Crumbs from the Table

Today, I visited Ludlow in Shropshire and the Parish Church of Saint Laurence that dates back to the 1100s. I thought it would be good to share the story of this Christian who lived in the 200s, who gave his life for the Lord.  Laurence (also spelt Lawrence) was a Christian believer who lived from 225 until 258. He died a "martyr" - this means that he died for his Christian faith and way of life.   Laurence was originally from the Roman province of Hispania (Spain), where he was born in 225 in the town of either Heusca or Valencia. It was in Spain that he met the future bishop Sixtus II of Rome (also known as "Pope"), at Zaragoza, and together they travelled to Rome.  By the mid-200s, the Christian community at Rome was already 200 years old. Arguably, it was in the 40s of the Christian era that it began - just 10-15 years after Christ rose from the dead. Shortly after it began, this church would have been impacted by the decree by the Emperor Claudius, expelling al...

Today, at our church coffee morning, I gave a brief presentation about two cousins from the late 1600s, and early 1700s born in a small town called Heptonstall, and who were instrumental in the spread of Baptist Christianity in our "neck of the woods": William Mitchell (b.1663) and David Crossley (b. 1669).  The first ever Baptist churches on English soil were started in 1611 and 1638 respectively, and spread out from London with offshoots in places such as Coventry, Kent and Wales.  The earliest Baptist churches in the North West (historic Lancashire and Cheshire) began around 1650: one in Manchester and one in Warrington.  However, William Mitchell and David Crossley started out as itinerant preachers from about 1685, and were not initially Baptists by conviction. Before becoming Baptist, they bravely preached and set up "preaching stations" throughout the area bordering Yorkshire and Lancashire in places such as Barnoldswick, Bacup and Rawdon. Eventually these be...

Today Friday 13 March 2026, myself and a number of other Christians locally are devoting to prayer for our Muslim neighbours. I hope to attend "iftar" tonight - the daily breaking of the fast, a community meal at the mosque.  As far as I know, there are currently five mosques operating in Bury, Lancs, where I live. These are: 1. Khizra mosque , Walmersley Road (begun in the 1960s) 2. Jamia Khizra  mosque near Asda  3. Qadria Jillania mosque on Church Street (near what used to be St Paul's church) 4. Noor ul Islam mosque on Yarwood Street  5. The Shia Community (Al Mahdi Foundation) on Hornby Street - the Shia Muslims are a different branch of Islam to the majority "Sunni" Muslims.  The main weekly service of prayer at the Mosque is Friday lunchtime, and in Bury this is attended by hundreds of men and boys - at the biggest mosque there might be as many as a thousand in attendance. Women have a parallel meeting in another room. I have observed this in-pers...

It is simply a fact. Believers in the God of the Bible - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - represent a religious minority in our country and in our world. Revivals - quiet or otherwise - at home and abroad do not alter that fact. There are no countries in the world which could be called Christian in the sense in which that may have been the case in the Middle Ages.  And yet I also believe that God's law is for everyone. By that I mean that as well as being for believers, God's law is also relevant and applicable to all people. In some cases that is obvious: there is clearly no one who is allowed to steal or murder or commit perjury. But it is also true that there is no one who is free to covet (desire) what is not theirs. Nor is there anyone who, morally, is free to refuse to recognise the One true God and give him the worship he alone deserves.  Now, I need to be clear what I mean and what I *don't* mean by the above paragraph. I *don't* mean that I believe in the idea of ...

The first half of the 1700s in England was a tumultuous time.  In the wake of the religious toleration proclaimed in 1689, many once strong churches drifted from their doctrinal moorings and began to question the deity of Christ, aspects of his atoning work, and the veracity of his Word. This was true, for example, of the General Baptists, and of the Presbyterian Church. This happened against a wider backdrop of national disdain towards the Christian faith, especially under the rule of George I. Many were addicted to gin. Of the higher classes in England the French Enlightenment man, Montesquieu, observed, "Whenever anyone refers to religion, everybody starts laughing." It was into this dark decline that the light of the gospel shone through the ministry of a cohort of fine men in the Church of England, including Howell Harris (in Wales), George Whitefield, the Wesley brothers, Ingham, and others. The Evangelical Revival began around 1735, and continued until about 1750.  The...

The following post is a response to an article by John Stevens published in "Foundations" in 2015, and currently featured on the Affinity website. This is not intended as a personal attack on John Stevens, who is National Director of the FIEC, and a lovely Christian man and brother. The purpose of the blog post below is to stand for the historic Reformation teaching on the Lord's Supper in response to what I consider to be a novel view which is not supported by the Bible.  The Lord's Supper, the monthly or weekly celebration of the bread and the cup, has always been at the heart of the Christian faith and church life. Instituted by Christ himself, the Lord's Supper has been practised by Christians across the world and by all traditions (with very few exceptions) for over twenty centuries.   Today, for the first time, I came across a theological/Biblical articulation of what I will call the "communal meal" view of the Lord's Supper. My source for this...