Looking at the lives of the Saints and outstanding people remembered by the Church of England can be inspirational. Since their feasts or commemoration days are mainly ordered according to the dates of their death, looking at particular week can produce a rich variety. The last half of this last week included two 17th century priests, and the founder of the Church Army who died in 1942. All contributed to the growth of the Church in different ways.

Lancelot Andrewes (1555 – 1626) was a scholar. He wrote many scholarly and theological works, developing the basis of Anglicanism as we now know it. He was also renowned as a preacher including to James I. He ended his life as Bishop of Winchester.

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Vincent de Paul (c1580 – 1660) was the son of a French peasant, ordained as a teenage before being enslaved by pirates until he escaped. He was much at the French Royal court and was appointed as chaplain to French galley slaves. He eventually founded the Lazarist Congregation which still flourishes, to bring Christianity particularly to small towns and rural areas. The Lazarists also set up seminaries to train priests and worked a lot with the poor and the sick.

Wilson Carlile (1847 – 1942) was a successful businessman from a poor background who turned to missionary work in London and elsewhere. He worked in a slum mission and then built up the Church Army as an organisation within the Church of England to work in slums and other unchurched areas to spread Christianity. The Church Army still exists.

Common to all of them was the love of Christ and the intention to spread the message of salvation by Jesus in the way which best suited their time and their characters and abilities. They are an example to all of us that we should be using the abilities which God has given us to proclaim the gospel or support its spreading in whatever way best fits us.

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Christopher Young