St Bartholomew

“Saint Bartholomew”

Tomorrow, 24th August, is the day set aside for people all around the world to remember Bartholomew, Apostle and Martyr who gives our beautiful church building its name.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Bartholomew is his low profile. We are not even sure who he was. Early sources suggest his full name was Nathanael bar (son of) Tolmai (later, Bartholomew) the
Nathanael who was the friend of Philip and who questioned, "Can anything good come out of
Nazareth" (John 1:46).

There is a suggestion that Bartholomew wrote a gospel, but this writing has not survived. Often, Parishioners in Alstonville have heard the story of his grizzly death by being skinned alive although there is no confirmation that this story is true.

Bartholomew represents a quiet alternative to the more visible and vocal public witnesses often associated with the apostles. Sam Portaro, an Episcopal Priest asks “Is it purely by accident that Bartholomew is overshadowed? Is it merely that his contributions, like so many, were lost for lack of archival care or scattered in subsequent upheavals? Were his contributions intentionally
destroyed by jealous or rival factions of the kind that divided the post-resurrection community into separate cohorts of loyalty to Peter or Paul or Apollos? Was Bartholomew one of those
persons who actually did very little, who only went along for the ride, so to speak? Or was Bartholomew the thoughtful one, prone to process his faith internally and intellectually, without a big fuss?”

We realize that often in the background there are meditative and thoughtful people who go about serving others in a quiet and unassuming way.

More than anything, we owe our Christian faith to the multitude of anonymous scholars and scribes who wrote, tended, and translated the story of Jesus. It’s a blessing for us to be connected with Nathanael bar Tolmai who Jesus greeted saying "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no
deceit!" (John 1:47)