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Sundays of the Month Editor: For your convenience, here are the names of the Sundays in June, at a glance. 1st  June           Seventh Sunday of Easter 8th June           Day of Pentecost – Whit Sunday 15th June         Trinity Sunday 22nd June         First Sunday after Trinity 29th June         Second Sunday after Trinity – St Peter and St...

Sometime in the summer of 165AD seven Christian men were put to death in Rome.   Accused of belonging to an illicit religion, they refused point blank to offer sacrifices to pagan gods. Threatened with torture and execution they replied that suffering and death gave them confidence to appear at the Great Tribunal ‘of our Lord...

…. the first ever Christian philosopher Justin Martyr (c. 100 – 165), is regarded as the first ever Christian philosopher. He was born at Nablus, Samaria, to parents of Greek origin, and was well educated in rhetoric, poetry and history before he turned to philosophy. He studied at Ephesus and Alexandria and tried the schools...

… a good saint when you’re all at sea Do you like messing about in boats? If so, then you’ll have heard of St Elmo’s Fire. It is the light that is sometimes seen on mastheads of boats after storms at sea. St Elmo is another name for St Erasmus, a fourth century Syrian bishop...

… defying the Kabaka The Ugandan Church had dozens of martyrs within just ten years of Christianity arriving there. At first, it had gone so well:  the first Anglican missionaries arriving in Uganda in 1877 were welcomed by the Kabaka (king) of Buganda, Mutesa. Mutesa also welcomed the Roman Catholics and Muslim Arabs, and, being...

… the founder of Padstow If you would like to be in Cornwall this summer in search of peace and quiet, Petroc is the saint for you. Especially if you used to find Padstow a bit too crowded for your liking! He would have sympathised. This 6th century abbot is Cornwall’s most famous saint. Petroc...

Boniface is the saint for all preachers and teachers who wonder if they can make a lasting difference to anyone’s life. For this monk-teacher from Crediton went on to become the apostle to Germany, and is considered to have been the most influential Englishman in the history of Europe. Boniface began life as Wynfrith, when...

… the first Christian in Brittany? If you would love to be in Brittany for your holiday this summer, then spare a thought for Gudwal, because this obscure 6th century Celtic abbot got there before you did.  Indeed, Gudwal seems to have liked Brittany so much that he decided to stay on. When you visit...

An armed policeman gets injured while sorting out a village dispute. Nothing unusual in that. But then, while recovering in hospital in 1924, he has an intense spiritual experience. He becomes a Christian. Because he is energetic and fearless, he then decides to return to the villages where he had been a policeman, but now...

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” Acts 1:8 We all get tired and battle weary sometimes. The disciples of Jesus had just been through a three-year long roller coaster...

Pentecost took place on the well-established Jewish festival of Firstfruits, which was observed at the beginning of the wheat harvest. It was seven weeks after Easter, or 50 days including Easter. A feast day to celebrate the country’s wheat harvest does not sound exactly world-changing, but that year, it became one of the most important...

On that long ago first morning of Pentecost, Jerusalem was crowded with thousands of visitors, for it was one of the most popular feast-days in the Jewish calendar – the Feast of Firstfruits, looking forward to the wheat harvest. In one small room of that great city, a small group of people who had followed...