The Pearl of Great Price

Send us Fan Mail Today we remember how Popes commissioned and Blessed the redesigned Trevi Fountain.  The City of Rome has closely been linked to the rise and fall of the Papacy. 

Send us Fan Mail Michelangelo's Pieta is one of the greatest sculptures of all time, and today it was attacked by a Hungarian Geologist and seriously damaged. 

Send us Fan Mail The first ecumenical (Global ) Church Council and the Creed that came from it 

Send us Fan Mail Today in 2016 saw the first-ever meeting between a Pope and the head of the Russian Orthodox church, we discuss how it came about and what will come of it

Send us Fan Mail Today we look at a remarkable character and his powerful witness against slavery, Benjamin Lay.  We also look at the spiritual movement, the Quakers, that formed him.  Their impressive legacy of social reform and famous businesses. 

Send us Fan Mail Today we remember the apocalyptical and puritanical Savanarola and his Bonfire of the Vanities that was lit today in Florence in 1497

Send us Fan Mail Jos - the capital of the Plateau state in Nigeria's Central Belt is also a flashpoint for tension and violence between the Christian South and the Muslim North  

Send us Fan Mail Today we remember how the Vatican placed the Pascals Provincial Letters on the Index. He was a brilliant French polymath, the inventor of the syringe and a promoter of an exaggerated theology called Jansenism

Send us Fan Mail Archbishop Josef Beran of Prague defied both the Nazis and the Communists. He nearly died of typhus in Dachau concentration camp and after the iron curtain fell was placed under 16 years house arrest by the Communists. He was only allowed to leave the then Czechoslovakia to go to Rome to be made a cardinal - on the condition he didn't return. He died in exile

Send us Fan Mail Rafailo Momčilović was a celebrated Orthodox painter (writer)  of Icons. He was murdered by the fascist Ustase in Croatia whilst they were a Nazi puppet government 

Send us Fan Mail The discovery and publication of the Heliand started to explain a historical mystery.  How were the warrior Germanic Cultures subsumed into Christendom? This life of Christ in Old Norse is now an invaluable epic poem in a forgotten language

Send us Fan Mail The translations and summaries of Orthodox wisdom from Fr Seraphim Rose became valued as illegal Samizdat, material banned and shared in a clandestine manner under Communism. We look at the life and conversion of this monk who died at a young age after live a harsh asceticism

Send us Fan Mail The Friendship between Jesuit Priest Ed Dowling and the founder of the AA Bill Wilson was deep and rich,  We look at how Dowling became his advisor and sponsor and how he integrated the Ignatian Exercises into the 12 step programme

Send us Fan Mail Matthias Grunewald masterpiece was commissioned by the Antonite Monks at Isenheim.  His depiction of an excruciating crucifixion is now iconic and was commissioned in the context of a monastery that was treating victims of the plague and skin disease

Send us Fan Mail When Ben Chambers became the Methodist Minister at St Domingo's chapel he started the 'Band of Hope' putting on activities to distract youngsters from drink.  Thus Everton FC was born and then its younger brother - the more successful Liverpool FC

Send us Fan Mail Today Michael Faraday induced the first electrical current - this would change civilization.  Not formally educated - his enquiring mind was underpinned by his faith - we explore this today 

Send us Fan Mail Paul VI opened the Second Conference of Latin American Bishops in Medellin, Colombia.  This was influenced by the Brazilian educationalist Paolo Freire and his theory on 'conscientisation'.  The conference endorsed the 'preferential option for the poor' and base Christian communities. This was the start of what would become known as Liberation Theology. 

Send us Fan Mail Enrique Shaw was a successful lifelong businessman from Argentina.  As he was dying awaiting for a life saving blood transfusion - hundreds of his employees queued outside the hospital to give him their blood

Send us Fan Mail  Adrian of Ondrusuv sacrificed his estate to become a monk after meeting a holy hermit. Ivan the Terrible. a tyrant  and cruel leader asked him to be the godfather at his daughters baptism 

Send us Fan Mail Friedrich Nietzsche died today in 1900 - one of the most influential intellectuals of the modern era.  His relationship with God is much more complex than the famous statement that 'God is dead' Today we explore it and his life

Send us Fan Mail Today approximately 2000 puritans resigned their pulpits as deadline came for forced assent to the Book of Common Prayer. We look at the remarkable impact they have had in both Britain and North America

Send us Fan Mail The Taize ecumenical monastic community in France was founded by Roger Schultz in the ashes of WW2.  It still attracts thousands of young people every year as a community of reconciliation. Brother Roger was stabbed in the neck by a young Romanian woman. 

Send us Fan Mail De Lubac was one of the most influential theologians of the 20th Century. His experience of WW1 and WW2 was followed by 10 years being banned from teaching by the Vatican. He was appointed cardinal by Pope John Paul 2, the first one to be named without being a bishop in the modern era

Send us Fan Mail In his will dated today - Lord Adam Gifford, a Scottish Judge - bequeathed a large amount of money to annual lectureship in Natural Theology. Held in  Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and  St Andrews they have been very influential 

Send us Fan Mail Bultmann was one of the most influential post-war theologians in the quest for the historical Jesus.  His theory of 'demytholigisation' however is now widely discredited ,,,, we explore why