|Milestones in the History of Our Church at Vellore|
A Brief History of St. Luke’s Orthodox Church
By the abundant grace of God Almighty St. Luke’s Orthodox Church, Vellore is privileged to celebrate the 71 years of the beginning of our worship in Vellore . Here is a brief history of how it all began.
A long time ago there was a small village in South India, set on the banks of a river, Palar, and surrounded by the edge of the eastern ghats. People living in and near the village referred it to as Vel-oor, the place of Velam trees. In the twentieth century this small village, Vellore, became world famous because of Christian Medical College, popularly known as C.M.C, Vellore. Another landmark which recently added to Vellore is VIT University.
The beginning of a New era:
Young Ida Sophia Scudder was the daughter of American missionary parents who lived in Vellore in late 1800’s. As she grew up she realized the need for medical help to the poor women and children and decided to study medicine in America. In 1900, she came back to Vellore as Dr. Ida S Scudder and started a clinic with one bed. Dr. Scudder’s vision and determined efforts helped this clinic to grow as the most renowned hospital of India, which at present serves over 2000 inpatients and 7000 out patients daily with devoted doctors, nurses and other staff members. Almost all the churches in India, including ours, have membership in the C.M.C. Council.
Orthodox worship at Vellore:
Dr. Ida Scudder’s fondest dream, a medical school for women came true in 1918 and it became a medical college for women in 1942; men were admitted from 1947. The rapid growth from a clinic to a medical college led to the coming of a number of students from Kerala. Many of them were Orthodox Christians who upheld their Orthodox identity. They met together for prayers regularly as a congregation. On the request of the students, Madras Church sent priest to Vellore to celebrate the first Holy Qurbana in 1944. After the formation of the Indian Orthodox Mission by the Late Metropolitan H.G Alexios Mar Theodosius, Rev. Fr. Kuriakose O.I.C., of Bethany Ashram came to Vellore from Coonoor and celebrated Holy Qurbana once in a month in All Saints Church (SPG). He continued this service till 1954.
On Jan. 18th, 1954, His Holiness Baselius Geevarghese II (Kurichy Bava) came for a surgery in C.M.C. His Holiness’ stay in Vellore was the point of the Orthodox Church here. His Holiness realized the need for a resident priest and appointed Rev. Fr. C.E. George in 1954 itself. He conducted service in the All Saints Church and C.M.C. Hospital Chapel. As a pioneer priest Fr. George had to undergo difficulties with regard to living facilities and finance, nevertheless as ideal priest he served the parish with pleasure and extended spiritual comfort and love to the patients in C.M.C. Hospital. He was here till 1962. A part of the Church plot was bought on 25th April 1959. Late Dr.P.Koshy & Late Mr.G.Idiculla have rendered invaluable service in initiating the purchase of the plot and construction of the Church.
Rev, Fr. C.M, Philipose served the parish in 1962-63. He was succeeded by Rev. Fr.K.K. Mathews (1964-67). (later H.G. Mathews Mar Barnabas) who rejuvenated the parish with his extraordinary spiritual leadership and service conducted with humility.
Rev Fr. M.A. Varghese Panicker (1967-70) (later Very Rev. Cyril Ramban). The next Vicar, contributed greatly to the construction of the present church in 1969. His Grace Thomas Mar Dionysious (the Council member of C.M.C) laid the foundation stone of the church and also consecrated the church on 6th May 1970. Late Rev. Fr. V.K. Chacko was appointed the next Vicar (1970-74). The finishing touches of the church was done during his tenure. Late Rev. Fr. C.V. John succeeded him. It was during his time that the parsonage was constructed and consecrated. Rev. Fr. P.C. Philip, Rev. Fr. Thomas Thalackkel, Rev. Fr. V.C. Jose, Rev.Fr. Mani K. Varghese, Rev. Fr. Philip Abraham , Rev. Fr. Biju P. Thomas, Rev.Fr. Thomas Issac, Rev.Fr.Iype Alex, Rev.Fr.Sanjay Pappachan, Rev.Fr.Aji Varghese, Rev.Fr. Abraham Thomas, Rev.Fr. Abey M Chacko, were the Vicars later. Rev. Fr.Joby George is the present Vicar of the Parish.
Ranipet, Chittoor and Ambur are neighboring places within a radius of about 40 km. from Vellore. Members from these places came to the church with great enthusiasm. Prayer meetings are held once a month in, Vellore, Chittoor and Ranipet. The parish has 69 family members and many nursing, medical , paramedical and engineering students.
The parish is proud of our member of the parish Rev. Fr. P.A. Johnson, Chittoor, who is the presently serving in Brahmavar Diocese.
The spiritual organizations of the church include prayer meeting, Sunday School and M.G.O.C.S.M. The students meet on all Saturday evening in C.M.C. and alternate Sunday for M.G.O.C.S.M. in church.
‘Snehabhavan’ a residential guidance center for patients who come to C.M.C. was first of its kind in Vellore. It is a part of the Madras Diocese’s charitable project. It was built by our first metropolitan His Grace Zachariah Mar Dionysious as a part of His Grace’s Shashtiabdipoorti celebrations.
The parish is now celebrating its 71 years of the beginning of our worship in Vellore and Silver Jubilee of Snehabhavan , under the leadership of Our beloved Diocesan Metropolitan H G Dr. Yuhanon Mar Diascoros on Aug.9, 2015. We request your prayers for the success of all activities of our parish. May the Lord give the parish great strength and use it for the furtherance of His Kingdom.
|Office Bearers 2014-15|
|Trustee : Joncy Abraham
Secretary : Dr C E Eapen
|Church Building fund support|
The Vellore corporation has decided to widen & double lane the road connecting our parish & they are about to acquire about three meters[10ft] of the land from either side of the road, thus causing a loss of area &infrastructure for our parish. The proposed plan shall affect us badly which shall partially damage the existing parsonage & completely demolish the Cross Tower and compound wall. Hence we are forced to relocate the parsonage at a convenient place within the church premises at the earliest.
The church committee has decided to construct a two-storied building which includes a multipurpose mini hall, an office, parsonage, Bishop’s room[many Bishops frequent Vellore for treatment],at an estimated cost of forty lakhs. We are a small parish comprising of fifty families & student community [both CMC HOSPITAL&VIT UNIVERSITY] with a hand to mouth existence, so its difficult to garner this amount locally. Hence we call upon social philanthropists, church members & well wishers within & outside India to donate generously & bail us out from this crunch.


The storied bravery and valor of North Country World War II veterans will be retold at SUNY Canton in honor of Veterans Day.
The College will be holding a Veterans’ Living History Ceremony at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, in the Richard W. Miller Campus Center’s Kingston Theater. It will be highlighting the recorded accounts of soldiers who served in all branches of the military in many notable battles. The Ceremony is free and open to the public and there will be a reception following the presentation.
“It’s our honor to recognize the brave soldiers who served during the war that permanently changed the world, and influenced our entire culture,” said SUNY Canton Acting President Joseph C. Hoffman. “These men stormed the beaches of Normandy and witnessed the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. They struggled against German occupation in France and beyond. Then, they came home and went about their lives in Northern New York.”
The event was created as a way to celebrate Veterans Day at the College and to spread the word about an ongoing project to collect oral histories from area veterans through the Southworth Library Learning Commons, according to Assistant Librarian Michael Magilligan.
“The project started when I was talking to a co-employee who has an 87-year-old neighbor who dropped out of high school to join the military,” Magilligan said. “I ended up interviewing 33 veterans from around the North Country. I feel as though I’ve captured the true experience of American servicemen during the Second World War.”
Many of the veterans Magilligan interviewed will be attending the event. Selections from their interviews, and photos they shared will be shown in a multi-media presentation assembled by the assistant librarian.
Each of the interviews will be housed on a database at SUNY Canton to provide future generations with a comprehensive understanding of World War II and how it
impacted the home front. The recordings will also submitted to the Library of Congress and the New York State Veterans’ History Museum in Saratoga.
Kenneth D. Kirkey, Massena, who was a radio operator and a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army selected for a secret mission, relayed his experience for the project. Kirkey was the last one out of his plane as it was shot down. “We were sent into Normandy two days before D-Day [June 6, 1944],” Kirkey recounted to Magilligan. “We had carrier pigeons and radios half the size of a table.”
In another account, Charles H. Alexander of Canton, who served in the U.S. Navy relayed his experience ferrying soldiers to and from the beaches of Normandy on Landing Ship, Tank (LST) vessels. “It’s scary at first, the first day or two, the first two or three trips. There’s a lot of combat going on,” he said. “But it kind of moves away. You get used it. You get calloused.”
Arnold Newkofsky, Canton, was a gunner on an LST for the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater. Newkofsky said that when he heard the alerts he’d rush to his weapon and point it at the sun, waiting for Japanese planes to descend upon them. “Everyday was D-Day,” he said.
Magilligan has recorded many other accounts portraying many vivid and intensely personal remembrances from numerous fronts and battles, including those by SUNY Canton Alumni Frank J. White, Canton, (class of 1938) and Otis E. Van Horne, Canton (class of 1942). Van Horne also taught in the Electrical Construction program at the College.
About SUNY Canton
SUNY Canton is Northern New York’s premier College for career-driven bachelor’s degrees, associate degrees and certificate programs. The College delivers quality hands-on programs in engineering technology, health, management, and public service to students in the North Country, New York State, and beyond. Faculty members are noted for their professional real-world experience in addition to their academic credentials. SUNY Canton OnLine offers hundreds of flexible and convenient courses as well as eight exclusively online bachelor’s degrees. The College’s 14 athletic teams compete in state-of-the-art facilities as provisional members of the NCAA Division III and the USCAA.


Highland Park synagogue recalls King visit
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. arrives at Congregation Solel in Highland Park on June 30, 1966. | Submitted photo
Updated: February 19, 2013 1:07PM
HIGHLAND PARK — Congregation Solel in Highland Park will honor Martin Luther King’s legacy with two services Friday, Jan. 18, and Friday, Jan. 25 — one remembering the congregation’s past ties to the civil rights movement, the other declaring education a pressing civil rights issue today.
In 1965, a delegation from the synagogue traveled to Selma, Ala., to join King on the historic march to Montgomery, Ala. In 1966, King spoke to an audience of about 1,000 at the synagogue in the midst of his fair housing campaign in Chicago. The congregation recently created an historical marker to remind future generations about the synagogue’s connections to King.
The service at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 18 will feature Lew Golan, a founding member of the congregation who participated in the 1965 march.
The service at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 25 will feature Marian McEllroy, former civil rights lawyer and past president of the Lake County NAACP. McEllroy helped to create the Envision Scholars program to help promising Waukegan High School students pursue their dream of attending a four-year college.
Congregation Solel has aligned with Envision Scholars, and dozens of its members are working closely with college-bound students to support their academic efforts and help them negotiate the college admissions process.
“We are creating ‘bookends’ to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King’s transformational role on our society,” said Robin Shapiro, the congregation’s vice president of social justice. “We believe it is of vital importance to pay tribute to the past, and it is equally important to commit to the pressing issues of today.”
Congregation Solel is located at 1301 Clavey Road, Highland Park.


The Pictorialism Portal aims first and foremost to enable research into the history of the imagery, publications, and exhibitions associated with art photography from around 1900 in the German-speaking realm. The portal also makes available the results of current research on Pictorialism in the form of papers that were presented at the international symposium “Inspirations – Interactions: Pictorialism Reconsidered,” held on November 21–23, 2013 at the Museum für Fotografie (The Museum for Photography) in Berlin.
Pictorialism Research Project
The Pictorialism Portal’s point of departure was a 16-month research project undertaken by the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (the art library of the National Museums of Berlin) to examine its own holdings of art photography from around 1900. At the heart of the project was the collection of Ernst Juhl, one of Pictorialism’s most important champions in Germany. In addition to this, indexing work on the Pictorialism research archive compiled by the photo historian Enno Kaufhold made it possible to contextualize the Kunstbibliothek’s own holdings in terms of other published and exhibited art photographs from the turn of the last century. The research project was made possible by generous support from the German Federal Commissioner for Culture and Media.
Art Photography around 1900
The project’s focus is on one of the most varied chapters in the history of photography. Aesthetically, the current of art photography around 1900 – also known as amateur photography (or, in German, “bildmässige Fotografie,” a direct translation “pictorial photography” and therefore also called Piktorialismus) – was above all characterized by the reciprocal inspiration between photography, painting, and the other graphic arts. From the 1880s on, extremely ambitious amateur photographers began to appear on the scene, organized into local associations. Their goal was to achieve recognition for photography as an art form. Their exchanges were based on regular exhibitions, publications, and association periodicals. Unlike the established professional studios of the day, these art photographers held aesthetic convictions, experimented with elaborate printing techniques, and tried out new compositional means. The painterly and graphic textures of the Pictorialist photographers make it possible to recognize the proximity to painting and the influence, in particular, of Impressionism, Jugendstil, and Symbolism. The primary motifs of art photography around 1900 were portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes.
The Kunstbibliothek’s Collection of Art Photography around 1900
The research project’s point of departure was the collection of Ernst Juhl (1850–1915), one of the most significant supporters of the art photography movement in Europe. The independently wealthy Juhl came from a family of Hamburg businessmen and was active on behalf of photography’s “artistic emancipation” as a curator, exhibition organizer, editor of the Photographische Rundschau, writer, and jury member at international exhibitions, in addition to his significant activities as a collector. His collection, assembled between 1893 and 1911, encompasses some eight hundred works, making it one of the most comprehensive private collections of Pictorialism of its day. Portions of it were first shown in Berlin in 1910 in an exhibition at the Königliche Kunstgewerbemuseum (the Royal Museum for Decorative Arts). After Juhl’s death, two institutions purchased portions of the collection: the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum of Arts and Crafts) in Hamburg and the Bibliothek des Berliner Kunstgewerbemuseum (the Library of the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts) – the forerunner of today’s Kunstbibliothek. Other parts of the estate were destroyed during World War II.
Together with the Matthies-Masuren Collection, the Juhl Collection, which has now been opened up to researchers and conservators, constitutes the core holdings of turn-of-the-century art photography at the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. From the 1890s on, the painter and writer Fritz Matthies-Masuren (1873–1938) was as energetic as Ernst Juhl in addressing the art aspirations of amateur photography. His collection first arrived at the Kunstbibliothek as a loan and then, from 1924 on, as a permanent part of the library. It was presented and published by Christine Kühn in 2003. In addition to these two major estates, there are numerous additional individual prints, pieces of job printing, albums, and groups of works in the Kunstbibliothek’s holdings that can be categorized as Pictorialist. Altogether, some 680 Pictorialist works from the Kunstbibliothek are available for examination on the Pictorialism Portal, including 162 from the Juhl Collection and 141 from the Matthies-Masuren Collection.
Claudia Pfeiffer, Ulrich Rüter, and Lars Spengler


The Boat Shoe
Boating shoes actually have a fairly short history. Traditional boat shoes were created by Paul Sperry in 1935. If you couldn’t tell by the name, Paul Sperry is directly tied to the “Sperry” brand.
These were and are leather or canvas shoes, designed for boating. Tread patterns on the sole of the shoe deterred slipping on boat decks.
Now we see these shoes as popular in fashion or everyday use. We should not forget what they were really made for, and where they came from. Boats and Paul Sperry!


In 1987, John and Carol Arnott, Jeremy and Connie Sinnott and a number of others gathered to begin a new Vineyard church in Toronto. We met in the gymnasium at Bloorlea Junior School and then in the Silverthorn high school auditorium. Early on, God called us to healing of the heart, experiencing the love of the Father and hearing His voice.
In _____, we moved to the Dixie location, where the "renewal" broke out.
In January of 1994, a little church on the end of a runway at Pearson International Airport in Toronto came to the world's attention as a place where God chose to meet with His people. As a result of this divine visitation, the members of what was at that time the Toronto Airport Vineyard were thrust into ministry to thousands of people worldwide.
The Toronto Blessing is a transferable anointing. In its most visible form it overcomes worshipers with outbreaks of laughter, weeping, groaning, shaking, falling and "drunkenness". Of greater significance, however, are the changed lives.
The renewal came to what was then the Toronto Airport Vineyard through visiting pastor Randy Clark of St. Louis, Missouri. What was originally planned as a series of four meetings exploded into a marathon of services which were being held every night of the week except Mondays for twelve years.
In early September of 1995, cumulative attendance at what was later to become known as the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship was about 600,000, including approximately 20,000 Christian leaders and 200,000 first-time visitors from virtually every country and denomination. Attendance at evening services then numbered in the thousands, and ministry was carried out by a trained, 45-member team. Within twenty months of the beginning of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, 9,000 people had made a first-time commitment to Christ at the Toronto Airport Vineyard. Church membership tripled in size to about 1,000 regular members from 360 in early 1994.
The original 425-seat facility became overextended by the summer of 1994. Waiting lines formed at five o'clock outside the doors in mid-winter, which opened at seven. Later in November, a former conference centre on Attwell Drive, east of the airport, became available for rent.
Senior pastor John Arnott signed a lease to rent with an option to buy, and the building was purchased on January 20, 1995, exactly one year after the first day of the renewal/revival. The new location, seating over 3,000, is equally accessible to the airport and closer to major hotels, some of which ran a shuttle service to renewal meetings.
The effects of the Toronto Blessing quickly became international in scope. Within a year of the outpouring, an estimated four thousand churches representing main denominations in the United Kingdom were touched by the renewal. The renewal arrived in England through authors Charles and Frances Hunter of Texas. Another catalyst was Eleanor Mumford, wife of Southwest London Vineyard's pastor, John Mumford. The renewal broke out in May of 1994 at an Anglican Church, Holy Trinity Brompton, where she shared her Toronto experience.
The "Toronto Blessing" has spread, not only to England, but to Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Finland, Holland, Japan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Korea, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Guyana (South America), Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Czechoslavakia, Russia, mainland China, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Romania, New Guinea, Kenya, Israel, and many other places.


Essential viewing for every generation.
Directed by Claire Ferguson (known for editing Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Concert for George, The End of the Line, Guilty Pleasures, Up in Smoke) and produced by Llion Roberts (who has spent fourteen years accumulating the testimonies on which the film is based), Destination Unknown blends intimate testimony with immersive archive to bring the stories of twelve Holocaust survivors to the screen.
The film is released on the back of Holocaust Memorial Day (Yom HaShoah) where the film’s central character and Holocaust survivor Ed Mosberg attended ‘The March of the Living’ alongside thousands of participants in Poland last week. Ed Mosberg will visit the UK for the cinema release of the film on 16th June 2017.
With no narration and no expert interviews, the film relies on the survivors’ own words, to weave a vivid narrative of lives stained by genocide. A seamless mosaic of first-hand accounts, rare archive from the time, and family Super 8 footage from after the war, the film traces their journeys from the outbreak of war, through the misery of the ghettos, to the unimaginable horrors of the camps. The survivors share their memories, some for the first time, some for the last, bringing their experiences to a new generation.
We see those who survived in hiding, those who fought as partisans, and those who endured camps such as Treblinka, Mauthausen and Auschwitz-Birkenau. While a few managed to escape, most had to try to find a way to stay alive until the end of the war.
Their stories do not end with liberation. We see how they had to survive the chaos that came afterwards, and their attempts to build new lives.
The film includes an interview with one of the few escapees from the terror of Treblinka, and an exclusive interview with Mietek Pemper, who helped Oskar Schindler compile his List, as well as a revealing story about Schindler himself from one of those he saved.
To say that Destination Unknown is compelling viewing would be a massive understatement. Although the number of people involved in the Holocaust is well known, it can sometimes be difficult to consider all the individual experiences and this documentary brings that into sharp focus.
To see the bravery of these people as they deal with the aftermath of the Nazi occupation, revisiting the sites of all the horrors they were subjected to is quite humbling indeed.
It is a remarkable feat of filmmaking, with a very important message which must be heard and understood to ensure it can never happen again. It is essential that future generations do not forget what happened during the war and hopefully this film will help with that. It’s hard to watch but thoroughly inspiring nevertheless and something which everyone should see.
Destination Unknown will be released in UK cinemas from 16th June.


Piazza di Spagna
The Piazza di Spagna is one of the most popular and busiest squares in Rome. The famous Spanish Steps with their 135 travertine steps are the work of Francesco de Sanctis. While the lower end of the Spanish Steps is adorned with the "Fontana La Barcaccia" fountain, it ends at the top with the French church "SS. Trinità dei Monti". Also impressive is the huge Egyptian obelisk that rises into the sky between the stairs and the church.
The area around the Piazza di Spagna, the Piazza del Popolo and the Villa Borghese is very extensive and you need a lot of time to see the most important sights, to enjoy the special atmosphere and to walk in the very large Villa Borghese.
Piazza Navona & Pantheon
The Piazza Navona is framed by beautiful churches, houses and palaces: the Palazzo Braschi (Museo di Roma), the Church of Sant'Agnese and the Palazzo Pamphili. In the center of Piazza Navona is the monumental fountain Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, built by Bernini in the 16th century. The 4 giants of the fountain represent the four largest known rivers on earth at that time - Ganges, Danube, Nile and Rio de la Plata.
Pantheon - In the Middle Ages, this Roman temple dedicated to the gods became a church. The Pantheon, with its diameter and height of 43 meters and its huge dome, is a symbol of Rome and a marvel of Roman architecture. In the Piazza del Pantheon (Piazza della Rotonda) we find the Fontana della Rotonda fountain.
Fontana di Trevi
The Trevi Fountain is located near the Piazza di Spagna and is one of the main attractions of Rome, everyone wants to have their picture taken there and toss a coin in the fountain to make sure they will come back to Rome one day. The fountain is modeled on a large stage. Part of the Fontana di Trevi is integrated into the facade of the Palazzo Poli and has the shape of a triumphal arch.
The Vatican is a city-state, the seat of the Pope and the center of the Roman Catholic Church. This place attracts believers from all over the world and contains countless famous works of art and buildings. More than 20,000 people visit St. Peter's Basilica every day, for which the foundation stone was laid in 1506 and which took around 120 years to build. The spectacular 136 meter high dome that gives the basilica its majestic dominance was designed by Michelangelo. The view from the dome of St. Peter's Square, the Tevere River and the city is fantastically beautiful.
Vatican Museums and Cappella Sistina- The buildings, which now house one of the most valuable art collections in the world, were built as a palace for the Renaissance popes. The museum complex includes the Sistine Chapel and Raphael's Rooms and Loggias.
Trastevere - The pedestrian bridge Ponte Sisto, connects the center of Rome with the Trastevere district. It is a lively district and has many beautiful streets, houses and churches. From the Trastevere district, if you climb the hill, you get to the Gianicolo Park.
Colosseum & Fori Imperiali
The Colosseum is the most famous building of the Roman Empire. The place of entertainment was 80 AD. opened with a hundred-day festival and offered space for 50,000 people. Right next to the Colosseum is the mighty triumphal arch that documents Constantine's victory over Maxentius.
From here you can walk to the Roman Forum, along the Fori Imperiali and see the remains of ancient Rome. The Roman Forum was the center of political, economic and judicial life in ancient Rome
ENJOY ROME THE ETERNAL CITY


Women of the Bible from A to Z series
“Queen Vashti also gave a banquet for the women
in the royal palace of King Xerxes.” Esther 1:9 nlt
Vashti, whose name means beautiful, probably was quite beautiful as she was married to the powerful King Xerxes I (aka Ahasuerus) who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. They lived in the citadel in Susa—one of several Persian Empire capital cities (an interesting study of its own).
We meet Vashti in the opening chapter of Esther when she and the king entertained many of the Persian dignitaries—princes, attendants, army officers, and nobles—for a seven-day gala. The finest white and violet linen draped the marble columns of the courtyard. The couches of gold and silver lined decked the mosaic pavement made of porphyry (a reddish purple rock), marble, mother-of-pearl and other precious stones. The distinguished guests drank an abundance of royal wine from golden goblets, while Queen Vashti held a banquet of her own for the wives of the dignitaries in the palace.
After seven days of celebrating, Xerxes, in high spirits, ordered seven servants to bring Vashti. He wanted to parade her beauty before his distinguished visitors.
But the queen refused.
The king of Persia was furious. In his anger, he called the royal experts of the law and customs to discuss punishment options for her disobedience. The seven wise men of the province determined that according to law, she not only wronged the king, but also the princes and people because if her conduct became known in the land, other women might behave with contempt to their husbands.
They determined a law be written for all of Persia and Media, which could not be revoked or altered, that Vashti be banished from King Xerxes’ presence and that the king would choose another queen more worthy than she. Xerxes and his nobles were in agreement. He signed the decree, published it, and sent it throughout the vast empire.
Some time later, when the king’s anger waned, he regretted his order. His personal servants suggested he begin the search for a beautiful young woman among the virgins of the kingdom.
And so ends the story of Vashti. What a sad ending to a beautiful woman’s life.
To an American woman like me, it doesn’t seem fair. My society says she has the right to refuse her husband’s request. Yet, a part of me knows how she humiliated him and his status.
When I compare her to the noble, virtuous woman of Proverbs 31, I question my society’s reaction. Because of this woman’s dedication, her husband was well known and respected among the civic leaders (verse 23). Therefore maybe the wise men of Susa were correct in their concerns that if Vashti were not punished wives across the land would treat their husbands disrespectfully.
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The 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ is getting closer – 42 days to go! Between now and the start of the World Cup, we will take a closer look at a different statistic from the history of the tournament each day.
Uruguay secured their place in history by becoming the first team to win the FIFA World Cup™ at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo on 30 July 1930, beating neighbours Argentina 4-2 in the inaugural Final.
Albicelestecentre forward Guillermo Stabile was the competition’s first Golden Boot winner with eight goals. Despite giving his team a 2-1 lead in the Final, he could not prevent Uruguay’s second-half comeback. Stabile had never played for Argentina before the 1930 World Cup and did not represent his country again after the tournament.
Four European sides made the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean to Uruguay in 1930. Yugoslavia set off from Marseille while Romania, France and Belgium travelled together on the SS Conte Verde, which also counted FIFA President Jules Rimet among its passengers. In the opening match on 13 July 1930, Frenchman Lucien Laurent made history by scoring the first-ever World Cup goal, firing a volley into the back of the net to inspire his country to a 4-1 victory over Mexico.


12:00pm - 4:00pm
Tuesday through Saturday,
Memorial Day through Labor Day, or by appointment
Ritzville, WA 99169
Welcome to Ritzville, WA
Situated in a prime location at the convergence of I-90 and US-395 in the heart of Eastern Washington's wheat country, Ritzville was once the largest wheat shipping point in the world. Settled in the 1880s, today it remains a community with a rich pioneer heritage.
Take a step back in time. Spend the day and discover Ritzville's past with a walking tour of our downtown National Historic District. When you're done, visit our museums and grab a bite to eat.
Ritzville's Railroad Depot Museum is home to a collection of turn of the century memorabilia. Train lovers, young and old, will enjoy our newly restored Northern Pacific caboose No. 10425 as well as the fully functional telegraphy equipment complete with telegrapher.
The Dr. Frank R. Burroughs home was built in 1889 and extensively remodeled in 1902 when electricity came to Ritzville. A collection of vintage clothes and original furnishings await your visit.
Ritzville's Heavy Metal Tour is a collection of metal sculptures which are a glimpse of Ritzville's history as seen by the local artisans who created them.
Don't forgot to visit our golf course and water park!


History of The Apostolic Church
Opening services of Glory Tabernacle were held on Easter Sunday, April 21, 1946. 35 people gathered for service in a building on Sabine Pass Avenue, near Railroad Avenue (now Martin Luther King Parkway). Bro. Tracy Boutlier was the pastor. Light for the service was provided by coal oil lamps. In time, Bro. Boutlier bought land at 2650 Sabine Pass Avenue.
In October 1969, the church assembly voted unanimously for Bro. Marvin L. Cole to be their pastor.
November 2, 1969, marked Bro. Cole’s first Sunday as pastor of the United Pentecostal Church of Sabine Pass Avenue (now The Apostolic Church of Beaumont), accompanied by his wife, Sis. Marie Barbee Cole, and children, Marvin Wendell and Ruth Michelle. There were 69 present in Sunday School that day.
In 1973, the church moved to Blackmon Lane, where two acres and larger facilities would accommodate the growth of the congregation. In 1977, the metallic sanctuary was built at that location, with seating for 400. In 1982, educational facilities, a kitchen, and fellowship hall were added to this facility.
A total of five land purchases at this location has given the church 12 acres on which to expand as God’s blessings continue. On October 19, 1997, the Church family moved into their beautiful new church home near the old facility, at 3333 Eastex Freeway. The sanctuary has seating for 1,000, and the facility includes a spacious Fellowship Hall with commercial kitchen, large educational wing, bookstore, multiple nurseries, office suites, and many other beautiful features.
Rev. Jason Carr currently serves as Pastor of The Apostolic Church. Pastor Carr and his wife, Brenda, have been involved in ministry since 1992. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Texas. His vision for The Apostolic Church is for it to become a thriving church, and a center for evangelism, from which new ministers and ministries are launched.


Writer： admin Time： 2023-08-25 16:13:20 Browse：
Throughout history, warriors and soldiers have relied on armor to protect themselves in battle. As armor-making techniques advanced, the weight of armor evolved, impacting the mobility and endurance of the wearers. In this article, we will explore the evolution of armor weight from ancient times to the development of steel armor.
In ancient times, armor was crafted from materials like leather, cloth, and bronze. Ancient Greek and Roman hoplites and legionnaires wore relatively light armor, which allowed for greater agility in battle. Typical armor of this period weighed around 20 to 30 pounds (9 to 13 kilograms).
Medieval knights and soldiers wore heavier armor to counter the advancements in weaponry. Suits of plate armor, made from metal plates, offered superior protection but also increased weight. A full set of plate armor could weigh between 45 to 60 pounds (20 to 27 kilograms).
During the Renaissance, armor design underwent changes, and the transition to steel armor began. Steel offered improved protection at a relatively lighter weight than earlier materials. Full suits of steel armor typically weighed around 30 to 50 pounds (13 to 23 kilograms).
In the late medieval and early Renaissance period, full plate armor became popular among knights and nobles. Full plate armor sets weighed approximately 50 to 70 pounds (23 to 32 kilograms).
With the advent of gunpowder and firearms, the effectiveness of heavy armor declined on the battlefield. As warfare changed, armor weight decreased to improve mobility and maneuverability.
During the late Renaissance and into the modern era, armor evolved into lighter combat gear, such as cuirasses and helmets made from steel or other materials. These provided essential protection without encumbering the wearer with excessive weight.
In modern times, body armor has further evolved to meet the demands of contemporary warfare. Advanced materials like Kevlar? and ceramic plates offer excellent protection at significantly lighter weights.
Today, specialized armors cater to different military and law enforcement needs, such as bulletproof vests, bomb suits, and riot gear. These are designed to protect while allowing for enhanced mobility and reduced weight burdens.
The evolution of armor weight throughout history reflects the ongoing quest to strike a balance between protection and mobility. From ancient leather and bronze armor to the development of steel and modern body armor, advancements in materials and design have influenced the weight and effectiveness of protective gear. The progression towards lighter, specialized armors has allowed warriors and soldiers to maintain their agility and endurance in the face of ever-changing battlefield challenges.


The origins of Petroterminal de Panama, S.A. (PTP) date back to the end of the 1970’s, when the production of Alaskan petroleum began with great volumes of crude oil; the production surplus needed to be transported to the eastern coast of the United States. Crude oil transportation would be a complex and expensive operation because supertankers had superior dimensions and drafts than Panamax vessels which transit the Panama Canal.
On April 10th, 1979 the Charco Azul Terminal started operations a year after its construction had started. In 1980 PTP and the Panamanian government reached an agreement to build the trans-isthmian pipeline and the Atlantic Terminal at Chiriqui Grande, Bocas del Toro. On July 1981 the American company Morrison Knudsen International, widely experienced in the design and construction of this type of facilities started the construction process to build a 130 kilometer pipeline.
The pipeline was constructed to facilitate the transportation of Alaskan North Slope Crude oil (ANSCO) from Valdez, Alaska to refineries on the Gulf coast of the US. The pipeline streamlined transportation by allowing the use of larger tankers and shortened the voyage between Panama and the US Gulf vs. transshipment of ANSCO through the Panama Canal.
With the opening of the trans-isthmian pipeline, PTP contributed with $17,000,000 to build the Chiriqui – Bocas del Toro road; this important road has enormously contributed to develop the occidental area of Panama.
In 1994 PTP shareholders and executives visualized the construction of a general cargo port at Chiriqui Grande which began operations on May 16th, 1997. Commerce, agro-industry and construction of the western section of Panama have benefitted from this pier through import and export activities.
Due to changes in U.S. petroleum by-product legislation, Alaskan surplus oil production was no longer available for transportation through the pipeline. This measure caused pipeline operations to cease in 1996. In 2003 PTP entered into an agreement with Swiss based Castor Petroleum which allowed reactivation of pipeline activities.


December 7, 1941
The first American casualties of WW ll did not occur at Pearl Harbor. Some say the first hostile action happened in the Yangtze River outside Nanking on December 12, 1937 where the USS gunboat Panay was sunk by Japanese aircraft, killing three and wounding 45. Others maintain that since WWll was not yet officially under way on that date, the first Americans to die in action were on October 17, 1941 when the USS Kearney, a Benson-Livermore Class Destroyer was attacked off the coast of Iceland, by the U-568 which was part of a wolf pack eviscerating a convoy that the Kearney was trying to protect. 11 US sailors were killed and 22 were wounded in the fight.
All of this is a reminder that great and terrible events do not happen in a vacuum.
For most of the 1930's, America in proud and defiant isolation caused in part by the Great Depression, watched as both Asia and Europe became engulfed in war and dictatorship. FDR eventually turned America into the Arsenal for Democracy after WWII began on September 1, 1939. Politically however Roosevelt had to walk a fine line with regard to American neutrality even as Churchill pressured him to join the fight and as anti-Japanese and anti-German feelings began to emerge domestically on the political left, particularly after Hitler invaded the USSR.
On October 16, 1941, the Japanese Prime Minister Prince Konoe resigned and General Hidecki Tojo assumed the post and the planning for an attack on the American Pacific Fleet was set in motion.
Simultaneously, in Washington, Japanese Ambassador Nomura Kichisaburo continued his efforts to negotiate a peace treaty between the US and Japan, unaware of what Tojo and the Japanese military were planning. He continued his diplomatic efforts becoming more belligerent right up to December 7th when he was coldly informed by Secretary of State Cordell Hull that the attack had already begun.
The plan for the attack was the work of the Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, Admiral Isokoru Yamamoto who had studied in the US and privately was against the attack which had as its political aim to so cripple the American Pacific Fleet that Japan could go into the Dutch East Indies for the oil and rubber they urgently needed without fear of retribution. He believed the War that would follow would allow him to "run wild for the first six months" but he had no confidence as to the second and third years.
On November 20, 1941 Japan issued an ultimatum to the U.S. demanding non-interference for Japanese actions in China and Indo-China thereby escalating the tensions between the two countries.
On November 26th the Japanese Hawaii task Force left the Kurile Islands bound for Pearl Harbor. On the same day the U.S. Secretary of State demanded the Japanese Imperial Army leave China immediately. In Tokyo, Tojo declared this to be an ultimatum, cynically using it as justification for a sneak attack he had already set in motion. The next day the United States military was placed on high alert.
Admiral Husband Kimmel was the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. His Army counterpart was Lt. General Walter Short. In the days after the attack both men would come under intense criticism for their lack of preparedness and eventually would be forced out of the military. Both had determined that an attack on Pearl was extremely unlikely notwithstanding the heightened state of alert, Nor did they respond with alacrity to the sinking of a Japanese Midget Sub just before the first wave of the attack began or radar showing a large number of aircraft approaching Oahu.
The attack began at 7:48 A.M. on a beautiful tropical and peaceful Sunday morning when the first wave of 183 aircraft carrier based planes open fire. The 70 U.S. combat ships and 24 auxiliary ships were all lined up on Battleship Row providing excellent targets for the air forces led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. Likewise, were the 400 Army, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft lined up wing to wing on three nearby airfields.
The fist wave lasted until 8:30 A.M. and inflicted horrible damage on a half dozen ships including the Arizona, the Oklahoma and the California. The second wave came at 9:00 A.M. under the command of Lt. Commander Shigekazu Shimazaki and lasted for an hour. No third wave materialized.
The United States lost 3,600 men killed or wounded including 1,177 killed on the USS Arizona alone. 21 ships were sunk or damaged , 188 aircraft were destroyed and 159 were damaged out of 400 total. The Japanese lost 55 airmen and 9 submariners. The attack it should be remembered took place before any formal Declaration of War was ever issued by Japan.
There were numerous incidences of incredible bravery exhibited that day by both military personnel and civilians. 129 medals, including 15 Medals of Honor were awarded to American servicemen. 68 civilians were killed and 35 were wounded coming to the aid of their country.
Mess attendant Doris "Dorie" Miller won the Navy Cross for his actions that day. Miller was aboard the USS West Virginia when the attack began. He carried his wounded Captain to a safer place on the ship and while untrained, manned a .50 caliber antiaircraft gun until he was ordered to abandon ship. Two years later Miller died in action.
Perhaps no one described the horror of that day better then Seaman Second Class Eddie Jones of the USS California who wrote the following:
"When that big bomb blew up and they put the fire out, I looked down in that big hole that went down three or four decks. I saw men all blown up, men with no legs on, men burned to death, men drowned in oil, with oil coming out of their eyes and their mouth and their ears. You couldn't believe it was happening. You could see it in front of your eyes, but you couldn't believe it. Here it was, a beautiful day -- a beautiful Sunday morning -- and you see everything blowing up and ships sinking and men in the water. And you think, we're at peace with the world. This can't be happening".
The next day, December 8th, FDR called December 7th , "a day that will live in infamy" and asked Congress for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan. Two days later Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy declared war against the US playing right into Churchill's hands. In the days, months and years to come in the Pacific theater Americans would learn the geography of war in far away places with exotic names like Corregidor, Bataan, Wake Island, Tawawa, Kwajalien, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Saipan, Guam, The Coral Sea, Midway, The Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, Peleliu, and Okinawa.
No one knew immediately after December 7th what the outcome of this titantic struggle would be save perhaps the architect of the attack, Admiral Yamamota who lamented "I fear all we have done today is to awaken a great, sleeping giant." Thus America cast off the shackles of isolationism and became in time a superpower...but a superpower built on the patriotism and sacrifice of the Greatest Generation comprised of young men and women who left the villages, towns, cities and farms of America to go off to war against some of the most evil forces in the history of the world. In the words of the old WW II song we remember them today and say "Bless them All".


Needham 9/11 Scholarship Fund
Candidates for the Needham 9/11 Scholarship Fund must submit an application, which can be found on http://www.needhamco.com/911Fund.asp. The application contains a request for documentation.
Generally scholarships are awarded to surviving children of the victims of the 9/11 tragedies. Scholarship awards are based on need, academics and the individuals are children of 9/11 victims. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis and are usually approved at the beginning of the school year or semester.
For details, go to http://www.needhamco.com/911Fund.asp.


NEW COVENANT MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH, INC.
606 SW Broadway
Ocala, FL 34475
"The Church With An Open Door"
New Covenant is livestreaming the weekly 10:00 am worship service. Click on the link below to view.
New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church, Inc. is a Bible-teaching church whose doors are always open to welcome you with Christ's love and genuine warmth. Our membership is approximately 550 and still growing.
Bible Study is currently being posted on Facebook.
We hope that you will worship with us.
New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church was organized in the fall of 1899 at a regular monthly conference at Mount Moriah Baptist Church. The church was organized and in 1901, the first building (an unpainted wooden building wih belfry and bell) was erected and dedicated in 1902 under the leadership or Rev. Bachelor and some of the memberss that included Henry Chandler and family, Sallie Goins and daughter, Aquilla Scott, Shed Phillips, Alice Johnson, C. J. Johnson, Jack Lambright and family, Pasty Morgan and family, Patsy Sims and family, Lula Anderson and husband, Mother Graham, Geraldine Davis, the Agent family, and Duhart Murray.
Under the pastorate of Rev. A.E. Crumady, the chapel was built in the 1940’s.
With the pastoral leadership of Rev. Dr. O. Van Pinkston, who served for 49 years (1949-1999), another edifice and an educational building including day care for the children’s preschool and Vacation Bible School were built. The church’s organizational structure was changed with departmentalization. In April 1954, Covenant was the host for the 74th Annual Session of the General Baptist State Convention of Florida, Inc.
Dr. Pinkston served in our District and State Congress Conventions as well as our National Congress and Conventions. He served the Second Bethlehem Baptist Association as Moderator for 32 years and was Moderator Emeritus and was an excellent Bible Study teacher and Pastor/Teacher.
During the 1960’s Covenant was a “beacon of light” and headquarters in the fight against racism and injustice shown against our people. These efforts produced many leaders who blazed the way and the people responded in mass numbers. Rev. Frank George Pinkston (son of Rev. Pinkston) was a very brave and victorious leader during this time. Covenant became active in all related organizations: District, State, and National Congresses and conventions and we still continue as active participants.
Rev. Stanley M. Jacobs, Sr. was called to serve as pastor of Covenant Missionary Baptist Church in July 1999. Under Pastor Jacobs’ leadership, the current church edifice was completed in May 2002 and the congregation has grown to nearly 600. Pastor Jacobs’ ministry has also given birth to the New Covenant Faith-based Community Development Corporation that provided affordable housing in our community. Renovations in 2016 were made in the educational building which relocated the church administrative offices downstairs to provide easier accessibility and the education classes were relocated upstairs. To accommodate church growth, renovations were completed in 2020 which expanded the seating capacity in our sanctuary and remodeled fellowship hall.
Covenant has come through many trials, hardships and stormy weather, but it stands today as a monument of FAITH shown by these patriarchs who went forward trusting God. We have been instrumental in helping to mold the lives of many young men and women. Many have become leaders in various fields and organizations. With God’s blessings, all things are possible.
The focus of New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church is to transform our community by seeking the salvation of all people through
Please feel free to contact us, make a comment /request or send an encouraging word. Just email us at the address below or call us directly. Our office hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.; however, you may leave a message after hours and we will contact you as soon as possible.
New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church
606 SW Broadway
Ocala, FL 34475
Phone: (352) 622-7877
Fax: (352) 622-7548


Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State
On Cuban Independence Day, I extend my warm regards and best wishes to the people of Cuba. The United States joins you in celebrating the anniversary of Cuba’s independence, 118 years ago today. The struggle of the Cuban people continues. Your democratic system was overthrown by a military dictator at the middle of the last century. But the revolution your forefathers fought for your rights, freedoms, and prosperity was hijacked by a communist dictatorship that has inflicted the worst forms of abuse on the Cuban people for 61 years.
Both Americans and Cubans alike value our independence and we seek to provide a better, more prosperous future for families, in realization of our God-given rights and dignity as individuals. We salute the brave Cubans who carry on this struggle despite the threats and abuses of the Castro regime: human rights defenders like José Daniel Ferrer and the Ladies in White; and journalists and truth-tellers like Roberto Quiñones, who by shining light on conditions in Cuba prevent the regime from hiding the truth. We salute those demanding the right to exercise their faith in peace, like Pastors Ayda Expósito Leyva and Ramón Rigal, who chose to provide their children with a faith-based home-school education but were imprisoned for doing so. These brave individuals, and many more who are unjustly imprisoned for their beliefs, or who daily face threats and abuse for standing up for what is right, are the true heirs to José Martí.
The United States stands with the Cuban people as you struggle to achieve your vision of a Cuba that is free and more just. The day when your dream of freedom becomes reality is decades overdue, but that day will come.


“I die the king’s good servant, and God’s first.”–Thomas More
“Blessed Thomas Moore is more important at this moment than at any moment since his death, even perhaps the great moment of his dying; but he is not quite so important as he will be in about a hundred years time. He may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English history. For he was above all things historic; he represented at once a type, a turning point and an ultimate destiny. If there had not happened to be that particular man at that particular moment, the whole of history would have been different.”
–G. K. Chesterson, “A Turning Point in History”
There is much to learn from the story of how the head of one of the most revered men in England, Sir Thomas More, ended up on the chopping block on London’s Tower Hill in 1535. Few people in history have faced their trials and deaths as squarely, calmly, and with as much integrity as did More.
More’s road from his post as Lord Chancellor of England to the Tower of London owes its course to a Bible passage, a marriage of a long-dead prince, and the consuming desire of lustful and vain-glorious King Henry VIII to marry Anne Boleyn. Swept along with More, in this fateful confluence of writings, events, and people, was nothing less than the Reformation.
Henry Finds Leviticus
In 1509, when the new eighteen-year-old king, Henry VIII, married a young Spanish princess, Catherine of Aragon, the marriage came with the blessing of Pope Julius II, in the form of a dispensation from an injunction found in the Bible’s Leviticus. The dispensation was deemed necessary because Catherine had been briefly married to Henry’s older brother, Arthur, raising the question of whether Henry’s marriage violated Leviticus 20:21: “If a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing…they shall be childless.” The fact that Arthur remained ill throughout the six-month-long marriage until his death, and that therefore the marriage–if Catherine is to be believed–was never consummated, doubtless made the case an easier one for Pope Julius than it otherwise might have been.
By early 1526, however, King Henry’s affection had turned from Catherine to the beautiful Anne Boleyn. Reviewing Leviticus, Henry began to question the lawfulness of his marriage to Catherine. Even the least skeptical historian, of course, has considered the possibility that lust, together with a desire to father the healthy son that Catherine–now past her child-bearing years–could not, might have influenced his interpretation of the Bible chapter. Whether out of concern for his soul or for his sex life, Henry set in motion a process that would change the face of Europe.
In early 1527, Henry instructed his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, to institute proceedings to resolve the issue of the validity of his marriage to Catherine. Henry’s request came at a tumultuous time in European history. Emperor Charles V pushed his troops toward Rome and, in May, wreaked havoc in the city. Troops raped women, killed children, and even disentombed the corpse of Pope Julius II and dragged it through the streets. (The living pope, Pope Clement VII, fled Rome for a castle in St. Angelo, where he was held prisoner–complicating Wolsey’s task of gaining a dispensation for Henry). Meanwhile, in an effort to counterbalance Charles’s power, Sir Thomas More, a loyal councilor of Henry’s, working in France, successfully negotiated a treaty between England and its longtime enemy.
By June, Henry had become sufficiently convinced that his 1509 marriage violated the command of Leviticus and he informed his wife that they had been unlawfully married for the past eighteen years. Faced with having her dignity as a married woman stripped and her surviving daughter labeled illegitimate, Catherine did not take the news well.
When More and Wolsey returned to England in September, after traveling to France to ratify the new treaty, the king raised with More at Hampton Court the issue of his marriage. According to More, “his Highnes walkying in the galery, brake with me of his great mater.” More reported that Henry “layed the Bible open byfore me, and ther red the wordis that moved” him to conclude his marriage was unlawful. When More suggested a different interpretation of Leviticus, the King ordered him to “commune ferther” with royal advisers and read a report–then in preparation–that made the case for annulment.
Later in the fall, Henry took the unusual step of visiting More at his home in Chelsea to take up again his “great matter.” In a scene memorialized in Robert Bolt’s great play, A Man for All Seasons, the King walked the gardens with his arm around the neck of his trusted councilor. Henry and More differed, in the end, over the matter of papal supremacy. The King argued that Leviticus made his marriage a crime in God’s eyes–and that no Pope had the power to waive the Biblical injunction. More, on the other hand, accepted papal supremacy as a matter of faith, and tended to view Pope Julius’s 1509 dispensation as conclusive.
From Henry’s standpoint, the proceedings to gain the annulment of his marriage to Catherine continued at a frustratingly slow speed and with no tangible results. In the summer of 1528, as London confronted outbreaks of the plague and sweating sickness, the Pope dispatched Cardinal Campeggio from Rome to convene a legatine court in London that would decide the matter. For his part, Thomas More occupied himself aggressively pursuing heretics, who he viewed as a much greater threat to England’s well-being than the king’s marriage controversy.
On May 31, 1529, at the Dominican house of Blackfriars in London, an inquest into the King’s “great matter” convened. Three weeks later, on Midsummer’s Day, a remarkable scene took place–one that is slightly recast in Shakespeare’s King Henry VIII. In the real event, the proceeding opens with the cry, “King Harry of England, come into the court!” “Here, my lords,” the king replies. “Catherine, Queen of England, come into the court!” Without an answer, Catherine walked over to the King, then knelt and pleaded for “pity and compassion.” She proclaimed her loyalty to Henry and insisted that she never had relations with her husband’s brother. Henry, in response, stated that were it not for his love for her, he would have acted sooner on his religious doubts–and pledged to abide by the court’s conclusions concerning the lawfulness of his marriage. In a speech that followed, Henry made the case for annulment and acknowledged–at Wolsey’s request–that he, and not any member of the clergy, was the “chief mover” of the inquest. In a moment of drama that portended another date with the executioner’s block, John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester and a main supporter of Catherine, rose to make clear that he had not, as the King had implied, joined with other bishops in signing a document urging the king to take the matter of his marriage to the Pope. The inquest produced no results; Catherine chose to make no more appearances, nor to recognize its authority to decide the validity of her marriage. Instead, in July, she appealed the matter directly to Pope Clement–who then announced that the decision would be made in Rome, not England.
While the court at Blackfriars continued in session, Thomas More traveled to Cabrai, where negotiations involving major European powers to take place. More played England’s cards well, winning separate peace agreements with Francis and Charles V. The agreements, which would hold the peace in Europe for fifteen years, rank among More’s proudest achievements. More chose to remember the accomplishment on his tombstone at Chelsea along with just one other: he noted that he had always been “molestus” (troublesome) to heretics.
The failure of Cardinal Wolsey to secure a Church decision annulling his marriage did not sit well with King Henry. In October 1529, Henry ordered Wolsey arrested for treason and stripped him of the title of Lord Chancellor, the highest appointed office in England and a position he had held for fourteen years. In his place, Henry chose Thomas More. The choice was widely acclaimed. Wolsey called his replacement “the aptest and fittest man in the Realm.” More, despite having sympathies for Catherine and being well aware of the tension that might cause, accepted the post–primarily because it offered him an opportunity to defend his Church against what he saw as a growing plague of heretics. (During his tenure, More would ban heretical texts, search the home of heretics, and prosecute–and even burn–those persons he believed to be undermining Church authority.)
The King Takes on the Church
Beginning in 1530, King Henry VIII took an increasingly aggressive posture on the matter of his marriage annulment. Thomas Cranmer, who would become a sort of scholar-in-residence for Henry, wrote a treatise, Collectanea satis copiosa, that demonstrated the unlawfulness of the marriage between Henry and Catherine. The King added his own handwritten comments in the margins. The report circulated to faculties of England’s universities which duly–under some pressure–issued declarations that the king’s scruples were probably justified.
In the middle of June, Henry convened a meeting of lords and prelates, who were persuaded to send a letter to Pope Clement asking that the King’s annulment be granted. More’s signature was conspicuously absent from the letter sent to the Pope. In the month after the meeting, the King’s attorney general charged fourteen prelates (including Bishop John Fisher) who had sided with Catherine in the dispute with violations of praemunire laws. Clement’s answer to the king’s letter could not have made Henry happy; the Pope reminded the King that his refusal to send a delegate to Rome was the principal cause of the delay in resolving his “great matter.”
In September, Henry issued a proclamation that prevented enforcement of any papal bull inconsistent with his own view of his marriage’s lawfulness. Henry’s direct attack on Vatican authority upset Thomas More, who openly expressed his disagreement with the king’s action.
The King’s movement away from Rome continued. Intellectual support for the move came in the form of an influential argument by a lawyer, Christopher St. German, who wrote that the law of the realm should trump ecclesiastical law. In November 1530, a man who would become an eager proponent of the St. German’s view, Thomas Cromwell, became a member of the King’s inner council. In time, Cromwell–cunning, cynical, intelligent, ambitious, resourceful–would prove to be More’s chief nemesis. (A case could be made for Cromwell. His efforts prevented mass bloodshed in England and his pragmatic nationalistic politics seem a better fit for the time than More’s campaign to preserve the medieval order.)
Henry’s impatience became obvious in 1531. The angry King summoned the clergy to Westminster, where he demanded that they reimburse the Crown for the costs of sending a delegation to Rome on a failed mission to secure his annulment. But his demands did not stop there. He insisted that the convocation issue a statement recognizing him as “the sole protector and supreme head of the English Church and clergy.” After a heated debate–and insertion of the phrase “so far as the law of Christ allows”–the bishops agreed to issue the statement of recognition.
While a formal decision on his marriage hung in the balance, Henry took direct action. In May, at his request, a group of royal councilors met with Catherine and urged her to drop her opposition to the annulment. The mission failed. Henry, however, had waited long enough. On July 11, 1531, Henry and Catherine separated. By late the following year, Anne Boleyn was pregnant and, in early 1533, Henry and Anne Boleyn secretly married.
While the King and Anne Boleyn shared a bed, Henry’s advisers stepped up pressure on Rome and domestic opponents of his annulment. In 1532, Thomas Cromwell presented a bill to Parliament that denied payment to Rome (in the form of “annates” by new bishops) and moved to limit the authority of the Church–and Thomas More–to punish heretics. A bill prepared for the king by Cromwell transferred powers of the Church to Parliament and denied to bishops their longstanding authority to arrest heretics.
Thomas More could not stomach the assault on his authority to continue his pursuit of heretics. The last straw, for the Lord Chancellor of the Realm, turned out to be the decision on May 15 of the clergy, submitting to Henry’s demand, and accepting that all ecclesiastical law required royal consent–an action that effectively made Henry the head of the Church of England. On the next day, More submitted his resignation. In the garden of Westminster’s York Place, More handed Henry the great seal, concealed in a white leather pouch, and bowed. Henry accepting the seal, told More, “For your service you have done me, you will find me a good and gracious lord.” The two men would never meet again.
In April 1533, Parliament officially declared Henry’s marriage to Catherine to have been invalid and Anne Boleyn proclaimed “Queene at Greenewych.” The coronation was a grand affair at Westminster Abbey. Thomas More, still serving as a king’s councilor even though no longer Lord Chancellor, did not attend the event, angering Henry.
The Arrest and Imprisonment of Thomas More
In the summer of 1533, Master Secretary Thomas Cromwell began an investigation into the activities of Thomas More. More’s former position and his wide respect made him easily the most prominent of the opponents to major portions of the King’s agenda. One aspect of Cromwell’s investigation focused on More’s relationship to Elizabeth Barton, a nun who claimed to have experienced visions about a dire future for England should Henry follow through on his plans to marry Anne Boleyn. More had met with Barton to discuss her visions, and the King’s men were aware of their association. A proposed bill of attainder drafted by Cromwell identified More as an accomplice of Barton. On the scaffold after conviction for treason, Barton confessed that her revelations were fraudulent, providing additional ammunition for those who would like to use her guilt to tar More.
More denied any conspiracy with Barton in an informal meeting with Cromwell in February 1534. A month later, in letters to both Henry VIII and Cromwell, More reaffirmed his loyalty to the King and his desire to see the king’s interests furthered. On the matter of Henry’s marriage, More adhered to a policy of silence. He continued to affirm his belief in papal supremacy, but was careful to do so by suggesting that his belief was based on the persuasive power of an earlier writing on the subject written by the king himself. More’s caution, however, did not prevent the pressure against him from increasing. Commissioners of the King summoned More to a meeting in which they threatened him and called him “a villainous servant,” but departed without taking action.
Meanwhile, Parliament, sitting in an extraordinarily long session, enacted numerous bills proposed by Cromwell on the King’s behalf. The Act of Annates provided that bishops in England would be selected by the king, not Rome. The Act of Succession declared Henry’s marriage to Catherine void and established a line of succession through the children of Queen Anne. The Act also specified various new offenses to be treasonous, such as “derogating” the royal family. Most significantly for Thomas More, the Act required all of the King’s subjects to take an oath promising to maintain “the whole effects and contents of the present Act.”
On April 12, 1534, soon after leaving church at St. Paul’s Cathedral with his son-in-law William Roper, More was handed a summons to appear at Lambeth Palace the next day to take the oath of succession. More returned to Chelsea to spend with his family what he probably knew would be his last night as free man.
The next morning, More bid farewell to his family at the front gate, and boarded a boat for Lambeth with Roper and four servants. As they set off down the river, More–at peace with his decision–tells his son-in-law, “Son Roper, I thank our Lord the field is won.”
When asked to take the oath at Lambeth Palace, More asked to see the texts of both the oath and the Act of Succession. After reading the documents, More told the commissioners that while he would deny nothing contained in the oath, his conscience would not allow him to take it. Indecisive as to how to handle More’s refusal, the commissioners sent More out to a room adjoining the Palace’s garden to wait while they discussed the matter. Summoned back, More refused for a second time–even after much cajoling and threats of imprisonment–to take the oath. He also refused to elaborate further on his reasons. The frustrated commissioners turned More over to the Abbot of Westminster, who kept him for four days before he was transferred to a cell in the Tower of London.
More spent the remainder of the year in the so-called “Bell Tower.” He used the time in his dimly lit cell to write a lengthy book called A Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation. He also wrote letters to his beloved daughter, Margaret, comforting her and offering what explanation he could for the decision that led to his imprisonment.
The Trial of Thomas More for Treason
In November 1534, bills were introduced in Parliament that would eventually lead to More’s trial and execution. The Act of Supremacy, the law enacted in 1535 declared Henry to be the supreme head of the Church of England (formalizing the clergy’s earlier submission to this authority). The Treason Act made it a capital offense to maliciously wish, will, or desire, by words or writing” to deny to members of the royal family their “dignity, title, or name of their royal estates.”
After enactment of the new laws, Thomas Cromwell and four other advisers to the King interviewed Thomas More in a room at the Tower of London. The men told More that Henry demanded to know More’s opinion of the Act of Supremacy. More balked at the request, saying that he refused to “meddle” in such affairs. Told that the King might yet be merciful if More acknowledged his consent to the Act, the prisoner was unmoved. My whole concern now, More told the men, was to live the best possible Christian life.
In May 1535, King Henry’s determination to crush his remaining opposition hardened. Within days after the King learned that the Pope–who had condemned Henry’s marriage to Anne and threatened him with ex-communication if he did not return to Catherine–had made Bishop Fisher, the most outspoken supporter of Catherine in England, a cardinal, the King’s men brought charges of treason against Fisher. As wryly noted by historians, Fisher’s head was off before his cardinal’s hat was on.
More faced intense questioning in a third interrogation before Cromwell and other councilors. Asked once again to give an oath–this time an oath to the supremacy of Henry as the head of the Church of England–, More retained his resolute silence. Stepping up the pressure, authorities sent Solicitor-General Richard Rich to More’s cell with instructions to remove his books and writing materials. (While Rich and More visited briefly in the Tower, a discussion about the King’s role might–or might not have–taken place. The question of what really happened would become a focus of More’s later trial.) Shortly after Rich’s visit, More faced official investigators again in what amounted to a preliminary hearing to determine whether he violated the Treason Act.
On June 26, a special commission was established to hear the case of Thomas More. Two days later, an indictment charging More with treason was presented to the commission. More would stand trial for his life.
The trial of Sir Thomas More for treason opened in Westminster Hall on July 1, 1535. Although a jury of twelve men would have the final say, More had to understand that a verdict of guilty was inevitable. Were the jury to have declared otherwise, they might well have faced imprisonment themselves. Reports described More as “weakened by his imprisonment,” but having “a cheerful and composed countenance.”
The attorney general opened the proceedings by reading the indictment, which consisted of four basic charges. The Duke of Norfolk then offered More a final chance to escape with his life: “You see now how grievously you have offended his Majesty; yet he is so very merciful that if you will lay aside your obstinacy, and change your opinion, we hope you may obtain pardon and favor in his sight.” More replied–“stoutly,” according to reports–that he appreciated the offer, “but I beseech Almighty God that I may continue in the mind I am in, through his grace, unto death.”
Seated in a chair because of his weakness, More attempted to answer each of the charges against him. On the charge of opposing the Henry’s marriage, More freely admitted that he had, “according to the dictates of my conscience,” told the King his true opinion. To do otherwise, he said, would have “basely flattered” his Majesty and made him “a wicked subject” and “a traitor to God.” Giving the King an honest answer, when asked for it, can hardly be treasonous, More contended.
On the second charge of not swearing to recognize the King as the supreme head of the Church when asked about the matter during his Tower interview, that “no law in the world can punish any man for his silence.” When told that his silence was “an evident sign of the malice of his heart,” More quoted a legal maxim that held that “he that holds his peace, gives consent.”
The third charge against More was that, while in the Tower, he wrote letters to Bishop Fisher inciting him to violate the Treason Act. The letters in question, which authorities claimed Fisher burned, could not be produced. More insisted that the letters counseled no violations of law. The letters, he said, merely told Fisher that he had followed his conscience when questioned on the matter of Henry’s supremacy of the Church, and that Fisher should “satisfy his own mind”–whatever position that took him to.
The fourth charge, described by More as “the principal crime objected against me,” concerned his Bell Tower conversation with Richard Rich a few days before. The indictment alleged that More, responding to a hypothetical question posed by Rich, told his visitor that the Parliament had no more power to enact the Act of Supremacy that it did to pass a law declaring God not to be God. The court called Rich to testify, and the solicitor-general gave his account of the conversation, confirming the charge laid out in the indictment. More emphatically rejected Rich’s testimony, saying that if Rich’s version were in fact true “then I pray I may never see God’s face.” More’s striking statement, given his intense and sincere religiosity, leaves little room to doubt but that Rich was flat-out lying. More added that he was “more concerned about Rich’s perjury” than he was about his own “danger.” He said that he had long regarded Rich as a liar, “a great gamester, and of no good name and character.” How likely was it, More asked his accusers, that he would choose, among all the people of the Realm, Richard Rich to confide “the secrets of my conscience?” More’s powerful answer to Rich’s accusation prompted the attorney general to call to other men who were present in More’s cell at the time of the supposed conversation to testify. Although neither men would likely risk the King’s ire that might come if they supported More’s account, they did him the next best favor and testified that they were too busy stuffing More’s books and carting them away to have paid any attention to the conversation between Rich and the prisoner.
The jury deliberated for “scarcely a quarter of an hour” before returning with its verdict: Guilty. As the Lord Chancellor began to pronounce sentence, More interrupted to remind him it was customary to allow defendants to speak prior to the imposition of sentence. More, finally with nothing more to lose and free to speak his mind, told the court his indictment was grounded on a law “repugnant to God.” Further unburdening himself, More said that the Parliament lacked authority to enact any law inconsistent with the teachings of “Christ’s universal Catholic Church.” He added that he thought the recently enacted laws also violated the Magna Charta and the King’s Coronation Oath. The Lord Chancellor broke in to ask More how he reconciled his opinion with the fact that “all the bishops, universities, and most learned men of the Kingdom” found the Act lawful. More responded that if one were to take account of the views of all of Christendom, and not just England, his view would be favored by “ten to one.”
Finally, sentence was pronounced on the man of unbreakable conscience: More should be “drawn on a hurdle through the City of London to Tyburn, there to be hanged till he should be half dead; then he should be cut down alive, his privy parts cut off, his belly ripped, his bowels burnt, his four quarters sit up over four gates of the City and his head upon London Bridge.”
After the reading of his sentence, the constable escorted More to an awaiting barge, which carried him the short ways down the Thames toward the Tower of London. The party disembarked the barge at Old Swan Stairs. An armed guard led More, dressed in a coarse woolen gown, up Old Swan Lane and down Thames Street. As More and his guards approached the Tower, his daughter Margaret knelt to receive his blessing, then embraced and kissed him. More then was escorted through the large crowd back to his cell, where he would spend the last six days of his life.
More spent most of his final days fasting and praying. His famous wit stayed with him until the end. More declined an opportunity for a haircut, telling the barber, “The King has taken out a suit on my head and until the matter is resolved I shall spend no further cost upon it.” On the Monday following his sentence, More received a visit from his wife Alice, to whom he gave a final letter for Margaret composed with charcoal. At some point, although it is not known when, More learned that the King had commuted his sentence from disembowelment to beheading–in recognition of More’s years of service, it was said.
Sir Thomas Pope, a representative of the King’s council arrived in More’s cell at dawn on Tuesday, July 6, 1535. The representative told More that he must die at nine o’clock that morning and that the King had requested that he keep his words to a minimum at the execution. Shortly before nine, dressed in a plain gray robe and carrying on red wooden cross, the bearded More was led out of his cell for the 200-yard journey to the execution site on Tower Hill. More’s family was not among the crowd; the King had not granted them permission to attend.
An officer steadied More as he climbed to the execution block. Following the wishes of the King, More spoke only briefly to the large crowd that had gathered to watch the event. He told the bystanders to pray for him in this world, and that he would pray for them in the next. He told the crowd, “I die the King’s good servant, and God’s first.” He knelt down in front of the block and uttered the words of Psalm 51. Then he rose and kissed his red-robed executioner. “Be not afraid to do thine office,” he said.
More knelt down, laid his head upon the block, and stretched his arms out in front of him. One blow of the execution’s axe took off his head. The executioner raised the head for the crowd to see: “Behold the head of a traitor!” More’s head was boiled, impaled on a pole, and positioned on London Bridge.
Thomas More’s heroic efforts to preserve the unity of the Church ultimately failed. In the year after his death, Henry VIII escalated his attacks on Catholic institutions, draining monasteries of resources necessary for their survival. Europe became a religiously divided continent in the decades that followed. Today, Europe’s religiosity continues its long and steady decline–a decline that began in the days of More.
The Catholic Church, however, recognized the More’s contributions to the faith. On May 19, 1935, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Pius XI presided at a canonization ceremony for Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. The Pope said of More:
[W]hen he saw the doctrines of the Church were gravely endangered, he knew how to despise resolutely the flattery of human respect, how to resist, in accordance with his duty, the supreme head of the State when there was question of things commanded by God and the Church…It was for these motives that he was imprisoned, nor could the tears of his wife and children make him swerve from the path of truth and virtue. In that terrible hour of trial, he raised his eyes to heaven, and proved himself a bright example of Christian fortitude.
More biographer Richard Marius reminds us why the life and death of Sir Thomas More remains relevant today. More, he wrote, is that rare and “magnificent individual whose life summarized an age in a way that few lives have been able to do.”


Stylish and distinctive, the building housing the Palace restaurant at Eteläranta 10 was originally created to mark the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki and is these days often described as a calling card for the Finnish design industry.
The building’s facade is currently being renovated as part of an extensive refurbishment project. The works also extend to the 10th floor, where the restaurant and its dining areas will be given a new, National Board of Antiquities-approved look and identity that sensitively reflect our establishment’s unique and distinguished heritage.
Mimicking the kitchen’s classically modern style of cooking, the restaurant’s interiors will also be restored to their previous mid-century glory. A 1950s modernist look is the ideal fit for Finland as the country heads towards the 2020s. The restaurant interior’s sleek and pared down aesthetic will also extend to the way our dishes are presented to our diners. The restaurant’s iconic light sign has also been restored and will be returned to the building’s roof at new year.
From its inception in 1952, Palace has led the way for gastronomy in Finland. The 10th floor housed the formal dining room, while the second floor was home to a more relaxed cafe, which was later to become La Vista and Palacen Ranta. In 1961, the legendary American Bar opened on the building’s 11th floor.
The Palace restaurant has always enjoyed a reputation for impeccable fine dining. At the beginning, the majority of the dishes would have been presented to diners by silver service staff at the table with popular dishes including:
– Palermaa’s blinis, served with anchovies, honey and sour cream
– Caesar sandwich, toasted rye bread with steak tartar, caviar, egg yolk and onion
– Burbot à la Harry, burbot, beurre blanc and fennel
– Rolled roast moose – Zander à la Walewska
– Duck à la Palace, with red cabbage
– Läskisoosi, pan-fried pork in gravy
– Beetroot timbale
In the 1990s, the Palace Gourmet restaurant became famous for its Menu Surprise, a daily menu served blind complete with wine.
Private dining at the Palace
Private dining rooms at the Palace are named after notable figures associated with the restaurant, including the building’s architect and the restaurant’s former general managers and head chefs.
Viljo Revell (1919-1964). Architect who designed the restaurant building at Eteläranta 10.
Wilhelm Noschis (1919-1999). Hotel Palace General Manager from 1952 until 1985.
Aleksander Palermaa (1911-1997). The restaurant’s first ever head chef, 1952 – 1976.
Eero Mäkelä (1942-2008). Palace Head Chef. During his tenure, Palace became the first Finnish restaurant to be awarded a Michelin star.
Heikki Tavela (1932-2013). Businessman, gourmand and Palace owner in the early 2000s. Founder member of the Läskisoosi Society.


02 Apr 2020
The Early Days of the Campervan - Episode 2< back
At Stuart Insurance Ltd, we provide our customers with comprehensive campervan insurance and we regularly blog about news, events and general goings-on in the campervan world. In this particular series, we look at the early days of the campervan and what transpired to make so many people in Ireland and around the world fall in love with life on the road.
In our first look into the history of the campervan, we took a rough overview of the entire timeline of this most recognisable of recreational vehicles. Here in episode two, we look specifically at the 1950s and what unfolded to bring the campervan that we know today into existence.
The Pressed Steel Van
The early 1950s bore witness to something of a seminal moment in campervan history, as it saw the first commercial pressed steel van come into production. With models like the VW Microbus rolling off the production line, the campervan market saw a real boost in popularity.
By 1952, German manufacturer of caravans Westfalia recognised the potential the VW Microbus had for conversion, leading to them creating a kit for making vans more habitable for longer. This kit was known as ‘the Camping Box’ and could be fitted to the VW transporter to turn it into something that could be lived in, in relative comfort.
The commercial success of this enterprise encouraged more companies to create new and improved conversion kits, however, it was an expensive business and VW standards meant that many did not make the grade. The evolution of the campervan, however, was far from over.
UK Enters Market
Around the same time, as the popularity of the campervan had gained momentum, British Manufacturer Bedford launched the Dormobile - another of the biggest names in the industry. What was basically a standard ten-base van was initially only designed to be slept in and whilst it was up against the might of VW, it achieved widespread success.
New converter kits became available to add seating and cooking facilities, as well as the famous extending roof which allowed two more berths to be created. During this time, a raft of new companies like Kenex, Pitt and Calthorpe lined up to create new converter kits for the Dormobile, with Kenex eventually being bought out by Dormobile.
Since the very early beginnings of the campervan, it was perhaps the 1950s that saw the biggest foundations laid for campervanning as we know it today. The fun and freedom that can be accessed and enjoyed even by those with modest incomes in a campervan really started to take hold in the 1950s. We’ll take a look at the decade that followed in our next blog.
Protecting Our Customers On the Road
At Stuart Insurances Ltd, we offer affordable campervan insurance, as well as insurance for you home and life. We’re proud to say that we protect our campervan customers on their journeys with comprehensive policies in case the worst should happen.
If you’d like a quote for your campervan insurance, give us a call on (01) 288 1779 now and a member of our team will do their very best to find the ideal policy for your needs. Alternatively, if you’d like to know more about our full range of products, visit us online at www.campervaninsurance.ie
That’s it for now. Check back soon with us for the third instalment of campervan memory lane. Until next time!


Maybe you’ve heard this before: “Mother’s Day—it’s just a meaningless, corporate holiday. Why celebrate it? We should show love to our mothers everyday!”
Well, the cynics may have one thing right: we absolutely should show our hardworking, adoring mothers our appreciation for them every day of the year. But is Mother’s Day really nothing but a “corporate holiday” invented by Wall Street to lure the masses into a day of hollow, frenzied shopping? Let’s dig a little deeper.
The Origin of Mother’s Day and Why We Give
Mother’s Day actually has roots dating all the way back to the Greek and Roman eras, where communities would hold enormous festivals dedicated to celebrating varying goddess-mothers.
Later, right up until the early 1900s, what we would later come to call Mother’s Day was celebrated by Christians in Europe as a yearly lenten tradition called Mothering Sunday. It was less about celebrating mothers, and more about spending a special Sunday morning in one’s “mother” church, or, the church that was located closest to their home. Basically, if a family typically attended church in another town, Mothering Sunday was the day they returned to their neighborhood church. Children also occasionally presented their mothers with flowers and small gifts on Mothering Sunday.
The American Mother’s Day, which we now celebrate each year on the second Sunday in May, was not, in fact, invented by Wall Street, but by a woman named Ann Jarvis. In the late 1800s, Jarvis was a strong advocate for women, leading organizations that were designed to help support mothers and connect them with one another. One of these organizations even proved crucial in helping unite the Union and Confederate armies after the Civil War.
In fact, countless outspoken and passionate women of the late 1800s and early 1900s played varying roles in laying the groundwork for the Mother’s Day we celebrate now:
Another precursor to Mother’s Day came from the abolitionist and suffragette Julia Ward Howe. In 1870 Howe wrote the “Mother’s Day Proclamation,” a call to action that asked mothers to unite in promoting world peace. In 1873 Howe campaigned for a “Mother’s Peace Day” to be celebrated every June 2. Other early Mother’s Day pioneers include Juliet Calhoun Blakely, a temperance activist who inspired a local Mother’s Day in Albion, Michigan, in the 1870s. The duo of Mary Towles Sasseen and Frank Hering, meanwhile, both worked to organize a Mothers’ Day in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some have even called Hering “the father of Mothers’ Day.” (History.com)
After Ann Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter Anna worked with a local department store and the Methodist church to create a special day honoring mothers. Later, Anna decided that Mother’s Day should be a national holiday, believing that there were too many holidays already on the national calendar honoring men’s achievements. She began a letter-writing campaign, and by 1912, several states had adopted Mother’s Day as an official holiday.
Interestingly, by 1920, card companies, florists, and department stores had begun to capitalize on Jarvis’ Mother’s Day, which deeply discouraged her. She never wanted Mother’s Day to become a corporate holiday—her whole idea was simply to set aside a day to honor mothers. Before she died in 1948, she even tried to encourage the government to take the holiday off its national calendar, before personally disowning the holiday all together.
Mother’s Day cynics—soften your hearts. The traditional American Mother’s Day is rooted in love, admiration, and appreciation for mothers (and women) everywhere. Consider the fact that Anna Jarvis herself never married or had children of her own, but was passionate about seeing women recognized for their strength and dedication to their families and communities.
And that is why we give on Mother’s Day. Not because the commercial advertisements are luring us. Not because of guilt incited by our mothers’ expectations. We give on Mother’s Day to show the women in our lives that we notice them, love them, and because we know they deserve to feel joyful and appreciated.
This Mother’s Day, remember Anna Jarvis. Give with intention. Give thoughtfully. And if all you can give is a hug, some encouragement, and a few moments of your time, know that Anna would feel honored to know that Mother’s Day can persist as she first dreamed it.


Moodabidire: On the right side of the Itala Sri Somanatheshwara temple in Daregudde of the taluk, a Tulu inscription on a rock called elephant stone by the locals was discovered by Prof. S.A. Krishnaiah, Director of Studies at the Oriental Collection Research Center, Udupi.
Krishnaiah said that Vedamurthy Sagri Gopalakrishna Samaga of Udupi has guided him to study this place. Due to the restoration of the temple, soil accumulated around this rock, and currently only 5 to 6 lines of illegible Tulu script are visible in this inscription and the rest of the lines are buried in the soil.
Krishnaiah said that additional study of this legislation will be done in the near future. Dr. Radhakrishna Bellur, Tulugiologist has done the preliminary study of the inscription. opined that the inscription belongs to the 12th-13th century on the basis of the script. Ravi Santosh Alva and local people have cooperated in the fieldwork research.


Each year, Americans observe Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15th to October 15th, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
The day of September 15th is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16th and September 18th, respectively.
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ve curated books by Latinx authors for adults, teens, and kids. Check one out today!


On Saturday, May 16 at 11 am, the Monmouth County Library Headquarters in Manalapan will be the site for the Manalapan Music Muster: The Civil War in Song. Saturday will be a day devoted to Civil War music and history. Dr. David Martin, author of over 20 books on the Civil War will deliver the keynote address on the importance of music to the war effort and to the people at home. Rich Mendoza of the Libby Prison Minstrels will emcee this very special event as seven musical groups take the atage to perform music of the Civil War.
The musical groups include the Libby Prison Minstrels, the Susquehanna Travellers, the Irish Volunteers Civil War Band, Steve Ball and Lisa Williams, Jed Marum, Helen Beedle and Joe Becton. Weather permitting, the Library will also be the site of a Civil War encampment with living historians in authentic period Civil War uniforms who answer questions about the battles, the solder's preparations, their food, their daily lives and how the music help create camaraderie among the soldiers.
This program is co-sponsored by the the NJ Civil War Heritage Association and made possible by a grant from the NJ Council for the Humanities. The program begins at 11am and runs until 4 pm. For more information, call the Library at 732-431-7220 Ext. 7222.


Everything You Need to Know About New Chevy Cars and Trucks In Georgia
American car buyers have held the Chevrolet Impala in high esteem for over half a decade. To own an Impala has long been a badge of honor among those who hold quality and beauty in high esteem. From the day it rolled off the assembly line in 1958, the Impala changed the way auto buyers saw just what kind of high quality car the United States could forge. This car is a true example of how combining style, performance, function, and value can make the Impala a staple in garages and driveways of millions of Americans. The proof is in the numbers! Since it was introduced, 12 million Impala's have been sold between the years of 1958 to 2002. This proves that more Americans have made the Impala their car of choice over any other full-sized car in the history of auto making. In some professional's opinion, the Chevrolet Impala is said to be the car that gave birth to the muscle car. Chevrolet introduced this fine example in auto making as a top-of-the-line model, which fast grew into the symbol for performance in the 1960's.
Description A snapshot of the Impala's interior.
Affordability, versatility, and power worked like a charm to turn the Impala into a lasting American symbol of quality. Impala was without a doubt best-selling Chevrolet car in its first full year on the market. In the coming year it became the best-selling car in all of America. The Impala held that coveted for almost ten years. In 1965 it set an industry sales record for selling over one million cars.
The Impala outsold other full size models which previously cornered the market distributed by Ford and Plymouth. The Chevrolet Impala maintained its position as the most popular full- size Chevrolet model through the mid-eighties. The Impala, which was named after the African antelope, has been easily distinguished by its three sets of taillights. Another trademark of the Impala is the SS nameplate, introduced in 1961. This craftsmanship was continued through 1969. It was given new life as it was revived in 1994 through 1996, only to be renewed again for the 2004-2011 model years. This revered symbol of the Impala is forever synonymous with power.
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The Quality Royal Magazine
Every month Majesty gives its readers a colorful insight into the privileged lives of the royal families of the world. Personalities, lifestyles and fashion are all captured in exciting features and stunning photographs.
Majesty records all the important royal engagements and takes an in-depth look at the dramatic history of Britain's monarchs. Month by month it builds into a beautiful and authoritative collection.
Recent events in the Royal Family are going to provide some of the most interesting, and indeed, probably the most important changes in history - and Majesty will be there!