Thursday, March 5, 2026

It is the 5th of March 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Regular listeners to this show know that I have an affinity for sports, as well as church history. And so, we’ve done shows on sports and christianity and I regularly get mailbag questions about the “best” athletes or ecclesiastical figures who also dipped their toes in the “other world”. Here’s the rub- oftentimes the player was good, the preacher not as much, or vice versa. Billy Sunday was a famous evangelist; the Cubs learned he wasn’t much of a hitter. Reggie White was a great Defensive lineman, his evangelistic career had troubles of its own.

 

So, maybe, today, we have a man who can claim fame in both worlds- we just have to go to England and a funny sport with tea breaks to find them.

 

He was David Sheppard, a man with a strange Venn diagram that delighted Anglicans and fans of Cricket. As a cricketer, he twice captained the English national team. This is a very big deal. He amassed over 1000 runs at an average of about 37. He had over 45 centuries- stay with me here because I did far too much unnecessary research on this. Statistically and in playing and leadership style, he is either a comp to Phil Rizzuto, the shortstop of the DiMaggio and Berra Yankees of the 50’s, or 2002 David Eckstein.

 

David Shepherd was born in 1929 in Surrey, England, and baptized in the Anglican Church. When his father died 8 years later, the family moved to Sussex. In his teens, he began to be noticed for his cricket skills- according to contemporaries, he wasn’t overly athletic or muscular, but through hard work made his way onto the prestigious team at Cambridge in 1949, where he studied History [the chosen major of many of us, both undecided but curious].

 

It was there with the Christian Union that he recounted a born-again experience and decided that he would spend his life in service to the poor over fleeting, but enticing Cricket glory.

 

While he was at Cambridge and training for the ministry, he continued to play Cricket as he could, amassing those impressive statistics and accolades. But in 1959, he was called to Canning Town, an almost Dickensian-like slum in East London, where his ministry would begin. He would write the book “Built as a City,” a seminal work in the emerging field of inter-city ministry and missions. His ministry to the poor and his increasingly prevalent voice on behalf of the poor in the national church earned him the Bishopric of… Liverpool. The late industrial city in crisis was awash with unemployment, civil unrest, and urban decay- a picture of the worst of these crisis years in England.

 

His work is steeped in the economic crises of his age, but also in the headiness of the post-war years and its theological optimism, which saw the rise of ecumenism. As Bishop of Liverpool, he held regular meetings with the Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, Archbishop Worlock. They would worship together on Good Fridays and co-authored two books together on their relationship and work in the city. In the 1980s, the two helped create a remarkable institution based on the consolidation of a few colleges- they helped create Hope Liverpool University, a remarkable feat in the history of English and American Christian colleges, as it is both Catholic and Anglican.

 

He also took an interest in the Apartheid in South Africa and petitioned successfully to help the English Cricket team boycott a planned series in South Africa. His name was on the shortlist to become Archbishop of Canterbury, but was likely seen as a tad too radical. He would be a key figure in the aftermath of the famous Hillsborough disaster of 1989 (shout out to the amazing 30 for 30 ESPN doc called Hillsborough).

 

He retired in 1997 and was created a life Peer Baron Sheppard of Liverpool and entered the House of Lords. He served as president of the Sussex Cricket Club and died, one day short of his 76th birthday, on the 5th of March 2005. The book to get is 2019’s authorized biography with interviews and a load of personal letters- it is Andrew Bradstock’s David Sheppard Batting for the Poor.

 

 

 

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and I’m told we’re not to have favorites- but this is up there for me from Colossians 1:

5 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 5th of March 2026, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who swears “shepherd” and “warlock” are a little on the nose for two guys in robes… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who told the Angels are playing again… guys, it’s really bad… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.