The Lion sermon is an annual sermon preached on 16 October at 13:00 at St Katharine Cree in the City of London. [1] The sermon has traditionally been preached on the theme of 'challenges to the Christian faith'. [2]
Sir John Gayer, Lord Mayor of London (died 20 July 1649) instituted the Lion sermon at St Katharine Cree. The sermon was inspired by his time in the Syrian desert, when a lion passed him without attacking him, leading him to believe that he had had a miraculous deliverance. [3] In gratitude Gayer endowed St Katharine Cree with a fund to preach a sermon in memory of this event, gave money to charities, and bought a baptismal font for the church inscribed with his coat of arms. [1]
In 2013, Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, was the first woman in 371 years to give the Lion sermon. She named the three pillars of Liberty as Dignity, Equality and Fairness. [4]
John Wesley was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day.
The Guild Church of St Katharine Cree is an Anglican church in the Aldgate ward of the City of London, on the north side of Leadenhall Street near Leadenhall Market. It was founded in 1280. The present building dates from 1628 to 1630. Formerly a parish church, it is now a guild church.
Sir Gilbert Heathcote, 1st Baronet was an English merchant and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1701 and 1733. He also served as the governor of the Bank of England and was Lord Mayor of London in 1711.
Sir Isaac Penington was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1653. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1642 and a prominent member of Oliver Cromwell's government.
Isaac Maddox was an Anglican clergyman, successively bishop of St Asaph and of Worcester.
Farringdon Without is the most westerly ward of the City of London, England. Its suffix Without reflects its origin as lying beyond the City's former defensive walls. It was first established in 1394 to administer the suburbs west of Ludgate and Newgate, including West Smithfield and Temple. This was achieved by splitting the very large, pre-existing Farringdon Ward into two parts, Farringdon Within and Farringdon Without. The large and prosperous extramural suburb of Farringdon Without has been described as having been London's first West End.
Paul's Cross was a preaching cross and open-air pulpit in St Paul's Churchyard, the grounds of Old St Paul's Cathedral, City of London. It was the most important public pulpit in Tudor and early Stuart England, and many of the most important statements on the political and religious changes brought by the Reformation were made public from here. The pulpit stood in 'the Cross yard', the open space on the north-east side of St Paul's Churchyard, adjacent to the row of buildings that would become the home of London's publishing and book-selling trade.
Roger Maynwaring, variously spelt Mainwaring or Manwaring, was a bishop in the Church of England, censured by Parliament in 1628 for sermons seen as undermining the law and constitution.
Sir Basil Firebrace, 1st Baronet was a supplier of wines to the royal household, Sheriff of London, and MP for Chippenham, Wiltshire, from 1690 to 1692. He was prosecuted for fraud and bribery, acquitted, and created a baronet in 1698.
GlocesterRidley was an English miscellaneous writer.
Sir Robert Lee was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1602.
John Gayer or Gayre was an English merchant who was Lord Mayor of London in 1646.
Sir Samuel Garrard, 4th Baronet was an English merchant and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1701 and 1710. He also served as Lord Mayor of London in 1709.
Edmund Bateman (1704–1751) was an English cleric and academic, the Archdeacon of Lewes from 1737 until 1751.
Sir William Staines was a builder and Lord Mayor of London for the year 1800 to 1801.
John Fresshe was a citizen, alderman, and Mayor of London in the latter years of the fourteenth century. A merchant by trade, he was a member of the Mercers' Company, a medieval London trade guild, and has been described as one of London's "leading citizens at the end of the century".
Edward Ironside was a British banker and Lord Mayor of London in 1753.
Micajah Perry was a British tobacco merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1741. He was Lord Mayor of London in 1738.
William Benn was an English merchant who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1746.
Sir Edward Clarke, of Brickendon, Hertfordshire, was an English merchant who served as Lord Mayor of London in the year 1696 to 1697.