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Our Spiritual Heritage
“The Communion” has a great spiritual heritage through its first bishop, Rev. Gill Belec. Rev. Belec was born in Montreal, Canada, raised in a godly home, influenced by the great outpouring that took place in Wales in 1904. It was known as “The Welsh Revival”. In a small village called Penygroes, what can only be described as a massive movement of the Holy Spirit, an expansion in the Christian church took place in general and, specifically, in the birth of the Apostolic Church of Wales. Historian Edwin Orr noted; “Drunkenness was immediately cut in half and many taverns went bankrupt. Crime was so diminished that judges were presented with white gloves signifying that there were no cases of murder, assault, rape or robbery or the like to consider. The police became “unemployed” in many districts. Stoppages occurred in coal mines not due to unpleasantness between management and workers, but because so many foul-mouthed miners became converted and stopped using foul language that the horses which hauled the coal trucks in the mines could no longer understand what was being said to them, and transportation grounded to a halt” (Orr 1975c: 192-193). The men worked with a renewed vigor that set production figures soaring. When work was done, they would hurry home for a quick meal and a bath and then off to the chapel until the early hours of the morning, singing hymns as they went!” (Evans, 160)
Expansion was the key word which appropriately characterized the Apostolic work all over the world. It was the vision of a New Testament church which gripped a young miner, yet the first leader of the Apostolic Church, Daniel Powell Williams. In 1913, he was ordained as leader of the movement until he died in 1947. In 1927, he came to Canada (Nova Scotia) upon request from a few small groups looking for this type of spiritual leadership. Churches were formed and the blessing of the fire of the Holy Spirit was poured out on many. The Apostolic Church in Montreal started with two men, Mr. William Evans and Mr. Nally, along with Mrs. Evans and her brother who immigrated from Wales. They held services in their home for a while. A pastor from the Apostolic Church in Toronto (Rev. Willie Evans) suggested that the headquarter church provide a pastor for Montreal. In 1938 Pastor George Evans with his wife and young son, Gareth, arrived in Montreal from Wales to become the first pastor of the Apostolic Church in Montreal. There were also French speaking people who sat at the back of the church with their own interpreter. The Belec children are some of the grandchildren of the leader of that group (Edmond Lecompte). (One of his children, Rev. Sam Lecompte played a significant role in the expansion of God's work and spiritual move in Quebec for over 50 years).
In 1941, Pastor William Gummer with his wife (pictured left) and young son (Billy) had escaped from France on the last boat to Britain on the day Hitler entered France. They had been missionaries in France from Wales. They were sent to Montreal to pastor the first French Apostolic work.
In 1945 Pastor Gummer dedicated Rev. Gill Belec to the Lord who was then three months old. In the French Apostolic Church located on Visitation St. in Montreal, in February of 1960, during a revival that lasted 78 nights, he experienced a deep and radical salvation.
Rev. Marcel Favreau (pictured right) was the evangelist of the day. Pastor Sam LeCompte also received salvation during that same revival. Within a few short months, the gifts of music, singing and preaching were surfacing the life of Rev. Belec. Pastor Gummer imparted the blessing of “The Welsh Revival” upon him and those other candidates there for ministry by the laying on of hands, by a Paul-Timothy relationship and by exemplifying such in a day-to-day way. Upon entering full-time ministry in 1962, Rev. Belec started out as an organist for some of the Voice of Healing ministers of the day. Such men as A. A. Allen, W.B. McKay (also in tent crusades) (pictures), Morris Cerullo, David Wilkerson, James Watts, and others.
From “The Welsh Revival” to an expanded blessing, The Apostolic Church in Montreal was quite keen about the importance of The Lord's Table. They would serve it every Sunday. Communion time was always anticipated with great expectation. I remember the leaders never wanting to hurry the occasion. We knew we could expect the supernatural in the general assembly as well as within the leadership. We have stayed the course with its importance and reverence to this day. However, feeling that there was something in the church's communion and fellowship that we have not yet experienced, the Holy Spirit created a craving for the possibility of such things. I began asking myself, “What was in those early meetings and communion experiences that made the Christian of the day willing to put his life on the line to be there?” Space and time do not permit me to go into all the details but, I will give a synoptic overview.
The communion experience was designed to unite the people of God from a deep intimacy with our Lord. The Devil, knowing this, has successfully reversed this design in too many cases. Separations within the body of Christ have become common over such things as the methods and elements used during the communion, as though the Holy Spirit can be narrowed down to one single method or symbol. The early church had their priorities right. They wanted to be with the family of God to celebrate the life-giving experience of the table. I doubt if uniformity was a priority. I believe the first thing that was high on the early worshipers' agenda was UNITY. It was not unity that caused the table but that the table caused unity. That's what it was designed for. You see, when you examine yourself to see if you are in the faith or not, or whether you rightly discern the body of Christ or not, then you realize the power the table must bring a celebrant to a place of meekness and submission to one another. This table is a precursor to the next table in heaven we will share, the great marriage feast of the Lamb. I fear that if we don't get this table right, we will forget about the other table. If oneness among Christians was not possible, Jesus would not have prayed to the Father for it in John 17. In fact, He gave us the wherewithal to make it happen. It's called the Table and Cup of Blessing. A dimension of God's glory awaits us if will eat and drink with singleness of heart.
The next thing I see was a dimension of God's Holy Anointing upon these early celebrants of 'The Table' we have yet to see in the last day church (although I believe we are beginning to experience). It is found in Psalms 133: 1-3. We all know it well, “When the brethren dwell together in unity”. We have the answer to how to make unity happen! It is available at the Table! Unity emits an anointing of a sweet aroma. Personally, I would have been willing to risk my life to experience that! Finally, I found in 2 Chronicles 30 that Israel was experiencing the same disunity known today. Tribes at odds with other tribes. We all know that 'divided we fall, united we stand'. Israel could never win battles with divisions among them. Hezekiah received a word from the Lord. God said, “I want you to call for all of Israel to celebrate my feast of unleavened bread in Jerusalem” (The Passover, The Communion). Hezekiah noted their attitude of arrogance upon receiving word. God said He Himself would give them a singleness of heart if Hezekiah would go forth with it (vs 12). So, he did go forth with it, and it did happen! In fact, the last two verses describe best the results, “So there was boundless joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem. Then the priests, the Levites, arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to His Holy dwelling place, to heaven.” Also, in verse twenty we see a great and awesome result, “And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people”.
In a closing thought, a powerful bonding takes place at The Table during communion, as I will briefly show from verses 16-20 of 1 Co. 10. Paul teaches that those who eat meat offered to idols become one with the idol, just by eating it! Meats offered at an altar and consecrated by God's priests or demonic priests have the power to cause oneness with God or the idol. That's why he instructs not to do both! Brethren, communion has dimensions of glory, unity, anointing, healing, longevity, and blessings we have not yet discovered. Paul also says this about the power of partaking of the elements of the Lord's Table. Once the table has been prayed over, blessed by God's servant, it becomes consecrated unto the Lord. Christ is now free to work His work through and by the Holy Spirit. Listen, Paul said that unless we partake worthily of the table, we eat and drink damnation to ourselves. He even attributes physical weakness, illness, and premature deaths and curses of Deut. 28 to unworthy participants. If it can do that, imagine what the opposite can do! If we drink worthily, can we expect longevity, strength, health, and blessing? I say emphatically, yes! We are seeing it in our own fellowship. There is so much more to share but I will leave it there for now. Sufficient to say that our spiritual heritage is alive and fiery, working out the glory of God. We testify to the goodness of God and His faithfulness to all generations.
