Our Heritage

Romans 16 v10

Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus

Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre (AD 303): ‘Aristobulus, whom Paul saluted when writing in the book of Romans was Bishop of Britain’ also ‘Simon Zelotes preached Christ….(and) was crucified in Britannia…’

Gildas

The Welsh monk and historian, Gildas (AD 516-570) wrote: ‘These islands received the beams of light, that is, the holy precepts of Christ, the true sun at the latter part, as we know, of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (AD 14 -37)

Eusebius

The Jewish historian Eusebius (AD 260-340) was a pupil of Dorotheus. He wrote: ‘The apostles passed beyond the ocean to the isles called the Britannic Isles.’

Tertullian

The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is from Tertullian of Carthage who wrote in AD 210: ‘all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ.’

Bede

Bede who wrote the Ecclesiastical History of the English People record the English King, Lucius, receiving the Christian faith in AD 156

Sophronius

Sophronius, Bishop of Jerusalem in AD 600 remarks, ‘Paul, doctor of the gentiles, passed over the ocean to the island that makes a haven on the other side, even to the lands of the Britons.’ (Paul’s fourth missionary journey AD 62-67?)

St. Alban

The first Christian martyr in Britain (according to legend) was St. Alban under the persecution of Diocletian (284 – 305). At that time the Roman General Constantius governed Britain and managed to check the persecution in these lands. Alban received into his house a fleeing clergyman and was converted. Later he exchanged identities with the priest to help his escape and was captured and executed.

Constantine Legend has it Constantius

later married Helena, daughter of King Cole and their son Constantine the Great (who became Emperor while in York in AD 312) converted to Christianity in 313 AD making Christianity the state religion.

Britain's First Roman Church? (AD 330)

St Martin’s, Canterbury

St. Augustine St Martin's was the private chapel of Queen Bertha of Kent in the

6th century before Augustine arrived from Rome. Queen Bertha was a Christian Frankish princess who arrived in England with her Chaplain, Bishop Liudhard. King Æthelberht of Kent, her pagan husband, allowed her to continue to practise her religion by renovating (ca. AD 580) an existing church which the Venerable Bede says had been in use in the late Roman period but had fallen into disuse. As Bede specifically names it, this church was dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, a city located near where Bertha grew up.

Upon Augustine's arrival he used St Martin's as his mission headquarters, immediately enlarging it (AD 597), and King Æthelberht was soon baptised here. With the quickly subsequent establishments of Canterbury Cathedral and St Augustine's Abbey, St Martin's lost prestige but retains its priority and historical importance.

Patrick (Saul, Downpatrick)

Columba (Iona)

Aidan (Lindisfarne)

Cedd (St Peter’s)

The Lollards (14th century)

The Reformation (16th & 17th centuries)

First Awakening (18th century)

Pentecostal & Welsh Revivals(20th century)

21st century??

Tiptree Congregational Chapel

The Peculiar People

St Luke’s (1856)

Revival

Arthur Charles Wilkin

Psalm 78 v2-4

I will utter hidden things, things from of old – what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children; we will tell the next generation.