January 2011

Dear Friends,

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety". So one of Shakespeare's characters describes the Queen of Egypt in "Antony and Cleopatra". You could say the same thing about the Authorised Version of the Bible.  First published in 1611 at the original instigation of King James 1st, it was a revision of earlier English bibles and remained the "authorised" version in the Church of England for hundreds of years. 

This year sees its 400th anniversary, and of course it is still going strong despite the wide range of more modern translations now available. But "infinite variety" belongs not just to this version but to the Bible as a whole, whatever version you choose to read it in. The Church of England, whose particular glory I suppose the AV is, has designated this year 2011 as Bible Year, when we want to encourage people to discover the Bible again or even perhaps really for the first time.

Here at Holy Trinity we shall be inviting people this year to have a go at doing two things in particular.

First, we invite you to try the E100 Bible Reading Challenge. This is a new way to get a picture of what is in the whole Bible in a manageable and convenient way. The Challenge picks out one hundred carefully selected short Bible passages, 50 from the Old Testament and 50 from the New.; "essential" bits, hence the "E" of the title. There is a leaflet available which gives you the details of the Bible passages and a handy chart so you can track your progress through the journey. Each passage takes about ten minutes to read, so they are easy to build in to a regular pattern. You choose what version of the Bible you want to use; it might even be that King James version from 400 years ago! You will end up with an overview of the whole Bible story in an easily managed way.

Second, we invite you to join our Bible Year Reading Group.  This will operate like other Reading Groups, where they choose a particular book each month and then meet to discuss what they thought about it. But instead of taking the latest best seller we shall be taking the best-selling books of all time, and those are the ones contained in the Bible. Each month we invite you to read one of those books.  It won't take as long as you might think! We shall be giving some of the books a miss but including enough of them once again to give people an overview of the whole story.

You might like to consider doing one or even both of these two things.

The E100 Bible Challenge leaflets will be available in church shortly. The first of our Bible Year Reading Group sessions will be on Sunday 30th January at 4pm at the Rectory, starting with tea and ending at 6pm.  Details again available in church shortly or by contacting myself.

Finally, we shall be holding a special Sunday during 2011 when we shall be celebrating the 400th anniversary of that Authorised Version of the Bible.  We hope there will be special items reflecting the anniversary but of course readings from the AV itself.

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety".  The Bible is unique in the way it is able to speak directly to peoples' situation today, even though it is one of the oldest books we have.  Bible Year wants to invite people to rediscover, or maybe discover for the first time, how true that is. People just don't have the chance nowadays to come across it the way they used to. That quotation from Shakespeare: his plays are full of references and hints of the language of the Bible because people heard it read week after week. That doesn't happen nowadays. So you get some amazingly knowledgeable students on "University Challenge" but they are usually stumped by any questions to do with the Bible. 

And, of course, we are all much busier than we used to be. But if you would like to refresh your memory a bit, or just take a closer look for the first time, try one of our Bible Year events. I hope you will find them stimulating and enjoyable as well as confronting us once again with the picture the Bible gives of God's faithfulness.

Bible Year 2011 might also suggest what to do with that Christmas book token......

With every good wish for a Happy and Peaceful New Year,

Michael Ballard.