We couldn’t get anyone to provide the blog for July, so instead we’re providing some ideas for some interesting summer outings with a Christian heritage theme.

July and August are a good time to explore the fascinating Christian heritage of Milton Keynes.

OK, you might think it strange to mention “Christian” and “heritage” in the same breath as “Milton Keynes” – but over the centuries the countryside around here has been home to some amazing Christians whose example is a brilliant inspiration to us today.

Each has left their mark on the local landscape. Tracking down their stories and the places associated with them can make a fascinating summer leisure pursuit for people of all ages.

You might start off with St Giles church, Tattenhoe, a little haven of peace and quiet tucked away in Tattenhoe wood and a great place to take a gentle summer evening stroll. The building dates only from the 16th century but Christians have worshipped on this site since before 1100 AD – a reminder that people were praying and worshipping God here centuries before the city was planned.

For a longer outing (or even two) you could go on the trail of John Bunyan. He was the 17th century preacher and author of the most published book in the English Language apart from the Bible – Pilgrim’s Progress. As a young man John was one of Oliver Cromwell’s roundhead soldiers and was stationed at a garrison in Newport Pagnell where he attended the parish church.  He was born in Elstow, a village just to the south of Bedford, where the Moot Hall on the village green is worth visiting for a taste of 17th century life.

In those days it was illegal to preach without a licence from the bishop. John was one of a large number of Christians who wanted liberty to follow their conscience and to worship in a free style. They held illegal services many of them in the open air. John Bunyan was arrested while preaching at a meeting in a farmhouse between Harlington and Sharpenhoe (north of Luton) and was put in prison in Bedford. You can see a commemorative plaque in the middle of the shopping centre in Bedford that shows the spot where the prison used to be. Bedford is worth a visit anyway for its pleasant riverside walk but you can also see the spot where John Bunyan was baptised (see photograph, right) and there is a fascinating Bunyan museum attached to the Bunyan Meeting church where he was eventually the pastor.  When you’ve read Pilgrim’s Progress (you can get a modern translation to make it easier) you are then ready to try to identify features of the Bedfordshire landscape that John Bunyan is supposed to have woven into his masterpiece – was the ruined house at Houghton Conquest really the Interpreter’s House? Where was the Hill Difficulty? Was Ampthill or Shefford the inspiration for Vanity Fayre? and so on.

In the 18th century Bedford was also the home of John Howard, a Christian who became obsessed with campaigning for less inhumane treatment of prisoners in gaols not only in Britain but throughout the world. His campaign led him to the Ukraine where he died and was buried. The inscription on his tomb says, “Whoever you are, this man was your friend.” There’s an imposing statue of him in the middle of Bedford.

You probably haven’t heard of Benjamin Keach. He was the pastor of two local Baptist churches, one in Winslow and the other in Stony Stratford. He was put in the stocks on separate days in Aylesbury and Wnslow as punishment for publishing a book of Christian instruction for children that contradicted the teaching of the Church of England. Roughly contemporary with John Bunyan, Benjamin Keach later moved to London where he championed the introduction of hymn singing in churches – against fierce opposition.  The old Baptist Meeting House in the centre of Winslow where he preached is preserved in its original state and is a gem worth a visit with its stone flags and oak benches. If you visit Stony Stratford Community Church (on the site of Benjamin Keach's other chapel), you’ll find hung in the church porch a window from the original chapel, through which the congregation used to escape when their meetings were broken up by soldiers (Buckinghamshire raised a special militia to stamp out illegal groups of Free Church Christians).

You probably have heard of John Newton, the converted slave trader who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace” and you may also have heard of his friend William Cowper a famous poet and hymn writer who had a lifelong battle with depression (Cowper wrote “The Ballad of John Gilpin” as well as hymns like “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds”). Newton and Cowper lived in Olney during the 18th century. Olney is lovely old town, well worth a visit (maybe combined with a picnic at Emberton Park). The Cowper and Newton Museum in the centre of Olney brings their story to life.

One of Cowper and Newton’s friends was the minister of Olney Baptist Church, John Sutcliffe. In 1784 he was one of the instigators of a call to prayer issued to the Baptist Churches in the area. This call to prayer inspired a young man called William Carey who started off the amazing missionary expansion of the church that took place in the 19th century. Carey was born in Paulerspury (off the A5 on he way to Towcester). He was a bit of a Jack of all trades – a shoe repairer and an enthusiastic gardener and botanist. He lived for a while in Hackleton (between Newport Pagnell and Northampton) where he began to attend the Baptist chapel and met his wife. He then became a preacher and was invited to lead the Baptist congregation in Moulton (North of Northampton, off the A43  Kettering Road). As well as running the chapel (see picture) he started a village school and carried on his shoe repairing trade. Challenged and inspired by Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations he was one of a group of ministers who started “The Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen”, now known as BMS World Mission. He became their first missionary, sailed off to India with his wife and ten children and worked there for the rest of his life, setting up a college for training pastors that still exists. He campaigned to ban the practice of suti (widows being cremated alive on their husband's fiuneral pyre) and translated the Bible into several Indian languages. You can contact Moulton Baptist church and arrange to see the cottage where he lived and ran his school.

Northampton was also the home of another famous hymn writer, Philip Doddridge who was a minister there and ran a college for training ministers. He wrote “Hark the Glad Sound the Saviour comes” and ‘Love divine all loves excelling”.

One of the best selling Christian books in the 1980s was Chasing the Dragon. It told the exciting story of how, empowered by the Holy Spirit, an ordinary young English woman called Jackie Pullinger went to Hong Kong and began a miraculous work among drug addicts. Jackie Pullinger came from Deanshanger (off the A422 on the way to Buckingham). There’s nothing much to see in Deanshanger but there’s some lovely countryside round about.

When you’ve completed all these outings, come back to the centre of Milton Keynes, have a nice cup of tea or coffee in the café at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, and then slip into the sanctuary and thank God for all the inspiring people that have lived in this area and ask God to make your life count the way that their’s did.