Did Thomas the Apostle Really Go to India?

Ian Hampson of the Harlech Goleudy (Lighthouse) Church looks at some of the historical material about Saint Thomas the Apostle, whose missionary life began with questions and doubts about Jesus' resurrection  

St Thomas’ Cave, Little Mount, Chennai/Madras

Most of us know him as "Doubting Thomas" - the apostle who refused to believe in Jesus’ resurrection until he saw the wounds for himself. But there’s much more to Thomas than a moment of scepticism. In fact, according to a long-standing tradition, he may have taken the message of Jesus further east than any other apostle - possibly even to India.

The Universal Soldier: lamenting the passing of protest songs

Mary Howell, from St David in Seion Catholic church in Harlech, reflects on the strength of the anti-war movement in the 1960s and its apparent weakness today.

Anti-Vietnam War protestors in Washington, D.C., November 27, 1965

In the 1960s when I was a teenager protest songs were common. Nuclear disarmament and anti-war sentiment gained momentum to guard against bile from dictators and their followers’ mouths. World War 2, the Holocaust and the awfulness of the testimonies were a living memory.

Two Poems by Saunders Lewis

As we begin Holy Week this year Tim Griffin, who attends Holy Cross Catholic church, Gellilydan when he is in North Wales, introduces two poems by Saunders Lewis, one of the founders of Plaid Cymru, the Party of Wales. 

John Saunders Lewis, 1893 – 1985, left, photographed with D.J. Williams and Lewis Valentine.

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (4)

by Fr Ian

Punishment and Promise

The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise by Benjamin West (1738-1820)

Chapter 3 of Genesis concludes with an account of God delivering his sentence on Adam and Eve - and the serpent.

The serpent is cursed by God to ‘go upon its belly’ and ‘eat dust for all the days of its life’. Eve learns that from now on she will experience great pain during childbirth, that her relationship with her husband will be contaminated by lust and a struggle for dominance. Adam is condemned to onerous and frustrating work which will often be largely fruitless. (Genesis 3:14-19).

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (3)

By Fr Ian 

The consequences of the first sin

It would be a huge mistake to read chapter 3 of Genesis with a purely legalistic mentality that sees the original sinful action of Adam and Eve as mainly the breaking of a rule or a commandment. The real essence of their sin was the breach of their personal relationship with God, the rupture of their harmonious friendship.

Jesus' portrait of a loving parent: The Prodigal Son by Nikolay Losev (1855-1901)

‘O happy fault,…’: original sin and its consequences (2)

by Fr Ian

 

The nature of the first sin

God showed his protective care and his trust of his human creatures by issuing a strict commandment, a prohibition: ‘...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die’ (2:17).

Apart from what this says about God’s character, it also tells us that human beings weren’t created as robots; their reverence and obedience towards God wasn’t somehow pre-programmed and automatic. God made them so that they had to choose voluntarily to co-operate and share responsibility with him in the care and maintenance of his Creation.