Crumbs from the Table

Since the earliest days, the church has worked to fulfil the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. The work of mission continued throughout the centuries. The Eastern Orthodox church centred at Constantinople missionised its neighbours over many centuries, including Goths, Arabs, Persians, Bulgars, Slavs, Mongols and Lithuanians. The western Catholic church was even more prolific, converting the Franks, Irish, Angles and Saxons, continental Germanic peoples, Norsemen, Slavs and eventually the peoples of the Baltic. The last pagans in Europe were the Lithuanians who converted in 1386. Even during the 1300s when the Western Catholic church was in disarray, there were bold missions in Central Asia, to the Mongols and Chinese, and across the Mediterranean to Muslim places in North Africa. The missionary work of the Church of the East and the West Syrian Jacobites (Monophysites) was likewise huge, although many gains waned by the 1300s.   Nevertheless, the Age of Discovery whic

Many will be familiar with the famous Monty Python sketch, in which a first century Judean crowd is asked, "What have the Romans ever done for us?" The crowd then lists off benefit after benefit of Roman rule until the speaker tells them to be quiet. If someone were to ask, "What has Christianity ever done for us?" one of the answers to that question is the Sunday school movement, the precursor to today's universal schooling.  In the mid-1700s, it was only boys from wealthy families who enjoyed education. Many were educated at home by tutors, while others were sent to grammar schools. The children of workers had no education.  The person credited with founding the Sunday School movement was a newspaper editor called Robert Raikes (1736-1811) from Gloucester (although before him, there were Sunday schools before that at High Wycombe and Nottingham). Raikes took an interest in the inmates at Gloucester Prison, and discovered many of them came from very disadvantag

1483     Luther born 1510     Luther's trip to Rome 1513     Luther begins his work as a lecturer at Wittenberg university  1517     95 Theses 1518     Heidelberg disputation 1519     Leipzig disputation (Eck)  1520     Luther writes three key pamphlets  1521     Luther's excommunication by the Pope enters into force.                Luther stands trial before Diet of Worms               Luther whisked away to hiding place in Wartburg Castle In Luther's absence, others undertook the reform of the church locally, including radical elements such as the Zwickau prophets (Carlstadt, Zwilling and others)      1522     Luther completes translation of the New Testament into German in Wartburg Castle                 Luther returns to Wittenberg and restores order, preaching on eight consecutive days.    1524     Luther's followers go to different places bringing the new teaching, e.g. Latvia (1524), Denmark (1525)  1524-5  Peasants' uprising led by Thomas Muntzer; Luther sid

The Protestant Reformation began in the German university town of Wittenberg with a young Christian academic and monk by the name of Martin Luther.  Martin Luther's journey to faith had not been easy; it can be described as "search for a merciful God". Originally training to be a lawyer, he was caught in a thunderstorm and, fearing for his life, vowed to become a monk. In due course he took the vows to become a monk, was ordained as a priest, and from 1508 worked as a lecturer in Holy Scripture at the recently founded Wittenberg university. Despite Luther's intense commitment, he felt he could never do enough and was left without assurance of God's mercy. However, as Luther taught his way through Psalms and then Romans, his search for assurance of forgiveness led him to rediscover the truth of salvation in Christ as a gift given by God and received by mere faith. This new evangelical faith was at odds with his experience of church, which offered an endless cycle o