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Best of the Spectator

Holy Smoke: the Twelve Churches that made Christianity

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4785 Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What links the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and St Peter's in Rome with the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and Canaanland in Ota, Nigeria? These are just some of the churches that Anglican priest and writer the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie highlights in his new book Twelve Churches: An Unlikely History of the Buildings that made Christianity. The Anglican priest and writer joins Damian Thompson on Holy Smoke to explain how each Church not only tells a story but also raises a surprising dilemma for modern believers.


Fergus aims to tell the history of the Churches 'warts and all' and argues that, from Turkey to Britain, today’s Christians must be prepared to defend their religious spaces. Also, why is the Church of England one of the worst offenders when it comes to preserving its heritage?


Produced by Patrick Gibbons.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:36.7

Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast.

0:40.6

I'm Damien Thompson.

0:46.2

My guest today is the Reverend Fergus Butler Gary,

0:51.3

Anglican priest, writer and author of an engrossing new book called 12 churches,

0:59.9

an unlikely history of the buildings that made Christianity.

1:05.0

Now, Fergus, you'll be familiar to many spectator readers for the pieces who's written for us.

1:10.7

You've also just married our

1:12.6

brilliant Madeleine Grant. Many congratulations to both of you for that. Unlakely is right. It's a good

1:19.7

choice of words. That's what made the book so interesting. Let me start by quickly reading out

1:26.8

the list of the 12 churches that you've chosen, because it's

1:32.1

quite an assortment and a very clever one. The church from the nativity in Bethlehem,

1:37.6

St. Peter's in Rome, Iosophia in Istanbul, formerly Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, Canterbury Cathedral, Mount Athos,

1:48.9

Bette Golgotha in Lallabella, Ethiopia, the Templar de Las Americas in the Dominican Republic,

1:56.3

Kirishitan Hokura in Kasuga, Japan, the site of the first meeting house in Salem, Massachusetts,

2:04.1

Christ Church, Zanzibar, Tanzania, 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, and Canaan

2:11.6

Land in Ota, Nigeria. Each church tells a story, as you'd expect. But what I like about the book is that

...

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