No, not the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge held by Isaac Newton and more recently by Stephen Hawking, but another “Lucasian” chair. This one is at St. Helen’s, Bishopgate and cheekily named by me for its long time Rector, Dick Lucas.

St Helen’s, Bishopsgate is an Evangelical Anglican Church (Church of England) in the center of the financial district of the City of London. Dick Lucas was Rector of St Helen’s from 1961 to 1998. Under his leadership, in the providence of God, St. Helen’s grew from a tiny congregation of a few individuals to a large thriving church with a ministry to city workers, families, students and young professionals, and a reputation for serious expository preaching and bible teaching. In 1981 Lucas also founded The Proclamation Trust to encourage ministry that seeks above all to teach the Bible as God’s Word relevant for today through residential conferences and online resources for ministers and teachers.

St. Helen’s have now launched an excellent new monthly video series Preaching Matters, designed to equip, inspire and encourage all of us who teach God’s Word. It’s out on the first Monday of each month starting this Monday 1 October. Find it on their website or on their Vimeo channel.

I think the plan is to have different preachers passing through London taking part and the videos are of very good quality.

This month there is a very close up video introduction of the series by current Rector William Taylor who by the looks of it at 51 is using Oil of Olay, (only Alistair Begg looks younger). And the first discussion in the series is with student pastor Charlie Skrine in an empty St Helen’s building talking about Celebrity Preachers.