Come and join us on Wednesday morning 25 January in person or on the livestream to celebrate the Conversion of St Paul. After getting letters from the hierarchy to arrest Christians in Damascus, and making murderous threats against them, Saul/Paul is suddenly struck down by a light from heaven which blinds him, and Jesus' asks Paul why he is persecuting him. In Damascus Ananias is told to go and visit Paul - he is horrified because of Paul's reputation for encouraging the stoning to death of local Christians and standing by holding the cloaks of those carrying out the death sentence (including that of Stephen, deacon and first martyr of the Christian church). But Jesus tells Ananias that Paul is his chosen instrument, despite appearances to the contrary. Paul is hugely important as the disciple who takes the Christian message outside Judea to the Gentiles, and thus whilst never forgetting his Jewish education and origins, sets the Church on its universal path. As Jesus tells Ananias, Paul will suffer for his faith, and is eventually executed by the sword (he has that choice as a Roman citizen) in Rome around 65 AD during the persecution of Nero.