R. J. McKelvey

The message of the epistle to the Hebrews spoke to me with compelling power when I was working in South Africa training ordinands. This was during the apartheid regime when churches were under pressure to play safe and domesticate their message. The call to go to Christ "outside the camp" (13.13) kept challenging me when I returned to the U.K. Now it was churches preoccupied with maintenance of property or intimidated by aggressive secular or anti-Christian rhetoric. The challenge was also addressing individuals, whether it was a case of our being tied to confessional traditions or unexamined convictions. One way or the other the call was always the same: follow the pioneering Lord "outside the camp." My retirement gave me the opportunity to explore Hebrews at length. What I discovered is the way in which Christ the pioneer and Christ the priest are linked together and how this not only provides a key for Hebrews but in fact conveys the meaning of the Christian faith.

My work on Hebrews was one of the offshoots of the work I did for my doctorate (published as The New Temple: The Church in the New Testament, OUP, 1969). In the meantime I worked on the Book of Revelation (The Millennium and the Book of Revelation, Lutterworth, 1999). and kept up my interest in Hebrews by giving occasional papers at the Ehrhardt Seminar in the University of Manchester. I undertake some duties in the United Reformed Church, and I cannot but be bemused by the fact that over the years on which I have been working on Hebrews I have also been helping to set up a Local Ecumenical Partnership in E.Manchster. Our praying and planning for the Church of the Epiphany challenged us (members of Anglican, Methodist and United Reformed Church) to go "outside the camp." My book is published and the ecumenical congregation is in their new building, but I doubt if I shall not continue to be challenged to keep thinking outside the box and going "outside the camp."

R.J. (Jack) McKelvey was Principal of Adams United College and the first President

of the Federal Theological Seminary of Southern Africa. He assisted in setting up Theological Education by Extension in South Africa. In 1979 Jack became Principal of Northern College in Manchester and lecturer in New Testament in the University of Manchester. He served the United Reformed Church as Moderator in 1994-1995. Jack and Myrtle enjoy gardening and travel. mckelveys@pobox.com