Photos of the Winslow Colony Presentation – November 9th, 2013
Winslow Colony Welcomes Fay to Tallahassee
On November 9th, I had the honor of presenting my story about writing One Candle’s Light to the Edward Winslow Colony (of the Florida Society of Mayflower Descendants) in Tallahassee.
It was a very pleasant experience because the group expressed keen interest in my story by their questions and appreciation.
The Governor of the Colony, Suzanne Adams, encourages this group’s curiosity about their ancestors. Her charming emails and persistence convinced me to make the trip, my farthest yet, from Gainesville to Tallahassee.
My husband Bill introduced the group to the English Reformation’s impact on forming the Separatist movement decades before the Pilgrims’ journey to the New World. I followed with my testimony of the Lord’s “word” for me to write this novel.
The Governor thanked me with a gift of Muttart’s book, One Hundred & Eleven Questions & Answers Concerning the Pilgrims. We really appreciated the “warm Tallahassee welcome” and thank Governor Adams for her invitation as well as the group’s reception.
The Pilgrims’ Legacy
“The Pilgrims’ character has been much distorted in this century to defraud Americans of their heritage for they were to be the true founders of this nation.”
As we emerge from the murkey seas of a Presidential election, “driven by the wind and tossed,” we can look forward to a day of national Thanksgiving on which we can thank God that the losing side will inflict no riots, no car bombs, no suicide bombers to protest the country’s choices. Our elected leaders will sit down together to argue, bicker and harangue but will eventually thrash out solutions to our problems.
This legacy was first given to us by some English colonists desperate for freedom from tyranny who overcame horrendous opposition to their mission to settle Plimoth Plantation in the New World. They believed they had been given a mandate from their Christian God to leave their homeland to establish a community where they could practice their faith without oppression. Their first governor wrote that they lit “one small candle” whose “light kindled here has shown unto many, yea, in some sort to our whole nation.”
This Thanksgiving Day while you enjoy the ball games and big dinners, remember the blessings this nation offers humanity. And if you know God, thank Him, or if not, thank the men who did know Him, for America.
The Mayflower Survivors: April 1621
As the dreadful winter of 1621 neared its end, the first soft breezes eased from the south, and the Pilgrims gratefully anticipated the blessed warmth of spring. They had lost half their company during the “starving,” freezing winter and now those surviving focused on gathering their strength to plant their first crops. Yet April was to bring two more severe losses.
On April fifth the Mayflower, their last English home, left for England, breaking the final tie between the Pilgrims had their homeland. The remnant of colonists gathered on the shore to bid goodbye to the crew who had carried them safely to their new home, surely a poignant parting after so much shared misery. The colonists watched the ship fade away on the horizon, some hearts no doubt aching to return with her, yet not one colonist accepted Captain Jones’ invitation to return with the ship.
And why not? They had forsaken everything to commit to this voyage to the New World. Only estranged families, poverty and persecution waited them in England. Their future must have seemed more hopeful here in Plimoth.
Then as the colonists busied themselves in the warm April weather clearing, hoeing, digging, and hauling, Governor Carver working with the others, suddenly collapsed with a searing headache. Dr. Fuller diagnosed a heat stroke and prescribed rest and cooling. But beloved John Carver did not awaken and passed on within a few days. This was a stunning loss. Not only this good man’s death, but who could take his place? What more severe pain would the Lord demand of this community?
Then, the big decision: As their spiritual leader Elder Brewster was ineligible, for they kept strict separation of church and state, they looked for suitable candidates for a new governor. Several of the other younger men could serve admirably. After much prayer and discussion they chose William Bradford whose spiritual devotion and practical good sense displayed the special qualities the colony needed. It would be a significant change for the infant colony.
400th Anniversary of the King James Bible
The King James Bible is 400 years old.
In 1603 James V of Scotland succeeded Elizabeth I to the English throne to become James I of England. Encouraged by James’ strict Calvinist upbringing, English Puritans petitioned him at the Hampton Court conference to make changes in the doctrine of the Church of England to conform to the Gospel revealed in Tyndale’s Bible translation. Tyndale found no mention in Scripture of a hierarchy of Church clerics–bishops, priests, deacons–or formal rituals in the faith.
They did not realize that the King’s experience as a young prince in the hands of fiercely fundamentalist Scots had more embittered than enlightened him, and he staunchly embraced the concept of the divine right of kings. Since the monarch was believed to be chosen by God, he was therefore not only supreme leader of the Church but the final authority on doctrine. No other interpretation of Scripture was valid.
The Puritans’ plea thrust James into a rage, shouting, “You are aiming at Scots’ presbytery! That agrees as much with Monarchy as God and the Devil! Then Jack and Tom, Will and Dick, shall censure me and my Council.” He turned to his Bishops. “My Lords, if once you are out and they are in, I know what would become of my supremacy, for no Bishop, no King!”
Although James found error in all versions of the Bible, he considered the “worst” to be the Geneva Bible the Pilgrims used . In marginal notes it questioned the meaning of some verses suggesting the monarch’s supremacy in religious matters. James readily agreed to authorize a new authentic translation written by the world’s most learned scholars divided into groups which checked each others’ work.
The King James Authorized Version was published seven years later in 1611. It has been not only a major literary and cultural influence in English history but a primary source of profound wisdom and revelation of the human condition for many peoples of the world these 400 years.