In 1975 to celebrate International Women’s Year and the 1976 Centennial of the City of St. Catharines, the group sponsored the book Women of Action, 1876-1976, written by two of its members, Lily M. Bell and Kathleen E. Bray. Some time after 1976 the name of the organization changed from St. Catharines Local Council of Women to St. Catharines and District Council of Women. Today the organization functions as an advocacy and educational group.

Fairview School class photograph, ca. 1930

Individuals in the photograph are identified as follows: Front Row, L to R: Stuart McDonald, Pete Burtch, Carl Schwenker, Bill Davey, Jim Barnes, ? McDonald, Marie Youngblutt, Lorraine Havens, Margaret Sinclair, Carla Prince, Verna Sinclair, Helen Welsh, Margaret Welsh, Elsie Backshall, Smith girl, Amy McDonald. 2nd Row, L to R: Nelson Sinclair, Gordon Wilson, Ivan Burtch, ? Smith, George Corman, Roy Burtch, Mort Corman, Bob Bell, ?Wilson, Jim Combe, Murray Combe, Jack High, George Welsh, Larry Downes, Gordon Schwenker, Albert Davey, Harvey Davey. Back Row, L to R: Bert Sinclair, Jim Mason, Len Corman, Johnny Corman, David Hallett, Lloyd Graham, Paul Harndon?, Gordon Dormes, George Bell, Doug Garriock, ?McDonald, Mary? Honsberger, Mary Backus, Hilda Wilson. The teacher may be Beatrice Armstrong. Fairview School was built in 1919 in Louth Township, Lincoln County, Ont. It may have been built around the time the county constructed other schools, namely, Grapeview and Glenridge. Nicholson and Macbeth may have been the architects of this school, as some features on the building, ie. the carved stone children’s faces below the lintel of the front door , appear in another known and proven Nicholson and Macbeth building, the former YMCA on Queen Street in St. Catharines. The school remained in operation until 1979 when it was purchased for a church, the Fairview-Louth Community church, which later became Southridge Community church, now located on Glenridge Avenue, St. Catharines, Ont. Today the building is occupied by the Niagara Korean Presbyterian Church.

Kevin McCabe Collection, 1966-1979, 1981, 1991-1996,

Kevin McCabe received his PhD in Roman Studies from McMaster University. He has taught at The University of Regina, Nipissing University and Brock University. He was the editor of Gracefully Speaking: newsletter of the Grace Mennonite Church and The Poetry of Old Niagara. He is also the co- editor of The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery and The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album.

Fairview school photograph, ca. 1940

Fairview School was built in 1919 in Louth Township, Lincoln County, Ont. The school remained in operation until 1979 when it was purchased for a church, the Fairview-Louth Community church, which later became Southridge Community church. Currently, the building is occupied by the Niagara Korean Presbyterian Church.

The 19th Century Tombstone Database Project Records, 1790-1890 (non-inclusive)

The 19th Century Tombstone Database project was funded by the program Federal Summer Youth Employment scheme in the summer of 1982 and led by Dr. David W. Rupp, a Professor at the Classics Department, Brock University. The main goal of the project was to collect information related to various cemeteries in Niagara region and burials that took place from 1790-1890. Data was collected and presented in the form of data summary forms of persons, tombstone sketches, photographs of tombstones, maps, and computer printouts. The materials created as a result of a research completed for the 19th Century Tombstone Database project are important as a number of the tombstones have been damaged or gone missing since the research was finished. Before Dr. Rupp retired from Brock University, he donated project materials to the Brock University Special Collections and Archives.

Niagara churches collection, 1937, 1968-1994

This collection contains 7 church programs and brochures, ranging in date from 1937 to 1994. There are programs for church services at Knox Presbyterian Church, St. Catharines (May 9, 1937); St. Catherine of Alexandria Cathedral, St. Catharines (July 28, 1968) ; Memorial United Church, Ridgeway (October 15, 1972); Salem Chapel, British Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Catharines (November 30, 1986); and Ridley College Memorial Chapel, St. Catharines (December 3 & 4, 1994). There is also a brochure of activities offered at St. Paul Street United Church, St. Catharines (1986), and a development fund appeal brochure for the Cathedral of St. Catherine, St. Catharines (1985).

Receipt for Rent - 1867

A rent receipt for Mr. Cowan Sr. dated August 19th 1867. The amount paid is $1.50 to Canada Presbyterian Church in Thorold, 3months for July 1st to October 1st.

Communion Certificate - Helen Stanley Smith, 1919

A communion certificate for Helen Stanley Smith dated 31 January, 1919. The certificate is signed by George H. Smith D.D. (minister).

Letter - E.C. Schmon to Arthur A. Schmon, 22 June 1917

E.C. Reynolds discusses furthering her French lessons with her friend Mrs. MacCracken. She also mentions the upcoming concert for the Presbyterian Church, where she will be playing the ukulele.

Letters to Reverend William Proudfoot, 1823, 1842-1843, 1846

A 2 ½ page letter addressed to The Editor of the Presbyterian Magazine, care of [illegible], London, C.W. The writer describes the Village of Chippawa and its location in Ontario. He writes that there are many people there of Scotch [Scottish] descent. He says that a congregation was formed and 39 names were on the roll. The letter is from J.P. [John Porteous] with an added note from Wm. Porteous. The letter is from St. Catharines. There is one postmark – St. Catharines, April 6, 1823 A 1 ½ page letter addressed to Rev. W. Proudfoot, Ed. Of Presbyterian Mag., London, C.W. This letter is from Walter Mitchell in St. Catharines. He sends a list of peoples’ names and the amounts that they have paid toward the Presbyterian Magazine. Mr. Mitchell is acting as an agent for the magazine. This letter has 1 postmark – St. Catharines, Sept. 13, 1842 A 2 page letter addressed to Rev. W. Proudfoot, London, C.W. This letter is from John Jennings of St. Catharines. The writer claims that he is ill but he makes plans to meet Reverend Proudfoot in Toronto in order to go to a meeting in Rochester. The writer expects that Reverend Proudfoot will preach in Rochester. The letter has 1 postmark – St. Catharines, Aug. 14, 1843. A 2 page letter addressed to The Rev. Professor Proudfoot, London, C.W. from John Porteaus of St. Catharines. The writer says that he will not preach in Detroit. He says that the people of Detroit are expecting Mr. Dalrymple [who was sent as a missionary to Canada from Scotland in 1846] and also, he doesn’t want to leave his congregation for 2 Sabbaths. The letter has 2 postmarks – St. Catharines, August 1846 [this postmark is very faint] and Hamilton, August 2, 1846.

A gestão estratégica no terceiro setor: estudo de caso numa organização eclesiástica

This study has the objective to evaluate until which extent the adoption of the strategic planning by the Presbyterian Church of Manaus (IPM) expresses its effective fitting within the strategic management paradigm, whose ethos is the predominance of the instrumental-strategic rationality and the market-orientated logic in the managerial actions. It is assumed as a research initial hypothesis that the adoption of this technique by IPM represented an instrumental-strategic managerial action and a deliberated incorporation of market-orientated managerial parameters, strengthening some of the organizational studies¿ ultimate conclusions about the colonization of the third sector¿s organizations by the capitalist system logic. The research method foresees: (a) a bibliographical review about the themes ¿critical social theories¿, ¿strategic management¿, ¿third sector¿ and ¿religious organizations sociology¿; and (b) a case study at IPM, religious organization established at the state of Amazonas, branch of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPB) and socially active according to religious aims and related (social care, cultural, etc.).

A construção de um estilo de vida: família e relações de gênero na participação do projeto ético-político renovado

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior