Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little

break from the present to go exploring the past. Travel back in time as we look at the people,

events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

This is our story, our family history. Let's get started.

It was many episodes ago back in our early episodes that we visited Westminster Abbey and

we had an episode early on there where we talked about five things you should know about Westminster Abbey.

One of those five things concerned the Western entrance to the Abbey.

Above that entrance, there were these spaces, sort of portals, if you will,

above the Western entrance, and from the time of the Middle Ages,

that space was empty.

And the Dean of the Cathedral

and those in charge of Westminster Abbey at the end of the 20th century decided it was time to put something in there.

And to commemorate the martyrs of the 20th century, they commissioned statues of 10 martyrs from all around the world

to be placed there to remind us that the 20th century was in fact a century of persecution. If we go back to the first

century, the century in which Christianity began, we know that it was a century

marked by persecution. We see it in the pages of the New Testament.

We know from church tradition that Peter and Paul themselves were martyred. We know of the stories

of the martyrdom's under cruel emperors like Nero.

And so Christianity itself was born and was incubated in this time of persecution.

And as we fast forward through the centuries,

we see that at times God's people suffered persecution

for their faith, and so is the case with the 20th century. In fact, we are told that there

...