We celebrate our 30th Anniversary – and this edition includes reflections from past and present.

Kate Lawson writes…Pentecost or Whit Sunday will be on 5th June. I can remember as a child the Spring half term being called the Whitsun holiday. This was because it was traditionally the day for baptisms and those coming for baptism were dressed in white, so thus it became known as white or Whit Sunday. The word Pentecost in Greek means 50th and Pentecost was, and still is one of the major Jewish festivals celebrating 50 days after the Passover. At the time of Jesus great numbers of worshippers came to Jerusalem from all parts of the known world. Pentecost marked the end of the barley harvest and beginning of the wheat harvest, but in Judaism it was seen more as the conclusion of Passover than a harvest festival.

Pause for Pentecost can be read online or downloaded here