At left Rev. Arthur Edgar in conversation with Adenike Soyibo, the librarian at the Caribbean Christian Publications. At right are samples of Christian literature -Ricardo Makyn
Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
FOR YEARS, Sunday Schools across the region were supplied educational material from the Caribbean Christian Publications (CCP) based in the United States. But since last October, the CCP has set up offices in Kingston to get closer to their customers and to build a self-sustaining economic base.
"We came to the position where we felt that for
cultural reasons we really ought to be working in the culture among the people that we serve," said CCP director, the Rev. Arthur J. Edgar. He further explained that it was easy to get too influenced by North American structures and lose touch with realities of
the Caribbean. Hence the move to relocation to better relate to the people of the region.
A RETURN TO ROOTS
This relocation represents a return to roots as 29 years ago, the CCP began its work in Jamaica. The CCP was birthed in 1975 as a ministry of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship (CBF) to ensure that Baptists in the West Indies were able to access culturally relevant educational literature, particularly for Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. At the time of its birth, much of Sunday School material used in Jamaica and the rest of the region was written in America for Americans.
The Rev. Arthur Edgar is a former principal at both William Knibb Memorial High School and Calabar High School. He left Jamaica in 1980 with his wife Linett to head the ministry of the CCP. The work of the CCP has grown significantly on his watch. At present, its customer base has widened. There are more non-Baptists using the materials than Baptists, Rev. Edgar disclosed.
The CCP are the publishers of the widely used Caribbean Bible Lesson series for Sunday Schools. This series offers curricula for tiny-tots to adults 31 and older. The literature ministry issues materials three times per year, with each edition covering four months. In the average production run, 60,000 pieces of literature are made available for customers. About half of this is sold in Jamaica, said Rev. Edgar. The organisation also offers material for Vacation
Bible School as well as lessons on various themes,
e.g. Stewardship. It hopes to widen its scope to include discipleship-training material.
DEVELOPING THE BIBLE-STUDY MATERIALS
The main age group utilising the material of CCP, Rev. Edgar said, were adults and not children. This has been a noticeable trend since the early 1990s, he disclosed. There's need, he acknowledged, for much more work to be done in developing the Bible-study materials for adults. At present the material covers two groups:
19-30 year olds and 31 and older. But he stressed that there needs to be further work to produce materials for persons in mid-life and in the evening of their lives. "People are coming to realise that they need to study the Bible. They are coming to realise that the study of the Bible should not be confined to their childhood years but that it should be a life-long process. As a result churches are establishing classes for all ages in their respective Sunday Schools some are discontinuing the use of the term 'Sunday School' and are preferring instead the term 'Family Bible Hour'."
The CCP, he said, welcomes volunteers for its
ministry, including persons who it deems suitable to write Bible-study materials. Such persons would need to be in agreement with its Statement of Faith which he acknowledges relates to simple evangelical positions.
At this time there is a need for short stories, reflections and sidebar type articles based on the lessons.
This literature ministry is not always in a writing mode. He explained that the CCP produces material to cover three years for the juniors, and six years for the older age groups. Then the material is recycled two or three times for the various age groups then the organisation resumes a writing mode. During the recycling phase
editors, however, will update and revamp a few lessons to make them more timely and relevant.
"When we are in an active writing phase, we contact our user bodies and ask them to recommend experienced Sunday School workers from their churches-- and we bring together a team of usually 12 writers for a full week in the summer. We get a full year's material written in that time. Each writer does a month's work. This process is assisted by our editors and resource persons who are experts in curriculum development," Rev. Edgar said.
Located at 27 Balmoral Avenue, in Kingston, (the former home of Denn Dock Ltd), the CCP is to be officially opened on Sunday April 25, 2004 at 4 p.m. The complex will be named in honour of the Rev. Azariah McKenzie, former president of the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship (CBF). The speaker on that occasion will be the current CBF president, the Rev. Vincent Wood of Barbados. The official opening will be preceded the day before by an Open House, where the public will be given a tour of the CCP's facilities and told about its operations.
Rev. Edgar said the CCP receives a subvention from the International Mission Board of Southern Baptists, but that such support is being phased out. This fact, he further said, played a part in the decision to relocate the CCP to Jamaica where the organisation has a better opportunity to survive economically. He acknowledges, however, that "It is very difficult to support the ministry just on the sale of materials. We depend heavily on sales, but it is not adequate." But, he continued, Jamaica is where half of the market is and there is still potential for growth here more so than anywhere else in the Caribbean.
