If you have visited the Abbey recently you will have seen the new statues in the nave sanctuary. They are all martyrs, and four of them are local.

They are Alban himself; Amphibalus, the priest he rescued, but who was later martyred at Redbourn; George Tankerfield, a Protestant who was burned on Romeland in 1555; and Alban Roe, a Catholic priest who was imprisoned in the Abbey gatehouse before being hung, drawn and quartered in 1642.

The other three represent our ecumenical congregations: Elisabeth Romanova, a member of the Russian Royal family who gave up her royal status to become a nun, but was nevertheless shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918; Dietrich Bohoeffer, the Lutheran pastor imprisoned in a concentration camp for opposing Hitler and shot in 1945; and Oscar Romero, the Bishop of San Salvador, a great defender of the poor shot by the fascist regime in 1980. They remind us that Christian martyrdom is not a thing of the past. Now perhaps more than ever Christians are under threat of persecution in many parts of the world – the Middle East, Pakistan, Nigeria, China and elsewhere.

The word martyr means witness. ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church’ said early Christian theologian Tertullian, because when faith stands up to oppression, it often changes hearts. Jesus said, ‘If you deny me, I will deny you before the Father in heaven. If you stand up for me, I will stand up for you’.

So ask yourself: how much am I prepared to pay to stand up for what I believe?