{"id":1319,"date":"2011-11-01T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T00:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1319"},"modified":"2022-04-07T19:32:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T11:32:20","slug":"43-iconium-and-the-priestless-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=1319","title":{"rendered":"43. Iconium and the Priestless Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reflections on a Pilgrimage to Turkey [10]<\/span><\/p>\n

“Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue, and so spoke that a great company believed, both of Jews and of Greeks<\/strong>.” [Acts 14:1]<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[1] St Paul icon. [2]\u00a0St Thecla, the First Female Evangelist, a contemporary of St Paul, and the First Virgin Martyr. [3]\u00a0<\/a>Grotto of St Paul with the wall paintings of Paul and Thecla, 6th century.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Our visit to Iconium was interesting but sad.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iconium [Konya in Turkish] is a city in the Central Anatolia Region<\/a> of Turkey<\/a>. With a population of just over a million people within its metropolitan area, Konya <\/a>is the seventh most populous city in Turkey.<\/a> And yet, it is a city without a Christian community.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christian History<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It was sad, considering the original missionary effort of Paul and Barnabas<\/a> who preached in Iconium during the First Missionary Journey in about 47-48 AD (see Acts 14:1-5<\/a> and Acts 14:21<\/a>). Paul and Silas<\/a> probably visited it again during the Second Missionary Journey in about 50 AD (see Acts 16:2<\/a>). In Christian legend, it was also the birthplace of Saint Thecla<\/a>, a very interesting figure to study in conjunction with women\u2019s ministry during the time of St Paul. During the Byzantine Empire<\/a>, Arab<\/a> invaders had repeatedly destroyed the town between the 7th<\/a> and 9th<\/a> centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Saint Thecla of Iconium<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Thecla was a saint<\/a> of the early Christian<\/a> Church, and a follower of Saint Paul<\/a>. She is not mentioned in the New Testament<\/a>, but the earliest record of her comes from the apocryphal<\/a> Acts of Paul and Thecla<\/a><\/em>, a document of the 2nd century.<\/span><\/p>\n

Out of the living tradition of the early church to the present, the following records have captured our interest:<\/span><\/p>\n