prayer cards are always available at the back of our Church
....here are some useful Bible passages for those who serve others:

Afraid    -    Psalm 56, Matthew 10 vv26-31, Hebrews 13 vv5-6

Conscious of failure    -  Hebrews 4 vv14-16

Disappointed    -  Romans 8 v28, Philippians 4 verse19

Far from God - Ps 139 vv1-8, Luke 15 vv11-24, Acts 17 vv22-30

Lonely  -  Psalm 25 vv16-18, Psalm 27, John 14 vv15-21

Worn out  -  Matthew 11 vv28-30, 2 Corinthians 4 vv16-18

Bereaved  -  1 Thessalonians 4 vv13-18

Depressed -  Psalm 34, Psalm 42, Romans 8 v28.

Let down by friends -  Matthew 28 v20, 2 Timothy 4 vv16-18

Worried and anxious - Ps 46, Matthew 6 vv25-34, 1 Peter 5 v7

Need courage - Acts 4 vv13-31, Ephesians 6 vv10-18

Need forgiveness  - Psalm 32 vv1-7, Psalm 51, 1 John 1v9

Peace  -  Psalm 34  v14, John14 v27, John 16 v33

Strength - Nehemiah 8 v10, Psalm 27 v1, Romans 5 v6

To know God accepts you - John 3 v16, 1 John 5 v12

Want to talk to God? -  Luke 11 vv1-13 

O Lord, you have called all your people into your service.
Bless, we pray, those who serve one another in Your name.

Give us such a confidence in your will and purpose for us;
that, strengthened by your power,
we may be enabled to do your will,
in meeting the needs of those committed to our care,
for Jesus Christ sake, amen.

 The King James Bible of 1611 – The Authorised Version to be read in churches.
Wonderful to see so much media coverage of the 400th Anniversary of The King James Bible in the media, an anniversary as much about the Bible itself and language as about the translation, an opportunity to look at the impact of Scripture on our history and culture.   What follows is a simple outline of the history and significance of the KJV, which I hope will encourage YOU to delve further for yourself.
Chairing a meeting over which version of the Bible should be read in Church, a vicar was challenged with “if the authorised version was good enough for Jesus to teach his disciples, it is good enough for our parish, I’m not having any of that modern nonsense.”   ‘Bible’ comes from the Greek ‘biblia’ or books, our Bible containing 66 sacred scripture ‘books’ of Judaism and Christianity.  Putting Holy Scripture into English could be a dangerous occupation, 16thC translator William Tyndale was executed simply for wanting the Bible to be in a language “that every plough boy can understand” in an age when it was only available to the powerful and educated and in Latin, to be served up in suitable extracts to people as authority saw fit. After Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church and established the Church of England, he authorised his ‘Great Bible’ with a woodcut of himself inside, surrounded by folk chanting “God Save The King!”  The 1583 Bishop's Bible followed under Elizabeth I.   English-speaking exiles opposed to Mary’s moves to reconcile with Rome produced the Geneva Bible, which was both anti-monarchist and anti-clerical.
Shortly after passing into England through Berwick in 1604 and ordering our new Bridge, James I of England and VIth of Scotland chaired a meeting at Hampton Court palace, to heal difficulties between a new sect called Puritans and the Church of England hierarchy. Puritan leader John Reynolds spoke bravely and directly to James and asked for a new translation of the Bible, calling previous Bibles "corrupt and not answerable to the truth of the original."
James was delighted, he didn't like the Geneva Bible and as a student of Greek and Latin with a deeply enquiring mind on almost any subject, felt that earlier versions lacked scholarship.   It took seven years to create the KJV and while the title page reads "newly translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised," it drew on Tyndale's 16thC translations and his "thee" and "thou" used, even though no longer in everyday use, the Tyndale executed for wanting The Word of God available in a language that “every plough boy can understand.”
Over 40 scholars gathered, one being Dr. Miles Smith known as “a walking library” a Latin and Greek scholar and as fluent in Arabic, Chaldee and Syriac as he was in English.    He was chosen by the other translators to write the Preface to the Bible and of his fellow translators wrote: “There were many chosen who were greater in other men’s eyes than their own, and who sought the truth rather than their own praise.” Miles Smith served as the final editor on the King James translation, reading the entire text of the Bible in The Stationers Hall, near St Paul’s Cathedral, before it went to press in 1611.  Authorised to be read in Churches, naturally it was read aloud, taking almost a year to be delivered and corrected by men of faith fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, able to communicate ancient texts accurately into English.
Another translator was Reynolds, initiator of the great task.    At 23 he became Greek lecturer at Corpus Christi College and was spoken of as “a third university” Oxford, Cambridge, and John Reynolds!   One colleague writing “As to virtue, integrity, piety, and sanctity of life, he was so eminent and conspicuous, that to name Reynolds is to commend virtue itself. He alone was a well-furnished library, full of all faculties, all studies, and all learning. The memory and reading of that man were near to a miracle.  He was most excellent in all tongues useful or ornamental to a divine. He was so well skilled in all arts and sciences, as if he had spent his whole life in each of them.”    Little wonder that their work has survived 400years.
Here is one example of their process... take Henry’s Great Bible, translated from Latin text.   “He is despised and abhorred of men, he is such a man as is full of sorrow and hath good experience of infirmities.”  Then the Geneva Bible “He is despised and rejected of men: he is a man full of sorrows and hath experience of infirmities.”   Now consider the KJV, with its much greater rhythm.  “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”     What would Handel have done without The King James Authorised Version?
 
Sheet two – KJV 400th Anniversary.......
It is said that two of the most important influences on the English language have been the KJV and the plays of William Shakespeare, works which have standardised and made our language what it is today.   Some even detect the hand of Shakespeare in the text of the KJB.   Over 1 billion copies have been printed since the first volume in 1611, of which Miles Smith said that it “taketh the cover off the well that all may drink.”   Quotations are found in Abraham Lincoln’s speeches “a house divided against itself will fall” Matthew Ch12 v25 and the lyrics of Paul Simon “workman's wages" in his song "The Boxer" from I Timothy.
Even atheist Richard Dawkins praises it "You can't appreciate English literature unless you are to some extent steeped in the King James Bible. There are phrases that come from it — people don't realize they come from it — proverbial phrases, phrases that make echoes in people's minds, not to know the King James Bible is to be, in some small way, barbarian," Indeed, many of its phrases have entered everyday use, among them: "my brother's keeper," "salt of the earth," "give up the ghost," "scapegoats," "an eye for an eye," "casting your pearls before swine," "scarlet woman," "writing on the wall" and "the blind leading the blind."  
The King James Bible is still relevant in the age of Twitter and Facebook.   The Archbishop of Canterbury, in his Christmas address, said of government plans for ‘the big society’ that we would do well to revisit the history and content of the King James Bible, which James authorised in order to unify all of Christendom.   Which version of the Bible were you raised on?   It may have been the KJB or the Revised Standard Version (RSV) or The New English.  By the mid 19thC ancient manuscripts, unavailable to James’ team of scholars, were being discovered.   Using these sources, a revision was undertaken in 1881, repeated in 1905 as more texts were found and again in 1952,  my copy presented by parents at my Ordination in 1974.
In May 1946, an initiative by some Scottish Presbyterian Ministers, concered by thye gulf between 17thC language and that of the 20th, led The General Assembly of The Church of Scotland to consult with other churches.   Archbishop Donald Coggan eventually chaired a committee which oversaw what became ‘The New English Bible.’   Many more translations have followed, some of which clearly lack KJB poetic rhythm.   One American version tried to sanitise 1 Samuel 24 by translating “Saul relieved himself in the cave” as “'Saul went to the bathroom” thereby earning the nickname 'the bathroom bible'.   Or ‘The Message Bible’ rendering "Give us this day our daily bread" as "Keep us alive with three square meals."
I have a copy printed in 1633.   These early editions are known as Barker Bibles, being printed by Robert Barker, who began working with his father's printing company in 1589 and inherited the printing house in 1599.  Most of Robert's printing work was of an official nature, including prayer books, scriptures and law books.  Barker not only printed but funded the entire first edition of the King James Bible, not the King or Parliament or Church, bringing Barker fame but little profit. His remaining days were spent in controversy with The King and Archbishop of Canterbury, being fined £300, the equivalent of £33,800 today, for his (un?)intentional errors in what became known as The Wicked Bible, all of which were confiscated and burnt save eight, what value is placed upon them today I know not. and he died in prison in 1645.
Original copies of the KJB contain encouraging comments from the translators to readers, here is a brief extract.”Gentle Reader, we commend thee to God, and to the Spirit of His grace. He removeth the scales from our eyes, the veil from our hearts, opening our wits that we may understand His Word, enlarging our hearts, yea correcting our affections, that we may love it above gold and silver, yea that we may love it to the end. Ye are brought unto fountains of living water which ye digged not. Others have laboured, and you may enter into their labours; O receive not so great things in vain, O despise not so great salvation! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; but a blessed thing it is, and will bring us to everlasting blessedness in the end, when God speaketh unto us, to hearken; when He setteth His Word before us, to read it; when He stretcheth out His hand and calleth, to answer, Here am I, here we are to do thy will O God.”
Alan Hughes
January 2011

a thought for these times......

As we struggle to comprehend how the three Monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism can possibly be at each others throats, with so much common faith-ground consider this:

Palaeolithic man was a 'hunter gatherer' emerging around 60,000 BC - the first to leave us evidence of burials, symbolic of a 'natural' religious instinct? From around 10,000BC evidence of agri/village life - settled communities engaged in agriculture, leaving us evidence of ritual burials and the marking of seasons with rituals a thinking about the earth and existence which appears to have been shared by whole communities both in thought and deed - no evidence of 'Priests' . The development of cities, in unconnected places yet almost in parallel, alongside the Tigris, Euphrates, Nile, Indus valleys and in China' brought 'culture'. Things held in heads, 'oral traditions', were written down for the first time, including religious beliefs and rituals; enabling the preserving and communicating of 'scripture'. Also a more commercial production of food and crafts made trading income available to employ' non-manual functionaries such as priests to work on 'scriptures' and conduct ritual.

The so called 'AXIAL' period around 6BC saw a most amazing series of spiritual developments in many continents. In Greece the lonian Philosophers seeking gifts of reason. In the Middle East the Hebrew Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Ezekiel considering good and evil, the problem of conflict. In India, Buddha and the Upanishads seeking to interpret Hindu 'scriptures'. In China, Confucius and the Taoists. In Europe a mixture of interest in the Middle Eastern Prophets and Greek Philosophers. The Christ event appealed to Europe, many saw Jesus Christ both as the of the Hebrew prophecies and also one who helped 'spiritualise¡¯ Greek; philosophy. The tensions, which are still around, arose when Europeans saw the Jews and anyone else as 'heretical' so the West became the focus for 'Christendom'. Islam came in the 7thC AD with Mohammed and the 'four Early Caliphs' and until around 1500 AD the four major religions of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism existed as separate entities yet in parallel in distinctive geographical areas.

Until then Europe was effectively cut off from the rest of the world, from the economic, architectural and spiritual developments and insights of the other religious cultures. Sea power and the navigator/explorers broke Europe out of its isolation, 'visiting' North America, South America, Asia and Africa. They didn't 'discover' these places and cultures but rather 'uncovered' them. Europe sent its Christian faith, science, technology around the worldthroughout the 17th to 20th centuries. The perceived view of 'the west' is that our religious and national interests are separate whereas Islam holds its religion and national life in tension.

A recent survey lists 7000 religious movements throughout the world. ln 1900 17% of Christians lived in Europe, by 2000 64% of all Christians now live outside of Europe. In the 1960's West Indians arrived in Britain and were integrated, many found it hard to be welcomed into Christian congregations. Things have moved on apace, with an estimated 50 million people refugees, displaced from their own countries, many cultures and faiths now settling in Britain. The world has a wealth of mineral and human resources, it also has a wealth of 'transcendental' resources, globalisation now challenges us to seek a better understanding of one another and a more just sharing of our resources. Pray hard as we think though these present changing and challenging times and build on our common ground for God's sake, we start with our neighbour next door (literally!) and go from there.   alan hughes

How do you see things?  - what do you make of this image - do you see an old woman or a young woman?