When Bishop David Jenkins was Bishop of Durham, he often spent his summer holiday leading tours to Christian places.
On one such occasion he found himself at a place in Western Austria, the mountain village of Alfbach.
He visited the church and, to his surprise he found that it was dedicated to St. Oswald of Northumbria. His own Cathedral in Durham was the place where some physical remains of St. Oswald rested alongside Saint Cuthbert. David Jenkins fell to wondering why this Austrian Church had this dedication to a saint in faraway Northumberland.
He found a tourist leaflet which said that in the 7th and 8th centuries Christianity was brought to the region by Irish and Northumbrian monks.
The bishop’s journey to the village had been in an air-conditioned coach but it had still been a difficult journey along narrow mountain  roads. How much more difficult must it have been for those monks who had travelled through darkest Europe to bring the Gospel to that place. The bishop could only imagine what it must have been like and what hardships they endured.

More importantly, why did they bother?
The Bishop asked himself that question and this is the answer he came up with:
They had discovered in Jesus, that God loved them so they fell in love with God.
As a result they wanted to share that love with others.

That was what took them through Europe at a time when the flame of Christianity was burning dim—and their mission—to spread the Good News of God’s love renewed the faith of Europe and took the Gospel to new places.

In an age when, for the majority of people, the Christian light burns dimly —God continues to  love us so much that we too might fall back in love with Him—and when we do, like those monks, we will want to tell others.
A way of describing mission. That’s a good thought for Lent.

[Mr G]

David Jenkins when Bishop Of Durham