Exactly a year ago, a group from my former Diocese of Peterborough, committed to the task of reading the entire bible in a year. They completed the challenge this week! Aged between 15 and 88 and starting with different levels of knowledge and experience they shared their insights, (sometimes profound, sometimes shamelessly trivial and sometimes very funny!) and all found the experience personally transformational. Some realised how little they had previously understood and others suddenly made sense of what happens in a church and why. All were astounded by the love and mercy shown in the Old Testament as well as the new and all agreed that God’s Chosen people were repeatedly shockingly awful but repeatedly redeemed by God’s love so that we could all be saved.
I invite you to join me this year on a similar biblical pilgrimage and hope that you too will be inspired and blessed by the challenge.
Perhaps you have a fair knowledge of the New Testament but have always dodged the Old…
Perhaps you have sat through many church services but never really known what is going on …
Perhaps you have studied many biblical books in-depth but never looked at the over-arching narrative
Perhaps you only know the old Sunday School stories and want to know more…
Perhaps you are intrigued by writing that has inspired so much beauty, debate and extraordinary behaviour…
Perhaps you are not at all religious but fancy an intellectual challenge
Or perhaps you are feeling a nudge from God to find out more…
Whoever you are, whatever you do or don’t already know, a guided journey through the whole bible in the company of friends will change the way you see things. Over the next few days and weeks, I shall be sharing testimonials on the experience from members of the Peterborough group. I hope that their reflections will inspire you to join me in this pilgrimage.
It does not matter where you live in the Diocese as long as you have access to the internet. Each Sunday evening, I will post on a closed Facebook Group (or website) readings, videos and points to ponder for the coming week. I will also monitor a WhatsApp group so that readers can at any time chat, ask questions, discuss, moan about the awful bits and support each other through the challenge! No meetings, no masks and it can all be done at your own pace.
I’d love you to join me. To find out more email Dean Sarah: Dean@herefordcathedral.org