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Last Sunday was
Bible Sunday and at the 10.30am Service we welcomed the Ven.
John Ashe, the new Archdeacon of Lynn to re-dedicate the
Church Reredos which was damaged in the 2008 earth tremor.
This was an
important day as we thanked God for the skill of restorers
and for benefaction of the Victorians to this Church, it
also is happened to be Bible Sunday.
How is this all
related?
Firstly the
Reredos depicts the 4 evangelists and Peter and Paul all key
to the creation of the New Testament.
Secondly, the
Bible is important. Sadly our knowledge of the Bible as a
nation decreases with every year and if one compares the
knowledge of children in schools in the Victorian era to
those today, our generation is sadly lacking.
One can only
look back on Victorian names of children of Seth, Josiah,
Reuben, Zebulon, and of girls - Martha, Mary, and Rachel.
Some of these
names have kept going, but names were chosen because they
were in the Bible and these were the names that people knew.
My parents chose my eldest sister’s name much to her horror
throughout her life, and that was Drusilla. She is known as
Dru - my late father came from a Methodist family and he
knew his bible – the name appears in Acts of the Apostles.
She wife of Governor Felix and you can read all about her in
Acts 24. verse 24.
And so as the
Bible becomes less well known in this country and the Koran
increasingly known one wonders what we can do about it.
My answer, as I
have conclude my visit to 150 children in year 7 of Fakenham
High School, is to constantly teach and open up to the bible
to children.
We can do this
through our Pram Service and Bridges, Communion Services,
Schools visits and Assemblies but also with those preparing
for baptism and confirmation, and also those preparing for
marriage. Even funerals can be an opportunity to open up the
scriptures to people who do not know the stories.
The Bible
Society and other organisation helps with this great task of
bringing Jesus Christ to our generation. Don’t let’s leave
the Christian message up to a few fringe churches, let us at
the heart of central Christianity be enthused by the Bible,
and let others know this by the way we live our lives but
also our knowledge of the Bible.
Take a section
of the Bible a day – take time to read and to think about
what you have read and how it relates to your life. We as
clergy have to do this, but if I did not I could not
possible carry on my ministry. We feed on God’s word.
Adrian Bell
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