‘Rarely do you come across a world class leader, author and communicator all in the one body! Not only does John manage to combine all these skills, but he tops all his talents by being an authentic and likable person. Simply put - I love to hear him teach, be around his leadership and most of all, just enjoy his company - I cannot recommend him highly enough!’
Andrew McCourt - Senior Pastor, Bayside Church, California
'Dr John Andrews has been a tremendous blessing to the churches of Singapore, equipping and inspiring people in ways that can be understood across ages and cultures. A man of conviction and clarity, his preaching and teaching ministry intertwine theology with personal testimonies to demonstrate the power and relevance of Spirit-centered faith.'
Rev Dominic Yeo - General Superintendent, Assemblies of God of Singapore / Senior Pastor, Trinity Christian Centre
'John (the Doctor) is a world class bible teacher. His insights into scripture are breath-taking at times. His application of this ancient text into contemporary leadership is razor sharp and his ability to break down complexity into digestible understanding is God-given. John loves teaching and graces the stage of conferences across the world, yet he has never lost his passion to serve the local church. John is a proven leader, an author many times over, a leadership coach and my friend. He loves his family, his sausage dogs and Liverpool FC. One of those attributes I admire; one I put up with; one I detest!'
Simon Jarvis - Senior Leader, One Church, UK
‘We love John Andrews. He's the real deal. He comes regularly to speak at the church I pastor in Singapore, but also at the Bible College of Wales in Swansea, where he lectures each term. The students absolutely love him and his transparency and vulnerability has often left us in tears. I will not hesitate to recommend him, that's for sure. I am a fan.’
Rev Yang Tuck Yoong - Senior Pastor, Cornerstone, Singapore / Chairman, Bible College of Wales, Swansea
'Dr John loves God, loves life and loves the Bible. His passion to teach the Word is infectious and his ability to teach the Word incredible. We invite John to minister regularly at our church. He never brings less than his best – opening the Bible to strengthen, challenge, inspire, equip, engage and encourage God’s people. We always look forward to him coming and his input continues to help move us forward.'
Martin and Esther Storey - Senior Leaders, CLM, Coventry
'We were blessed to have Dr John Andrews come minister at our church camp. It was a great camp and not only did John bless the people with the sharing of the Word, but in his interaction, friendliness and sincerity, together with his wife Dawn, they greatly ministered to our church members. John and Dawn were a real blessing, great to have around and fitted right in with our members despite our cultural differences. I would strongly recommend him if you need a great teacher and communicator, as well as a friend.'
Pastor Mark Poh - Senior Leaders, Emmanuel AG Church, Singapore
'John Andrews, in our opinion, is one of the best Bible teachers in Britain. He has a unique ability to bring the Scriptures alive and make them applicable to our daily lives. He is exactly the same off the stage to on it – his humility, love for people and passion for mission make him stand out and it’s incredible to see how his influence has grown in recent years through his books and media presence. We have witnessed him overcome tough times with strength and dignity. John is a Christian statesman who you should have no hesitation in inviting to your church or conference. As Becky’s first pastor who took her on her first mission trip as a teenage girl, it’s fair to say that One By One wouldn’t be where it is today if it wasn’t for this man's love for the mission field.'
Matthew and Becky Murray - Senior Leaders, Renew Church, Uttoxeter
'John is an excellent speaker who connects well with his audience, contemporary in communication and biblical in content, profound in outlook yet down-to-earth in practicability. In the years that he has ministered to the various groups that I have requested, he has connected well with the various age groups that he has spoken to and touched many lives.'
Rev. Peter Soh - Hinghwa Methodist Church
'One wise teacher said to explain something simply, you need to understand it profoundly. We commend John Andrews to you – he’s a gifted and anointed teacher who models this principle. His deep love of God’s Word, refined communication skills and the way he lives daily life continue to help thousands of believers every year to grow in their application of Biblical wisdom. We have seen first-hand his ministry at home and in other nations and are so grateful to partner with him.
John has served Wellspring Church in many ways through Sunday preaching, mid-week teaching seminars, leadership development courses and consultancy. He’s the real deal and we thank God for him!'
Tim and Helen Roberts - Senior Leaders, Wellspring Church, Watford
'John has been partnering with us for many years. His biblical insight, inspiration and encouragement, coupled with his relational delivery have had a profound impact on us as leaders and the wider church alike. John clearly has a genuine desire to serve local church, which is evident in his bespoke understanding of our needs and culture. I cannot recommend him highly enough.'
Richard Cooke - Senior Leader, The Bridge, Bolton
'I have known Dr John for almost 30 years, both as a colleague and friend. His outstanding grasp of contemporary culture and biblical theology has not compromised his rare gift of engaging truth with both seasoned and emerging leaders. He is one of only a handful of public speakers who can capture a crowd of diverse experience and maturity with current issues in an ucompromising context of Christian Mission. He has graced our pulpit literally dozens of time and I recommend his gift and personal integrity without hesitation. I am personally grateful for how he has blessed and progressed our church in equal measure.'
Anthony Hodgkinson - Emmanuel Community Church Interntional, London
Dr John is a trusted friend, and an excellent communicator. Our church have benefitted from his rich teaching in our leadership training course, School of Worship, Celebrations and (alongside his wife Dawn), a couples retreat. I think the depth of John’s teaching comes from a solid theological understanding of the biblical texts, held in tension with the need to make its application relevant to village churches or faith communities in the urban context. I have watched him serve in local church, national denominational teams, as a bible college principal and conference speaker. His wise and witty contributions have always been deeply appreciated by me. In addition to this, his willingness to work hard and serve with loyalty and honesty, are rare qualities these days, and the confluence of all these things has served to strengthen my conviction about the credibility of his leadership gift.
As an international speaker John is acutely aware of the need to make sure his message has relevance and impact across cultures. His youthful spirit also connects well with an emerging generation, who are eager to discover fresh missional strategies that are equal to the challenges of a biblical faith in the modern world. John has been a rich source of inspiration for them. Many who listen to John usually comment on the sincere manner in which he shares how biblical truth has profoundly shaped his own life. He is no stranger to pain or pressure, but has maintained a poise and integrity through times of stress and success that comes from a deeper place than just a professional appointment to Christian ministry.
’Dr John’ is a faithful husband, a loving father, a passionate leader, prolific author, insightful communicator, and more than any of this… a devoted follower of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Doug Williams - Emmanuel Community Church International, London


I (D0n) read a lot. Guess that’s not really a confession coming from someone with a college degree in Literature. But nonetheless …
One magazine I really like is Neue. It touts itself as “The magazine for leaders shaping the future of the church.” Pretty tall order, if you ask me. Sometimes I think it falls short of that goal, but the Spring 2012 issue offers quite a bit of really interesting content. In particular, they asked “13 of today’s most influential pastors” to give advice to “emerging leaders” in the US church.
One thought that caught my eye is from Dr. George Wood, general superintendent of the Assemblies of God. He said, “We have greater access to information than any other generation. But information is not knowledge. What are you doing to ‘test the spirits’ (1 John 4:12) and practice discernment in the Google Age?”
And that’s been a point I’ve considered a lot over the past couple years. There is a wealth of information available extremely rapidly to everyone today, but we know that not every source is credible, not every piece of data is accurate. And, as much as we need to carefully guard our hearts and minds and “test the spirits,” how much more responsibility do we carry as people who work with kids?
I see it as a mandate that we take very seriously the call to teach children and teens discernment and critical thinking skills. How can they be identify the truth within an ocean of information unless they are given the tools to sift it out? Of course the Holy Spirit is our guide, but scripture does teach that we are to “test the spirits” – to use the discernment God has given to decide what is right.
So, how do we step up to that challenge?


Exegetical and Medical Aspects of Jesus’ Death and Their Coherence with the Shroud
The account in the canonical gospels of Jesus’ trial, passion and death on the cross (Mattt 26:47–68; 27:1–2, 11–49; Mark 14:43–65, 15:1–37; Luke 22:39–53.63-65; 23:13–34.44–46; John 18:12–19, 37) presents the historical events (selectively) together with the theological ones. It is on this basis that an attempt is made to show the exegetical and medical aspects of Christ’s death. The juxtaposition of the textual data with an analysis of the traces left on the image visible on the Shroud of Turin, which recorded the suffering and the type of death inflicted, makes it possible to affirm or deny the overlap of the identity of the figure in the gospels and the one on the cloth.
Crucifixion, as we know from ancient sources, was among the most severe and degrading punishments in the ancient world. The Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, describing the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 66–70 after Christ, rated this punishment as the most repulsive of deaths (Josephus Flavius 2022). Crucifixion probably originated in Assyria and Babylon. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great introduced this cruel way of inflicting death in the Mediterranean countries, while the Romans took it over from the Phoenicians in the 3rd century BC. Crucifixion became common between the death of Herod I the Great (4 BC) and the fall of Jerusalem (70 BC). It was only abolished by Emperor Constantine the Great in 337 and replaced by hanging on the patibulum (gallows), which was, one might say, humane compared to the cross. The difference between the first and second means of inflicting the death penalty was explained by Isidore of Seville (560–636): (…) one hanging on the patibulum dies immediately, while one nailed on the cross suffers for a long time (…) (Isidorus Hispalensis, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, 5: 27, 33–34, [in:] Kobielus 2000, p. 20; Sławiński 1997, p. 26).
When crucifixion was performed, nails were most often driven into the tree through the hands and feet; rarely the victim was tied to the cross. Josephus mentioned that after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, giving vent to anger and hatred, soldiers nailed captured Jews to the cross in various body positions even for fun (Josephus Flavius 2022). The large number of condemned required the executioners to be “efficient.” Tying the victim to a tree or cross with his hands suspended directly above his head resulted in death within minutes. The skeleton of a young person in his 20s, crucified decades after Christ, found in 1968 in a Jerusalem suburb during construction work, is evidence of the use of nails.
Archaeological research and historical records reveal that the Romans were most likely to carry out executions using a low T-shaped cross (Latin: crux commissa; English: low tau cross), which consisted of a vertical pole (Latin: stipes) 1.8–2.4 m high and a transverse beam (Latin: patibulum) 1.5–1.8 m long. In different regions of the empire also other types of crucifixion were performed, including the so-called Latin cross (Latin: crux immissa).
The condemned person generally had to carry the cross from the place where he had been subjected to scourging to the place of execution, which was usually outside the city walls. As the weight of the entire cross was about 140 kg, the condemned man carried only the crossbeam, weighing between 37 and 54 kg, which was placed around his neck and tied to his shoulders with thongs. At the execution site, the patibulum was pivoted to a post and this fastening was reinforced with ropes. If the agony was to be prolonged, a piece of uncut block or board (Latin: sedulum) was fastened in the middle of the lower part of the post. Very rarely, and probably in the times after Jesus, an additional block was attached under the feet, which made it possible to nail them to the cross.
It was Jewish law to give the condemned person a mild intoxicant: a mixture of strong wine and myrrh or gall before crucifixion. The victim was thrown to the ground, his arms spread out and attached to the beam he was carrying. The Romans would nail the victims rather than tie them with thongs.
Nails (similar to those used today for railway sleepers or railroad ties) were between 13 and 18 cm long and 1 cm in diameter. Once the condemned was fastened to the beam, he was lifted and the beam was fixed to the post. In the case of the cross on which Jesus hung, this task could easily be done by two soldiers without the use of a ladder. The feet were then nailed, usually to the front of the post. To attach them effectively, the legs had to be bent at the knees and the feet laterally twisted. The marks on the Shroud show that in Jesus this resulted in a dislocation of the right foot.
The condemned lived on the cross for three to four hours, but there were cases where he could have been dying for up to three days; the length of life on the cross was inversely proportional to the intensity of the torture. Soldiers could shorten the agony by breaking the legs below the knees. If the family of the condemned did not obtain permission for burial, dead bodies fell prey to insects, wild birds or predatory animals. The corpse was not released until it was established with certainty that death had occurred. The Roman custom was for one of the soldiers to deliver a fatal blow from the right side of the chest with a sword or spear as confirmation that the condemned had died. Spears of between 1.5 and 1.8 metres in length were most commonly used as they were easy to apply to a low cross, and therefore to one on which Jesus probably hung.
Death on the cross is now believed to have been the result of a number of factors. One of these was that the hanging body was positioned in such a way as to prevent proper breathing. If the victim was hung by his arms stretched above his head, death occurred within an hour, especially if the legs were so nailed together that the condemned could not use his arms to raise his body to exhale. Studies monitoring the respiratory and circulatory function which were carried out on volunteers by Frederick Zugibe showed that after just six minutes the respiratory volume in the subjects dropped by an average of 70%, the blood pressure by 50% and the heart rate doubled. After 12 minutes, breathing was only possible via the diaphragm. Twenty seconds of body elevation significantly improved circulation and respiration. The experiment had to be stopped after 30–40 minutes, usually because of excruciating pain in the wrists. In Roman times, prior to crucifixion, victims were subjected to cruel scourging which, if not resulting in death, caused considerable exhaustion due to pain and blood loss.
The Shroud of Turin, which continues to be the subject of multidisciplinary scientific study, is considered a highly probable testimony to Jesus’ suffering and crucifixion. It is a pictorial record of the cruel execution and crucifixion, giving an idea of the great suffering endured by the condemned. It shows the image of a dead man, 180–183 cm tall, with Semitic facial features and a strong, proportionate body. The examination of the Shroud has shown that the body remained inside it for up to 36 hours, as there are no signs of decomposition on it. Traces of blood clots were left intact on the linen, and there were no traces of them being torn off, which may indicate that the body was not removed from it. The presence of bile dye was detected. As is well known, excessive bilirubin can appear in blood due to the increased production of bilirubin after great physical exertion (suffering, pain) and as a result of the liver’s inability to capture excess bilirubin during haemolysis of blood cells, especially in acute haemolytic conditions.
The evangelist Luke describes the first symptoms of mental and physical suffering, and these took place after the Last Supper, during Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Olives. The bloody sweat (haematidrosis) that appeared on Christ’s body is very rarely described in world medical literature. It is thought to be caused by terrible fear, unusually intense mental experiences or excessive exertion. Increasing fear of impending suffering and imminent cruel death along with loneliness and strong psychological experiences, compounded by abandonment by the loved ones, may have caused such symptoms.
All the evangelists wrote about Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Olives (Matt 26:36–46; Mark 14:32–42; Luke 22:39–46; John 18:1–18). Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts are quite extensive and similar. They write that Jesus got up from prayer on three occasions and woke the apostles, inviting them to watch and pray. Although the evangelist Luke describes this prayer more briefly, he is the one who gives an extremely important detail: Jesus was in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground (Luke 22:44). There are two important points contained in this verse. One is highlighted above. Jesus prayed so fervently that his sweat became like thick drops of blood. The second point clarifies the first. In this passage, the evangelist Luke uses the Greek term ἡ ἀγωνία, not meaning agony—that is, death—but struggle. The word was used to describe Olympic wrestling matches, as well as other sporting competitions. The term was also used to refer to the struggles of orators, who competed in the art of oratory. The word may also have referred to verbal disputes between advocates in court. The term ἡ ἀγωνία referred to a physical, spiritual, mental struggle, overcoming fear or trepidation. So, St Luke very accurately described Jesus’ struggle in the Garden of Olives: it was so great that it caused a bloody sweat.
The Shroud represents the entirety of the victim’s ordeal. More than 700 traces of various wounds were found there. The prelude to the crucifixion was the beating of the condemned, especially on the face. The blows or slaps were dealt with fists or a stick. From the marks on the Shroud, it is evident that the injury was mainly to the right side of the face, which was almost massacred. A large haematoma under the eye made it very difficult, if not impossible, to see. The wide wound from the nose through the cheek, the swelling, the numerous haematomas, and the fractured jaw testify to the particular cruelty of the torturers.
The trial of Jesus of Nazareth described in the canonical Gospels had two stages. The first was religious in nature and was conducted by the High Council led by the high priest. The second trial was political in nature and was conducted by the political authority exercised on behalf of the occupying Romans in Israel by Pontius Pilate, who acted as procurator in Palestine. The wounds on Jesus’ face referred to above occurred during the religious trial. Once Jesus had been captured in Gethsemane—the oil press located in the Garden of Olives—he was led to the house of Caiaphas and then to the Sanhedrin’s council chamber. Edward Szymanek notes that St Mark’s account portrays this trial as a biased one, which aimed at a guilty verdict. However, since some serious charge against Jesus had to be found, false witnesses were used (Mark 14:58n), whose testimony, however, was not consistent. They spoke of how Jesus claimed that he would tear down the temple and that he would rebuild it in three days without human labour. Then the high priest asked: Are you the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One? (Mark 14:61) This question did not refer to Jesus’ deity, for such a thing was probably not contemplated, but concerned his messianic dignity, for the Old Testament texts already referred to the Messiah as the Son of God (cf. 2 Sam 7:5–16; Ps 2:7; Ps 89:27). Jesus’ response is very surprising when he openly confessed: I am (Mark 14:62). The high priest treated Jesus’ confession as blasphemy, and the whole crowd lashed out at the condemned man: Some began to spit on him. They blindfolded him and struck him (…). And the guards greeted him with blows. (Mark 14:65; Matt 26:67). Feliks Gryglewicz and Franciszek Jóźwiak conclude that Jesus was abused not only for the crowd to give vent to great anger, but also to make a mockery of his prophetic message (Prophesy!—Mark 14, 65; in Matthew’s version somewhat more broadly: Prophesy for us, Messiah: who is it that struck you—Matt 26, 68). The slap was usually administered with the right hand wrapped in cloth. The blow was delivered with vigour from the left side so that the condemned person, facing the executioner, received a blow on the right cheek. If the blow was inflicted by a servant holding the other end of the rope with which the condemned man was bound, then his hand was wrapped in that very rope, which intensified the blow and injured the victim’s face. In St John’s account, the beating of Jesus during the religious trial was more vicious. Annas asked Christ about his teaching and his disciples. Thereupon Jesus replied that he had spoken openly and that the high priest ought to ask those who were listening to him (cf. John 18:21), which caused the servant’s reaction: When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” (John 18, 22). The Greek term used by St John, τò ῥάπισμα, describes not so much a slap dealt by hand as a blow dealt with a rod or stick. Therefore Jesus, protesting, replied, If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me? (John 18:23). The Polish translation of this passage is not accurate. The verb δέρω used here means “to wound, to skin, to strip off the skin.” Jesus’ statement should therefore be translated: “Why are you wounding me?” The blow was so severe that it broke the nose, separated the cartilage from the bone and cut the skin on the nose and cheek.
The night after his arrest, Jesus walked about 2–3 km, being pushed and beaten on the march and during interrogation. A sleepless night in prison, probably in harsh conditions, a forced position, remaining without any opportunity to quench his thirst—all of this must have severely weakened the condemned man before his pending scourging and crucifixion.
The Shroud contains traces of 121 deep whip wounds. We can conclude from these that Jesus was flogged with short-handled whips with several thongs ending in iron balls or sharp animal bones (Latin: flagellum) which often ripped out the victim’s flesh during the blows, rupturing vessels, exposing nerves and penetrating to the bones.
In the Roman Empire, there was a ban on the whipping of Roman citizens, issued in 195 BC in the Lex Porcia, and renewed in 123 BC in the Lex Sempronia. Flagellation, however, was commonly used against members of conquered nations. Scourging was used to extract confessions or admissions of guilt. Roman law did not specify the number of strokes: it was decided by the lictor—the soldier administering the punishment.
Scourging customarily preceded crucifixion. It did not apply to women, senators and soldiers, except for deserters. Before inflicting this torture, the condemned was stripped naked and tied to a pole with his hands raised. This was carried out by two soldiers, on whose physical disposition and mental attitude towards the victim the strength of the blows depended, which could cause the victim to faint or even die. The infliction of this punishment often resulted in the body being massacred, while the severe pain and blood loss often caused shock and affected the duration of the agony on the cross.
The evangelist Matthew focuses on the theological significance of Jesus’ passion. He wrote about the physical suffering and torture to which Christ was subjected very briefly. He mentions the scourging in just one word (Matt 27:26). For him, it was more important that the leaders of the nation took responsibility for Jesus’ death. Josephus Flavius, on the other hand, states that the scourging preceded the crucifixion (Bell 2, 14, 9; 5, 11, 1).
The marks left on the Shroud by the thorny branches plaited into the shape of a coif and imposed on Jesus’ head as a parody of the coronation attest to the authenticity of the condemned man’s ordeal. This cynical act underlined the main accusation made against Jesus (that he dared to call himself king), since neither before nor since such a custom had been reported. The deep spikes of the coif of thorns that pierced the skin and often reached the periosteum caused neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve. On the forehead, 13 piercings can be counted, while on the back of the head—20. The shroud does not make the sides of the head visible, so it is assumed that there may have been about 50 total thorn injuries.
In Palestine, such a coif was made from the many thorny plants growing in the region. It could have been the thorn of Christ (Ziziphus spina-christi). Hanna Górska speculates that the most likely shrub used to crown Jesus was the thorn bloodroot (Sarcopoterium spinosum). It was commonly used in Jerusalem as fuel. The Gospel accounts of the Passion mention the burning of a fire in the courtyard of the high priest, at which the soldiers warmed themselves (Mark 14:67; Luke 22:55–56; John 18:22). Probably the same fuel was gathered in the fortress of Antonia, where Jesus’ political trial took place. The soldiers therefore did not need to look for a special bush. To describe the plant from which the crown was made, the evangelists used the Greek term ἡ ἄκανθα—‘thorn, thorny bush’ (cf. Matt 27:29; Mark 15:17; John 19:2). This is a common term and not a proper name, so it is not possible to resolve which plant the soldiers used when crowning Jesus.
On the cloth of the Shroud there are numerous traces of deep wounds on the arms, especially on the right arm. The crossbeam, which weighed about 60 kg, was fixed asymmetrically on the shoulders, which meant that the condemned could not cushion his fall or support himself with his hand, which meant that he usually fell on his left knee or on his face. The knee was so damaged that the victim was most likely unable to walk on his own. On the last part of the path—the uphill path—he was probably dragged. The marks on the Shroud also show the last act of suffering: the nailing of the outspread hands and feet and the suspension of the body.
Because of the loss of strength caused by the suffering inflicted on Him, it is most likely that Jesus could not carry the cross Himself. On the 600–650 m route between the Praetorium of Pilate’s palace, where the scourging took place, and the place of crucifixion, the condemned fell several times.
Taking into account the loss of blood, the strong emotional ordeal and the great physical suffering along with the lack of sleep, meals or drink (which was of vital importance in the hot Mediterranean climate), it can be assumed that Jesus was already in a critical condition before the crucifixion. When the victim was knocked to the ground before being nailed to the cross, the dried wounds would reopen, resulting in further blood loss. With every breath, the unhealed wounds on contact with the rough and rugged tree of the cross would open, releasing blood.
The Evangelists did not write about the wounds suffered on the way of the cross. The information they provided is very sparse. Matthew only indicated that Jesus was led to the crucifixion (Matt 27:31) and then that they forced Simon to carry His cross. Mark added that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:20–21). Luke supplemented this information by stating that a multitude of people followed Him. He also wrote of the weeping women—whom Jesus admonished to weep over themselves and their sons—and of two other condemned who were led with Christ to be executed (Luke 23:26–32). St John, on the other hand, wrote that Jesus himself carried the cross (John 19:17).
The nails were driven into the wrists, not the palms because, as has been shown, only the bones and ligaments of the wrist can support the weight of the body. Nails were driven between the radius bone and the wrist bones or between the wrist bones themselves, proximal to the flexor muscle trochlea and wrist ligaments. Although the nail mostly passed between the bones and did not cause fractures, the damage to the periosteum itself caused unbearable pain. The driven nail could crush or damage the median nerve, causing excruciating pain in both arms along with the paralysis of the hand. The feet were usually nailed to the anterior cruciate through the first or second metatarsal space, distal to the junction of the tarsal and metatarsal bones. It is very likely that the nerves, the vessels and muscles of the foot were traumatised, which resulted in increased bleeding from the wounds and excruciating pain (causalgia), which, as we know today, is difficult to alleviate even with narcotics.
The Evangelists, however, did not convey the details of the nailing or the type of torture inflicted. Mark indicated that Jesus was given wine laced with myrrh to act as an intoxicant, but Jesus did not accept it (Mark 15:23). He also gave information about the separation of garments (Mark 15:24) and the mocking on the cross (Mark 15:29–32).
The question of the time of the crucifixion is of interest. Mark indicates that it was the third hour (Mark 15:25). The third hour of the day would mean the ninth hour of the morning. Exegetes surmise that it is rather the time of day between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. This can be inferred from the text. According to Matthew, the crucifixion took place later, but this information refers to the time of the dying. He wrote that from six o’clock to nine o’clock darkness enveloped the whole earth (cf. Matt 27:45). Given Matthew’s account, Jesus’ death occurred at around 3 p.m. Luke gave a similar time, writing that from the sixth hour of the day until the ninth hour Jesus’ moribund state continued (Luke 23:44–46).
The most devastating, pathophysiological consequence of the crucifixion was the inability to breathe properly, especially to exhale properly. The weight pulling the body down on outstretched arms and bent knees forced the intercostal muscles into an inspiratory position and prevented passive exhalation. The latter could only be done with the diaphragm muscles. Respiration was therefore shallow, inefficient, with rapidly developing hypercapnia and respiratory acidosis. To exhale, the victim had to raise his arms and, resting on his feet, spread his knees. This movement in turn caused severe pain in the pierced feet and wrists from irritated and nail-damaged nerves, and increased bleeding from the wounds along with pain in the injured back that was rubbing against the uncut wood of the cross. The tetanic muscle cramps that followed fatigue plus water and electrolyte disturbances made breathing impossible.
The Gospel account states that Jesus only spoke from the cross seven times. Each spoken word must have caused great suffering, as the utterances could only take place in a phase of active, non-physiological exhalation forced by the position of the hanging body. The first of these utterances is recorded by St Luke: Father, forgive them, they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Jesus’ prayer for his persecutors is very deeply rooted in his teaching (cf. Luke 6:28). Exegetes question the authenticity of these words because they are missing from several codices (e.g. 3rd century P75, 4th century Codex Vaticanus (B), 5th century Codex Bezae (D)). It appears that some copyists deleted this prayer for persecutors because of the conflict that arose at the end of the 1st century between Judaism and Christianity after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. However, this prayer was known to Tatian the Syrian when he created the Diatessaron around 170, as well as to St Irenaeus (†204). It must therefore be accepted as authentic. This rather lengthy utterance of Jesus must have cost Him a great deal of effort because of the severe respiratory distress resulting from the dangling position of His body on the cross. By uttering these words at just such a moment, Christ set an example of how to pray for persecutors. At the end of his journey to Jerusalem, he taught that one should always forgive (Luke 17:3–4). The use of the past imperfect tense (imperfectum) in this statement is significant: “Jesus said…” (orig. Ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἔλεγεν). It follows that the words of the prayer “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” were repeated by Him many times. They were spoken with a certain insistence and resembled the insistence of the widow in the parable, the same one who repeatedly asked the dishonest judge to grant her request (cf. Luke 18:1–8).
Despite so much suffering, Jesus, hanging on the cross, noticed even the repentant thief. To him he addressed his second utterance: Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise (Luke 23:43). Two terms are significant. The first is the Greek ὁ παράδεισος—‘paradise.’ This term is derived from ancient Iranian, in which pairi-daēza means a garden surrounded by an irrigating ditch or a beautiful valley. The Septuagint translates the Hebrew gan in this way. Thus, the word primarily means a garden of paradise. It is a symbol of exceptional fertility and a garden in which man is happy (Gen 2:8; Song 4:13; Eccl 2:5; Neh 2:8). The Slavonic Book of Enoch, which is probably a translation from the Greek original dating from the 1st century BC, presents the third heaven as paradise. God, on the other hand, has His throne in the seventh heaven. From time to time, He descends into the third heaven (EnochSl 8–9). Such views are also expressed by St Paul, writing that he was raptured into the third heaven (2 Cor 2:2.4). The second term with theological significance is σήμερον—‘today.’ This today points to the present moment in which salvation takes place. Jesus, hanging on the cross, saves man, and the repentant thief, as one of the first men, shares not only in Jesus’ passion, but also in the work of salvation, and together with Jesus he will receive salvation, entering paradise with him on the same day.
A third statement is given by St John the Evangelist: Woman, behold, your son (…). Behold, your mother (John 19:26n). In the light of the law, these words have a very significant meaning. It is a testament in which the dying Christ placed his mother in the care of the beloved disciple, by which the disciple became her son. The second dimension of this statement is of theological significance and is the revelation of God’s design. It is the culminating moment of the revelation of God’s sonship: Jesus as Son of God bequeaths to his mother the beloved disciple. In turn, he entrusts his mother to the beloved disciple. Through this act of will, Jesus does not cease to be the only son of his mother. At the hour of his death, Christ calls forth a new family—God’s family. He dies as the Son of God because His Father is God. He also dies as the Son of Man, for He took humanity from His mother. He now establishes her as the mother of all His beloved disciples.
The fourth utterance of Jesus from the cross is recorded by St Matthew: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matt 27:46). The evangelist noted that it was the ninth hour of the day. On the day before Passover at this hour in the temple, the people of God slaughtered the Passover lambs. It is the hour of sacrifice and prayer. Jesus then cried out in a loud voice, literally: φωνῇ μεγάλῃ—with a great voice. This phrase in the Bible means the cry of the orant. Jesus’ great prayer is heard from the cross. Christ had been abandoned by the disciples, while the people who stand beneath the cross mocked Him. It can be said that He was also abandoned by His own people, who handed Him over to the Romans for crucifixion. He therefore cries out to God. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews records: he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him (Heb 5:7–9). Jesus, feeling abandoned by the people, cries out to God with full confidence, turning to Him: “My God.” This is a God who is very close and can be fully trusted. The words of the prayer taken from the psalm (Ps 22:2) are full of pain, a sense of abandonment, but also hope, which speaks from the further verses of the song.
Another, the fifth, statement of Jesus from the cross is recorded by St John. It is just: I thirst (John 19:28). The cry of the dying Christ is very powerful. At the end of his passion, he cries out “I thirst,” thus praying the words of the psalm: Instead they gave me poison for my food; and for my thirst they gave me vinegar (Ps 69, 22). This one phrase expresses the desire to live and to give the gift of life to those for whom He offers Himself. This thirst is of a personal nature, to which Jesus refers in this prayer. It is God who gives life. Jesus desires all this to happen so that those for whom He gave life might also have life and have it in abundance (cf. John 10:10).
The sixth statement also comes from the Gospel according to St John: It is finished (John 19:30). These words are like a seal put on the whole work of Jesus. He affirmed that everything the Father had commanded him had been accomplished. John portrays Christ as God and Lord. Even the scene on the cross is more reminiscent of sitting on a royal throne than of a terrible dying. Jesus is Lord, which is why He uttered the words ‘it is done,’ and then He Himself gave up the ghost and bowed His head. In John’s account, from the cross of Jesus flows the majesty of God who accomplishes man’s salvation. This expresses the truth that salvation was “accomplished” on the cross. The last words from the cross recorded by St Luke are similarly eloquent: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit (Luke 23:46). These words are taken from Ps 30:6 in the Septuagint version. It is a prayer of lamentation by a man who, being in a difficult situation in life, turns to God. He trusts God because only He can help him. At the moment of death, Jesus cites a prayer of complete trust in God. Luke records that after these words Christ gave up the ghost. Leaving aside the exegetical question which words of Jesus were actually spoken and which were woven into the account of the evangelists to give Jesus’ death salvific significance, the effort of the condemned man to say anything was medically overwhelming.
When the soldiers came to Golgotha again, they broke the shins of the two villains, and seeing that Jesus had already died, they only pierced his side with a spear, and then blood and water flowed from the wound (John 19:34). The blow thus inflicted left a mark measuring 3.4 × 1.4 cm at the level of the fifth and sixth ribs of the right side of the chest, at a distance of 13 cm from the sternum. It was inflicted with a broad stabbing instrument, probably one of the Roman spears. The Evangelist John, in his description of the crucifixion, does not specify whether it was the left or right side of the body. According to Roman custom, it was the right side, and the large amount of blood flowing out came from the filled cavities on the right side of the heart rather than from the thick-walled, shrunken left ventricle.
From a medical point of view, the question of whether water or blood flowed out first is difficult. Although John states that the blood flowed out first, this does not necessarily correspond to reality, since in the ancient Greek tradition the order of the words was rather due to their meaning.
The word ‘water’ can be understood as a serous fluid from the pleura or pericardial sac. Blood may have flowed from the right heart cavity or from the pericardial sac. Also, in the pleural cavity there could have been bloody fluid resulting from damage to the chest from the blows inflicted on Jesus with a stick (acute lung injury), as well as from the whipping that ruptured the skin, muscles, vessels and intercostal nerves, which also led to serious bone injuries.
Jesus died relatively quickly, between three and six hours after the crucifixion. The fact that he hung his head and died after a loud cry may suggest an additional sudden cause of death. There may have been a myocardial infarction with rupture of the left ventricular free wall and spillage of blood into the pericardial sac with secondary cardiac tamponade; however, this complication rarely occurs in the first few days of an infarction. Shock due to the loss of blood and body fluids, severe trauma and great physical suffering could also have been the cause of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) with possible embolization of the coronary vessels of the heart by small thrombi and secondary myocardial infarction.
The literature also cites the toxic effects on the heart of high concentrations of catecholamines released due to excessively strong physical sensations and emotions as a possible cause of death. These substances in such concentrations damage the left ventricular muscle, lead to a dramatic decrease in ejection fraction, pulmonary oedema and cardiogenic shock. They also trigger fatal arrhythmias, including ventricular fibrillation.
Many factors contributed to Jesus’ death, while each of those mentioned above – post-traumatic, post-haemorrhagic and hypovolaemic shock; acute respiratory and circulatory failure, caused by severe penetrating chest injuries, with massive pneumonia and exudative fluid in the pleural cavities; suffocation from expiratory failure caused by crucifixion; myocardial infarction or dangerous cardiac arrhythmias—could have independently led to a rapid death.
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Sources of Images
1., 5., 7. Fragment of the exhibition “Who is the Man from the Shroud?” at the John Paul II Centre in Krakow. Collection and ownership of the Polish Syndonological Centre in Krakow
2., 3., 8., 12. Sindonology.org, Shroud Scope, http://www.sindonology.org/shroudScope/shroudScope.shtml (copyright: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Turin; educational use)
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10. Wikimedia Commons, https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Sarcopoterium_spinosum_dry_skeleton_RJP_01.jpg (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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13. Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fra_Angelico_027.jpg (public domain)


Above all we want Jesus to be the focus of our gatherings. He is central to our salvation, way-of-life, and why we gather together. It's our prayer that you see Jesus living in us; that the way we live shows what we believe.
“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”


Five years after Texas has entered the Union, Bell County was named after Milam County. On the banks of Nolan Creek, County Commissioners are able to select a county seat and has named it Nolandsville. Eventually after two years, the name of the town was then changed into Belton and it has become official then. Belton’s first settlers have built their houses, saloons, stores, hotels, and other infrastructures. When they lined up behind the South, the town has prospered until the Civil War. Things went out of the way for the South during that time and Belton was greatly affected, making it suffer through tough times. When the 1800s came, Belton was able to flourish once again after it was able to recover from the war. Up to this date there are still some historical churches in Bell County, Texas that can still be found.
Bell County has been through an amazing history which greatly involves its churches in town. Texas has been famous for its “cowboys” but despite that idea, many people don’t know that Texas, particularly Bell County, is a home to some historic churches.
Way back in 1828, the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the North took place. After 16 years, the Methodist Episcopal Church in the South was formed due to the consequence of debates over slavery during that time. This separation has resulted to the formation of the Mount Zion Methodist Church.
For 30 years (1844 – 1874), the minister of the Mount Zion UMS was Rev. R. P. Brown. And in 1878, Reverend George Sawyer has served as a pastor and lasted for only two years. M. J. J. Robertson’s property has been purchased by various trustees who included Isaiah Crofford, Robert Blair, Henry White, and Primus Crofford. This site has been regarded originally as being on one of the hills of a black community in the west part of Belton, known as Dangerfield. The house of the church was situated along FM 93 which was formerly named as the Old Nolanville Road.
After some years, Rev. R. H. Ponton was able to relocate the congregation together with the church trustees and has built a stucco building that is located on Nolan Creek’s South Bank.
The year 1939 marked the leadership of Rev. J. F. Muse when an agreement was done between the Methodist Protestant Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church. This resulted in the formation of the Methodist Episcopal Church of America. And in the early seventies the name of the congregation was modified and turned into United Methodist Church.
In 1970, an addition to the old stucco church was developed and completed four years after. Rev. Clifton served as the pastor during the restoration of the old stucco building in 1986. The building was then listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990 after it was completed. In 1993, the 149th anniversary of the Mount Zion United Methodist Church was celebrated. This is actually the state’s second oldest black church and the oldest black Methodist church in Texas.
The First Christian Church Parsonage, built in the 1900, is also a historic church located at 608 N. Penelope St. The Old St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is another historical church in Bell County that is situated at 438 N. Wall Street. It was built in 1874. These are the historical churches in Bell County, Texas.


This group meets the 1st Thursday of every month at 8:30am in the Church Eucharistic chapel. Together we pray for any parishioner's request, which includes prayers of thanksgiving and petitions. Intentions to be prayed for may be submitted to the parish center by phone or in person.
The St. Catherine's telephone prayer chain is for immediate and crisis petitions. Each person on the chain prays for the requested petition and then phones the next person on the list. Intentions to be prayed for may be submitted to the parish center by phone or in person.
Prayer Shawl Ministry
Many of you have a special gift for crocheting or knitting, and on many occasions we have need for Prayer Shawls. A prayer shawl is something like a Tallith, which is traditionally worn by Jewish Men or boys at morning prayers. The Old testament mentions "A mantel of prayer" and "being clothed in prayer." In recent years prayer shawls have crossed religious denominations - the prayer shawl gives encouragment and comfort to people in difficult times.These shawls are lovingly created while the person who makes them prays, and then as all the shawls are ready for delivery, they are blessed and sent to people who are hurting, mourning the loss of a loved one, sick or dying as a sign of comfort and healing not only from the creator of the shawl but also from the parish communities of St. Catherine and St. Joan of Arc.
W359 N8512 Brown St
Oconomowoc, WI 53066
Toll Free 877.871.8489
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St. Catherine of Alexandria


Lent Day 1: A true fast
Isaiah 58:6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen"
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Isaiah 58:6 NIV
It’s common to fast and abstain during lent.
It’s a practice that has been going on for hundreds of years and fasting has an even longer history. But in the Bible, we see how this practice can go off track.
The Israelites knew they needed God’s blessing and that fasting was a sign of repentance, but their repentance was fake. If it had been genuine, their actions would have backed them up. They would have been doing exactly what Isaiah told them to do.
Instead they were going through the motions, without true repentance. They wanted what God would give them, but not what it meant to live with God.
It’s not a coincidence that almsgiving has long been a key lenten practice too.
As we enter Lent and consider fasting, we shouldn’t lose sight of the significance of the season. Let us look through our hearts and repent of where we’ve sinned. Let us look to God’s heart for justice and look for how we can live it out.
Optional Prayer (you can pray in your own words of course)
“Lord, I am sorry for where I have fallen short of your standards. I’m sorry for where I’ve turned a blind eye to injustice. Thank you that through the sacrifice of your son, you have given me a new heart. Show me and help me live out your heart of Justice, today and always. Amen”


The other day it occurred to me that a blog post on matrimony would not be amiss... There are all too many people that encourage only looking into the priesthood and the consecrated life, without encouraging young men or women to pray about matrimony, and I have recently encountered "Catholics" who are absolutely convinced that marriage is harmful to the spiritual life, but, as it were, a necessary evil. This is erroneous, fallacious, and dangerous. This conclusion is reached because the fact is acknowledged that the consecrated life is a higher calling than matrimony. (This is what the Church has said all along, so I won't get into it in any depth now, maybe later.) If this is true, it must be better for attaining salvation, and so a married person has given up his best shot at getting to Heaven. However, a vocation is that state in life for which a person is made. Practically by definition, it is through a person's vocation that the best and surest rout to Heaven is for that person. If you are one of those persons for whom I am writing this blog post, you're thinking right now: "Clearly, there is a contradiction... he just said that the best vocation is the consecrated life, but that the best vocation for anyone is their own vocation and that many people are not called to the consecrated life." So please, if you see this apparent contradiction, bear with me.
The religious life may be a higher calling than the married life, but the married life has a wholly different kind of glory. Only the consecrated life requires perpetual virginity, but marriage is still a sacrament which includes literally the fulfillment of chastity. Whereas the consecrated life takes a human faculty that brings joy and offers it to God pure and unused, matrimony takes that same faculty and uses it unto the end for which God made it. The sanctification of this faculty involves chastity, ordered to the love of the spouse and the good of the children; because marriage is so good, the abuse of chastity is so wrong. The consecrated life is a way of rising above our fallen nature in order to be brought as close to God as is possible in this life; marriage raises our fallen nature up, and brings it closer to what it was supposed to be in the beginning, when God blessed man and woman, and said "Be fruitful and multiply". In the one you may spend your whole life living God and praying to God for your fellow man, but in the other you devote your life still to God in a different mode. In the cloister you pray to God that the right people may come into the lives of sinners that they might convert; in matrimony you are on the front lines, coming into the lives of people and being used by God for the sakes of the sinners. In the cloister a person prays that good parents may give birth to and raise children to be the next generation; when you are married, you receive the graces from these prayers, because you are those parents.
It is only in matrimony that procreation is permitted because matrimony was made to sanctify the only way that humans can procreate. In this sacrament, a couple becomes a mother and a father, through mirroring God's trinity in the best way humanly possible: In matrimony two become one, and from their loving oneness children spring forth. A wise man once said that lust is wrong not because a person takes too much but that he settles for too little. This is why. Marriage carries with it great responsibility, great graces, great love, great symbolism, great joy, and humanity in its fullest.
So why is it that the consecrated life can be both higher objectively and worse for a certain person? Because both are so good, because individuals are given talents ordered to their specific vocation, to make the most out of it that can be made out of it, and because goodness comes exclusively from fulfillment of a thing's purpose. Just as a good knife is the one that cuts well, a good man is he who fulfills his calling. When a man is called to marriage, he will be holiest when he is married.


3 years ago
Warning: Emotional Trigger Warning
On Sunday, I sat in church and when the pastor pulled up the verse "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7), for a moment I stopped breathing.
This was the exact verse I whispered to myself throughout the entire ride as we rushed to the hospital last year.
Last summer, I had a miscarriage and to say I was devastated would be an understatement. My heart was literally broken, not just by the loss of my unborn baby, but by what I thought was God’s betrayal to me. I whispered the verse the entire time we rushed to the hospital and I believed in my heart this baby would be saved. Even as we stared at the empty uterus on the ultrasound, I hoped against all hope. I refused to acknowledge an alternate scenario and the rest unfolded like a scene out of a bad movie.
Telling my mother about my loss was like yanking a stitch out of barely closed wound. The hurt and disappointment in her voice was palpable over the line. She had been waiting for this child for almost five years and in that moment, I knew I failed her.
It took a while to forgive myself and stop pinning God to my timetable because now I understood it wasn’t meant to be. As much as I wanted and loved that baby, they were not for this world. But to be in such a helpless position was, and still is, scary.
When we found out I was pregnant again, I was filled with a rush of emotions: fear, anxiety, and trepidation. I tried to stay detached, to protect my fragile heart from shattering again. I held my secret fast to my heart thinking it would be easier for everyone. Every week that passed and I was still pregnant, I barely gave myself a chance to hope. The first time I saw our bundle of joy on the ultrasound, my heart immediately melted and I could no longer deny what was happening. I was growing a tiny human.
Sure, I can obsess over every pain and comb through the community boards looking for answers. I can also email and call my Ob-Gyn every day but I also rejoice every time I am one week further along. Every backache, hip pain, and headache is only a reminder of what is to come. As annoying as pregnancy has been, it is truly a miracle of what the body can do. And I am grateful to be on this journey.


About St. Mary's School
A Brief History
St. Mary’s Catholic School was established in 1878 to teach children in an atmosphere of faith. St. Mary’s has been the only Catholic, parochial, elementary school to operate for over 140 years, in the Diocese of Memphis and is the oldest continuously existing parochial school in the state of TN. The school has been administered by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation, in Nashville, from 1900 to present. It is owned and operated by St. Mary’s Parish and supported by parents and parishioners and the wider community.
It takes a special place to prepare the children of today for success tomorrow. A place where quality teachers and a remarkable curriculum make a difference. A place where students forge lasting friendships. A place where praying is as important as playing. A place like St. Mary’s School.
St. Mary’s is known for its traditional yet unique programs that encourage the highest degree of academic excellence and spiritual formation. It is a place where education is inspired by a supernatural vision that forms the whole child – spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, and physically.
Authentically Catholic in the Dominican Tradition
Our mission is founded on a Christian anthropology
that fosters a love for wisdom and truth while
integrating the four Dominican pillars of prayer, study, community and service. Through a solid moral formation and a classical approach to learning, St. Mary's provides a well-rounded experience in an environment that prepares children for the future.


We are locked into time and space. Because of this, it is impossible for us to fully grasp what it would be like to be unhampered by temporal restraints. But we serve a God for whom all events are equally present. Henry David Thoreau once observed: “As if we could kill time without injuring eternity.” Time is our most precious resource, and Scripture assures us that our stewardship of the time we have been allotted is not something we should ignore.
In Psalm 90:17, Moses prayed that God would “establish the work of our hands. This old man had seen his entire generation wandering aimlessly in the desert. For forty years the Israelites had roamed, with no specific destination in sight. In view of that seemingly futile drifting, Moses had cried out to God for some assurance of significance. Moses essentially said, “Unless we are gripped by life’s brevity and place proper value on the time we have, no matter how long or short it is, we will never gain a wise heart.”
We can employ the skills and principles of time management, buy a new calendar (even a high priced electronic one), employ a better scheduling system–all are of little benefit until we understand the value of time. Granted, we may do a better job of scheduling our time, but that doesn’t mean we’re doing a better job of spending that time. Knowing the difference defines wisdom!
According to Moses, the years of our lives “quickly pass”. As we grow older, we look back and wonder where the time went. Each of us is allotted a finite number of days. Are we spending those days wandering aimlessly, with no goal, no purpose in sight? Or are we numbering those days and thereby gaining a heart of wisdom? “Lord teach us…”


Brewton-Parker has been committed to helping students find God’s purpose for their lives.
We Call, Prepare, and Inspire our students to be effective members of society while being ambassadors for Christ.
Therefore, Brewton-Parker College wants to create more opportunities for students to attend college and pursue their calling into the Christian Ministry. We believe in the pastoral mission to equip the Saints; that is to prepare and equip students with the tools to fulfil God's calling to ministry on their life. Therefore, we ask you to nominate a student or students (one form per student) at your church to receive a scholarship when they pursue Christian Studies at Brewton-Parker College. Please list the student's information below.


When Cardinal George launched To Teach Who Christ Is in 2013, he envisioned a campaign to strengthen our parishes, Catholic education and faith formation for generations to come. Emboldened by his courage to step out in faith despite his own personal illness, I fully embraced the challenge to continue his work to bring to completion what he began. It is heartening to know that more than 70,000 faithful from across this Archdiocese chose to support their parishes and the important shared ministries of our local Church.
Indeed, the blessings of To Teach Who Christ Is are many. Together, we raised more than $400 million, and the partnerships we developed will be instrumental for future initiatives, like Renew My Church. Thank you for ensuring the vibrancy of our Church!
The campaign has now entered the pledge fulfillment phase. These next five years are equally important to our endeavor, as parishes receive their funds from pledge payments and can then complete the projects they outlined during their campaigns. So much has already been accomplished and, like you, I am excited to see the fruits of our efforts. Please keep us up to date on what is taking place in your parish as a result of of To Teach Who Chris Is, so we can share your good news with others.
Your friendship and generosity are deeply appreciated. Please remember me and this Archdiocese in your prayers, as you are always in mine.
Wishing you every blessing, with kind regards I remain,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich
Archbishop of Chicago


Why India and the world need Gandhi: The New York Times
Gandhi very well understood that people belonging to different religions do not generally encounter one another in purely religious arenas. Rather, it is in the everyday social milieu that they cross paths. Therefore, did Gandhi try to understand religious plurality in a crisscross of overlapping human experiences. Gandhi, being a Hindu, started engaging with Christianity because it mattered to his friends in London. “The business acumen and honesty of the Muslim merchants brought them close to one who immediately recognized their "bania"(the Indian regional variant for trader/merchant) virtues.”
Gandhi’s engagement with Christianity can be unraveled based on his general attitudes towards religious pluralism, but it also deserves a distinct dissection of its own owing to its distinctive nature. Christianity, unlike the other religions, jostled with Gandhi in a power hierarchy of colonialism. It unquestionably tainted the relationship of Gandhi with the British, throughout his life. Although there was a presence of Christians in India long before British arrived, a quick rise in the number of Christian missionaries in India happened only with the entry of British.  Christianity thus came to be concomitant with its ‘colonial genesis ’.  Christianity was Gandhi’s tool to reprimand the colonial master. He himself admitted that he had learnt a lot from Christianity. The Christians who knew Gandhi in fact felt that Gandhi would make a much better Christian than they were.
In this essay, we aim to reveal Gandhi’s engagement with the religion of Christianity. In such a revelation we will begin by analyzing Gandhi’s take on, perception of, and use of Jesus Christ in his political life as a promoter of non-violent methods of resistance. In addition to this, we shall portray Gandhi’s views on conversions carried out by Christian missionaries against the backdrop of his belief that one does not need to convert in order to respect and learn from other religions.
Jesus: the Son of God?
For Gandhi, Christianity was not so much about worshipping Christ as it was about becoming Christ. Though he never revered Jesus as ‘Son of God’, he also did not let go of Christ all through his life.  He rather chose to understand and grasp the ideals by which Jesus lived his life as a person. This was a reaffirmation of Gandhi’s ‘my life is my message’ approach   which he also adopted towards Christianity. He thus wrote:
“Faith does not admit of telling. It has to be lived and then it becomes self-propagating. Nor do I consider myself fit to interpret Hinduism except through my own life. And if I may not interpret Hinduism through my written word, I may not compare it with Christianity.”
Gandhi turned to religion in order to justify the righteousness and just nature of freedom movements. In Young India of 4th August, 1920, Gandhi wrote:
“I venture to submit that the Bhagavad Gita is a gospel of non-cooperation between forces of darkness and those of light…To say of the Bible that it taboos non-cooperation is not to know Jesus, a prince among passive resisters, who uncompromisingly challenged the might of the Sadducees and the Pharisees and for the sake of truth did not hesitate to divide sons from their parents.”
Gandhi was always skeptical of popular religious beliefs and ever-ready to break the scriptural interpretations when they were used to justify violence and oppression. But being a man of quick wit, he turned to the same scriptures in order to challenge the acts of the oppressor. Bhagavad Gita was one of the texts that lay at the heart of Gandhi’s differences with those Indian revolutionaries who felt that resorting to violence was the correct way to go ahead. Bhagavad Gita is an account of Lord Krishna explaining to Arjun the justification for him to fight the battle of Kurukshetra. The likes of V.D. Savarkar chose to interpret Bhagavad Gita as a call for violence. But Gandhi used the text itself to give the following interpretation:
“… the Gita, … under the guise of physical warfare, it described the duel that perpetually went on in the hearts of mankind, … The author of the Mahabharata … has made the victors shed tears of sorrow and repentance, and has left them nothing but a legacy of miseries.”
In the same way, he used the Christian texts at various instances to condemn the acts of violence and excesses committed by the western civilizations. The colonial masters had tried to justify these using Christian religious scriptural interpretations. In his letter dated 29th of November, 147 to Madam Edmond Privat, whom he also called Bhakti, Gandhi wrote:
“Europe mistook the bold and brave resistance full of wisdom by Jesus of Nazareth for passive resistance, as if it was of the weak. As I read the New Testament for the first time I detected no passivity, no weakness about Jesus as depicted in the four gospels … Has not the West paid heavily in regarding Jesus as a passive resister? Christendom has been responsible for the wars which put to shame even those described in the Old Testament and other records, historical or semi-historical.”
Gandhi used his knowledge of Christian ideals from the scriptures and the life of Jesus Christ to also offer advice to Jews under the rule of Hitler. To one of his advice of non-violence, a newspaper under Anglo-Indian management retorted by saying that Gandhi has failed to understand the message of the scripture as portrayed through Christ’s life. They essentially said that it was because Christ opted for non-violence that he faced the hardships and bad times in life. They also concluded that Jesus had to die because he was upholding his idea of passive resistance. To this Gandhi replied as follows:
“Though I cannot claim to be a Christian in the sectarian sense the example of Jesus's suffering is a factor in the composition of my undying faith in non- violence which rules all my actions worldly and temporal. And I know there are hundreds of Christians who believe likewise. Jesus lived and died in vain if he did not teach us to regulate the whole of life by the eternal Law of Love.”
Gandhi’s proclivity to hold Jesus in high regard as a person and to imbibe from his way of life was a stern and lifelong journey, which even after his demise made repeated appearances in the way Gandhi is perceived by people all around the world. John Haynes Holmes, a prominent unitarian minister in New York said in 1921, “When I think of Mahatma Gandhi, I think of Jesus Christ”
Conversion or Commercialised Trade?
Gandhi, in his understanding of religious assistance in transcendence from light to dark, was hinting at a shift from tamasik to the sattvik i.e. a shift from darkness of aloofness to the light of moksha. He believed that a prayer was not asking its devotee to give up his swadharma and find refuge in a foreign dharma. Whereas, ‘conversion’, was the only connotation when the Christian missionaries promised a person, a shift towards light.
Gandhi welcomed the ideals of Christianity while ordaining his Hindu identity and expected the same from Christians. He wanted the Christians to help Hindus be ‘better Hindus’ and vice-versa. He was not the one to advocate conversion. He rather found the idea of having to change one’s way of being, like one’s name, attire, dietary habits and such, in order to adopt the ideals of Christianity, ridiculous. Gandhi as a kid, saw such missionaries standing at street corners speaking ill about Hinduism and trying to lure people to convert to Christianity.
Mirabehn, having renounced her previous ways of life, chose to adopt a lifestyle based on Hindu ideals, and wanted to convert to Hinduism. But Gandhi staunchly opposed her decision to abandon her religion.  He wanted her to assimilate Hindu way of life into the folds of Christianity because he believed that there was a commonality of good in both Hinduism and Christianity. The need was to find it without abandoning one religion for the other. He wrote in Harijan of 25-1-1935:
“I am no keeper of anybody’s conscience, but I do feel that it argues some sort of weakness on the part of a person who easily declares his or her failure to derive comfort from the faith in which he or she is born.”
Gandhi ascribes the act of conversion being carried out by the Christian missionaries, to a colonial intent of destroying the cultural diversity of India. A question that Gandhi posed on the ideals of the missionaries who engaged in conversion in the name of Christianity was ‘why should not the service be its own reward?’. He believed that the aspiration and motivation of Christian missionaries behind the spreading the message of Christ was inspired by financial gains and insincere motives. He suspected that every time a Christian missionary rendered his medical or spiritual services to Indians, he did so with a hope that the recipient of such service would convert and accept Christ ( Harijan, 17-4-1937).
Gandhi believed that a tokenistic change of religion for material gain, through fear, starvation, etc., is not conversion, rather it is the selling of religion.  Gandhi not only argued against the conversion and compartmentalization of religion, but he also was of the strong opinion that one could sincerely respect the tenets of another religion without forsaking their own religious identity. Joseph Doke writes about an instance when Gandhi was engaged in a simultaneous reading of Bhagavad Gita and revelations of Christ. After reading Sermon on the Mount, Gandhi exclaimed that both the texts (Bhagavad Gita and Sermon on the Mount) must have come from the same source.
Gandhi strongly advocated against the attempts of forced conversion of Christians. With respect to an incident of persecution of Christians in Gurgaon of 1947 he said that “these Christian brothers and sisters would be left to follow their own faith and avocation without let or hindrance. Surely, they were not less entitled to their freedom than they were under the British regime, now that there was freedom from political bondage. That freedom could never be confined to the Hindus only in the Union and the Muslims only in Pakistan.”
A letter about Jesus by Gandhi: BBC
Gandhi’s critique of the spree of conversion launched by the Christian missionaries, is very resounding of the spiritual bankruptcy of the white man that scholars of his time spoke about. Gandhi was being challenged by the white missionaries and colonial government of having wrongly understood the lesson of Christ to be that of non-violence. They argued that a white man with his civilised way of being knows better than to resort to non-violence. This argument and the whole concept of Orientalism does not stand when one reads the following lines from the work of Reinhold Niebuhr:
“It is no accident of history that the spirit of non-violence has been introduced into contemporary politics by a religious leader of the orient. The occident may be incapable of this kind of nonviolent social conflict, because the white man is a fiercer beast of prey than the oriental … his religious inheritance has been dissipated by the mechanical character of his civilisation.”
The need is for India to realise the spiritual treasure that Gandhi realised in himself and the scholars realised in the existence of the whole of India. It becomes crucial to understand and appreciate the importance of Gandhian thought on religions other than Hinduism, especially today. With the politico-religious environment of India being a rather volatile one, what one needs is a reminder of the foundation of mutual-respect on which our country was built. When Hindu fanatics in India are threatening to assault Hindus for visiting Churches , need is read the following words by Father of the Nation:
“For Hindus to expect Islam, Christianity or Zoroastrianism to be driven out of India is as idle a dream as it would be for Mussalmans to have only Islam of their imagination to rule the world.”
Sahil Bansal and Anirban Chanda (Guest Writers)
Sahil Bansal is a final year law student at Jindal Global Law School, India. His academic interests include reading and writing about Law, Gender, and History.
Anirban Chanda is a final year undergraduate law student at Jindal Global Law School, India. His academic interests include Constitutional Law, Legal History and Political Theory.
1.Margaret Chatterjee, ‘Reflections on Religious Pluralism in the Indian Context’ (1994) 7(5) J. Hin. Christ. S. < https://core.ac.uk/reader/62416170> accessed 5 December 2020
2.C.S. Adcock, The Limits of Tolerance – Indian Secularism and the Politics of Religious Freedom (OUP USA 2014) https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-limits-of-tolerance-9780199995448?cc=de&lang=en&
3.Timothy Gorringe, ‘Gandhi and the Christian Community’ in Harold Coward (ed.), Indian Critiques of Gandhi (SUNYP 2003) 153
4.Vinay Lal, ‘Gandhi's West, the West's Gandhi’ (2009) 40(2) N.L.H. < www.jstor.org/stable/27760259 > accessed 6 December 2020
5. Clara A.B. Joseph, ‘Mahatma Gandhi and Emmanuel Levinas: What's Wrong with Worshiping the Christ?’ (2014) 18(3) Int’l J. Hin. S. < www.jstor.org/stable/24713656> accessed 7 December 2020
6.Justice C.S. Dharmadhikari, ‘Mahatma Gandhi : My Life is My Message’ (Press Information Bureau) <https://pibindia.wordpress.com/2016/09/29/mahatma-gandhi-my-life-is-my- message/ > accessed 4 December 2020
7.Sarah Claerhout, ‘Gandhi, Conversion, and the Equality of Religions: More Experiments with Truth’ (2014) 61(1) Numen < www.jstor.org/stable/24644717 > accessed 6 December 2020.
8.The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes < https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-21.pdf > accessed 4 December 2020
9.Mahadev Desai, The Gita according to Gandhi (VJDNM 1946) 126 < https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/gita-according-to-gandhi.pdf > accessed 5 December 2020
10.The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes < https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-97.pdf > accessed 5 December 2020
11.S.K. George, Gandhi’s Challenge to Christianity (NPH 1947) https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/gandhis_challenge_to_christianity.pdf accessed 4 December 2020
12.Lloyd I. Rudolph, ‘Gandhi in the Mind of America’ (2010) 45(47) EPW < www.jstor.org/stable/25764146 > accessed 7 December 2020.
13.Margaret Chatterjee, ‘Gandhi and Christianity’ in John Hick and Lamont C. Hempel (eds.), Gandhi’s Significance for Today (SMP 1989) 156
14.Leah Renold, ‘ The Mahatma and the Missionary: Gandhi’s conflicting accounts of his first encounter with Christianity’ (2018) 19(1) J. Col. C. Hist. < https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/7936/2018-Mahatma-and-Missionary.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y > accessed 5 December 2020
15.The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes < https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-66.pdf > accessed 5 December 2020
16.The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes < https://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/gandhi-literature/mahatma-gandhi-collected-works-volume-66.pdf > accessed 5 December 2020
17.Harijan (21 March 1936) in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes.
18. Margaret Chatterjee, Gandhi’s Religious Thought (MP 1983) 50
19.M.K. Gandhi, In Search of Supreme (NPH 1961) 73 < https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/in-search-of-the-supreme-III.pdf > accessed 5 December 2020
20.Reinhold Niebuhr, ‘The Preservation of Moral Values in Politics’ in Elizabeth Sifton (eds), Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics (LCUS 2015)
21.‘Hindus will be beaten if they visit church on Christmas,’ threatens Bajrang Dal member in Assam (Scroll.in, 4 December 2020)<https://scroll.in/latest/980316/hindus-will-be-beaten-if-they-visit-church-on-christmas-threatens-bajrang-dal-member-in-assam > accessed 5 December 2020
22.Clifford Manshardt, The Mahatma and The Missionary: selected writings of Mohandas K. Gandhi (HRC 1949) 66-67


Poisoned Glen – is a picturesquely situated village at the foot of Mount Errigal, the highest peak of the Derryveagh mountain range in County Donegal and surrounded by vast valleys and shimmering lakes.
This place is known for frequent photographs of the beautiful ruins of the church in Dunlewey with Mount Errigal in the background. This church was built by Jane Smith Russell as a monument to the late husband, the owner of the estate of Dunlewey, who died in 1848 and his remains rested in a vault under the church floor.
The church is built of white marble and blue quartzite, which was mined in local quarries.
With the collapse of Dunlewey’s estate, the church ceased to be used regularly, and the cost of its maintenance was the reason for its deterioration and in 1955 for safety reasons the roof was removed, the furniture was sent to other churches in the diocese, and the bell was installed in the church in Cashel near the Doe castle.
The ruins of this church is really an amazing windfall for photography enthusiasts.


by Michael A. Cowan
In the ancient book of wisdom called Proverbs we read: “Without a vision, the people perish.” I might add, without a shared vision, we are left with divisions. Divisions limit, they damage, they kill.
The quality of life for all in the New Orleans to come depends not only on fair and feasible plans to fix the many things that are strained or broken here, but also on a shared vision underneath all our plans. It is painfully evident that New Orleans currently lacks such a unifying vision. I am convinced that Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream for America can light the way to a diverse, prosperous and equitable future New Orleans, and I would like to remind us of that dream, its source, and its challenge to us in New Orleans today. In 1962 Dr. King said:
“When the desegregation process is one hundred percent complete, the human relations dilemma of our nation will still be monumental unless we launch now the parallel thrust of the integration process. In the context of what our national community needs, desegregation alone is empty and shallow. We must always be aware that our ultimate goal is integration, and that desegregation is only a first step on the road to the good society. Integration is creative, and is therefore more profound and far-reaching than desegregation. Integration is the positive acceptance of desegregation and the welcomed participation of [all] in the total range of human activities. Integration is genuine interpersonal, intergroup doing. Integration is the ultimate goal of our national community. We do not have to look very far to see the pernicious effects of a desegregated society that is not integrated. It leads to physical proximity without spiritual affinity. It gives us a society where elbows are together and hearts are apart. It gives us spatial togetherness and spiritual apartness.”
People of good faith acting together for the well being of all: That was Dr. King’s American dream. He had a special name for it, which he discovered in the writings of a white theologian: the “Beloved Community.” The list of things that cry out to be done together across lines of ethnicity, religion and class in New Orleans will overwhelm us if we let it.
As a lifelong member and ordained minister of the black church, Dr. King’s prophetic vision was deeply shaped by the Jewish prophets. How often and how powerfully did we hear him retrieve the unforgettable words of Amos: “Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” I want to dwell for a moment on the vision of “righteousness” from the great Jewish tradition, because it was the foundation stone of Dr. King’s vision, and because I am convinced that it holds particular meaning for our troubled city — and nation — right now. According to the biblical record, in times of trial, when despair filled the horizon of the Chosen People and there seemed no way out, God’s spirit would come upon that community through anointed leaders. When it did, three things always happened.
First, the system of justice was restored to reliable and proper functioning for all. Second, those who had been marginalized — the widow, the orphan, the outsider — came into fuller participation in the public life of the community. Third, those who had renewed their commitment to justice and the inclusion of all had a powerful experience of God’s presence among them.
In New Orleans today, our first Beloved Community challenge is restoring proper functioning to our criminal justice system. But as Rabbi Busch of Touro Synagogue reminded me, in the Jewish tradition, the practice of justice is not limited to proper operation of the criminal justice system; it extends to the entire functioning of government. Government must operate efficiently and equitably for all citizens. Waste, corruption and cronyism in city government have been a millstone around the neck of New Orleans. Envision a New Orleans known for transparent, accountable, and efficient city government. Many of us here may find that impossible to imagine, but remember: Without a shared vision the people perish.
In post-Katrina New Orleans, we also face the profound “Beloved Community” challenge of including all in the recovery and future of the city. Whether the current hot topic is public housing, neighborhood rebuilding, or public schools, we have seen plan after plan dismissed, paralyzed, or limited to a snail’s pace by flare-ups of ethnic and class divisions. Without a shared vision people suffer and perish, and our very real ethnic and class divisions bear a significant measure of responsibility for the agonizingly slow pace of our recovery. Reaching out actively to include those who have been marginalized in the life of our city is also the public work of righteousness, the work of establishing the “Beloved Community.”
Why has it been so hard for New Orleanians before and after Katrina to speak with one voice, to share a vision for our future? I believe the answer is that black political leaders and white business leaders have been unable to come to agreement for the well being of all, while civil society leaders from our faith, non-profit, neighborhood, and higher education institutions have been too segregated from each other to insist that they do so. Compounding this impasse is the social fact that in our preoccupation with the politics of white and black, we have consistently failed to acknowledge the presence and welcome the participation of New Orleans’ Hispanic, Asian, Arab and other cultural communities at the table of public life.
New Orleans has struggled against surges of despair that threaten to drown hope itself. For all who trace our faith to the willingness of a man named Abraham to go when and where he was sent — Jews, Christians and Moslems — the experience of hope is tied to the conviction that we are not alone in this moment of supreme challenge, that our God cares about how history goes, including the small but precious piece of history called “New Orleans.”
That is our choice. May Dr. King’s God-given dream of the “Beloved Community” named America recapture our hearts and imaginations and move us to transform the promising beginnings into a mighty stream of genuine interpersonal and intergroup doing for the well being of New Orleans and this nation. Without a shared vision the people perish; but with one, they flourish.
Michael A. Cowan is a theologian at Loyola University in New Orleans. The preceding commentary was adapted from a speech.


St Oscar Romero
Oscar Arnulfo Romero was born in 1917 in El Salvador. As a child he trained as a carpenter, but felt a strong calling to be a priest. He joined the seminary at the age of 14 and was ordained a priest in 1942 in Rome. He returned back to El Salvador where he became famous for his inspirational sermons which were broadcast across the by five radio stations.
In 1970, Archbishop Romero was made Bishop and in 1977 he was made Archbishop of San Salvador, the capital city. When his close friend, Fr Rutilio Grande was shot and killed along with two parishioners for standing up for the rights of the poor, Archbishop Romero became a fierce advocate for human rights. He spoke up repeatedly for the voiceless, listening to the stories of the poor and establishing aid projects and pastoral programs to support the victims of violence. He fearlessly denounced the injustices of the military, who had murdered and terrorized thousands of citizens.
Archbishop Romero sermons were broadcast on the radio, which inspired people across the country. He challenged those who enjoyed wealth and privilege to change their lives and called upon the military to stop their violence. On the 24th of March 1980 as Archbishop Oscar was saying Mass, an army assassin shot and killed him.
At his funeral, thousands attended, but the army shot and killed 30 people. The civil war continued till 1992.
Oscar Romero was declared a martyr and beatified on the 23rd of May 2015. He was canonised on October 14, 2018.
Strength, Courage, Communication, Justice and Love


Here at Kidd’s Kids we recognize the impact COVID-19 is having on many individuals and small businesses. We hope this list of resources can be helpful during this unprecedented time. Keep Lookin’ Up.
The Salvation Army:
To meet the increased need for physical, emotional, financial and spiritual support, The Salvation Army has multiple resources available throughout the region. This information is specific to their North Texas chapter, and we encourage you to visit the site of your local Salvation Army chapter.
Drive-through grocery services
In response to a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, The Salvation Army of North Texas is operating 13 drive-through grocery service locations in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis and Tarrant counties to support families experiencing a loss in income or lowered wages. To find a list of drive-through grocery service locations and hours of operations, please visit SalvationArmyNTX.org.
Emotional and spiritual care hotline
With stay-at-home orders compounding stress and loneliness, The Salvation Army of North Texas is operating an emotional and spiritual care hotline for people impacted by the Coronavirus outbreak. Staffed with trained professionals, the hotline is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. CST at (844) 458-HOPE (4673)
Financial assistance is available
Jobless claims are reaching an all-time high. Through partnership with local governmental entities, The Salvation Army of North Texas is providing financial assistance to help families pay rent/mortgage, maintain utility service and purchase prescription medication. More information can be found at SalvationArmyNTX.org.
Implemented educational programming and activities for school-aged children
To support children impacted by school closures, The Salvation Army of North Texas is distributing educational activity kits to children at shelters and low-income families in the community to provide fun opportunities for kids to continue their education. The kits include educational curriculum, school supplies, arts and crafts, and food.
Increasing food delivery to seniors and veterans.
Case managers are delivering food to people in permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing and high-utilizer programs.


Fighting with Faith
The Fields Family
Many of you have heard of the new battle with ALS Coach Jimmy Fields is facing. Coach Fields is a vital part of the Trinity Community. This school year Coach Fields will be entering his 6th year as the Varsity Head Football Coach and High School Bible Instructor. He has also served as Trinity’s Head Wrestling Coach for four of those five years.
These platforms have allowed Coach Fields to be an instrument in the spiritual development of our athletes and students here at TCS. Although Coach Fields could have coached at any level, he intentionally chooses to shape the life of the young athlete in the impressionable years of high school. He has always seen his 30+ years of coaching as a ministry, rather than a job. The Lord has been so faithful in using Coach Fields to further the Kingdom-for His glory! As far as the 2020 Crusader football season goes, he has said, “There will be no trying-there will be doing.” GO CRUSADERS!!!
During his tenure at TCS, the Trinity family has rejoiced in the marriages of his two children, Jay and Mallory, and the success of his wife, Shannen. She was the lead female actor in the Christian movie, “Facing the Giants” and is still working in the Christian film industry. Coach Fields remains strong in Christ and is committed to fight this battle with faith! It is now our privilege as brothers and sisters in Christ to reach out to Coach Fields and his family and minister to them in the midst of their trials.
We join Coach Fields and Shannen in their expression of faith in God’s sovereignty as they face uncertainties. Our prayers on their behalf are vital. For those who would like to offer financial support, one way is to donate by cash or check made payable to TCS with the “Fields Family” noted in the memo. Another option is through a gofundme page created for Coach Fields, shared on our TCS Facebook page. For those who wish to contribute through Trinity, we ask that donations be made by September 1st so that we can pass the gift along to the Fields family as soon as possible.