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Brief  History of Saint Thomas -a- Becket

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Dec. 29 - St. Thomas Becket new
Brief History
Few saints in medieval Europe were considered more powerful than St. Thomas-à-Becket, martyred at Canterbury Cathedral in 1117 AD. The seeds of the tragedy were sown in the friendship between the young Thomas and the future King Henry II. When Henry appointed Thomas as Archbishop of Canterbury, he expected his friend to obey him unquestionably. However, Thomas stood up for the independence of the Church and stayed in exile for six years, returning on December 2, 1170, to spend Christmas at Canterbury. 

However, the conflict with Henry continued. Some violent words of Henry — “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” — were taken literally by four leading knights of the court, who proceeded swiftly to Canterbury. At twilight on December 29, in front of sixty people in the cathedral, they cut him down with their swords. His tomb became a goal of many pilgrimages, and Pope Alexander III canonised him in 1173. 

Henry was so appalled when he heard of Thomas’s murder that, apart from asking the Pope for forgiveness, he went to Canterbury on July 12, 1174, to do penance. He stopped at Saint Nicholas Hospital at Harbledown, about six miles outside Canterbury, where lepers were tended at the time, to pray in the church. He left a gift of twenty silver marks to be paid yearly out of the royal dues from Canterbury to Saint Thomas Hospital. Although Henry III transferred the charge to the city authorities, these monies are still being paid to date. The pilgrims you read about in Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Canterbury Tales still visit the cathedral. The cathedral, founded in 597 AD, is the mother church of the Anglican Communion.
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Our Purpose

The Mission of the Wesley Synod is to minister to the spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional and environmental needs of all people by spreading Christ's liberating Gospel through the word of our mouth and deeds of our hands. At every level of the connection and in the parish, the WESLEY SYNOD INTERNATIONAL shall engage in carrying out the spirit of love and compassion as did John Wesley, preaching salvation to the oppressed poor people in England, out of which the METHODISTS achieve, that is, seek to save the lost and save the needy through a continuing program of the following:

  • Preaching the gospel
  • Feeding the hungry
  • Clothing the naked
  • Housing the houseless
  • Cheering the fallen
  • Administering to the needs of those in prisons, hospitals, nursing homes, asylums and mental institutions, senior citizens homes, caring for the sick, the shut-in, the mentally and socially disturbed.
  • Encouraging thrift and economic advancement
Daniel Garza
Refocusing

In 1994, the St.Thomas-a-Becket Institute was set up as a way to teach the Bible to many. Then, over the year,s the seed was planted for setting up a Bible College work worldwide and to teach teachers to teach others. To run such a theological Institute and college, we needed a team to help run a school of learning. We started slowly and built on a-dreams working and researching until the teaching of the Holy Bible. A lot of courses used by the Thomas-a-Becket Institute would not be impossible without their work and help. 

At the end of 1998, we were pleased to have other good Christian teachers join our team to help others in the field of Christian Education. These people, with their good church background, helped many people around the world. Over the past few years, we have set up hundreds of courses from many parts of the world, and in August 1999, with the help of the Nigerian Government, we annexed a branch of the Theological Institute to Eket, Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria, now a recognised Theological Christian Institute and University in Africa. 

At the start of the year 2000, we opened our first Prison Ministry with a Bible School in Maryland U.S.A with the works of Dr Orlando N. Hamilton, and with the help of many people and friends of the Synod, we are now training new ministers in South America and with the lord's help we hope soon to open a Bible College annex in India. There is also a chance of us opening up another Bible College in Uganda in East Africa. We are now helping with children's needs in Kenya, Nigeria and India. We now have regional Bishops in Nigeria, a Chancellor and General Secretary and an Archbishop.

All these started with nothing, and now we cover the world with God's love; now we have many ministries and churches taking the word around the world. For a long time now, we have had Wesley Synod U.S.A working with us for many strong and well-founded Synods by joining both Synods together. The road is clearly marked for the people, in other Countries to build on, which was not just a dream in our minds but the true wish of God that we go forward and teach the world. We are still working on what is the right way to go, but we are sure the Lord will show us. As we go forward into the millennium, the staff and the Bishops within the Synod worldwide look forward to the training of ministers, who will go forward and teach the word of the Lord to many people around the world. We have churches in Africa with their own communication with us worldwide

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