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“If the people of God will lead, eventually the leaders
will follow.” Joan Chittister.

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Root & Branch present Dr. Jon Rosebank

NOTHING APOSTOLIC

8pm UK time Thursday 30th October 2025

"There is very little continuity", says historian Dr Jon Rosebank, "between the humble, spirit-led, house-church movement before Constantine, dating back to Jesus’s time and the first Apostles, and the worldly, corrupt, bitterly divided and violent outfit, decked out in its fourth century imperial robes, that burst upon the Roman Empire from the AD320s.

By AD300 the church had lost virtually all interest in the first Apostles. It was not holding on to any idea that there was a direct connection between its own times and those of Jesus. The evidence the Church now chooses to quote is little more than a series of errors in translation. Nor is there any reliable historical or archeological evidence that St Peter went to Rome or was buried there."

Do not miss this rare opportunity to spend an evening with historian

Dr Jon Rosebank and Penelope Middelboe,

producers of the History Cafe podcast.

You may never think the same about the Church again.

You had always wondered, had you not, how we got from the carpenter and fishermen to the overweening majesty of St Peter's in Rome? From Jesus's spoken Aramaic and koine Greek to the Latin Mass and vestments? From the earliest personified symbols of the Good Shepherd, beardless and pastoral, to the post 4th-century glittering representations of Christ Pantocrator, King, Ruler and Judge, Christ in Majesty?

Dr Jon Rosebank took the top first for his year in Modern History at Oxford, and was quickly elected Fellow of New College, where he completed his D.Phil on English history, leaving five years later for the BBC. There he worked on history series, starting with Michael Wood and Christopher Frayling and becoming Executive Producer and Editor. He wrote, directed and produced many series for BBC television and later Channel 4, telling history stories from Neolithic archeology to trawling on the North Sea. After a brief career in teaching, Jon was able to give time to his own writing and TV work. A colleague wrote at the time, ‘the man is a whirlwind. His imagination and creativity are simply extraordinary.’

Jon is author of ‘GN Clark and the Oxford History School. Hidden origins of 1066 And All That’ (English Historical Review 2020) and Partisan Politics. Looking for consensus in 18th century towns (University of Exeter Press 2021). Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His most recent venture is the novel A Spring Marrying, published by Blue Poppy.

Penelope Middelboe is a writer, historian, and series editor of 70+ animated films making cultural heritage accessible. She is a former CEO of the Shakespeare Schools Foundation, a large UK charity using Shakespeare to give disadvantaged youth a sense of self-worth. She is a co-founder of Root & Branch and a founder member of Spirit Unbounded. She now at last takes some time for family, and is co-producer of the radical history podcast HistoryCafe.org with Jon.

More details on our latest newsletter

From our good friends at...

CWO Annual Gathering - Caste Out!

Saturday 4th October 2025

2pm to 4pm Speaker and discussion with Miriam Duignan
A taster for her talk

Talk registration here

Caste Out!
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church - the clerical caste - is increasingly justifying the exclusion of women from ministry claiming that ordination risks 'clericalising women'. This new 'bogeyman' is gaining strength because Catholics everywhere are seeing through the Vatican's bogus theology and know there is - and never was - a valid reason to banish one half of the Church from full and equal participation. In our Annual Gathering this year, we will be examining this new line of attack, what 'clericalism' means when applied to women, why it works to silence those supporting women priests and how to counter this argument.

Miriam Duignan, is Executive Director of Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research, appointed in 2024 by Dr John Wijngaards to be his successor after volunteering as communications director since 2010. She also coordinates communications and action planning for Women's Ordination Worldwide.