I confess that I have often struggled with the way Mary the mother of Jesus was portrayed by the church.

That ethereal/ “holy”/standing to one side with a radiant smile – insipid imagery of a white, often blue eyed, westernised Madonna with only her hair colour as a nod to her true ethnicity – often deified into an unattainable ideal by Catholicism, and sidelined into an image of subservience by the reformation – could we be hiding the true strength and influence of “the handmaid of the Lord” in Jesus life and ministry?

LI podcast – available now on UCB player - “the Virgin Mary..." disciple and prophet, as well as a mum