The current edition made reference to the fact that 'the importance of biblical literacy among children and their parents has been raised in parliament'. However I can't work out if I was either saddened or amused that the MP raising this question, rather than take on board any responsibility for this theme himself, simply asked what the Church of England is doing about it! Strikes me it's always somebody else's problem!
Well in our own church we are trying to promote that sense of biblical literacy amongst our own children. The new Junior Church Roundabout programme looks at one bible story a month and explores it on consecutive weeks using four different types of activity. We are also supporting a new initiative called 'Open the Book' as we pray for the ecumenical team (including a number from our own church family) which has started taking weekly assemblies at one of our local schools - assemblies that have at their centre the retelling of a bible story.
And we don't just leave the idea of biblical literacy with children. This 'term' one of our 'Life and Faith' groups has deliberately set itself the task of asking what place the Old Testament has in our on-going Christian spirituality and theology. So some good stuff is happening!
I grew up in a church where scripture was genuinely cherished and taught with enthusiasm - for which I am still so grateful. Yet it strikes me as significant that in Sunday School every year at 'Prize Giving' we received books about the life of missionaries - I still have them on my shelf! Narratives about Mary Slessor, George Grenfell, David Livingstone and William Carey.
Now, years after my Sunday School days, I realise that this 'blending' of God's story and our story is vitally necessary. Indeed every preacher knows the value of illustration and application in any sermon.
Both the Baptist and URC traditions (the 'parent' denominations of AFC) belong to the 'Reformed' wing of the Church in which we often emphasise the idea of Sola Scriptora - the essential place of the bible in our life together. Well - I want to say both a qualified 'yes' and 'no' to that.
The gift of scripture to us has also to be blended with our life experience - the one informs the other - and both, I would suggest (I hope not too heretically) are impoverished without the other.
Actually I'm much more likely to agree with the first minister of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church (from where our visiting preacher comes this weekend) - The Revd William Brock who said 'the bible and the Times newspaper are the best materials for the preacher'.
With best wishes,
Ian
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