Samuel Foucachon is a graduate of Faculté Jean Calvin and pastor of the Chapelle de Nesle - Evangelical Reformed Church in the Latin Quarter in Paris. Watch this 19-minute interview as Samy shares with Huguenot Fellowship Trustee Ruth Ann Leduc about the challenges of church-planting in Paris, as well as how the Lord is blessing this work. If you're looking for a place of worship in Paris, check out the Chapelle de Nesle http://www.chapelledenesle.fr/
William Edgar Chair Campaign Webinar
For those of you who missed the live webinar on March 27 or would like to view it again, please click here.
Thank you all who were able to join us for this special time of honoring Bill Edgar and raising awareness of the Huguenot Fellowship’s fundraising campaign in support of the William Edgar Chair of Apologetics at Faculté Jean Calvin.
And thank you so much to you who have already responded with your prayers and donations.
Campaign Booklet
Click on the following link to view an informative 12-page booklet about The Huguenot Fellowship’s new campaign for funding the William Edgar Chair of Apologetics at the Faculté Jean Calvin seminary in Aix-en-Provence, France. (The booklet may take a few seconds to load. You may need to zoom-in or zoon-out to read comfortably, depending on your browser.) Campaign Booklet
In addition, all are welcome to attend the live webinar about this initiative on Saturday, March 27, 2021 at 12 noon EDT. Please send an email to hello@huguenotfellowship.org to request a Zoom link to attend, if you’ve not already received one by email.
Evangelicals: A Very Important Problem?
"No, evangelicals do not represent a ‘very important problem’ in France"
FIGAROVOX/TRIBUNE - Historian Sébastien Fath, specialist in Protestantism in France, takes stock of various criticisms addressed to the evangelical community and regrets that confusing remarks are often made about them, especially during discussions on the law against separatism.
By Sébastien Fath
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sébastien_Fath
French society is faced with great fear, as it has been periodically since the Middle Ages. This anxiety-inducing cocktail now combines geopolitical (anti-liberal threat of radical Islamism), climatic (global warming) and environmental (Covid-19 pandemic) elements.
The primary sovereign function of the state is to provide security. In the context of great fear, it’s natural that the government would like to step up protection of the population. The beheading of Samuel Paty and the Nice attack in October 2020 shocked public opinion.
Evangelical Protestants, who represent around a million French men and women today, just over 1% of the population, support this concern to secure society and strengthen the republican bond. Well before the Republic stabilized for a long period, starting in 1875, some French evangelical pastors were suspected of being dangerous, distributing "republican pamphlets" (which could lead to imprisonment). Recall that in French evangelical churches women voted and took part in decisions a century before the Republic finally gave them this right in 1946.
Present for more than two centuries in France, evangelicals are experiencing strong growth. It stems first of all from a dynamic of uninhibited evangelization, in all social circles, including among Muslims, in the city as well as in the countryside. It is also based on French-speaking immigration from sub-Saharan Africa, the bearer of a postcolonial Christian zeal that seeks to reinspire an aging and secularized Europe. These evangelicals of France, not "evangelists", a term as misleading as "catholist", today constitute the most dynamic branch of Protestantism.
Confidence has given way to concern, in the face of a succession of missteps by government ministers that cast suspicion on the evangelicals.
They suffer, like their fellow citizens, from the prevailing social unrest. In May 2017, they had granted widespread confidence in the ideas of President Emmanuel Macron. During the presidential campaign, the candidate Macron declared to the Protestant newspaper Réforme (February 28, 2017): “I promise neither happiness nor transcendence. I leave that to religion. Otherwise, they would be totalitarian projects.”
This was clearly different from the policies of secular salvation (cf. François Hollande's “French dream” in his speech at Le Bourget in January 2012). Protestants, but also many believers of other religions, especially appreciated this point, because for them the State is not a secular Church. The government and the administration are called upon to manage, as well as possible, a pluralistic and republican society in which the civic body is free to determine its commitments.
By their emphasis on personal freedom, contractual bond and associative entrepreneurship, Evangelicals were relatively more sensitive than Lutherans and Reformers to the discourse of freedom, devoid of political sectarianism, then developed by the new French president. This is evidenced by the Protestant Survey carried out by the IPSOS institute in October 2017, which showed that 23% of the evangelical Protestants questioned supported the political party of Emmanuel Macron, La République En March (LREM), compared to 17% of Lutherans and Reformers. A six-point gap says a lot about President Macron's confidence rating with the evangelicals in 2017.
This confidence also rested on the assurance of a secular pact preserved by its balance. A secularism supported by evangelicals, from the beginning: let us recall that Francis de Pressensé, founder of the League of Human Rights and one of the promoters of the law of 1905, was none other than the son of the evangelical pastor, and senator, Edmond de Pressensé, pastor of the Taitbout chapel.
Confidence has given way to concern, in the face of a succession of missteps by government ministers that cast suspicion on evangelicals. On December 15, 2020, the Minister of the Interior had nevertheless given pledges of good will towards the CNEF, the National Council of Evangelicals of France, which was celebrating its 10th anniversary.
In a conciliatory move, he affirmed: "to be a believer often makes it possible to be a good citizen." So, what has happened since then? On the occasion of the debates on the development of the law “reinforcing republican principles”, several small sentences were targeted, in a sometimes clumsy, sometimes erroneous way, toward evangelical protestants. On January 10, 2021, Marlène Schiappa on France 3 referred to the use among evangelicals of "certificates of virginity", an American influence. However, the information given was false, and aroused consternation, or amusement, among evangelical Protestants in France.
Contrary to governmental remarks, evangelicals overwhelmingly adopted the framework of the 1905 law, probably more than 80%.
Indeed, the use of certificates of virginity is foreign to the practices and doctrines of evangelical churches. Remember that these Protestants also accept contraception without difficulty (unlike the ordonnances of the Catholic Magisterium). They defend, of course, heteronormative and faithful sexuality, preferably in the marital context, but nothing to do with “certificates of virginity” is mentioned.
On January 23, 2021, in a special committee to the National Assembly, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, affirms: “Today, we all see it, only Protestant worship and Israelite worship (...) have adopted the 1905 law. While Muslim worship, evangelical worship, and Buddhist worship mainly followed the 1901 law, that is to say mixed associations for which the philosophy of separation of the public and worship is totally confused.” It is the minister’s remarks, so far, that are confused, and at least inaccurate. Indeed, on the one hand, evangelicals are part of Protestantism. On the other hand, contrary to the minister’s comments, they overwhelmingly adopted the framework of the 1905 law, probably over 80% (CNEF goes so far as to advance the figure of 90%).
On February 1, Gérald Darmanin said on France Inter that "we can no longer discuss with people who refuse to write on a piece of paper that the law of the Republic is superior to the law of God." By this clumsy expression, which puts two different things on the same level, the minister drew reactions from all monotheisms, including evangelical Protestants.
Finally, on February 2, 2021, on “l’Heure des Pros” on CNews, the Home Secretary referred to "evangelicals" as "a very important problem". The subject concerns foreign financing, and the minister refers to "the soft power of foreign countries". These remarks are surprising in 2021 and appear wrong for the times. They also awaken painful memories of a time when Protestantism was denounced by nationalists as "the party of the foreigner".
There certainly was a time when some proponents of evangelical Protestantism were effectively able to be supported by the United States as a tool of soft-power against the Soviet threat. The period lasted for about forty years during the Cold War, particularly during the 1950s to the 1980s. But those days are long over. Self-financing is the rule in the overwhelming majority of French evangelical churches, nourished by a self-management culture that is part of their trademark.
Should we equate the limited funding coming from democracies with funding from states like Saudi Arabia?
Not to mention that there is a world of difference between French- speaking evangelicals and their American counterparts in relation to politics, culture, food, wine consumption, the public-private gap, etc. Moreover, should we risk equating limited private funding, coming from democracies like the United States, with funding from the State of Qatar or Saudi Arabia? These Islamist petromonarchies are admittedly fond of French weapons and luxury hotels on the Côte d ́Azur, but they are a priori further removed from Republican ideals than America...
The government minister’s equivocal remarks do not eliminate all questions about the soft power led by the great powers, including China, via companies, the media, sport (PSG, owned by the Qatari state) and religions. But an examination of the facts calls for a lower reevaluation of the "very important problem" mentioned by the minister concerning French evangelical churches.
By their accumulation, these various ministerial missteps, backed by a bill that raises many questions, have caused concern among evangelical Protestants in France. These concerns were relayed by the two main Protestant networks in the country, the FPF (Protestant Federation of France) and the CNEF (National Council of Evangelicals of France). It is too early to speculate on possible electoral missteps to be expected next year in the presidential elections of 2022, but a breach of confidence has occurred. How should one interpret these missteps of two “heavyweights” of the government (Ms. Schiappa and Mr. Darmanin), who navigate between error and confusion?
A religion on the rise in France
First level of analysis: what if there was no smoke without fire? In other words, the evangelicals would be pointed out, because there would indeed be a separatist orientation within them. Certain sectarian excesses that can be identified in some evangelical circles can support this hypothesis. Abusive authoritarianism of the pastor, stifling social control, confining or conspiratorial discourse. These sectarian indications never go so far as to call for violence, but they justify vigilance, attentive to respect for freedoms.
This phenomenon is however limited. The overwhelming majority of evangelical churches in France avoid these risks, in particular thanks to their systems of mutual validation and control "from below". When things go too far, the faithful also have the freedom to leave: turnover is important in these Churches.
Finally, against the feared “separatism”, the great appetite of evangelicals for all-out associative involvement should be noted, like the international footballer Olivier Giroud, undoubtedly the most famous French evangelical today, who is involved with the Collectif Humanitaire Monaco, the CHU de Grenoble, and the Open Doors association in support of persecuted Christians.
The 2017 Protestant Survey (IFOP) thus reports "a much stronger commitment to charitable associations among Protestants, and especially among those who claim to be evangelical Christians": 30% for evangelical Protestants surveyed by the IFOP, versus a rate of 15% for all French people. We are quite far from separatism and from being a “glass bubble church” cut off from the outside.
The second level of analysis is the worrying lack of knowledge about religions on the part of our elected officials. What if the approximations or errors of ministers Schiappa and Darmanin revealed above all an involuntary admission of religious ignorance?
We often talk about training religious representatives in secularism. It would be appropriate to better train political leaders in religions.
This is an opportunity to remember that we cannot limit ourselves to knowing about religions through what general information (certainly of value) or social networks (certainly omnipresent) say about them. There is a great deal of quality work produced by major social science research laboratories that are France's pride internationally. Philippe Portier and Jean-Paul Willaime have just provided a new example with the publication of a very fine summary on religions in France. (La religion dans la France contemporaine, entre sécularisation et recomposition, Armand Colin, 2021.)
But the flow of knowledge is not running well enough. We often talk about training religious representatives in secularism. Very good! It would then be appropriate to better train political leaders, not only in secularism, but also in the religions that (re)compose our country. This also applies to Islam, Buddhism, and even today Catholicism, sometimes grossly caricatured.
Evangelicalism represents at least one in four Christians in the world. It has become the overwhelming majority expression of Protestantism, and increasingly influences Catholicism. (See Valérie Aubourg, Réveil catholique, Emprunts évangeliques au sein du catholicisme, Labor et Fides, 2020, and Pierre Jova & Henrik Lindell, Comment devenir plus catholiques... en s’inspirant des évangéliques, ed. by Emmanuel, 2020.) It weighs heavily in the French-speaking world, in particular via sub-Saharan Africa. Good governance invites us to move away from caricatures or superficial glimpses, a source of wounds for those who are victims of repeated disparaging “little phrases”.
The third level of analysis suggests placing these successive missteps in the context of a diversion. As if we were trying to over-focus on religions to avoid talking too much about other sensitive, but neglected, aspects of the bill. Evangelicalism is not the only target. Islam is much more so, but so are all religious participants in the country. The bill, and its presentation, convey a "discourse of mistrust vis-à-vis the religious". It breaks with the French secular tradition, says political scientist Philippe Portier (director of studies at EPHE). This great scholar of secularism emphasizes that we are shifting from "minimal state intervention" to "maximal" intervention in religious affairs.
The fundamental principle of separation of religion and state has been severely damaged. Never, since the Vichy Regime, has there been such questioning of the principle of separation of 1905. We certainly did not go so far as to put in place, as during the Dark Years, an official system of cults, recognized and unrecognized. But it is implicitly in this direction that we are moving in the current project, via the obligation envisaged for the associations 1905 law, every five years, to assert their religious character to the prefecture, under penalty to be dissolved.
Heavy state control over the organization of Islam also breaks with the principle of separation of 1905. Would Jaurès and Briand have recognized their secularism in this text? I do not think so. By hysterizing the debate on religions, this bill deflects the eyes of public opinion on issues that are nevertheless equally important (but neglected in the law) in the fight against separatism: social diversity, education, and the issue of links maintained with the Wahhabite petromonarchies of the Gulf.
To avoid giving the impression of looking only in one direction, other religious threats are pointed out.
Finally, the last level of analysis amounts to raising the question of the need, in order to validate the law, for an "egalitarian guarantee" (expression used by the CNEF). Since 2015, France has experienced 25 deadly jihadist attacks on its soil, causing the deaths of 263 people. No other religious radicalism even comes close to presenting the same results.
Indeed, the separatism law aims to respond to a specific threat, jihadist political Islamism. But to avoid giving the impression of looking only in one direction, other religious threats are pointed out. This is where evangelical Protestantism would come into play, as an alternative rhetorical element to embody the figure of the threat. Basically, the intention is legitimate.
The principle of equality is the foundation of the Republic. Targeting a single religious radical is not very republican. The problem is, in reality, THE reason for this separatism bill is to respond urgently to a specific violent and fanatic threat.
This threat, tangible and repeated, is not the Islam of France as a whole, which clearly deserves the same secular, tolerant and republican regard as other religions. It is even less on the side of Christianity that we find it. It is indeed that of terrorist jihadism, which thrives on the networks of political Islamism hostile to liberal democracy, and feeds on "separatist" fractures in our society.
Wanting at all costs to find other "egalitarian guarantees" within religions is to maintain confusion, casting an increasingly generalized suspicion on those in religious communities who do not ask for much. And moreover, who often participate well in diversity, social ties and the education of values. So many resources to keep the Republic alive.
(Translated)
Law on Separatism
Jean-Raymond Stauffacher, President of the Protestant Evangelical Reformed denomination and a graduate of Faculté Jean Calvin seminary, talks with Ruth Ann Leduc, Huguenot Fellowship trustee, about the proposed law on separatism, currently being debated in the French legislature.
Pandemic, Prayer, Faculté Jean Calvin
Around the world, we have all experienced disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic. Huguenot Fellowship Trustee Ruth Ann Leduc talks with Dr. Yannick Imbert, William Edgar Chair of Apologetics Professor and Dean of Faculté Jean Calvin, about the impact of the pandemic on the seminary, and how the faculty and staff have navigated these challenges.
Click here to view this 10-minute inverview.
Critical Days for the Church in France
The law currently being debated in the French parliament – officially named ‘the Law to uphold Republican Principles’ - is really the culmination of many years of terrorist acts carried out by radical Islamists, and the government’s response to curb these separatist movements. But will it actually have a greater negative effect on evangelical churches?
As Pastor John-Raymond Stauffacher, President of the Union of Evangelical Reformed Churches, and graduate of Faculté Jean Calvin seminary says, “Everyone agrees to kill radical Islam in the bud, but this law, as it is formulated, is disconnected from its avowed aim.”
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Frustrated by years of terrorism inflicted by radical Islamists, France’s parliament is debating a law to end Muslim separatism. French evangelicals fear their churches will become collateral damage….
Click to continue reading this helpful summary from Christianity Today.
Henry Lewis Smith
Following is the obituary of Henry Lewis Smith who served on the Board of Trustees of The Huguenot Fellowship for many years. Henry will be remembered for his gracious service, especially for rallying collections on Reformation Day in support of the mission of The Huguenot Fellowship.
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Henry Lewis Smith — PCA historian, seminary professor, pastor, disciple-maker, and the longest-serving presbytery clerk in the denomination – has died. He was 88.
Henry died on February 5 at his home in Opelika, Alabama. He served as stated clerk of Southeast Alabama Presbytery from 1985 until retiring from the position in October 2020.
During his 68 years of gospel ministry, Henry discipled countless young men by inviting them to join him in the Lord’s work and teaching them along the way. Many of those men eventually became pastors themselves. He also trained men as a professor at Birmingham Theological Seminary in Birmingham, Alabama.
Born in Chinquapin, North Carolina, on June 9, 1932, to the Rev. William and Carrie (Lewis) Smith, Henry earned his Master of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in 1956 and was ordained the same year.
He served as senior pastor of Monroeville Presbyterian Church in Monroeville, Alabama from 1957-1963. From 1963-1966 he pastored First Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church of Rock Hill, South Carolina. It was there that he met Anna Beth Lynn of Rock Hill, whom he married in 1964. They were married for nearly 50 years before Anna Beth passed away in 2014. They had four children: Henry Lewis (Hank), Jr., Sara Lynn, Timothy Jefferies, and Anna Elizabeth (Lisbeth).
In 1966 Henry took a call to serve as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church (ARP) in Winter Haven, Florida. Jim Smith (no relation to Henry) recalls how as a teenager and brand new Christian, he witnessed Christian life and ministry firsthand from Henry.
When Henry needed to make pastoral calls to hospitals or homes, he invited Jim to accompany him. In his zeal to serve, Henry sometimes overlooked details that others might consider important. Once he asked Jim to ride with him to a hospital visit, and it was only after they had left Winter Haven that Henry mentioned the hospital they were visiting was over two hours away in Gainesville.
What Jim didn’t realize during his long car rides and pastoral visits was that Henry had been praying for him for years. As a sixth grader, Jim had served as a crossing guard at an intersection Henry frequented. Henry observed how the young crossing guard did his job responsibly and began praying for his future.
Years later Henry offered a challenge to Jim by asking Jim to prayerfully consider whether the Lord might be calling him to pastoral ministry. Jim always appreciated that Henry saw the call to ministry as responding to the Lord’s call, not taking Henry’s advice. It was always about serving the Lord.
Jim did sense a call to ministry, and after graduating from Reformed Theological Seminary Jackson, in 1984 he served churches in Mississippi, Florida, and Pennsylvania. He is currently the director of programs at the Center for Community Resources, and pastor for congregational care at St. John’s Reformed Church in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Never Apologized for Asking Others to Serve
Daren Deitmeier had a similar conversation with Henry about a call to ministry. At the time Deitmeier’s family attended First Presbyterian Church in Prattville, Alabama, where Henry served as senior pastor and then assistant pastor from 1978-2005.
For Henry, the PCA wasn’t simply a church body, it was a group of people — people with stories — and Henry loved to tell those stories.
The Deitmeier family started attending First Presbyterian in September 1993, joined in December, and in January Henry asked Deitmeier to teach a Sunday school class. Henry made no apologies for asking church members to serve the church.
Deitmeier recalls Henry saying, “I will never hesitate to ask God’s people to do His work.”
Henry mentored Deitmeier the way he mentored Jim and other young men, by inviting them to join him in the church’s work. Pastoral visits and car rides became opportunities for young men to watch the nuts and bolts of ministry firsthand.
“You sat at his feet and learned so much,” Deitmeier said. “It was natural and there was no agenda.”
Eventually Henry asked Deitmeier to prayerfully consider whether the Lord might be calling him to pastoral ministry. Deitmeier began earning his Master of Divinity degree from Birmingham Theological Seminary’s Montgomery campus, where Henry taught church history and Old Testament classes. Deitmeier now serves as pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Aledo, Illinois, and stated clerk of Northern Illinois Presbytery.
The seminary classes combined Henry’s gifts for mentoring and love of history.
“He left an indelible stamp on the lives of many people,” Deitmeier said.
Embraced the Work With Gusto
Henry never hesitated to ask others to do the Lord’s work, and Henry himself embraced that work with gusto. He served as stated clerk of Southeast Alabama Presbytery for 35 years, making him the longest-serving presbytery stated clerk in the denomination.
For many years Henry also chaired the General Assembly Committee of Thanks. The committee’s report concludes each General Assembly, and with its mix of local Presbyterian history, information on the hosting presbytery, and heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped make General Assembly possible, it was a perfect combination of Henry’s passions.
Melton Duncan began serving on the Committee of Thanks with Henry beginning in 2003. Duncan was immediately taken by Henry’s Southern gentlemanly ways and love for history.
For Henry, the PCA wasn’t simply a church body, it was a group of people — people with stories — and Henry loved to tell those stories.
Duncan believes Henry’s interest in the history of the PCA was part of his being a history lover, but it was also a way to bring the denomination together as a family. Pastors like Henry who left the mainline Presbyterian denomination to start the PCA lost more than church buildings in the split. They lost friendships and connections that went back generations.
Serving on the Committee of Thanks was a way for Henry to tell the story of the PCA, the new family story.
“He delights in knowing the personal story of the PCA,” Duncan said. “He has a passion to tell new folks about where the family has come from.”
Henry also wanted to tell the story correctly. Duncan said Henry was one of the first PCA commissioners to request that the denomination draft a resolution on racial reconciliation. He was part of the PCA’s delegation to the 1977 NAPARC conference on race relations. The conference adopted a statement which began by confessing serious inadequacies with respect to NAPARC member churches concerning race relations in the church.
Later, he worked toward the founding of the PCA Historical Center and supervised many projects at the center.
Smith with his twelve grandchildren, who called him “Doodaddy.” He called his grandchildren “Doodaddy’s Dozen.”
Henry earned his Doctor of Ministry degree from Birmingham Theological Seminary and taught at the seminary from 1979-2018. After retiring from First Presbyterian Church in Prattville, Smith worked as stated supple at Camden, Bethel, and Prosperity ARP churches from 2001-2010.
Henry is preceded in death by his wife, parents, and brother William Clifford Smith. He is survived by his sister Lena Smith Knight of Birmingham, Alabama; four children: Henry Lewis, Jr.,of Opelika, Alabama, Sara Lynn Smith T (Dozier), Timothy Jefferies (Rhonda) of Birmingham, and Anna Elizabeth Chapman (Ben); and twelve grandchildren: Winston Smith T of Fort Hood, Texas; Henry, Sara Hollis, Dozier, Vera Elizabeth, and Joanne Smith T, all of Opelika, AL; Wheeler, Hollis, and Wrenn Smith of Birmingham; Anna Beth, Chap, and Nancy Chapman of Birmingham.
Services will be held in Opelika, Alabama, on Tuesday, February 9. A graveside service, open to all, will be at 11:00 am at Garden Hills Cemetery. An in-person, socially-distanced memorial service will be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Opelika at 1:30 pm. (Reservations are required for the church service. Call the church at 334-745-4889 if you would like to attend.)
The family will receive visitors outdoors at the church at 2:30 pm. Reservations are not necessary for the graveside service or the 2:30 outdoor visitation. The service may be viewed via livestream at https://tpcopelika.org/live/ at 1:30 pm CST.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Southeast Alabama Presbytery, 300 Opelika Rd #3133, Auburn, AL 36830, to a fund that will provide a small monetary reward to those who recite the Westminster Shorter Catechism.