Amended Christadelphians

Historically, from 1898 the terms "Amended" and "Unamended" refer to the statements of faith used by each set of Christadelphians, one of which has been amended (and hence the prefix – "Amended" – added to that community of Christadelphians), and one has not been amended (and hence the prefix – "Unamended" – added to that community of Christadelphians). So technically all Christadelphians using a statement of faith containing the 1898 "Amendment" are de facto "Amended". This applies even to many UK ecclesias which never physically "amended" their statements but retain pre-1898 versions.

However, today the use of the term "Amended Christadelphians" is often restricted to identify the North American members of the worldwide "Central" grouping, in relation to Unamended Christadelphians.

In particular it is now unusual for the term "Amended" to be used of:

• Christadelphians outside North America (even though the vast majority of Christadelphians overseas, belong to the "Central" grouping which is in full communion with the North American "Amended" grouping)
• Minority fellowships inside North America, such as the Berean Christadelphians (even though they also have "Amendments" to their Statements, and therefore technically are "Amended").

The Amended community of the Christadelphian body shares the same initial history as all other fellowships within the Christadelphian brotherhood. For more information on this, see 'History: 2.1 Origin' (and the first half of the section 'History: 2.2 Early years: 1865–1914') in the main Christadelphian article. The relevant history for this article commences with the division that resulted in the separate "Amended" and "Unamended" communities, for which, see the second half of the section 'History: 2.2 Early years: 1865–1914' in the main Christadelphian article, and below.

A major division occurred among the Christadelphians 1895–1899 on the issue of "resurrectional responsibility". The controversy caused serious disagreement concerning whether the Judgement at the return of Christ would be limited to baptised believers, or would also apply to anyone who had "heard" the Gospel message, but had rejected it – referred to as "enlightened rejectors".

Although the issue had already surfaced in Sydney in 1884,[9] leading to excommunication of members there, and in London in 1887,[10] when the issue surfaced on a much larger scale 1895–1897, the influential Birmingham Ecclesia, took the decision in January 1898 to amend Clause 24 of their Statement of Faith by inserting 18 words in brackets to clarify this. A minority in Leeds and London did not accept the amendment and a division in the UK followed led by Albert Hall and John Owler, and finding support from Thomas Williams (Christadelphian) of Chicago. The division spread to North America and was cemented in 1909 in Williams printed in Chicago a "Unamended Statement of Faith." with a few minor adjustments from the influential Birmingham Ecclesia's statement, but with the name "Birmingham" removed, and the offending amendment in Clause 24.[11] Those in North America who associated on the basis of the unamended statement of faith became known as the Unamended Fellowship, and those who have associated on the basis of the amended statement become known, when in contrast to the Unamended Fellowship, as the Amended Christadelphians. There is still some disagreement today over what the original established beliefs of the Christadelphian community as a whole were prior to the controversy leading up to the division in 1898, with some members of each "fellowship" claiming that their current views were the original.[12]

Most of the North American "Amended" ecclesias separated from the UK and Australian "Central" ecclesias from 1923–1952, as the Berean Christadelphians, but the majority of Bereans rejoined "Central" in 1952 following efforts by local brethren assisted by John Carter (Christadelphian) of The Christadelphian magazine. Further reunions (unrelated to the Amended/Unamended split in North America) occurred in Britain and Australia in 1957, bringing almost all Christadelphians together into one grouping for the first time since 1885. During the 1990s a serious effort was made to bring unity to North America with the North American Statement on Unity. Local efforts are ongoing.