I receive a lot of email, and while I am usually happy to respond (as time allows), many of the emails I receive can be answered on this page before you write:
1. if you are trying to find a "Brethren" church in your area, I suggest that you use the sources of information I use, either on the web (Canada, U.S.A. or UK) or on print. I'm happy to look up a church for you, but if there are a bunch of churches in your area, I might not have time to list all of them in an email. Also, I don't know the geography of your area, so you might ask if there is a church in your city and I will say "no" but I won't realize that there is a church in a city two miles away.
2. if you are looking for geneaological information from "the Brethren", I have none. The "Plymouth Brethren" have no central archive of information. Individual churches and individual preachers may have information on weddings, funerals, births and baptisms, but I have no information on how to access this information. Sorry.
3. if you are a teacher who has children from a "Plymouth Brethren" church in your class and you don't know what to do about their isolationist tendencies, I don't have any good advice for you. This experience of extreme isolation is very different than what I have encountered in the "Open Brethren" churches in North America.
4. if you are a strong Calvinist who is offended by my article on "The Dangers of Extreme Calvinism", please:
* don't assume that you are the only person who believes God is sovereign
* don't assume that I say I hold a middle of the road position because I am secretly an extreme Arminian
* don't assume that I say I hold a middle of the road position because I am afraid to take a strong stand
* don't assume that I don't understand Calvinism or Calvinistic doctrines
* don't assume that I don't understand anything about God's grace
* don't assume that only Calvinists can study the Bible in a scholarly and responsible manner
* don't assume that there is some verse in the Bible that I have never read, and that if you point it out to me I will immediately become a Calvinist
* understand that I am not completely obsessed by the issue. I am able to think and talk about other issues than Calvinism. While it is important, there are lots of other doctrines that are important as well.
* accept my appreciation for kindly and gracious emails that have been sent. At the moment I am running about 2 gracious emails for each rabid condemnation I receive.
5. if you are going to take the time to write, please include proper punctuation and sentence structure. I sometimes receive emails which consist of one incoherent sentence or paragraph, without the benefit of punctuation or capitalization. Please be aware that emails which are entirely written in CAPITAL LETTERS are the Internet equivalent of shouting. Your writing demonstrates your thought patterns - please take the time to write well and review what you have written before you hit the "Send" button. Does your email set forth your thoughts and concerns in a reasonable and rational manner, or does your email cry out "ignore me"?
6. Please send short messages. I have perhaps 5 minutes a day to sort through, read and respond to all my email. If you send me a 20 page email, asking me to comment, I won't be able to read your entire letter, let alone respond. I particularly request that you not cut and paste some large article off the Internet and ask me for comment. Sorry, I just don't have the time.
If you still would like to write me, you can contact me at: s.abigail@sympatico.ca.
Please note that you will need to remove the "dot" character in "s.abigail". I don't put my exact email address on the web because I want to reduce the amount of spam I receive.