These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

Joseph of Nazareth, Witness to Jesus

Although Christian tradition tends to refer to Jesus as ‘son of Mary’, the Gospels also preserve a clear indication that he was also known to be the ‘son of Joseph’ (Luke 4:22; John 1:45; 6:42). Joseph appears primarily in the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke. There he is named as the ‘husband’ of Mary through betrothal (Matthew 1:16, 18, 20). His importance for the gospel writers lies initially in his Davidic ancestry (Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:27) which indicates that Jesus, as Israel’s Messiah, is seen as a part of the Davidic line (see Luke 1:32). This claim underlies the most famous story involving Joseph: the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in response to a purported imperial census. The story is only told in Luke 2:1–7, but an association with Bethlehem is presupposed by Matthew 2:1–6. In addition to supporting the notion that his son is to be Israel’s Messiah, Joseph is portrayed as a person who is faithful to the Jewish law (see Luke 2:27, 39). On hearing the news of Mary’s pregnancy, his concern to secure a quiet divorce is regarded as the action of a ‘righteous man’ (Matthew 1:19). However, it is his obedience to the revelation from God about Mary’s pregnancy by the Holy Spirit that marks Joseph out as faithful: ‘he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him’ (Matthew 1:24). As a recipient of dreams, Joseph is aligned with his Old Testament namesake, as does his exile to Egypt in the face of Herod’s violence (see Matthew 2:13–15, 19–23). The other mentions of Joseph in the New Testament associate him with Jesus’ upbringing in Nazareth (see Luke 2:51–52; Matthew 2:23), a village of around two thousand people, where it is likely that Joseph plied his trade as a ‘woodworker’, a broader and more appropriate term than the more usual ‘carpenter’ (see Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3, noting the variant reading). Joseph’s relative absence from the rest of the Jesus tradition is usually explained by the suggestion that he had died by the time Jesus began his public ministry, but our sources are silent.

Thus, whatever the historical or biological realities behind the Gospel accounts, Joseph of Nazareth is there remembered as a central character in the story of God’s saving purpose. His faithfulness to God, not least in the face of tyranny and violence, ensures that Israel’s ‘mighty saviour from the house of his servant David’ (Luke 1:69) is kept safe and is able to ‘increase in wisdom and in years’ (Luke 2:52).

Rev Dr Sean Winter

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

Ninian, Christian Pioneer

We know very little about Ninian and even then the ‘facts’ are disputed. He was reputedly the son of a chieftain who had converted to Christianity and he came from either Cumbria, or the South-West of Scotland.  Christianity had spread during the time of Roman occupation and three Bishops from Britain had travelled to the Council of Arles in 314AD. Ninian, who would have been a Roman citizen, is said to have travelled to Rome to study. In Rome he was ordained and consecrated as a bishop, being sent back to his native Britain around 397AD, in order to evangelize his fellow Britons and take the Gospel to the Southern Picts, in what became, much later, Scotland.

Some historians believe that this work of conversion was done by Columba some 150 years later and not by Ninian. It is believed that Ninian was active from 397 to 431AD.

On arrival he is said to have had a monastery built on the north shore of the Solway Firth by masons from St. Martin’s Monastery in Tours, Gaul. This became known as the Great Monastery and it was from here that he, and those he gathered around him, set out on their missionary tours. It is possible that this building was known as Ad Candidam Casam, from the Latin meaning “At the White House”.  It would appear to have been painted with a whitewash. It is possible that it was built with white stone, although this would have been unusual to that time. His monastery probably gave the name to the town now known, as Whithorn.

The earliest reference to Ninian and to the White House is from Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, writing around 731AD, almost four hundred years later. In this he says that he is just passing on the knowledge that was traditional at the time of his writing. He does not claim that what he writes is factual. He tells us that Ninian called his monastery after St. Martin of Tours and it is possible that he had met Martin on his way back from Rome. Martin died in the same year that Ninian travelled back to Britain.

Part of Bede’s agenda was to say that Ninian had not been part of the Celtic Church, but loyal to the Roman way of being church.

The first history of Ninian was not written till the 12^th Century when Aelred, who was Abbot of the monastery at Rievaulx in Yorkshire, wrote his “Life of Saint Ninian”. By this time many monasteries and places associated with saints from the past had histories written in order to promote their Centre, in order to encourage the pilgrimage trade. It is thought that Aelred was asked by the Bishop of Galloway to write the history to promote his Bishopric.

In his history, Aelred says that Ninian performed a number of miracles both before and after his death. So it is possible that the history was to help secure his sainthood.

After the history was written, Whithorn and Ninian’s tomb, became a very important Centre of pilgrimage.

Written by Rev Peter Welsh

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

Patrick, Christian pioneer

Patrick (c390-c461) was born in Roman Britain. We know little about his life other than what is revealed in his Confession, his Letter to the soldiers of Coroticus, and the Breastplate of St. Patrick, which may have been written by him. All other knowledge is just legends. Accounts of Patrick’s life are so drawn-out (his own Confession) or overblown (later hagiography) that most of what we know about him can neither be proven nor discredited conclusively.

In the field of Celtic history, almost everything we read reflects a political point the author wishes to make. Bede, for example, makes no mention of Patrick. This omission tells us a lot about Bede. He was interested, following the Council of Whitby, in showing how those who had taken the Roman view regarding the date of Easter and the tonsure, were in his eyes correct; those who didn’t were clearly wrong. Bede had no place for Patrick.

Patrick himself was most likely British in origin, and, after being enslaved by an Irish warlord, and then escaping to the Continent, he returned to Britain before evangelizing Ireland. His mission was not to the British; he said his missionary impulse was fuelled by “a vision in my dreams of a man who seemed to come from Ireland—a vision like the apostle Paul’s at Troas.”

Patrick had been sent as a replacement for Palladius who had died shortly after his arrival in Ireland. Whereas Palladius, whose mission lasted about one year, was interested in those who were already Christians, Patrick, it seems, had a missionary zeal to convert the Scots (Irish). It is believed that Patrick embarked upon the first significant missionary endeavour in 432.

While Patrick does not appear to have represented Rome officially, his time on the Continent may have included monastic training; he appears to have studied at a monastery in Gaul. Patrick was ordained a priest and bishop, and this suggests he would have at least been exposed to current thinking and policies from the papacy.
He then travelled to Ireland, where over the course of several years, he converted thousands of people to Christianity, including several Irish kings. Anglo-Saxon warlords made the process very difficult for Patrick and his converts, however. Coroticus, a king from western Britain, swept in and did extensive damage in Northern Ireland, killing many Christians or taking them prisoner.

Irish monasticism as implemented by Patrick continued to grow nonetheless. This monasticism was very similar to that throughout Europe.  This form of Monasticism was based on a diocesan approach but within a few years it had become a monastery-based model with a bishop being head of the monastery. Sometime after the death of Patrick the church in Ireland was reorganised on a thoroughgoing monastic basis. The chief person becomes the Abbot not the Bishop. Monasteries were often the only available means of obtaining a useful education.

It is worthwhile noting that Patrick denounced slavery during his life, and the practice was discontinued shortly after his death.

The hymn ‘I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity’ (TIS 478) is attributed to Patrick.

Rev Peter Welsh (alt)

These weekly “People to Commemorate” posts are a kind of calendar for the commemoration of the saints, reproduced here from a Uniting Church Assembly document which can be found in full here. They are intended for copying and pasting into congregational pew sheets on the Sunday closest to the nominated date.

Images (where provided) are of icons by Peter Blackwood; click on the image to download a high resolution copy of the image.

Martin Bucer, Reformer of the Church

Martin Bucer (1491-1551) is a sympathetic and somewhat neglected figure of the Reformation. Among the divisions that came so quickly to plague the Protestant movement, he was an advocate for reconciliation and dialogue. Born in Alsace, Bucer became a Dominican friar at an early age, but while studying in his twenties he was influenced by Erasmus and Martin Luther. He married a former nun and began preaching the new doctrines, was excommunicated, and was eventually received as a pastor in Strasbourg in 1524. He remained there for most of his life as a leader of the Reformed church. Changes in the political scene eventually forced him to flee to England, where he arrived in 1549. Before his death in 1551 he had come to have a significant influence on the English Reformation, including the second (1552) Prayer Book of Edward VI.

Bucer watched with dismay the dissipating factions of the early Reformation. Throughout his years in Strasbourg, he strove to foster dialogue between Lutheran and Swiss Protestants, and even with Anabaptists and Catholics, apparently believing in the possibility of a reunified church. In this sense, Bucer was a forerunner of the modern ecumenical movement. In the enduring conflict of interpretations over Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, Bucer maintained the unusual opinion that Zwingli and Luther were simply at cross-purposes. In his own thought, he had reconciled their differences—agreeing with Zwingli that Christ remained in heaven, he nevertheless believed that the Eucharistic elements really participated in Christ’s body and blood “after a heavenly manner”. Through the sanctification of their senses by the Holy Spirit, Christians apprehend heavenly things on earth. Unfortunately, the rival theologians were not persuaded that their disagreements were so illusory. Perhaps Bucer anticipated not just the zeal and goodwill of modern ecumenism but also its failures, in underestimating the depth of the differences to be overcome, and relying too readily on formulae of accord.

Bucer also placed a high value on pastoral discipline and the formation of mutually supportive Christian communities. This emphasis underpins the continuing importance he attached to Confirmation. He regarded it as a “personal ratification of the baptismal covenant”, a view which influenced many Protestant churches to retain a form of this rite. Ordination too, without being called a “sacrament” as such, retained a highly sacramental flavour in Bucer’s thought, reflecting both the centrality of ecclesial office in his understanding of the church, and his faith in the real effectiveness of the Holy Spirit through human words and actions in the liturgy. It is fitting that Bucer left us no church in his own name—his desire was for integration. But his influence was felt by those who more permanently shaped the young churches, especially Calvin, who had closely observed his work in Strasbourg, and Cranmer, a long-term correspondent and a friend in the last years of exile. Through such figures as these his legacy has been communicated to later Protestant generations.

Martin Wright