Hello folks,

In the post today I received brief notes from both Grace Gault and Alison Speirs in response to my apology to them.

Alison thanked me for my letter and for my apology, adding that of course she forgives me. I had apologised to her for being personally insulting. She noted from my letter that I am now married and wished us happiness with one another. She closed the note with the words "In Christ Jesus, our Lord".

Grace thanked me for my letter and said she is glad that I am feeling happier. She wished me every happiness in my married life and said it will have brought a lot of changes for me. On the front of the notelet is a beautiful photograph of pink roses which may be from her own garden as I know she finds gardening therapeutic.

I wish you all God's blessing on your lives and the peace that comes from knowing Him.

Happy Survivor.

That is really good, and is wha I would hope for from Christian Leaders.

Hello folks,

Yesterday I received a card from the couple from SMC who were my close friends for about 8 years. It thanked me for my letter, they said they forgive me and that they wish me well.

I did not send my letters to elicit a response. I really didn't know if I would hear anything from the people I wrote to. I suppose you could say that I threw down a challenge to them and called on their consciences by my post of May 5th. They were alerted to the possibility that their silence would be brought to the attention of all who read this forum.

The card from the Greenock couple was the most telling and left me feeling quite empty and disappointed. I had written to them from my heart. Yes, they have done what they believe they ought to do...to forgive. But that is as far as it goes. Last year when I questioned their attitude to me, a fellow Christian, the wife explained.."but Fiona, we don't know where you stand in relation to Struthers". I'm afraid to say that that is the acid test. Anyone who raises any questions about SMC is from that moment on regarded with suspicion.

You are left with the impression that you are now beyond the pale and that your rebellion and insurrection have been noted and will not be forgotten.

The only glimmer of warmth came from Alison Speirs note and I had had very few dealings with her whilst I was in SMC.

As the saying goes..."you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink". I can't demand a warm-hearted response from those in SMC. I'm simply making a few observations.

Something I did observe from the responses I received was that my confessions of wrongdoing did not prompt any acknowledgement of failings on their part.

I didn't receive a response from Diana Rutherford but I had never introduced myself to her during my time in SMC, so she doesn't know me in person.

I hope you all have a happy and peaceful weekend.

Happy Survivor.

Hi folks

It's good that you got some response, Happy Survivor, but I know exactly the kind of response you received and, as you point out, there is and will probably never be any reciprocation on the part of the SMC leaders. As always, they will remain unaccountable for any hurt or wrong-doing to yourself because, as we all know, 'they never move without the blessing of God', oh ha ha!

At least I hope that this has set your mind at rest and that you will feel less inhibited by your feelings of guilt and be able to look forward now to a closer walk with God; without all the hullabaloo that SMC insists is necessary to get close to your heavenly father.

I'm afraid it has always been the same with them, if you're not 100% for Struthers your obviously demon possessed or back-slidden or in the wrong place with God. What utter TOSH!!!

Thank you for sharing this with us Happy Survivor and showing that things are still the same in SMC as they were when the church was still young - the leaders remain convinced that they are somehow special and closer to God than anyone else and are therefore not accountable to anyone for anything they do or say regardless of the adverse effects this has had on many people.

It certainly puts them in a bad light when they couldn't even apologise back to you for any hurt and confusion they have caused you. But that in itself shows just how UN-Godly these so-called 'leaders' are.

We'll still all be here praying for you and supporting you through the months ahead as you start to find your own way with God.

As always biiiiiiiig love and huge hugggggggs to all
God Bless xxx

Hello everyone,

Another Sunday is here and the folks in Struthers will be gathering together.

I don't feel so upset as I did a few months ago when I think on SMC...just an immense sadness for all who have been involved and for those who are still there, including the leadership.

I reached out to Grace Gault with all that I had to offer. On returning from the summer camp one July I called to her home with a bouquet of flowers to express my appreciation for what she had given of herself at the camp. I knew that she was often exhausted after camp and so another year I cooked a number of meals for her and her family and delivered them to her home. I also gave hospitality to Grace and her husband.

I did not do any of this to get something off Grace or to ingratiate myself into SMC and I was not looking for any hospitality in return or payment in kind.
I was hurt and bewildered though when I later struggled to understand aspects of Grace's leadership and was shown no mercy or compassion.

Still, despite this treatment, when I finally had to walk away from SMC I wrote Grace a letter thanking her and gave her some flowers. I could not interpret the look on her face when I gave her them and said I was leaving one day in the New Dawn coffee shop.She said nothing in fact, not even to wish me well in a new fellowship.

I hope you all have a blessed day, and that you are able to take pleasure from the life that God has given us.

Happy Survivor.

Hi Happy Survivor,

It is good to hear that there has been a bit of a response, and even better to hear that you are not letting it get to you one way or another.

I am not surprised that Grace did not wish you well in the new fellowship - they really do not believe anyone could ever be as foolish as to leave their perfect church. Funnily enough, one of the tests of a cult is whether "there is no good reason for leaving". Seems to me they score 100% on that one!

I have seen similar things in the past - a series of conversations with an individual who the leaders were trying to keep in the church, than a total change of attitude summed up by one of the leaders saying, "but there is no point in continuing this conversation if you would not rerun to the church (i.e SMC)". So, no interest in the person's well-being, no responsibility for any damage caused (and there was plenty), no attempt to support the individual. They simply don't care about anyone or anything except their own bigoted organisation.

No wonder many of those that remain are lacking any enthusiasm or understanding of life.

Hi All,


I had reason to have a look at the evangelical alliance website and was interested to read some of what was said there. Nothing too unexpected in the statement of faith (11 points) but I was interested in the "Evangelical Relationships Commitment" that has 3 affirmations and 5 actions.

The affirmations are:

Quote

We welcome as Christian brothers and sisters all who experience the grace of new birth, bringing them to that fear and knowledge of God which is expressed in a life of obedience to His word.

We recognise our Christian duty of trust and mutual encouragement to all who serve Christ as Lord, not least to those who conscientiously prefer not to be identified with the same churches, alliances or councils as ourselves.

We respect the diversity of culture, experience and doctrinal understanding that God grants to His people, and acknowledge that some differences over issues not essential to salvation may well remain until the end of time.

I thought number 2 was particularly apposite to the situation with SMC. I don't know about others, but I have never seen them encourage anyone who was conscientiously preferring not to be identified with the same church.

Hi all, I seem to be hogging the stage a bit at the moment, but I do have a good reason, at least this time round!

I have just read a really interesting book, and I thought that you might all like to hear a bit about it. And I do actually mean ALL. I think the book might be of interest to the main contributors to the forum - those who have experienced SMC and left - but I also think it could be of interest to those still in the church, including the leaders.

Why? Because it is about another church, nothing to do with Struthers, but it shows how one person feels as she lives in a particular type of environment. It seems to me the leaders would want to read this because it is in no way threatening, but it just might be informative. They can make up their own mind whether any of the things recounted are something they would agree or disagree with, and whether any of it highlights real or potential difficulties without feeling anyone is getting at them.

One conclusion might for example be that it does indeed highlight potential dangers and they want to take action to make sure they could not apply to SMC. Seems to me that must be worth considering!

Anyway, don’t want to say too much as I might end up putting people off, but I do think many readers of the forum will find it an interesting read.

The name of the book is “The girl at the end of the world” – a reference to the emphasis on the preaching about the end of the world in the church she was brought up in. It is by Elizabeth Esther.

While the topic is serious, I did not ever find it dark or difficult, it was written in an easy style and is quite short. Like many of the online reviewers, I found I read it in a couple of days as it was just so enthralling, but with some great insights.

I look forward to some posts if people read it.

Data lost through a backup failure some months ago has now been restored to this message board.

This board is also now open for indexing by search engines such as Google.

Information posted on the board should soon be appearing in searches as this is a public resource.

The data recovered and restored included many individual posts and some threads.

Lost membership registratio was not restored. Old members not currently listed must register as new members again in order to become active members of the message board.

Since we were disappointed when the data was lost it is only right to thank the culteducation organisation for recovering all the lost posts and placing them back on here.

For reference on this discussion the 2 years of recovered material has been inserted back in its original date order and appears up to page 111. It was just after the Bingowings discussion and contributions from someone I had forgotten called "Weary"

This also acknowledges and explains why Google (and other) searches for Struthers were not picking up pages from this message board.

Now that that has been resolved people thinking of getting involved with Struthers Memorial Church will now once again have the chance to be better informed so thanks to the rrmoderator & team for that.