March - 2021

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Mar 31, 2021
3 min

Apr 1 - The Last Supper

Today we remember the foundation Christian meal of the Last Supper. Looking at Colin Humphrey's research we can historically date it to Weds Apr 1st year 33. Researching the different ancient calendars that were used - and the differing accounts of the Gospels he puts forward his argument below F. F. Bruce, was a British biblical scholar who focused on the historical reliability of the New Testament. His first book, New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? , published in

Mar 31 John Donne : Pre-eminent Metaphysical Poet

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 31, 2021
4 min

Mar 31 John Donne : Pre-eminent Metaphysical Poet

Today we remember the birth of John Donne in 1572, considered now to be the preeminent metaphysical poet of his time. A group that also includes George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Andrew Marvell, and John Cleveland. After a resurgence in his popularity in the early 20th century, Donne’s standing as a great English poet, and one of the greatest writers of English prose, is now assured. Born into a persecuted Catholic family he died as well respected and prestigious Anglican cl

Mar 30 Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 31, 2021
4 min

Mar 30 Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation

Today in 1533 Thomas Cranmer was consecrated as the Archbishop of Canterbury in Westminster, London . Todays pod looks at his unlikely rise, how his theology changed during the reign of three monarchs and then his execution at the hands of Queen Mary. Although the consecration was both valid and licit as far as the Pope was concerned, historians now consider this as the start of the English Reformation. It was an ecclesial office that he would occupy for the reigns of Henr

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 28, 2021
4 min

Mar 29 The Foundling Hospital in London

Today we remember how Thomas Coram, an English naval captain started the Foundling Hospital for abandoned children in 1751 in London. Shocked by the sight of abandoned newborns in the streets of London, he though this was a scandal in a the biggest and wealthiest Christian city in the world at the time. This is his story. The oldest charities in Britain have been around for nearly nine hundred years, an example of which would be The Hospital of St Cross in Winchester which st

Mar 28 AshBarrell Jimmie and the US Salvation Army

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Mar 27, 2021
3 min

Mar 28 AshBarrell Jimmie and the US Salvation Army

Today in 1885 the Salvation Army was officially organized in the USA, a year later it was endorsed by President Grover Cleveland. We look at how they established themselves in New York through Ashbarrel Jimmie. Very high profile at Christmas time, they assist approximately 23 million Americans annually although the litiginous climate in the US is making charitable work much more complicated. The church has an extensive outreach of local programs designed to offer immediate r

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 26, 2021
3 min

Mar 27 Meister Eckharts eco-mysticism

Today in 1329 Pope John XXII issued a bull condemning some writings of Meister Eckhart as heretical. In todays pod we look at his writing and his preaching, why was it so popular? What were the effects of it and why has he made a resurgence in the last century? Johannes Eckhart, was German theologian, philosopher, and mystic, and a member of the Dominican order. He was known as Meister as a sign of the esteem he was held in locally, and also a reference to the Masters in Th

Mar 26 The mixed legacy of Ravi Zacharias

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Mar 26, 2021
3 min

Mar 26 The mixed legacy of Ravi Zacharias

Today in 1946 in Madras, India controversial Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias was born. He inspired a generation of apologists and founded the RZIM (Ravi Zacharias International Ministry). The author of more than 30 books on Christianity and the host of multiple radio shows, he was widely esteemed in the Evangelical Community. However, in his final years and after his death, multiple credible allegations of sexual misconduct emerged, from different countries. RZIM issued

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 26, 2021
3 min

Mar 25 The emperor who became a monk

Today in 717 we travel to Constantinople when Emperor Theodosius III abdicated and retired to a monastery with his son. In the podcast below we look at the rise of the Byzantine Empire and also touch upon the tragic fourth crusade which got out of control and ended up in the sacking of Constantinople, which sealed the schism between the eastern and western churches. Theodosius had been a reluctant emperor in the first place, an obscure tax collector of southwestern Asia Mino

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 23, 2021
4 min

Mar 24 Papal Inderdicts and Magna Carta

Today in 1208 Pope Innocent III placed an interdict on the whole of England prohibiting clergy from conducting religious services. It was the last time public daily mass would be stopped in Britain until the coronavirus lockdowns of 2020. King John treated the interdict as a papal declaration of war. Back in 1208, the antagonists in this situation were Pope Innocent III and King John of England. John is viewed by most historians as being a poor ruler because of his inabili

Mar 23 The Football League & William McGregor

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Mar 22, 2021
4 min

Mar 23 The Football League & William McGregor

Today in Andertons Hotel in Fleet Street, London, a meeting was held which led to the formation of the football league. Organised by a Scottish businessmen and director of Aston Villa, William McGregor. A committed Christian and teetotaller, McGregor had transformed the club to compete in the age of an emerging professionalism in sport. He now wanted to ensure regular fixtures and reliable crowds to start paying the wages. This is his story, the story of Aston Villa and

Mar 22 - The Great Awakening & Jonathan Edwards

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 22, 2021
3 min

Mar 22 - The Great Awakening & Jonathan Edwards

Today we remember the revivalist preacher Jonathan Edwards who died today in 1758. His legacy is significant and the ripples from his preaching spread out all over the world. The most important theologian and philosopher of British American Puritanism, and stimulator of the religious revival known as the “Great Awakening,” A forerunner of the age of Protestant missionary expansion in the 19th century. The grave of Edwards is located in Princeton Cemetery and it stands out for

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 21, 2021
4 min

Mar 21 - Papier Mache Papal Tiara

Today in an extra-ordinary ceremony Pius VII was crowned Pope in a Benedictine Monastery with a temporary papal tiara made of papier-mâché. The period between the death of a Pope and the gathering of a conclave to elect a new one is referred to as a sede vacante period, to indicate that the chair of Peter is empty. The church leadership had been driven out of Rome after French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte had invaded and captured the previous Pope Pius VI, taking him as

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 18, 2021
3 min

Mar 20 Death of Cuthbert in Lindisfarne

Today we go back to year 687 and travel to Lindisfarne in the North of England and remember the life of St Cuthbert who died today. Curiously his legacy and fame seems to have strengthened as time has stretched on. Cuthbert was born in North Northumbria at the same time which Aidan founded the monastery on Lindisfarne, a small rock island off the coast of Northumbria. You can listen to the podcast below - an abbreviated section of the script is following The turning point in

Mar 19 The Worlds Bloodiest Civil War - Taiping

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 18, 2021
3 min

Mar 19 The Worlds Bloodiest Civil War - Taiping

Today we remember how in 1860 the Taiping rebels succeeded in taking the city of Hangzhou in China, in what would become the bloodiest civil war in world history. Their leader was the self-proclaimed prophet Hong Xiuquan who believed he was the brother of Jesus Christ. The Taiping Rebellion lasted fourteen years and estimates of the dead range from 20 to 30 million, with a recent Chinese study estimating up to 70 million. Fought against the Qing dynasty, for 10 years it was c

Mar 18 Charles Spurgeon 'Prince amongst preachers'

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 17, 2021
3 min

Mar 18 Charles Spurgeon 'Prince amongst preachers'

Today in 1861 the famous Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon moved his growing congregation to the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. The newly constructed purpose-built church at Elephant and Castle, seated 5,000 people with standing room for another 1,000. It was the largest church of its day and Spurgeon continued to preach there several times per week until his death 31 years later. He never gave altar calls at the conclusion of his sermons, but he always extended t

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 16, 2021
3 min

Mar 17 The Mormon Relief Society

On this day in Christian History we go back to year 1842 and travel to Illinois when today the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is formed. One of the oldest and largest women's organizations in the world it has more than 7 million members in over 188 countries and territories. However like all churches, the activity rates for members is up to 40%. As the church counts anyone as a member who was baptized unless the formally resign. There are ab

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 16, 2021
3 min

Mar 16 Founding of the Red Cross

Today we travel to Washington where the Senate ratified the first Geneva Convention of 1864, legitimatizing the International Red Cross and the American Red Cross. The Modern Red Cross’s roots date to 1859, when Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the bloody aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in Italy, in which there was little medical support for injured soldiers. Dunant was born in Geneva into a devoutly Calvinist family, his parents stressed the value of social work

Mar 15 Cardinal Manning & Catholic Social Teaching

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 15, 2021
3 min

Mar 15 Cardinal Manning & Catholic Social Teaching

Today in 1875, Henry Edward Manning was made a cardinal at a consistory convoked by Pope Pius IX, and unusually for Cardinals in the Catholic Church, Manning was a widowed man. A convert to Catholicism, having been ordained in the Church of England, sadly his marriage had not lasted long: his young and beautiful wife had died childless of consumption. Understood then simply as a wasting disease but now it would be classified as pulmonary tuberculosis. When Manning himself die

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 13, 2021
3 min

Mar 14 Dr Livingstone I Presume

On this day in Christian History we go back to year 1871 and travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa where today the journalist Henry Stanley and explorer-missionary Dr David Livingstone parted company, after five months in Africa together. Livingstone had been missing in Africa for four years, and although already famous of his mapping work in Africa, the British government had seemed uninterested in rescuing him. So the entrepreneurial editor of the New York H

Mar 13 Rev John Harvard and his university

Pearl of Great Price

Mar 12, 2021
3 min

Mar 13 Rev John Harvard and his university

Today we remember how Harvard College was established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was named after deceased clergyman John Harvard, who had left the school half of his monetary estate and his library of some 400 volumes. Harvard University considers him the most honoured of its founders—whose efforts and contributions in its early days ensured its permanence —and a statue in his honour is a prominent feature of Harvard Yar

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