Newsletter July 2025

Dear friends

Be brave!

I wonder, what do you think makes someone brave? Which people, either famous or from your own life, do you consider brave?

When you do a Google search for brave people from history: a range of individuals pop up. From Nelson Mandela to Rosa Parks, Greta Thunberg to Martin Luther King.

Likewise, when you explore brave people from the Bible, so many individuals are highlighted. There’s Daniel in the lion’s den, David facing Goliath, Deborah leading her people into battle.

For me personally, my favourite courageous person in the Bible is Jesus. Throughout his life, Jesus offers us many examples of speaking up against injustice and embodying love and compassion in his encounters with individuals who are marginalised.

And we too, can be courageous in following this example.
When we speak up for all who are affected by the climate emergency
When we speak up against the proposed disability benefit cuts
When we speak up for the dignity of our transgender siblings.

In her book How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington Cathedral, Marriann Budde, writes that these are courageous ‘moments that shape our lives and make us the people we are and who God calls us to become.’

This summer, I invite us to consider how we can be brave as individuals and as a church in our world today.

Nicola 

The picture above Nicola’s letter on bravery is of the nave screen of martyrs in St Alban’s Cathedral. They all showed the ultimate bravery – giving their lives for their beliefs.

Four are martyrs with local connections – St Alban, the priest Amphibalus, the Catholic priest Alban Roe, and Protestant George Tankerfield.

Three lived in the 20th Century and represent the cathedral’s ecumenical congregations – Russian Orthodox St Elisabeth Romanova, German Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Roman Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Oscar Romero – Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador, under a totalitarian regime, he condemned poverty, social injustice and torture until his assassination during Mass in 1980.


St Alban Roe – a Roman Catholic, imprisoned for a time in St Albans Abbey Gatehouse and hanged in London in 1642 having been found guilty of treason for being a Roman Catholic priest.

St Amphibalus – a Christian priest sheltered by Alban, when Christianity was forbidden.


St Alban – The first British saint, beheaded in Roman Verulamium on the site of the Abbey in the third century AD.

George Tankerfield – a cook, native of York, he was horrified by the persecutions by Papists under Mary. Arrested in St Alban’s and burnt at the stake for his convictions.


St Elisabeth Romanova – a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Married into the Russian Royal Family, she embraced the Orthodox Church, becoming a nun and Abbess after her husband died. She was murdered in 1918 by the Bolsheviks.


Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Lutheran pastor and theologian, sent to a Nazi concentration camp, tried with neither witness nor defence, he was hanged in April 1945.

Dear Lord,
When I feel nervous or out of place, remind me that I am never alone. Let your presence give me confidence in every interaction. Help me speak with love, stand in truth and show kindness without fear. Amen.

SUNDAY, 13TH JULY – A SERVICE OF HYMNS AND READINGS

A reminder that this is your Service and that Ian Lawrie and Aleck Brownjohn will use your choice of hymns and Bible Readings to compose the Service. Please let Aleck know of your choices, via email if possible, to aleck.brownjohn@ntlworld.com by 6th July at the latest.

Ian requests that it would be particularly appropriate if you are able to choose a hymn that reflects a passage in the Bible.

THE GUILD LUNCH

The lunch comes early in the month this July, so please make sure you have the date in your diary – Tuesday, 8th July. All are welcome if you are free that week. We meet at about 12.30pm and the cost is £4.