St George’s RC Church, York, was the venue for the launch of the reading of 1 and 2 Corinthians, and a chance to revisit the adventures in the Acts of the Apostles. Parish singers taught us a setting of ‘Love is …’ 1 Cor 13. Readers from the parish read the horrified reaction by the Jerusalem Christians when Saul of Tarsus, their persecutor, tried to join them. Two young members of English Martyrs parish recounted being imprisoned with a Roman citizen the night an earthquake opened the gates. Telling of the shipwreck on Malta, a reader asked ‘Should my middle name be Odysseus?’ Mary Callan voiced Paul’s secretary’s advice to stop bothering with Corinth, ‘that hole of sin,’ and try Athens again. Pamphlets were on sale, and some were bought for a local prison.

There will be no launch events during the summer, but READ-A-BOOK-A-MONTH continues, with JOSHUA as the book for July.

from THE BOOK OF JOSHUA, ch 3,
~~CROSSING THE JORDAN~~

Priests! It’s no job for wimps:
The priests, and the Levites as well,
Get no chance to hide from the action:
Whatever’s going on, we’re out on the front line.
We were the ones who had to step out into the water.
No-one else even got their robes wet.
We had to paddle forward, right to the middle.
The river didn’t dry up till we had taken up guard.
Then we just had to stand there – Boring!
While people went streaming past,
Keeping a holy distance between themselves and the Sacred Box.
All day, standing in the bed of a drying river, While the people streamed past.