The first essay I ever wrote at theological college was on Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (now Izmir).

Do you know the story?

Born in 69 AD, Polycarp is understood to have been a disciple of the Apostle John himself.  It was this same John who ordained him as Bishop of Smyrna.  Polycarp is famous for being an early Christian martyr, committed to burn at the stake in a Roman amphitheatre.

As the flames were lit, he lifted his eyes to heaven and uttering a sublime prayer confessed his faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

(But) flames, bending like the sails of a ship, swelled by winds wrapped up the body of the martyr without doing him harm and when the pagans saw it, they ordered an executioner to get near him and to sink a dagger into his heart.

Imagine my excitement when I discovered that our hotel in Smyrna/Izmir (a city of 3 million people) was just a 10 minute walk from the church set aside to remember Polycarp’s life and death.  We showed up at 3.30pm to find that it was only open from 3.00-5.00pm each day.  Thank-you, Lord.  As with churches in Turkey today, it is a bit of a fortress with high walls surrounding the property and careful security checks on entrance.

Upon entering St Polycarp Church, it did not take long to find a fresco on the ceiling commemorating Polycarp’s martyrdom (NB: see how both flames and dagger are at work)—with the words mentioned above as part of the description of the event.

But what stopped me in my tracks was something else inside the lavishly decorated church.  It was the pulpit, with this rather odd structure coming out the side of it (see below).  I am not sure what it means, but my immediate thought was of a companion to Paul’s phrase to the Philippians—’holding forth the word of life’ … but here, more something like ‘holding forth the Christ crucified’, recalling 1 Corinthians 2.2.  How true is that for the preacher, even today?!  It becomes a variation on the theme of the words inscribed in some pulpits today, advising the preacher: ‘we wish to see Jesus’.

My journey with St Polycarp Church did not stop there.  Our flight the next morning was a 50 minute ‘hop’ to Istanbul and so I asked for a window seat, in order to be able to take some photos.  They gave me the row just behind the wing and so it was not a great view.  But I did my best to recognise places with my limited knowledge of the city.  Thinking this was roughly the area where we stayed, I clicked this shot:

On zooming in …

… and zooming in again—to my utter amazement it was the area where we stayed.  In the photo at the top of this post, the tower which is the Hilton Hotel forms a backdrop to the church—and here it is, with St Polycarp Church being the collection of oddly-shaped orange roofs directly below the sharp corner of the Hilton.

nice chatting

Paul

PS: Don’t forget that there have been more martyrs for Christ in the most recent century than in all the other twenty centuries (since Polycarp) combined.