title: Great Siege of Malta

text: After Djerba there could be little doubt that the Turks would eventually attack Malta again. Malta was of immense strategic importance to the Ottoman long-term plan to conquer more of Europe, since Malta was a stepping stone to Sicily, and Sicily in turn could be a base for an invasion of the Kingdom of Naples. In August 1560, Jean de Valette sent a despatch to all the Order's priories ordering that their knights prepare to return to Malta as soon as a "citazione" (summons) was issued. The Turks made a strategic error in not attacking at once, while the Spanish fleet lay in ruins, as the five-year delay allowed Spain to rebuild its forces.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Meanwhile, the Knights continued to prey on Turkish shipping. In mid-1564, Romegas, the Order's most notorious seafarer, captured several large merchantmen, including one that belonged to the Chief Eunuch of the seraglio, and took numerous high-ranking prisoners, including the governor of Cairo, the governor of Alexandria, and the former nurse of Sultan Suleiman's daughter. Romegas' exploits gave the Turks a "casus belli", and by the end of 1564, Suleiman had resolved to wipe the Knights of Malta off the face of the earth.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: By early 1565, Grand Master de Valette's network of spies in Constantinople had informed him that the invasion was imminent. De Valette set about raising troops in Italy, laying in stores and finishing work on Fort Saint Angelo, Fort Saint Michael, and Fort Saint Elmo.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: All known techniques of siege warfare were employed during the siege of Malta. Turkish forces had a huge siege tower with a drawbridge from which sharpshooters fired over the walls of Fort St. Angelo. The tower was constructed to be resistant to fire with leather sheets kept moist from water tanks contained inside the tower. Despite this, Maltese masons had hidden artillery within the walls, leaving the outer masonry in place to conceal it from view. Concealed from sight, the defenders were able to move the cannon into position, loaded with chain shot, without revealing its location to the Turks, who had already taken positions in the tower when it was destroyed.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The Turkish armada, which set sail from Istanbul on 22 March, was by all accounts one of the largest assembled since antiquity. According to one of the earliest and most complete histories of the siege, that of the Order's official historian Giacomo Bosio, the fleet consisted of 193 vessels, which included 131 galleys, seven galliots (small galleys), and four galleasses (large galleys), the remainder being transport vessels. Contemporary letters from Don Garcia, the Viceroy of Sicily, give similar numbers."


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The Italian mercenary Francisco Balbi di Correggio (serving as an arquebusier in the Spanish corps), gave the forces as:


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The Knight Hipolito Sans, in a lesser-known account, also lists about 48,000 invaders, although it is not clear how independent his work is from Balbi's. Other contemporary authors give much lower figures. In a letter written to Philip II only four days after the siege began, de Valette himself says that "the number of soldiers that will make land is between 15,000 and 16,000, including seven thousand arquebusiers or more, that is four thousand janissaries and three thousand sipahis." On the other hand, in a letter to the Prior of Germany a month after the siege, de Valette writes, "This fleet consisted of two hundred and fifty ships, triremes, biremes and other vessels; the nearest estimate we could make of the enemy's force was 40,000 fighting men." That de Valette gives the enemy fleet as 250 vessels, a number much above any one else's, shows that the Grand Master himself was not above exaggeration.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Indeed, a letter written during the siege by the liaison with Sicily, Captain Vincenzo Anastagi, states the enemy force was only 22,000 and several other letters of the time give similar numbers. However, Bosio arrives at a total of about 30,000, which is consistent with Balbi's "named troops." Richard Knolles' history gives essentially the same figure.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Before the Turks arrived, de Valette ordered the harvesting of all the crops, including unripened grain, to deprive the enemy of any local food supplies. Furthermore, the Knights poisoned all wells with bitter herbs and dead animals.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The Turkish armada arrived at dawn on Friday, 18 May, but did not at once make land. The first fighting broke out on 19 May. A day later, the Ottoman fleet sailed up the southern coast of the island, turned around and finally anchored at Marsaxlokk (Marsa Sirocco) Bay, nearly 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Grand Harbour region. According to most accounts, in particular Balbi's, a dispute arose between the leader of the land forces, the 4th Vizier serdar Kızılahmedli Mustafa Pasha, and the supreme naval commander, Piyale Pasha, about where to anchor the fleet. Piyale wished to shelter it at Marsamxett Harbour, just north of the Grand Harbour, in order to avoid the sirocco and be nearer the action, but Mustafa disagreed, because to anchor the fleet there would require first reducing Fort St. Elmo, which guarded the entrance to the harbour. Mustafa intended, according to these accounts, to attack the poorly defended former capital Mdina, which stood in the centre of the island, then attack Forts St. Angelo and Michael by land. If so, an attack on Fort St. Elmo would have been entirely unnecessary. Nevertheless, Mustafa relented, apparently believing only a few days would be necessary to destroy St. Elmo. After the Turks were able to emplace their guns, at the end of May they commenced a bombardment.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: It certainly seems true that Suleiman had seriously blundered in splitting the command three ways. He not only split command between Piyale and Mustafa, but he ordered both of them to defer to Dragut when he arrived from Tripoli. Contemporary letters from spies in Constantinople, however, suggest that the plan had always been to take Fort St. Elmo first. In any case, for the Turks to concentrate their efforts on it proved a critical mistake.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: While the Ottomans were landing, the knights and Maltese made some last-minute improvements to the defences of Birgu and Senglea. The Ottomans set up their main camp in Marsa, which was close to the Knights' fortifications. In the following days, the Ottomans set up camps and batteries on Santa Margherita Hill and the Sciberras Peninsula. The attacks on Birgu began on 21 May, while Senglea was first attacked a day later.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Having correctly calculated that the Turks would seek to secure a disembarkation point for their fleet and would thus begin the campaign by attempting to capture Fort St Elmo, de Valette sent reinforcements and concentrated half of his heavy artillery within the fort. His intent was for them to hold out for a relief promised by Don Garcia, Viceroy of Sicily. The unremitting bombardment of the fort from three dozen guns on the higher ground of Mt. Sciberras began on 27 May, and reduced the fort to rubble within a week, but de Valette evacuated the wounded nightly and resupplied the fort from across the harbour. After arriving in May, Dragut set up new batteries to imperil the ferry lifeline. On 3 June, a party of Janissaries managed to seize the fort's ravelin and ditch. Still, by 8 June, the Knights sent a message to the Grand Master that the Fort could no longer be held but were rebuffed with messages that St Elmo must hold until the reinforcements arrived.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The Turks attacked the damaged walls on June 10 and 15, and made an all out assault on June 16, during which even the slave and hired galley oarsmen housed in St Elmo, as well as the native Maltese soldiers, reportedly fought and died "almost as bravely as the Knights themselves." Two days later, Dragut was seen in a trench cannon emplacement arguing with the Turkish gunners about their level of fire. At Dragut's insistence a cannon's aim was lowered, but the aim was too low, and when fired its ball detached part of the trench, which hit Dragut in the head, killing him, (although according to Bosio, it was a lucky shot from Fort St. Angelo that mortally wounded him).


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Finally, on 23 June, the Turks seized what was left of Fort St. Elmo. They killed all the defenders, totaling over 1,500 men, but spared nine Knights whom the Corsairs had captured. A small number of Maltese managed to escape by swimming across the harbour.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Although the Turks did succeed in capturing St. Elmo, allowing Piyale to anchor his fleet in Marsamxett, the siege of Fort St. Elmo had cost the Turks at least 6,000 men, including half of their Janissaries.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Mustafa had the bodies of the knights decapitated and their bodies floated across the bay on mock crucifixes. In response, de Valette beheaded all his Turkish prisoners, loaded their heads into his cannons, and fired them into the Turkish camp.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: By this time, word of the siege was spreading. As soldiers and adventurers gathered in Sicily for Don Garcia's relief, panic spread as well. There can be little doubt that the stakes were high, perhaps higher than at any other time in the contest between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Queen Elizabeth I of England wrote:


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: All contemporary sources indicate the Turks intended to proceed to the Tunisian fortress of La Goletta and wrest it from the Spaniards, and Suleiman had also spoken of invading Europe through Italy.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: However, modern scholars tend to disagree with this interpretation of the siege's importance. H.J.A. Sire, a historian who has written a history of the Order, is of the opinion that the siege represented an overextension of Ottoman forces, and argues that if the island had fallen, it would have quickly been retaken by a massive Spanish counterattack.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Although Don Garcia did not at once send the promised relief (troops were still being levied), he persuaded Philip II to allow him to release an advance force of some 600 men under the command of Don Melchior de Robles, a Spanish knight. After several attempts, this "piccolo soccorso" () managed to land on Malta in early July and sneak into Birgu, raising the spirits of the besieged garrison immensely. However this relief force was too small to make any significant impact. Don Garcia pleaded with Philip II to authorize a much larger relief force to be deployed but the Spanish king was indecisive and fearful of risking his newly assembled fleet.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: On 15 July, Mustafa ordered a double attack against the Senglea peninsula. He had transported 100 small vessels across Mt. Sciberras to the Grand Harbour, thus avoiding the strong cannons of Fort St. Angelo, in order to launch a sea attack against the promontory using about 1,000 Janissaries, while the Corsairs attacked Fort St. Michael on the landward end. Luckily for the Maltese, a defector warned de Valette about the impending strategy and the Grand Master had time to construct a palisade along the Senglea promontory, which successfully helped to deflect the attack. Nevertheless, the assault probably would have succeeded had the Turkish boats not come into point-blank range (less than 200 yards) of a sea-level battery of five cannons that had been constructed by Commander Chevalier de Guiral at the base of Fort St. Angelo with the sole purpose of stopping such an amphibious attack. Just two salvos sank all but one of the vessels, killing or drowning over 800 of the attackers. The land attack failed simultaneously when relief forces were able to cross to Ft. St. Michael across a floating bridge, with the result that Malta was saved for the day.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The Turks by now had ringed Birgu and Senglea with some 65 siege guns and subjected the town to what was probably the most sustained bombardment in history up to that time. (Balbi claims that 130,000 cannonballs were fired during the course of the siege.) Having largely destroyed one of the town's crucial bastions, Mustafa ordered another massive double assault on 7 August, this time against Fort St. Michael and Birgu itself. On this occasion, the Turks breached the town walls and it seemed that the siege was over, but unexpectedly the invaders retreated. As it happened, the cavalry commander Captain Vincenzo Anastagi, on his daily sortie from Mdina, had attacked the unprotected Turkish field hospital, killing everyone and beheading more than sixty Turks. The Turks, thinking the Christian relief had arrived from Sicily, broke off their assault.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: After the attack of 7 August, the Turks resumed their bombardment of St. Michael and Birgu, mounting at least one other major assault against the town on 19–21 August. What actually happened during those days of intense fighting is not entirely clear.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Bradford's account of the climax of the siege has a mine exploding with a huge blast, breaching the town walls and causing stone and dust to fall into the ditch, with the Turks charging even as the debris was still falling. He also has the 70-year-old de Valette saving the day by leading towards the Turks some hundred troops that had been waiting in the Piazza of Birgu. Balbi, in his diary entry for 20 August, says only that de Valette was told the Turks were within the walls; the Grand Master ran to "the threatened post where his presence worked wonders. Sword in hand, he remained at the most dangerous place until the Turks retired." Bosio also has no mention of the successful detonation of a mine. Rather, in his report a panic ensued when the townspeople spied the Turkish standards outside the walls. The Grand Master ran there, but found no Turks. In the meantime, a cannonade atop Ft. St. Angelo, stricken by the same panic, killed a number of townsfolk with friendly fire.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The situation was sufficiently dire that, at some point in August, the Council of Elders decided to abandon the town and retreat to Fort St. Angelo. De Valette, however, vetoed this proposal. If he guessed that the Turks were losing their will, he was correct. Although the bombardment and minor assaults continued, the invaders were stricken by an increasing desperation. Towards the end of August, the Turks attempted to take Fort St. Michael, first with the help of a "manta" (similar to a Testudo formation), a small siege engine covered with shields, then by use of a full-blown siege tower. In both cases, Maltese engineers tunneled out through the rubble and destroyed the constructions with point-blank salvos of chain shot.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: At the beginning of September, the weather was turning and Mustafa ordered a march on Mdina, intending to winter there. However the attack failed to occur. The poorly-defended and supplied city deliberately started firing its cannon at the approaching Turks at pointlessly long range; this bluff scared them away by fooling the already demoralised Turks into thinking the city had ammunition to spare. By 8 September, the Turks had embarked their artillery and were preparing to leave the island, having lost perhaps a third of their men to fighting and disease.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: On 7 September, Don Garcia had, at last, landed about 8,000 men at St. Paul's Bay on the north end of the island. The so-called "Grande Soccorso" ("great relief") positioned themselves on the ridge of San Pawl tat-Tarġa on the 13th of September, waiting for the Ottoman assault. It is said that, when some hot-headed knights of the relief force saw the Ottoman retreat and the burning villages, in its wake, they charged without waiting for orders from Ascanio della Corgna. Della Corgna, seeing the troops in such spirits, had no choice but to order a general charge which resulted in the massacre of the retreating Ottoman force, who retreated from the islands on 13 September.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Malta had survived the Ottoman assault, and throughout Europe people celebrated what would turn out to be the last epic battle involving Crusader Knights.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The relief force consisted of mainly Spanish and Italian soldiers, sent by the Spanish Empire as well as the Duchy of Florence, the Republic of Genoa, the Papal States, and the Duchy of Savoy.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: The number of casualties is in as much dispute as the number of invaders. Balbi gives 35,000 Turkish deaths, Bosio 30,000 casualties (including sailors). Several other sources give about 25,000. The knights lost a third of their number, and Malta lost a third of its inhabitants. Birgu and Senglea were essentially leveled. Still, 9,000 defenders had managed to withstand a siege of more than four months in the hot summer, despite enduring a bombardment of some 130,000 cannonballs.


title: Great Siege of Malta

text: Jean de Valette, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, had a key influence in the victory against the Ottomans with his example and his ability to encourage and hold people together. This example had a major impact, bringing together the kings of Europe in an alliance against the previously seemingly invincible Ottomans; the result was the vast union of forces against the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto six years later. Such was the gratitude of Europe for the knights' heroic defence that money soon began pouring into the island, allowing de Valette to construct a fortified city, Valletta, on Mt. Sciberras. His intent was to deny the position to any future enemies. De Valette himself died in Buskett at a hunting accident next to the Verdala Palaces in 1568.


title: Seattle metropolitan area

text: The Seattle metropolitan area is an urban conglomeration in the U.S. state of Washington that comprises Seattle, its surrounding satellites and suburbs. It contains the three most populous counties in the state—King, Snohomish, and Pierce—and is considered part of the greater Puget Sound region. The United States Census Bureau defines the metropolitan area as the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, WA metropolitan statistical area. With an estimated population of 4,102,400 , it is the 15th largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States and is home to over half of Washington's population.


title: Seattle metropolitan area

text: As defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Seattle metropolitan area is made up of the following ("see Fig. STB"):


title: Seattle metropolitan area

text: Based on commuting patterns, the adjacent metropolitan areas of Olympia, Bremerton, and Mount Vernon, along with a few smaller satellite urban areas, are grouped together in a wider labor market region known as the "Seattle–Tacoma" Combined Statistical Area (CSA) ("See Figure STO"), commonly known as the Puget Sound region. The population of this wider region is 4,686,536—roughly two-thirds of Washington's population—. The Seattle CSA is the 14th largest CSA, and the 13th largest primary census statistical area in the country. The additional metropolitan and micropolitan areas included are:


title: Seattle metropolitan area

text: As of the 2020 census there was 4,018,762 people in the area. In 2019 the estimated median income for a household in the Seattle metropolitan area was $94,027. The per capita income was $49,184.


title: Seattle metropolitan area

text: According to the Pew Research Center's 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study, the Seattle metropolitan area's religious affiliation is as follows:


title: Seattle metropolitan area

text: The Seattle metropolitan area is home to numerous large scale businesses. Retail giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, REI, Nordstrom, Starbucks, and Costco were founded and continue to be headquartered in the greater Seattle area.


title: Seattle metropolitan area

text: Over the past decade, tech companies began expanding their roots into the Seattle metropolitan area and opening offices on both sides of Lake Washington (Seattle and Bellevue, primarily). These companies, traditionally known for their history in Silicon Valley and the bay area, include Facebook, Salesforce, Google, and Zynga.


title: Seattle metropolitan area

text: The largest airport in the region is Seattle–Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, an International airport that serves as a commercial hub for Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines.


title: Lamb of God

text: Lamb of God (; , ) is a title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at , where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." It appears again in .


title: Lamb of God

text: Christian doctrine holds that a divine Jesus chose to suffer crucifixion at Calvary as a sign of his full obedience to the will of his divine Father, as an "agent and servant of God" in carrying away the sins of the world. In Christian theology the "Lamb of God" is viewed as both foundational and integral to the message of Christianity.


title: Lamb of God

text: A lion-like lamb that rises to deliver victory after being slain appears several times in the Book of Revelation. It is also referred to in Pauline writings; suggests that Saint Paul intends to refer to the death of Jesus, who is the Paschal Lamb, using the theme found in Johannine writings. In Genesis 22, the binding of Isaac foretells the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when Isaac asked his father Abraham "where is the lamb for the burnt offering" to which Abraham responded "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." (Genesis 22:7-8). However, it was a Ram (not a Lamb) that was ultimately sacrificed in Isaac's place, and the Ram was caught in a thicket (i.e. thornbush). (Genesis 22:13). The lamb metaphor is also in line with Psalm 23, which depicts God as a shepherd leading his flock (mankind).


title: Lamb of God

text: The Lamb of God title is widely used in Christian prayers. The Latin version, Agnus Dei, and translations are a standard part of the Catholic Mass, as well as the classical Western Liturgies of the Anglican and Lutheran churches. It is also used in liturgy and as a form of contemplative prayer. The also forms a part of the musical setting for the Mass.


title: Lamb of God

text: As a visual motif the lamb has been most often represented since the Middle Ages as a standing haloed lamb with a foreleg cocked "holding" a pennant with a red cross on a white ground, though many other ways of representing it have been used.


title: Lamb of God

text: The title "Lamb of God" for Jesus appears in the Gospel of John, with the initial proclamation: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" in , the title reaffirmed the next day in . The second use of the title Lamb of God takes place in the presence of the first two apostles of Jesus, who immediately follow him, address him as Rabbi with respect and later in the narrative bring others to meet him.


title: Lamb of God

text: These two proclamations of Jesus as the Lamb of God closely bracket the Baptist's other : "I have borne witness that this is the Son of God". From a Christological perspective, these proclamations and the descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove in reinforce each other to establish the divine element of the Person of Christ. In Johannine Christology the proclamation "who takes away the sin of the world" begins the unfolding of the salvific theme of the redemptive and sacrificial death of Jesus followed by his resurrection which is built upon in other proclamations such as "this is indeed the Saviour of the world" uttered by the Samaritans in .


title: Lamb of God

text: The Book of Revelation includes over twenty-nine references to a lion-like lamb ("slain but standing") which delivers victory in a manner reminiscent of the resurrected Christ. In the first appearance of the lamb in Revelation () only the lamb (which is of the tribe of Judah, and the root of David) is found worthy to take the judgment scroll from God and break the seals. The reference to the lamb in relates it to the Seven Spirits of God which first appear in and are associated with Jesus who holds them along with seven stars.


title: Lamb of God

text: In Rev. 19:6-9, the lamb is said to be having a wedding feast, and that his bride's pure linen garment is said to be the "righteous acts of the saints." A wedding feast, in Jewish law, is an obligatory banquet after a Jewish wedding. In Jewish eschatology, the messiah will hold a wedding feast with the righteous of every nation (people), called a Seudat Chiyat HaMatim, wherein the messiah and his wedding guests will feast on the flesh of the Leviathan. The identity of the lamb's bride is not specified in the passage, but the Christian Church is referred to as the bride of Christ elsewhere in the New Testament.


title: Lamb of God

text: In the lamb is said to have twelve apostles. The handing of the scroll (i.e. the book containing the names of those who will be saved) to the risen lamb signifies the change in the role of the lamb. In Calvary, the lamb submitted to the will of the Father to be slain, but now is trusted with the judgment of mankind.


title: Lamb of God

text: From the outset, the book of Revelation is presented as a "revelation of Jesus Christ" and hence the focus on the lamb as both redeemer and judge presents the dual role of Jesus: he redeems man through self-sacrifice, yet calls man to account on the day of judgment.


title: Lamb of God

text: The concept of the Lamb of God fits well within John's "agent Christology", in which sacrifice is made as an "agent of God" or "servant of God" for the sake of eventual victory.


title: Lamb of God

text: The theme of a sacrificial lamb which rises in victory as the Resurrected Christ was employed in early Christology. For example, in 375 Saint Augustine wrote: "Why a lamb in his passion? Because he underwent death without being guilty of any iniquity. Why a lion in his passion? Because in being slain, he slew death. Why a lamb in his resurrection? Because his innocence is everlasting. Why a lion in his resurrection? Because everlasting also is his might."


title: Lamb of God

text: The 11th century Christology of Saint Anselm of Canterbury specifically disassociates the Lamb of God from the Old Testament concept of a scapegoat, which is subjected to punishment for the sins of others without knowing it or willing it. Anselm emphasized that as Lamb of God, Jesus chose to suffer in Calvary as a sign of his full obedience to the will of the Father.


title: Lamb of God

text: John Calvin presented the same Christological view, of "The Lamb as the agent of God", by arguing that in his trial before Pilate and while at Herod's Court Jesus could have argued for his innocence, but instead remained mostly quiet and submitted to crucifixion in obedience to the Father, for he knew his role as the Lamb of God.


title: Lamb of God

text: In modern Eastern Orthodox Christology, Sergei Bulgakov argued that the role of Jesus as the Lamb of God was "pre-eternally" determined by the Father, before the creation of the world, by considering the scenario that it would be necessary to send The Son as an agent to redeem humanity disgraced by the fall of Adam, and that this is a sign of His love.


title: Lamb of God

text: Multiple hypotheses about the suitable symbolism for the Lamb of God have been offered, within various Christological frameworks, ranging from the interpretation of Old Testament references to those of the Book of Revelation. One view suggests the symbolism of Leviticus 16 as scapegoat, coupled with Romans 3:21–25 for atonement, while another view draws parallels with the Paschal Lamb in Exodus 12:1–4, coupled with John 1:29–36, and yet another symbolism relies on Revelation 5:5–14 in which the lamb is viewed as a lion who destroys evil. However, as above, the view adopted by Saint Anselm and John Calvin rejects the scapegoat symbolism. They view Jesus as making a knowing sacrifice as an agent of God, unlike an unwitting scapegoat.


title: Lamb of God

text: In modern Roman Catholic Christology, Karl Rahner has continued to elaborate on the analogy that the blood of the Lamb of God, and the water flowing from the side of Christ on Calvary, had a cleansing nature, similar to baptismal water. In this analogy, the blood of the Lamb washed away the sins of humanity in a new baptism, redeeming it from the fall of Adam.


title: Lamb of God

text: In the Mass of the Roman Rite and also in the Eucharist of the Anglican Communion, the Lutheran Church, and the Western Rite of the Eastern Orthodox Church the "Agnus Dei" is the invocation to the Lamb of God sung or recited during the fraction of the Host. It is said to have been introduced into the Mass by Pope Sergius I (687–701).


title: Lamb of God

text: In Christian iconography, an Agnus Dei is a visual representation of Jesus as a lamb, since the Middle Ages, usually carrying a halo and holding a standard or banner with a cross and symbolizing the victory. This normally rests on the lamb's shoulder and is held in its right foreleg. Often the cross will have a white banner suspended from it charged with a red cross (similar to St George's Cross), though the cross may also be rendered in different colors. Sometimes the lamb is shown lying atop a book with seven seals hanging from it. This is a reference to the imagery in the Book of Revelation , ff. Occasionally, the lamb may be depicted bleeding from the area of the heart (Cf. ), symbolizing Jesus' shedding of his blood to take away the sins of the world (Cf. , ).


title: Lamb of God

text: In Early Christian art the symbol appears very early on. Several mosaics in churches include it, some showing a row of twelve sheep representing the apostles flanking the central Agnus Dei, as in Santi Cosma e Damiano, Rome (526–30).


title: Lamb of God

text: The Moravian Church uses an Agnus Dei as their seal with the surrounding inscription "Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur" ("Our Lamb has conquered, let us follow him").


title: Lamb of God

text: Although the depiction of Jesus as the Lamb of God is of ancient origin, it is not used in the liturgical iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The reason for this is that the depictions of Jesus in the Orthodox Church are anthropomorphic rather than symbolic, as a confession of the Orthodox belief in the Incarnation of the Logos. However, there is no objection to the application of the term "Lamb of God" to Jesus. In fact, the Host used in the Orthodox Divine Liturgy is referred to as the Lamb (; ). In 692 AD the Synod of Constantinople prohibited using a depiction of lamb as a symbol of Christ, but this directive was mostly ignored.


title: Lamb of God

text: A "Paschal Lamb" is a charge used in heraldry, for example as the crest of the Davie Baronets, and is blazoned: "A paschal lamb" This charge is depicted as a lamb standing with body facing towards the dexter (viewer's left), with nimbus, and with head facing forwards (or turned looking backwards to sinister, termed "reguardant") holding under its right foreleg a flagpole, tipped with a small cross, resting at a diagonal angle over its shoulder, flying a banner of the Cross of St. George (except in Perth's coat of arms, where it flies a banner of the Cross of St Andrew).


title: Lamb of God

text: In the Roman Catholic Church, an "Agnus Dei" is a disc of wax, stamped with an image of Jesus as a lamb bearing a cross, that is consecrated by the pope as a sacramental. These were often set in jewelry, and might be worn round the neck on a chain, or as a brooch.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet (Jeetendra Madnani) is an Indian actor, producer, television judge and television presenter. He is a superstar in the Tollywood film industry.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet started his modeling career in 1993. His first acting assignment was "Bishabriksha" (199495), a Bengali TV series directed by Bishnu Palchaudhuri. He made his big screen debut with "Chandu" (2001), a Telugu film. His first success came in 2002, opposite Priyanka Trivedi, through "Sathi", a highly successful romantic drama, directed by Haranath Chakraborty, for which he won the Bengal Film Journalists' Association – Most Promising Actor Award and Anandalok Awards for Best Actor. In the same year, he acted in the Bengali remake of "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar". This initial success was followed by other critical and commercial successes, including "Nater Guru", "Sangee", "Bandhan" and "Yuddho". In 2005, he acted alongside Koel Mallick in "Nater Guru", which released to critical and commercial success and fetched him his second Anandalok Award for Best Actor. This success was short-lived as Jeet starred in some commercial failures, including "Saathihara", "Priyotoma" and "Ghatak" but this failure was short-lived as Jeet starred in "Jor", which became a box office hit.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: 2010 proved to be a commercially successful year for Jeet as he starred in "Wanted" and "Dui Prithibi", both of which were critically and commercially successful ventures; the latter being the highest grosser of 2010, according to a study conducted by FICCI & Deloitte. In 2013, he appeared in the crime thriller "Boss: Born to Rule", which was Jeet's first pan-India release. The film proved to be one of the biggest hits of 2013, grossing and also earned him his first Filmfare Awards East nomination.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: From 2014 to 2016, he has starred in many films, including four critically and commercially successful ventures – the psychological thriller "The Royal Bengal Tiger", the comedy thriller "Bachchan", the action comedy "Badsha The Don" and more recently the action drama "Abhimaan" and in 2018 the action thriller film Bagh bandi khela released on 16 November 2018. He also worked with Adil.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: In television, he appeared on several reality shows and also hosted some, including "Koti Takar Baaji" and "Bigg Boss Bangla".


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet was born into a Sindhi family. He had reportedly been in a relationship with his co-star Swastika Mukherjee during the shooting of the film "Mastan". Jeet subsequently married Mohna Ratlani, a school teacher from Lucknow, India, on 24 February 2011. They became parents to a daughter on 12 December 2012.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet started with modelling assignments and then shifted to serials like "Bishabriksha" in 1994–95, directed by Bishnu Palchaudhuri, in which he played Taracharan; In "Janani" by Bishnu Palchaudhuri, in which he played Anil; and "Daughters of the Century" by Tapan Sinha, in which he was cast in the roles of Champiya


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet collaborated with Haranath Chakraborty for "Naater Guru", which had the debutante Koel Mallick in the female lead. He later acted with Priyanka Trivedi in the film "Sangee", released on 26 December 2003. In 2004, his first film was with Raima Sen, named "Shakti". His other films of the year include "Premi" (opposite debutant Chandana Sharma), "Mastan", "Aakrosh", and "Bandhan".


title: Jeet (actor)

text: In 2005, he acted in "Yuddho" along with Mithun Chakraborty, Debashree Roy and Koel Mallick. In 2005, Jeet collaborated with Koel Mallick in "Shubhodrishti" and "Manik", both directed by Prabhat Roy. Jeet won the Anandalok Awards for Best Actor for "Manik".


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet again acted with Koel Mallick in two consecutive films – "Ghatak" and "Hero". He played Govindlal in Raja Sen's directional venture "Krishnakanter Will", which starred Swastika Mukherjee and Monali Thakur as female leads. His next film was with Hrishitaa Bhatt, titled "Bidhatar Lekha", which starred Priyanshu Chatterjee as the main antagonist. The film explores two lovers and their relationship in their last life that had come to a tragic end, and the pair confronts each other again in the current incarnation. He again collaborated with Swastika Mukherjee for the film "Partner" in 2008. Jeet collaborated with Varsha Priyadarshini for "Jor" which, made on a budget Rs. 1.25 crore, crossed seven weeks in theater and proved to be a hit in the box office.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet appeared with Koel Mallick in the films "Saat Paake Bandha" and "Neel Akasher Chandni". He starred in "Dui Prithibi", which was released on 14 October 2010. "Dui Prithibi" was the highest grosser of 2010, according to a study conducted by FICCI & Deloitte.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet next starred with Srabanti Chatterjee in "Fighter", the remake of the Telugu film "Lakshyam". He worked with Nusrat Jahan in Raj Chakraborty's action film "Shotru", which was a remake of the Tamil film "Singam". Roshni Mukherjee of "The Times of India" gave the film a positive review. Jeet reappeared with Priyanka Trivedi in "Hello Memsaheb". In 2012 he became a producer with the movie "100% Love", in which he also acted together with Koel Mallick. His second film in 2012 with Sayantika Banerjee was "Awara", which was the highest-grossing film of the year 2012. In 2013, he appeared in the gangster action film "Boss" with Subhashree Ganguly which was a remake of Mahesh Babu's "Businessman". Although the film received mixed reviews from critics, Jaya Biswas of "The Times of India" wrote that "Jeet [...] can dance, fight and emote as well." Jeet won the Kalakar Awards for The King of Tollywood for the film. He was also nominated for Best Actor in the inaugural ceremony of Filmfare Awards East.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet acted in an extended special performance with Abir Chatterjee and Shraddha Das in Neeraj Pandey's debut Bengali production venture "The Royal Bengal Tiger". Produced by Neeraj Pandey's Friday Filmworks and Jeet's Grassroot Entertainment and distributed by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, the film turned out to be a critical and commercial success. Jeet's performance of a suave and slightly dangerous Anjan who completely transforms the main protagonist in the film, received critical acclaim. He also acted in Baba Yadav's second directional venture "Game", in which he played an officer of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) working in the Indian Army. In 2014, Jeet co-starred with Aindrita Ray (in her debut Bengali film) in the film "Bachchan", which released on 3 October 2014, to positive response from critics as well as from audiences.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: In 2021, he starred in "Baazi", a film made under his production house Jeetz Filmworks, opposite Mimi Chakraborty. It was released in October during Puja holidays.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: In 2022, he starred in "Ravaan", a film made under his production house Jeetz Filmworks. It released on Eid al-Fitr. He is currently working with director Rajesh Ganguly for his upcoming film titled "Chengiz", an action thriller. In the end of the year 2022 another film named "Kagojer Nouko" opposite Rukmini Maitra and Tridha Choudhury with the director Souvik Kundu is scheduled to be released.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: A relatively small budget ad of a regional brand of men's underwear had Jeet in the lead. He became the brand ambassador of Fashion at Big Bazaar (a unit of Future Group) on 18 September 2013. In 2005, a special Durga Puja campaign of Thums Up launched Jeet as their brand ambassador in West Bengal. Jeet launched the Times Food Guide 2012 in Kolkata.


title: Jeet (actor)

text: Jeet was also the ex-captain of the Bengal Tigers in the Celebrity Cricket League. Jeet had also acquired the Kolkata franchise of the first-ever multi-nation 2016 Premier Futsal season that started on 15 July 2016. The team is known as "Kolkata 5s" as each franchise was similarly named in the inaugural season.


title: Nessa

text: Nessa Diab, known mononymously as Nessa, is an American radio and TV personality and television host.


title: Nessa

text: Nessa was born to an Egyptian father and mother. She has two brothers. She grew up in Southern California but her dad's job frequently moved her family between California and Saudi Arabia. She graduated with a degree in mass communications from the University of California, Berkeley.


title: Nessa

text: While in college, Nessa interned at San Francisco Bay Area Top 40 station Wild 94.9. Eventually, she got her own show, "The Baydestrian Report," which covered news in the Bay Area.


title: Nessa

text: She first rose to prominence for her artist and celebrity interviews on Wild 94.9 and YouTube, which led to MTV seeking her out to be on "Girl Code". She has also hosted various MTV and MTV2 shows. She currently hosts "Nessa on Air," a successful hip-hop show during the drive time shift on New York City's top rated Hot 97. Her show is the #1 hip hop show in the afternoons with 18–34 year olds and is syndicated nationally in over 15 markets. In 2018, Nessa became the host of NBCUniversal's show, "Talk Stoop" for one season


title: Nessa

text: Nessa and Colin Kaepernick founded Know Your Rights Camp, a multi-city traveling youth empowerment initiative for disadvantaged youth. In 2020, the organization expanded its reach with funds for COVID-19 and in June the creation of a legal defense initiative "for victims of excessive force by police terrorism and civil rights violations."


title: Nessa

text: In 2016, she led Plan B One Step's Perfectly Imperfect national campaign with her "Girl Code" co-host Carly Aquilino, encouraging young women to take charge of their reproductive health.


title: Nessa

text: She hosts a yearly prom pamper party for underprivileged high school girls from New York City centered around female empowerment. She mentors students from various organizations in New York City, including the Dream Charter School in Harlem and the Bronx, and she created a scholarship and mentorship program in March 2018 at the Lower East Side Girls Club.


title: Annette Crosbie

text: Annette Crosbie (born 12 February 1934) is a Scottish actor. She is best known for her role as Margaret Meldrew in the BBC sitcom "One Foot in the Grave" (1990–2000). She twice won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress, for "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" in 1971 and "Edward the Seventh". In 1976, she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the 1976 film "The Slipper and the Rose" and she won the award for Best Actress at the Evening Standard British Film Awards for the same role. Her other film appearances include "The Pope Must Die" (1991), "Shooting Fish" (1997), "The Debt Collector" (1999), "Calendar Girls" (2003) and "Into the Woods" (2014).


title: Annette Crosbie

text: Crosbie was born in Gorebridge, Midlothian, Scotland, to Presbyterian parents who disapproved of her becoming an actress. Nevertheless, she joined the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School while still in her teens. She began her career with the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre Company in 1956. She was educated at Boroughmuir High School in Edinburgh. Her big break came in 1970 when she was cast as Catherine of Aragon in the BBC television series "The Six Wives of Henry VIII", for which she won the 1971 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress. In 1973, she starred alongside Vanessa Redgrave in the BBC serial "A Picture of Katherine Mansfield".


title: Annette Crosbie

text: In 1975, Crosbie made a similar impact as another queen, Queen Victoria, in the ITV period drama "Edward the Seventh", for which she won the 1976 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress. She played Cinderella's fairy godmother in "The Slipper and the Rose", which was chosen as the Royal Film Première for 1976. In that film, Crosbie sang the Sherman Brothers' song, "Suddenly It Happens". Crosbie voiced the character of Galadriel in Ralph Bakshi's animated movie, "The Lord of the Rings", filmed in 1978. In 1980, she played the abbess in "Hawk the Slayer". In 1986, she appeared as the vicar's wife in "Paradise Postponed".


title: Annette Crosbie

text: Crosbie's next major role was as Margaret Meldrew, the long-suffering wife of Victor Meldrew (Richard Wilson) in the BBC sitcom "One Foot in the Grave" (1990–2000) for which she is best known. She also played Janet, the housekeeper to "Dr. Finlay", in the 1993–96 revival of A. J. Cronin's popular stories. She also had a poignant role in the thriller "The Debt Collector" (1999).


title: Annette Crosbie

text: Crosbie's other roles include playing the monkey-lover Ingrid Strange in an episode of "Jonathan Creek" (1997), Edith Sparshott in "An Unsuitable Job for a Woman" (1997–2001), and Jessie in the film "Calendar Girls" (2003).


title: Annette Crosbie

text: In 2008, Crosbie appeared in a BBC adaptation of "Little Dorrit". In 2009 she played Sadie Cairncross in the BBC television series "Hope Springs". In 2010, Crosbie appeared in the "Doctor Who" episode "The Eleventh Hour" and in an episode of "New Tricks". In 2014 Crosbie appeared in the movies "What We Did on Our Holiday" and "Into the Woods". In 2015 she appeared in a BBC adaptation of "Cider with Rosie". In 2016 she appeared in the new film version of "Dad's Army". In 2019 she appeared in an episode of "Call the Midwife".


title: Annette Crosbie

text: In 2020, Crosbie appeared in an episode of the second season of "After Life", a British black comedy-drama series created, written, produced and directed by Ricky Gervais, which premiered on Netflix.


title: Annette Crosbie

text: Crosbie was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1998 New Year Honours for services to Drama.


title: Annette Crosbie

text: Crosbie was married to Michael Griffiths, the father of her son Owen and daughter Selina, who is also an actor.


title: Annette Crosbie

text: She is a campaigner for greyhound welfare. From 2003, she was President of the League Against Cruel Sports.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each independently and autonomously runs its own affairs.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregationalism, as defined by the Pew Research Center, is estimated to represent 0.5 percent of the worldwide Protestant population; though their organizational customs and other ideas influenced significant parts of Protestantism, as well as other Christian congregations. The report defines it very narrowly, encompassing mainly denominations in the United States and the United Kingdom, which can trace their history back to nonconforming Protestants, Puritans, Separatists, Independents, English religious groups coming out of the English Civil War, and other English Dissenters not satisfied with the degree to which the Church of England had been reformed.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregationalist tradition has a presence in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and various island nations in the Pacific region. It has been introduced either by immigrant dissenter Protestants or by missionary organizations such as the London Missionary Society. A number of evangelical Congregational churches are members of the World Evangelical Congregational Fellowship.


title: Congregational church

text: In the United Kingdom, many Congregational churches claim their descent from Protestant denominations formed on a theory of union published by the theologian and English separatist Robert Browne in 1582. Other accounts trace these origins further back to the London Underground Church of the 1560s. Ideas of nonconforming Protestants during the Puritan Reformation of the Church of England laid the foundation for these churches. In England, the early Congregationalists were called "Separatists" or "Independents" to distinguish them from the similarly Calvinistic Presbyterians, whose churches embrace a polity based on the governance of elders. Congregationalists also differed with the Reformed churches using episcopalian church governance, which is usually led by a bishop.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregationalism in the United States traces its origins to the Puritans of New England, who wrote the Cambridge Platform of 1648 to describe the autonomy of the church and its association with others. Within the United States, the model of Congregational churches was carried by migrating settlers from New England into New York, then into the Old Northwest, and further.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregationalism is a Protestant movement within the Calvinist tradition that occupies a theological position between Presbyterianism on one end and the Baptists and Quakers on the other. Through the years, Congregationalists have adopted various confessional statements, including the Savoy Declaration, the Cambridge Platform and the Kansas City Statement of Faith.


title: Congregational church

text: Unlike Presbyterians, Congregationalists practice congregational polity (from which they derive their name), which holds that the members of a local church have the right to decide their church's forms of worship and confessional statements, choose their own officers and administer their own affairs without any outside interference. Congregationalist polity is rooted in a foundational tenet of Congregationalism: the priesthood of believers. According to Congregationalist minister Charles Edward Jefferson, the priesthood of believers means that "Every believer is a priest and ... every seeking child of God is given directly wisdom, guidance, power."


title: Congregational church

text: Congregationalists have two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper. Unlike Baptists, Congregationalists practise infant baptism. The Lord's Supper is normally celebrated once or twice a month. Congregationalists do not use the sign of the cross or invoke the intercession of saints.


title: Congregational church

text: The origins of Congregationalism are found in 16th-century Puritanism, a movement that sought to complete the English Reformation begun with the separation of the Church of England from the Catholic Church during the reign of Henry VIII (1509–47). During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603), the Church of England was considered a Reformed or Calvinist church, but it also preserved certain characteristics of medieval Catholicism, such as cathedrals, church choirs, a formal liturgy contained in the "Book of Common Prayer", traditional clerical vestments and episcopal polity (government by bishops).


title: Congregational church

text: The Puritans were Calvinists who wanted to further reform the church by abolishing all remaining Catholic practices, such as clerical vestments, wedding rings, organ music in church, kneeling at Holy Communion, using the term "priest" for a minister, bowing at the name of Jesus, and making the sign of the cross in baptism and communion. Many Puritans believed the Church of England should follow the example of Reformed churches in other parts of Europe and adopt presbyterian polity, in which an egalitarian network of local ministers cooperated through regional synods. Other Puritans experimented with congregational polity both within the Church of England and outside of it. Puritans who left the established church were known as Separatists.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregationalism may have first developed in the London Underground Church under Richard Fitz in the late 1560s and 1570s. The Congregational historian Albert Peel argued that it was accepted that the evidence for a fully thought out congregational ecclesiology is not overwhelming.


title: Congregational church

text: Robert Browne (1550–1633) was the first person to set out explicit congregational principles and is considered the founder of Congregationalism. While studying for ordination, Browne became convinced that the Church of England was a false church. He moved to Norwich and together with Robert Harrison formed an illegal Separatist congregation. In 1581, Browne and his followers moved to Holland in order to worship freely. While in Holland, Browne wrote treatises that laid out the essential features of Congregationalism. Browne argued for a church only of genuine, regenerate believers and criticized the Anglicans for including all English people within their church. The congregation should choose its own leaders, and the ministers should be ordained by the congregation itself not by bishops or fellow ministers. Each congregation should be founded on a written church covenant, and the congregation as a whole should govern the church: "The meetings together… of every whole church, and of the elders therein, is above the apostle, above the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher, and every particular elder" and "The voice of the whole people, guided by the elders and the forwardest, is said [in Scripture] to be the voice of God". While each church would be independent, separate churches would still come together to discuss matters of common concern.


title: Congregational church

text: Short lifespans were typical of Separatist churches (also known as Brownist congregations). These were small congregations who met in secret and faced persecution. They were often forced to go into exile in Holland and tended to disintegrate quickly. Notable Separatists who faced exile or death included Henry Barrow (c. 1550–1593), John Greenwood (died 1593), John Penry (1559–1593), Francis Johnson (1563–1618), and Henry Ainsworth (1571–1622).


title: Congregational church

text: In the early 1600s, a Separatist congregation in Scrooby was founded through the efforts of John Smyth (who later rejected infant baptism and became a founder of the Baptist movement). John Robinson was the congregation's pastor and William Brewster was an elder. In 1607, the congregation moved to Holland fleeing persecution. In 1620, the group (known in history as the Pilgrims) sailed to North America on the "Mayflower", establishing the Plymouth Colony and bringing the Congregational tradition to America.


title: Congregational church

text: In 1639 William Wroth, then Rector of the parish church at Llanvaches in Monmouthshire, established the first Independent Church in Wales "according to the New England pattern", i.e. Congregational. The Tabernacle United Reformed Church at Llanvaches survives to this day.


title: Congregational church

text: During the English Civil War, those who supported the Parliamentary cause were invited by Parliament to discuss religious matters. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) was officially claimed to be the statement of faith for both the Church of England (Anglican/Episcopal) and Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), which was politically expedient for those in the Presbyterian dominated English Parliament who approved of the Solemn League and Covenant (1643).


title: Congregational church

text: After the Second Civil War, the New Model Army which was dominated by Congregationalists (or Independents) seized control of the parliament with Pride's purge (1648), arranged for the trial and execution of Charles I in January 1649 and subsequently introduced a republican Commonwealth dominated by Independents such as Oliver Cromwell. This government lasted until 1660 when the monarch was restored and Episcopalism was re-established (see the Penal Laws and Great Ejection). In 1662, two years after the Restoration, two thousand Independent, Presbyterian, and congregational ministers were evicted from their parishes as dissenters and not being in Holy Orders conferred by bishops. In 1658 (during the interregnum) the Congregationalists created their own version of the Westminster Confession, called the Savoy Declaration, which remains the principal subordinate standard of Congregationalism.


title: Congregational church

text: A summary of Congregationalism in Scotland see the paper presented to a joint meeting of the ministers of the United Reformed Church (Scottish Synod) and the Congregational Federation in Scotland by Rev'd A. Paterson is available online.


title: Congregational church

text: The mission to Argentina was the second foreign field tended by German Congregationalists. The work in South America began in 1921 when four Argentine churches urgently requested that denominational recognition be given to George Geier, who was serving them. The Illinois Conference licensed Geier, who worked among Germans from Russia who were very similar to their kin in the United States and in Canada. The South American Germans from Russia had learned about Congregationalism in letters from relatives in the United States.


title: Congregational church

text: In 1924 general missionary John Hoelzer, while in Argentina for a brief visit, organised six churches.


title: Congregational church

text: In 1977, most congregations of the Congregational Union of Australia merged with all Churches of the Methodist Church of Australasia and a majority of Churches of the Presbyterian Church of Australia to form the Uniting Church in Australia.


title: Congregational church

text: Those congregations that did not join the Uniting Church formed the Fellowship of Congregational Churches or continued as Presbyterians. Some more ecumenically minded Congregationalists left the Fellowship of Congregational Churches in 1995 and formed the Congregational Federation of Australia.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregationalists (called "Evangelicals" in Bulgaria; the word "Protestant" is not used) were among the first Protestant missionaries to the Ottoman Empire and to the Northwestern part of the European Ottoman Empire which is now Bulgaria, where their work to convert these Orthodox Christians was unhampered by the death penalty imposed by the Ottomans on Muslim converts to Christianity. These missionaries were significant contributors to the Bulgarian National Revival movement. Today, Protestantism in Bulgaria represents the third largest religious group, behind Orthodox and Muslim. Missionaries from the United States first arrived in 1857–58, sent to Istanbul by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). The ABCFM was proposed in 1810 by the Congregationalist graduates of Williams College, MA, and was chartered in 1812 to support missions by Congregationalists, Presbyterian (1812–1870), Dutch-Reformed (1819–1857) and other denominational members. The ABCFM focused its efforts on southern Bulgaria and the Methodist Church on the region north of the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina, or "Old Mountains"). In 1857, Cyrus Hamlin and Charles Morse established three missionary centres in southern Bulgaria – in Odrin (Edirne, former capital city of the Ottoman Empire, in Turkey), Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. They were joined in 1859 by Russian-born naturalized America Frederic Flocken in 1859. American Presbyterian minister Elias Riggs commissioned, supported and edited the work of Bulgarian monk Neofit Rilski to create a Bible translations into Bulgarian which was then distributed widely in Bulgaria in 1871 and thereafter. This effort was supported by Congregationalist missionary Albert Long, Konstantin Fotinov, Hristodul Sechan-Nikolov and Petko Slaveikov. Reportedly, 2,000 copies of the newly translated Bulgarian language New Testament were sold within the first two weeks.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregational churches were established in Bansko, Veliko Turnovo, and Svishtov between 1840 and 1878, followed by Sofia in 1899. By 1909, there were 19 Congregational churches, with a total congregation of 1,456 in southern Bulgaria offering normal Sunday services, Sunday schools for children, biblical instruction for adults; as well as women's groups and youth groups. Summer Bible schools were held annually from 1896 to 1948.


title: Congregational church

text: Congregationalists led by Dr. James F. Clarke opened Bulgaria's first Protestant primary school for boys in Plovdiv in 1860, followed three years later by a primary school for girls in Stara Zagora. In 1871 the two schools were moved to Samokov and merged as the American College, now considered the oldest American educational institution outside the US. In 1928, new facilities were constructed in Sofia, and the Samokov operation transferred to the American College of Sofia (ACS), now operated at a very high level by the Sofia American Schools, Inc.


title: Congregational church

text: In 1874, a Bible College was opened in Ruse, Bulgaria for people wanting to become pastors. At the 1876 annual conference of missionaries, the beginning of organizational activity in the country was established. The evangelical churches of Bulgaria formed a united association in 1909.


title: Congregational church

text: The missionaries played a significant role in assisting the Bulgarians throw off "the Turkish Yoke", which included publishing the magazine Zornitsa (Зорница, "Dawn"), founded in 1864 by the initiative of Riggs and Long. Zornitsa became the most powerful and most widespread newspaper of the Bulgarian Renaissance. A small roadside marker on Bulgarian Highway 19 in the Rila Mountains, close to Gradevo commemorates the support given the Bulgarian Resistance by these early Congregationalist missionaries.


title: Congregational church

text: On 3 September 1901 Congregationalist missionaries came to world attention in the Miss Stone Affair when missionary Ellen Maria Stone, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and her pregnant fellow missionary friend Macedonian-Bulgarian Katerina Stefanova–Tsilka, wife of an Albanian Protestant minister, were kidnapped while traveling between Bansko and Gorna Dzhumaya (now Blagoevgrad), by an Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization detachment led by the voivoda Yane Sandanski and the sub-voivodas Hristo Chernopeev and Krǎstyo Asenov and ransomed to provide funds for revolutionary activities. Eventually, a heavy ransom (14,000 Ottoman lira (about US$62,000 at 1902 gold prices or $5 million at 2012 gold prices) raised by public subscription in the USA was paid on 18 January 1902 in Bansko and the hostages (now including a newborn baby) were released on 2 February near Strumica—a full five months after being kidnapped. Widely covered by the media at the time, the event has been often dubbed "America's first modern hostage crisis".


title: Congregational church

text: The Bulgarian royal house, of Catholic German extraction, was unsympathetic to the American inspired Protestants, and this mood became worse when Bulgaria sided with Germany in WWI and WWII. Matters became much worse when the Bulgarian Communist Party took power in 1944. Like the Royal Family, it too saw Protestantism closely linked to the West and hence more politically dangerous than traditional Orthodox Christianity. This prompted repressive legislation in the form of "Regulations for the Organization and Administration of the Evangelical Churches in the People's Republic of Bulgaria" and resulted in the harshest government repression, possibly the worst in the entire Eastern Bloc, intended to extinguish Protestantism altogether. Mass arrests of pastors (and often their families), torture, long prison sentences (including four life sentences) and even disappearance were common. Similar tactics were used on parishioners. In fifteen highly publicized mock show-trials between 8 February and 8 March 1949, all the accused pastors confessed to a range of charges against them, including treason, spying (for both the US and Yugoslavia), black marketing, and various immoral acts. State appointed pastors were foist on surviving congregations. As late as the 1980s, imprisonment and exile were still employed to destroy the remaining Protestant churches. The Congregationalist magazine "Zornitsa" was banned; Bibles became unobtainable. As a result, the number of Congregationalists is small and estimated by Paul Mojzes in 1982 to number about 5,000, in 20 churches. (Total Protestants in Bulgaria were estimated in 1965 to have been between 10,000 and 20,000.) More recent estimates indicate enrollment in Protestant ("Evangelical" or "Gospel") churches of between 100,000 and 200,000, presumably reflecting the success of more recent missionary efforts of evangelical groups.


title: Congregational church

text: In Canada, the first foreign field, thirty-one churches that had been affiliated with the General Conference became part of the United Church of Canada when that denomination was founded in 1925 by the merger of the Canadian Congregationalist and Methodist churches, and two-thirds of the congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. In 1988, a number of UCC congregations separated from the national church, which they felt was moving away theologically and in practice from Biblical Christianity. Many of the former UCC congregations banded together as the new Congregational Christian Churches in Canada.


title: Congregational church

text: The Congregational Christian Churches in Canada (or 4Cs) is an evangelical, Protestant, Christian denomination, headquartered in Brantford, Ontario, and a member of the World Evangelical Congregational Fellowship. The name "congregational" generally describes its preferred organizational style, which promotes local church autonomy and ownership, while fostering fellowship and accountability between churches at the National level.


title: Congregational church

text: The Congregational Union of Ireland was founded in 1829 and currently has around 26 member churches. In 1899 it absorbed the Irish Evangelical Society.


title: Congregational church

text: The Congregational Christian Church of Samoa is one of the largest group of churches throughout the Pacific Region. It was founded in 1830 by the London Missionary Society missionary John Williams on the island of Savai'i in the village of Sapapali'i. As the church grew it established and continues to support theological colleges in Samoa and Fiji. There are over 100,000 members attending over 2,000 congregations throughout the world, most of which are located in Samoa, American Samoa, New Zealand, Australia and America. The Christian Congregational Church of Jamaica falls under the constitution of the Samoan Church.


title: Congregational church

text: The Congregational Union of England and Wales was established in 1831. It had no authority over the affiliated churches, but instead aimed to advise and support them.


title: Congregational church

text: In 1972, about three-quarters of English Congregational churches merged with the Presbyterian Church of England to form the United Reformed Church (URC). However, about 600 Congregational churches have continued in their historic independent tradition. Under the United Reformed Church Act 1972 that dealt with the financial and property issues arising from the merger between what had become by then the Congregational Church of England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England, certain assets were divided between the various parties.


title: Congregational church

text: In England, there are three main groups of continuing Congregationalists. These are the Congregational Federation, which has offices in Nottingham and Manchester, the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, which has offices in Beverley, and about 100 Congregational churches that are loosely federated with other congregations in the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, or are unaffiliated. The unaffiliated churches' share of the assets of the Congregational Union/Church of England and Wales is administered by a registered charity, the Unaffiliated Congregational Churches Charities, which supports the unaffiliated churches and their retired ministers.


title: Congregational church

text: In 1981, the United Reformed Church merged with the re-formed Association of Churches of Christ and, in 2000, just over half of the churches in the Congregational Union of Scotland also joined the United Reformed Church (via the United Reformed Church Act 2000). The remainder of Congregational churches in Scotland joined the Congregational Federation.


title: Congregational church

text: Wales traditionally is the part which has the largest share of Congregationalists among the population, most Congregationalists being members of "Undeb yr Annibynwyr Cymraeg" (the Union of Welsh Independents), which is particularly important in Carmarthenshire and Brecknockshire.


title: Congregational church

text: The London Missionary Society was effectively the world mission arm of British Congregationalists, sponsoring missionaries including Eric Liddell and David Livingstone. After mergers and changes of name, the Society was succeeded in 1977 by the worldwide Council for World Mission.


title: Congregational church

text: In the United States, the Congregational tradition traces its origins mainly to Puritan settlers of colonial New England. Congregational churches have had an important role in the political, religious and cultural history of the United States. Their practices concerning church governance influenced the early development of democratic institutions in New England, and some of the nation's oldest educational institutions, such as Harvard and Yale University, were founded to train Congregational clergy. In the 21st century, the Congregational tradition is represented by the United Church of Christ, the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches, and the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference. Some congregations are conservative on social issues, while others, such as the United Church of Christ, support same-sex marriage.


title: Cayenne

text: Cayenne (; ; ) is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic coast. The city's motto is "fert aurum industria", which means "work brings wealth". Cayenne is the largest francophone city of the South American continent.


title: Cayenne

text: In the 2019 census, there were 147,943 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Cayenne (as defined by INSEE), 65,493 of whom lived in the city (commune) of Cayenne proper.


title: Cayenne

text: Ignored by Spanish explorers who found the region too hot and poor to be claimed, the region was not colonized until 1604, when the French founded a settlement. However, it was soon destroyed by the Portuguese, determined to enforce the Treaty of Tordesillas. French colonists returned in 1643 and founded Cayenne, but were forced to leave once more following the Amerindian attacks. In 1664, France finally established a permanent settlement at Cayenne. Over the next decade the colony changed hands between the French, Dutch, and English, before being restored to France. It was captured by an Anglo-Portuguese force during the invasion of Cayenne in 1809 and administered from Brazil until 1814, when it was returned to French control. It was used as a French penal colony from 1854 to 1938.


title: Cayenne

text: The city's population has grown dramatically over time, owing to high levels of immigration (chiefly from the West Indies and Brazil) as well as a high birth rate.


title: Cayenne

text: Cayenne is located on the estuary of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic Ocean. The city occupies part of Cayenne Island. It is from Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and from Kourou.


title: Cayenne

text: Cayenne is a commune of the French Republic and as such, administered by a mayor and a municipal council. The current mayor is Sandra Trochimara, who was 1st deputy mayor under the former mayor Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth, and succeeded her as mayor of Cayenne in October 2020 after Phinéra-Horth won the local Senate race the month before (under French law, members of the French Senate cannot exercise the mandate of mayor). Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth, a former member of the Guianese Socialist Party, daughter of a former president of the General Council of French Guiana, Stéphan Phinéra-Horth, from the Guianese Socialist Party, who governed the department of French Guiana from 1994 to 1998, was supported by various left-wing parties and had been mayor of Cayenne since 2010.


title: Cayenne

text: As in the rest of France, the small size of the commune of Cayenne does not cover the entire urban area of Cayenne. This has led to the creation of an intercommunal authority which groups Cayenne and five suburban communes: the communauté d'agglomération du Centre Littoral. The current president of the intercommunal authority of Centre Littoral since November 2020 has been Serge Smock, mayor of Matoury, who ran on a centrist platform affiliated with Emmanuel Macron's LREM party and defeated Sandra Trochimara, successor of Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horth as mayor of Cayenne, who was also trying to succeed her as president of the intercommunal authority with the support of an array of Left-wing parties. It is the first time since 2001 that the intercommunal authority is not presided by the mayor of Cayenne. Marie-Laure Phinéra-Horthwas was president of the intercommunal authority of Centre Littoral from 2014 to 2020, and did not run for reelection due to her election to the French Senate in September 2020.


title: Cayenne

text: The intercommunal authority of Centre Littoral, which levies its own taxes, is in charge of refuse collection, water supply and sewage treatment, urban planning, and public transport for the of Cayenne and its suburbs.


title: Cayenne

text: Until 2015, the commune of Cayenne was divided into six cantons, but these were abolished in 2015 when the department and the region of French Guiana were abolished and replaced by the French Guiana Territorial Collectivity.


title: Cayenne

text: The places of birth of the 121,490 residents in the Cayenne metropolitan area at the 2012 census were as follows:


title: Cayenne

text: These were the countries of birth of the immigrants living in the Cayenne metropolitan area at the 2009 census:


title: Cayenne

text: Health conditions in Cayenne and French Guiana are generally good. The principal illnesses that cause mortality are circulatory, infectious and parasitic diseases, as well as cancer. A branch of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, located in Cayenne, conducts research on tropical and endemic local diseases and is renowned throughout Latin America. Life expectancy averages about 76 years for men and 83 years for women. The main hospital of the city is the Andrée-Rosemon Hospital which opened in 1992.


title: Cayenne

text: Cayenne is an important seaport in South America. The major port of Dégrad des Cannes is on the estuary of the river Mahury, replacing Larivot and the Îles du Salut. Timber, rosewood essence, rum, and gold are exported in small quantities. In the mid-1960s sugarcane and pineapple were planted around the city, and a pineapple cannery and a shrimp-processing plant were later built. A seafront avenue links Cayenne with the suburbs of Chaton and Montabo, where the French Institute of Tropical America and the Pasteur Institute are located. Historic landmarks include the Church of the Holy Saviour and a prefecture on the Place d'Armes. The Félix Eboué International Airport is the only international airport serving Cayenne.


title: Cayenne

text: Under the Köppen climate classification, Cayenne has a tropical monsoon climate ("Am") bordering on an equatorial climate ("Af"). Average high and low temperatures are nearly identical throughout the course of the year, averaging about and respectively, although temperatures are somewhat cooler in the wet season than in the dry season. Cayenne sees copious precipitation during the year, with its weather being more strongly affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) than the trade winds. The city experiences a very lengthy wet season and a very short dry season - the dry season covers only August to October, while the wet season covers the remainder of the year. Some precipitation is seen even during the dry season, a trait common in tropical climates. Cayenne averages roughly of rain each year.


title: Cayenne

text: In 1823 Father Nicolas Guiller and Baron , administrator of French Guiana, decided to replace the old church of Saint Nicolas on the current . Work began in 1825 and ended in 1833. The church was inaugurated in 1861 and is registered as a French monument historique.


title: Cayenne

text: The high altar, the pulpit, and the confessional of the penitentiary chapel on the Îlet la Mère were transferred to the cathedral in 1876.


title: Cayenne

text: In 1933, the church was declared a cathedral and was consecrated in November 1934 by monseigneur , the first bishop of Guyana. In 1952, construction workers discovered a lead case containing 21 coins, the oldest of which dated to the Napoleonic period, and 20 seals from the reign of Charles X.


title: Cayenne

text: Between 1952 and 1954 the ceiling, the windows, and the floors of the tribunal were replaced. The bell tower was renovated in 2000–01.


title: Cayenne

text: Fort Cépérou, originally known as Fort Saint-Michel, is a 17th-century fortification on Mount Cépérou, named for the Amerindian chief who in 1643 sold the rock on which it stands to the Frenchman Charles Poncet de Brétigny, governor of Cayenne in 1644–1645.


title: Cayenne

text: Initially it was a plaza to aerate the city after the demolition of the city walls in 1810. It was named Place de la Savane ("Savanna Square") after the grasses that grew there. Later some royal palms from the area of Guisanbourg were planted there, and the plaza was renamed Place des Palmistes ("Royal Palms' Square"). In 1880, a bronze column was erected bearing the bust of the Marianne, commemorating the seizure of the Bastille. Governor Gaston Gerville-Reache transformed the plaza into an English garden, with artificial hills, masses of flowers and ornamental plants. Because it regularly flooded in the rain, Governor Marc Chanel in 1925 bordered it with a network of cemented canals, still there to this day. A statue of Félix Éboué, an illustrious Guianan, stands at the Merlet fountain. Today it is a lively place where the residents meet. In the evening, food carts sell French fries, sandwiches, local juices and other street food, and bami and lassi (Javanese delicacies brought in by way of Suriname).


title: Cayenne

text: In 1786, Louis XVI had a garden that served as a storehouse and nursery for various plants and trees from various locations. Louis Claude Richard, director of the garden, brought from India nutmeg trees, rattan, cardamom and black pepper vines. At this period, it was called King's Garden. In 1821 a house was built for the botanist. In 1879, the park changed its name and became the Botanical Garden, a floral park in the city center. It covers an area of three hectares. A statue of Gaston Monnerville stands in the garden's center.


title: Cayenne

text: These two adjoining buildings are located near the old port of Cayenne. As early as 1703, a Place du Port appears on a map of the city of Cayenne. It then became Place du Marché in 1842. In 1888, a covered market and a public garden were built there. In 1907 the municipal council led by mayor Eugène Gobert decided to remove the garden and build a new covered market, the one we know today. In 1920 the war memorial of the First World War was inaugurated on the site of the old market, surmounted by a rooster, which gave the place its current name.


title: Cayenne

text: The "village chionois" (Chinese Village) in Cayenne is located on the edge of the city's center along the Cayenne River. Colloquially known as "la" "Crique" or "Chikago", the neighborhood is reportedly a top destination for internal migration from elsewhere in French Guiana.


title: Cayenne

text: The carnival is one of the major events of the capital. It takes place between Epiphany in early January and Ash Wednesday in February or March.


title: Cayenne

text: This festival is part of the Guianan Creole culture. It was originally a carnival as practiced in Europe. In early colonial times, the settlers held the carnival, but it was forbidden to slaves. Braving the ban, slaves Held clandestine festivals to regain some freedom, celebrate Africans, fertility and harvest, and make fun of the settlers.


title: Cayenne

text: Groups disguised according to the theme of the year march to the rhythm of drums and brass in a parade around decorated floats. These groups prepare for months for to parade in front of thousands of spectators massed on the sidewalks and the stands erected for the occasion.


title: Cayenne

text: Brazilian bands just like to those at the Rio Carnival are also appreciated for their alluring rhythms and costumes, and Asian community of Cayenne brings dragons to the parade as well.


title: Cayenne

text: Nightclubs, called "universities" in this context, organize masked balls in which men come to dance with Touloulous at soirées held on Friday and Saturday nights. This tradition is peculiar to French Guiana, and does not exist anywhere else.


title: Cayenne

text: The carnival dances are the polka, mazurka, biguine and piké djouk. The Touloulou invite the men to dance, and the men cannot refuse. Only Touloulous have the right to dance, and if a undisguised woman tries to dance, the orchestra stops playing.


title: Cayenne

text: Since the 1990s, tololo parties have been held where men disguise themselves and play the role of the Touloulous, inviting undisguised women to dance. These evenings are more and more popular and take place several times during the carnival.


title: Cayenne

text: Families gather every week to eat king cake, a European tradition observed throughout the carnival. The cake can be frangipane, cream, coconut or guava.


title: Cayenne

text: After the abolition of slavery in 1848, the economy of French Guiana was devastated, and much of the population lived by working the land in “habitations”. People farmed and knew the value of working together. The tradition of the king cake was born in the Guiana of this period, or more precisely, “rend le bouquet”. One couple organized the meal and celebration, and at its end designated the couple who would organize the following gathering by handing them the bouquet.


title: Cayenne

text: Cayenne centres on its main commercial street, the Avenue Général de Gaulle. At the east end of the avenue near the coast is the Place des Palmistes and the Place de Grenoble (also known as the Place Léopold Héder). Most of the official buildings are located in this area: the Hôtel de Ville (the town hall) built by Jesuits in the 1890s, the Post Office, the Préfecture, residence of French Guiana's Préfect, and the Musée Départmental Franconie. To the west of this area lies Fort Cépérou, built in the 17th century, though now mostly in ruins. To the south lie the Place du Coq and Place Victor Schoelcher (named in honour of the anti-slavery activist) and a market.


title: Cayenne

text: To the south of this compact region is the "Village Chinois" (known as Chicago), separated from the rest of Cayenne by the Canal Laussat. It has a reputation for being a dangerous area.


title: Cayenne

text: Other buildings in the city include Cayenne Cathedral, municipal library, the municipal museum and a museum of French Guianese Culture (Musée des Cultures Guyanaise) and a scientific research institute (IRD or Institut de recherche pour le développement, formerly Orstom). The Jardin botanique de Cayenne is the city's botanical garden.


title: Cayenne

text: Cayenne is served by the Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport, which is located in the neighbouring commune of Matoury. There are two flights a day to Paris (Orly Airport), served by Air France and Air Caraïbes. The flight time from Cayenne to Paris is 8 hours and 10 minutes, and from Paris to Cayenne it is 8 hours and 30 minutes. There are also flights to Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, Belém, and Fortaleza.


title: Cayenne

text: French Guiana's main seaport is the port of Dégrad des Cannes, located on the estuary of the Mahury River, in the commune of Remire-Montjoly, a south-eastern suburb of Cayenne. Almost all of French Guiana's imports and exports pass through the port of Dégrad des Cannes. Built in 1974, it replaced the old harbour of Cayenne which was congested and could not cope with modern traffic.


title: Cayenne

text: Cayenne is connected to Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni via the Route nationale 1, and to Saint-Georges via the Route nationale 2.


title: Cayenne

text: Cayenne is home to the University of French Guiana, formerly a campus of the University of the French West Indies until a strike concerning university funding led to the creation of a separate institution in 2014.


title: Cayenne

text: The French folk song "Cayenne", tells the story of a pimp who shoots a well-to-do client who grossly disrespected a prostitute, and is then convicted and transferred to the infamous penitentiary.


title: Cayenne

text: In The Hardy Boys #12: "Footprints Under the Window", the Hardys' investigations take them to Cayenne.


title: Cayenne

text: The 1955 film "We're No Angels" involves three prisoners who escaped from Devil's Island and settled incognito into a family store in Cayenne.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: Shakespears Sister is an alternative pop and rock musical duo based in the United Kingdom that was formed in 1988 by singer-songwriter Siobhan Fahey, a former member of Bananarama. Shakespears Sister was initially a solo act, but became a duo by 1989 with the addition of American musician Marcella Detroit. Together they released two top 10 albums and a string of top 40 hits, including the 1992 hit "Stay" which peaked at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for eight consecutive weeks. Detroit was sacked from the band in 1993, leaving Fahey as the sole member again until she ended the project in 1996. After working under her own name for some years, Fahey revived the Shakespears Sister name in 2009. In 2019, Fahey and Detroit reunited as Shakespears Sister for a tour and released a single, "All the Queen's Horses", and the EP "Ride Again".


title: Shakespears Sister

text: Shakespears Sister was conceived as a solo project by Siobhan Fahey, a onetime punk turned chart-pop singer who had left the successful British/Irish girl-group Bananarama in 1988, due to disillusionment with the group's musical direction. The name was adapted from the title of the song "Shakespeare's Sister" by The Smiths, which was in turn a reference to Virginia Woolf's work "A Room of One's Own". According to Fahey, the spelling began with an accidental misspelling on a woodcut sign. She decided to keep it because "It made it sort of my thing, as opposed to the song by The Smiths". Fahey has described the meaning of the name being "Siobhan Fahey is the mother, the sister, the daughter, it's not the artist. The artist is Shakespears Sister."


title: Shakespears Sister

text: Fahey began writing and recording work for the project with their record producer Richard Feldman. Several other musicians were involved in the songwriting, one of whom was Feldman's friend and colleague Marcy Levy, a veteran of live and studio work with Eric Clapton (with whom she had written "Lay Down Sally"), Leon Russell and Bob Seger as well as a songwriter for artists including Jennifer Rush, Chaka Khan and Patty Weaver. An accomplished singer and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, harmonica and keyboards), Levy also made vocal and instrumental contributions to the sessions, staying on as a prominent "hired hand". During this time, Fahey suggested that Levy — who had previously tried and failed to get a couple of solo albums released - take on a new professional name in order to gain a new lease of artistic life. Levy agreed and restyled herself as Marcella Detroit, a name she has used throughout her time with Shakespears Sister and afterwards.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: The debut Shakespears Sister single was "Break My Heart (You Really)/Heroine" (released as a double A-side in the UK and as two separate singles in the United States, although none of the releases charted successfully). "Break My Heart" had been intended to differentiate Fahey's solo artist persona from her past work with Bananarama. David A. Stewart (Fahey's then-husband and a member of Eurythmics) had been impressed by the musical chemistry between Fahey and Detroit in the recording studio. Seeing potential benefit in turning Shakespears Sister from a solo project into a band, he suggested that Fahey and Detroit should unite as a duo. It was a suggestion that was backed by Feldman, Fahey's management, and her record company, London Records. Despite initial reluctance from both women (both of whom wished to retain their independence and avoid band commitments), Detroit was invited to become "a 50% member" towards the end of the recording sessions. She would later recall "by the time we did the last song on the first album, my role became more integral... I didn't just want to be a background singer... It was Siobhan's band, this was made perfectly clear. But I was cool with that – that's the way it was."


title: Shakespears Sister

text: The second Shakespears Sister single, "You're History", gave the project its breakthrough hit. The song displayed the effectiveness of the vocal pairing of Fahey and Detroit, setting the former's sly, murmuring contralto against the latter's R&B-influenced soprano and falsetto parts. It also features a solo from guitarist Stevie Salas. "You're History" reached the top 10 on the UK Singles Chart in the summer of 1989, as did the debut Shakespears Sister album, "Sacred Heart", which was certified Gold by the BPI. Two further singles were released from the album, "Run Silent" and "Dirty Mind", though both failed to peak within the Top 50 of the UK chart.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: In October 1991, Shakespears Sister released a new single, "Goodbye Cruel World", which peaked at No. 59. The next single, "Stay", marked Shakespears Sister's first and only No. 1. It remained at the top of the UK Singles Chart for eight full weeks, achieved similar success on international charts, and won "Best British Video" at the 1993 BRIT Awards. Notably the song foregrounded Detroit, who sang the majority of the lead vocals and featured prominently in the video. This allegedly led to tension with Fahey; Detroit later claimed that Fahey felt sidelined as the project's instigator and usual lead vocalist, didn't consider the song to be representative of the band, and had opposed its release as a single.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: "Hormonally Yours" was released the following month. The album sold well on the strength of "Stay", eventually being certified double platinum by the BPI. The duo continued to enjoy success with further singles from "Hormonally Yours": "I Don't Care" peaked at No. 7, "Hello (Turn Your Radio On)" at No. 14, and a re-release of "Goodbye Cruel World" at No. 32. During 1992, however, tensions between Fahey and Detroit became overt, with backstage infighting and arguments marring the band's tour. A fifth single, "My 16th Apology", was released in early 1993, reaching No. 61.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: Although Fahey and Detroit seemed at first to have resolved their differences, Fahey was struggling with personal issues. That led to the cancellation of what would have been the band's highest profile concert (at the Royal Albert Hall) and Fahey's temporary hospitalization for depression. The duo decided to put Shakespears Sister on hiatus, and Detroit began working on a solo album (something which had already been agreed and scheduled around band work). During this time Fahey decided to end her partnership with Detroit but chose not to discuss this with her directly. Instead, Detroit was publicly dismissed at the 1993 Ivor Novello Awards ceremony, at which "Hormonally Yours" won "Best Contemporary Collection of Songs" (and which Detroit attended, although Fahey did not). Fahey's acceptance speech, delivered by her publisher, contained a farewell to Detroit wishing her "all the best for the future, all's well that ends well."


title: Shakespears Sister

text: While unsurprised at the final dissolution of the partnership, Detroit was distressed by the way it ended and how it was announced. Many years later, she would comment "I was never in it to steal anyone's glory away; I just did my job. I was asked by everybody to become part of it and then everybody wanted me out... I learned a lot about what it means to be an artist... To put two people as different as we were together – well, we were bound to have differences personality-wise. In the video for 'Stay', I was singing to this guy who was dying and she (Siobhan) was the Angel of Death. We used our personality differences to our advantage, but it was a little too real!"


title: Shakespears Sister

text: Detroit and Fahey did not speak to or see each other for over 25 years before eventually meeting up and reconnecting again in 2018.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: Having now reverted to being a Siobhan Fahey solo project, Shakespears Sister remained inactive for three years while Fahey attended to issues in her personal life, including a divorce from Stewart (who remained one of the two producers of her new material). In June 1996, the project returned with a new single, "I Can Drive". This met with a lukewarm commercial reception - peaking at No. 30 on the UK charts - and was not released outside of the UK. The relative failure of "I Can Drive" prompted London Records to cancel the release of Shakespears Sister's completed third album, "#3". Continuing disagreements between London and Fahey resulted in her leaving the company with whom she had been signed for fifteen years since being with Bananarama. Fahey would later claim that Shakespears Sister was dropped not because of "I Can Drive"'s commercial performance, but due to London Records thinking that the album (which had a notably darker and rockier tone than its predecessors) was "too alternative for a woman of my age".


title: Shakespears Sister

text: Discouraged with the Shakespears Sister identity, Fahey would go on to release her next single, "Bitter Pill" under her own name in 2002. In 2004, "The Best of Shakespear's Sister" was released, compiling the group's hits and B-sides as well as including a number of tracks from the unreleased third album. In the same year, Fahey obtained the full rights to "#3" from London Records and made plans to release it independently.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: In 2004, "#3" was finally made available via Fahey's own website. Also in 2005, a second compilation album, "Long Live the Queens!", collected various Shakespears Sister rarities, remixes and unreleased tracks. 2005 also saw the release of a second Fahey solo single, "Pulsatron", which charted slightly better than its predecessor, reaching No. 95 - to date, Fahey's final chart appearance.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: "Bitter Pill" and "Pulsatron" were originally intended to appear on Fahey's post-Shakespears Sister solo album, "Bad Blood". Although the title track was released as Fahey's third solo single in 2005, the album release was cancelled. "Bad Blood" did not surface for another four years, until Fahey opted to relaunch the Shakespears Sister name in 2009. The album was retitled "Songs from the Red Room" and came out on Fahey's own label, SF Records. A fourth and final single from the record, "It's a Trip", followed in April 2010. Around the same time a deluxe version of the album was released with an extra CD of material.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: Shakespears Sister completed a ten date April 2010 UK Tour. The band also performed at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2010.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: In 2012, Shakespears Sister released two further compilation albums – "Cosmic Dancer", consisting of left-over and acoustic tracks, some of which had previously been sold digitally through the band's website; and a remix compilation. An expanded edition of "#3" was also issued, containing tracks that had only previously been available to purchase online.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: In May 2019, it was announced that Fahey and Detroit would reunite on stage later in the year. A UK tour, titled Shakespears Sister Ride Again, was announced during the same month, and was launched in Nottingham on 31 October 2019, before playing 13 other gigs across the UK during the following month. A new single, "All the Queen's Horses", was released on 15 May, with an accompanying music video. This was followed by the compilation album, "Singles Party", in July 2019.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: The duo performed "Stay" on "The Graham Norton Show" on 10 May 2019, their first TV performance together since 1993. They also announced that they were recording an EP of new material. The EP "Ride Again" was released on 25 October 2019, preceded by the single "When She Finds You" which was released 4 September 2019. The single is a collaboration with Richard Hawley, who also appears in the accompanying music video.


title: Shakespears Sister

text: In December 2021, Detroit confirmed there had been talk of more music from the duo, but she and Fahey have yet to resume writing together.


title: Murder of Lindsay Hawker

text: Lindsay Ann Hawker (30 December 198424 March 2007) was a 22-year-old British teacher who was killed in Japan in early 2007 by , a 28-year-old Japanese man from Chiba Prefecture. Ichihashi was seen fleeing his apartment, and police sought him for the murder of Hawker and the abandonment of her corpse.


title: Murder of Lindsay Hawker

text: Japanese news media and BBC News reported on 10 November 2009 that the police had apprehended Ichihashi. On 5 July 2011, Ichihashi confessed to killing Hawker, stating that he smothered her to prevent her from screaming while he raped her. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 21 July 2011.


title: Murder of Lindsay Hawker

text: Lindsay Hawker was born to Bill and Julia Hawker, who lived in Coventry, England. Hawker's family came from Brandon, Warwickshire, a village outside Coventry. She was schooled at King Henry VIII School, Coventry and studied biology at the University of Leeds, where she achieved a first-class honours degree, graduating in 2006. Although she planned to pursue a Master's degree, she taught English for a year in Japan starting in October 2006 at the Koiwa, Tokyo branch of Nova then Japan's largest private English conversation school. Hawker shared her accommodation with two other foreign female teachers. On the day she disappeared, her family became distressed because of her lack of contact; she had used e-mail, Skype, and telephone calls to maintain contact with her family.