The year was 1988 and life in the United Church was tumultuous. The Renewal Fellowship, publisher of what was then The Small Voice, was broadsided by events as they unfolded. Faithful members, including the editor of that magazine, were withdrawing from the United Church. That November, unexpectedly, I became editor of what would soon be known as Fellowship Magazine.

My first task was to find new columnists. One phone call led to "The Last Word" column, which Ralph Garbe wrote faithfully for so many years. My second call was to Victor Shepherd.

United Church people know far too little about church history, I thought to myself. My friend Victor Shepherd, a church historian and a scholar of the Reformation, could do something about that. Victor could write a church history column, if he were willing.

My guidelines were simple: stories of past Christians, whoever Victor chose to write about, written in a way that ordinary people could understand and be blessed by. The column would be called Heritage. And Victor agreed to write it.

So began an amazing series of stories about Christians past and (sometimes) present, written in Victor's colourful and flawless style. Giants and lesser-knowns came to life and walked among us, with all the passion and courage and suffering that was part of their experience. We entered the world of Martin Luther and John Wesley, and Susanna, mother of John and Charles Wesley. We were introduced to Barbara Heck, a Methodist pioneer in Canada, and William Wilberforce, whose crusade led to the abolition of slavery in Britain and throughout the British Empire. We came to know Mother Teresa. We were stretched in our experience of people we already knew about. We discovered faithful Christians we had never heard of.

Together, the articles grew into a tapestry of common threads and themes. We discovered that great Christians from the past were very human, just as we are. We discovered that, at different times and in different ways, all had come to love and serve and experience our common Lord. We learned of their appreciation for the clear teachings of Scripture. And we winced at their persecution.

Persecution: because the common experience of the faithful was, and is always, to be opposed in their faithfulness to Jesus, most often by the leaders of the very church they so love. Most great Christians from the past experienced it. Some, like William Tyndale, died because of it. Still, there was a strength from outside themselves that carried them through it all.

Soon there were enough "Heritage" articles to make a small book: so they were collected and published under the title So Great a Cloud of Witnesses (Light and Life Press, 1993). Still the stories continued, right up to a few months ago, when Victor told Fellowship that his March/06 article on Bishop J. C. Ryle would be his last.

The final total was something like 75. Every article was moving and powerful and uplifting. Fellowship Magazine was amazingly blessed to have had one of the finest columnists writing for any publication anywhere. His "Heritage" column will be deeply missed.

To Victor we say a most profound thank you.

Along with writing "Heritage" articles, of course, Victor was for many years minister of Streetsville United Church in Mississauga. During that time he became a professor at Tyndale Seminary (formerly Ontario Theological Seminary) as well as Adjunct Professor of Theology at the University of Toronto. He currently serves within the Presbyterian Church of Canada, as he continues his teaching career.

Victor is also the author of several books, including Witnesses to the Word (Clements Publishing) which includes many of his Heritage articles.

Rev. Ed McCaig is minister of Zion-Mount Zion Pastoral Charge in Pembroke, Ont., and is a past editor of Fellowship Magazine.

Witnesses to the Word is available through
Clements Publishing,
6021 Yonge St.,
Toronto, ON M2M 3W2
Tel.: 647-477-2509 for $18.95.