King James Bible - 400 Years

This year is the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Translation of the Bible from the Hebrew language, to Greek, and then to English has a very interesting history. For many years it was illegal to translate the Bible from the Latin, an offence punishable by death.

Today, of course, the Bible is available to us in a variety of English versions and we forget the struggle and sacrifice it took to bring us the King James Version.

Here's the King James Version time line:

1380 The first hand-written English manuscript of the Bible is produced by John Wycliffe. He translated it from the Latin. There was such opposition to Wycliffe's work within the church that his remains were exhumed, burned and scattered in the river.

1407 The English Parliament passes a law prohibiting English Bibles.

1440 Around this date Johannes Gutenburg invented the printing press and by 1500 presses were in operation throughout Western Europe.

1525 William Tyndale, an English scholar and translator who became a leading figure in Protestant reformism completes his translation of the New Testament.

1529 Martin Luther publishes his German translation of the New Testament.

1535 Myles Coverdale completes Tyndale's translation and publishes the so-called Coverdale Bible, the first complete English Bible in print.

1536 Tyndale, after a year in prison, is tried for heresy, choked and impaled on a stake. His last words were, "God, open the King of England's eyes."

1537 King Henry VIII gives permission for English Bibles to be bought and sold in England.

1539 Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Cantebury, and a leader in the English Reformation, produces the Great Bible, which is distributed to every church, chained to the pulpit, and readers are provided for the illiterate.

1543 The English Parliament passes a law forbidding any English translation other than the Great Bible of Cranmer.

1555 Cranmer is burned at the stake.

1568 The Bishop's Bible is produced, a revision of the Great Bible, inder the order of Elizabeth I.

1575-1576 The Geneva Bible is printed in England, the work of English refugees from 'Mary Queen of Scots' persecutions who had fled to Geneva. This is the so-called 'breeches Bible" because they said God sewed fig leaf breeches for Adam and Eve. Verses were added for the first time, and this is the first translation based solely on the original Greek and Hebrew texts.

1603 Elizabeth I dies, James VI of Scotland becomes King James I of England.

1611 The King James Version of the Bible is printed. 54 scholars, working in teams checking each others' work, used all widely accepted English translations as well as all available original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts. They printed the Apocrypha as a separate section. The stated goal is "not to make a bad version good, but to make a good one better."

2011 All Whitehorse United Church people read their Bibles with thanksgiving and awe.

Posted by Bev and Hank

Rendezvous 2011

Rendezvous 2011 was held in Toronto from August 11 - 14th, bringing together United Church youth and young adults from across Canada for a weekend of " ... exhilerating worship, exciting opportunities for learning, growth, and service, and many examples of excellent youth and young adult ministries. You will be challenged, inspired and encouraged to 'go big' when you go home."

Check out these YouTube video clips of the activities:









Posted by Bev

Reflection

For those who like to reflect spiritually and theologically, here's a question:

As summer comes to an end, what lessons are there for you in this season? How is summer's end reflected in your inner life? And what do you think the Spirit is saying to you in this season?

Posted by Bev

The Unexpected

You know how when you start into a book you have this sense of anticipation.  What will I find in here that might be interesting and stimulating?

I recently picked up Lloyd Axeworthy’s 2004 book, Navigating a New World, at Well-Read Books. It was a national bestseller with Lloyd’s  thoughts on Canada’s global future.  So, I expected some thoughtful insights and pithy arguments.

What I didn’t expect was what I found on a bookmark the book’s previous owner had inserted between the pages.  The bookmark was obviously clipped from some publication.  Here’s what it said:

Listen, Christian:

I was hungry and you formed a humanities club to discuss my hunger. Thank you.

I was in prison and you crept off to a chapel in your neighbourhood to pray for my release.

I was cold and naked.  In your mind you debated with others the morality of my appearance.

I was homeless and you preached to me about spiritual shelter, of the house of God, and the protection of his love.

I was sick and you knelt down and thanked God for your good health.

I was lonely and cold and you left me alone to pray for me.

Yes, Christian, you seem so close to God; maybe you are …

But I am still hungry.

I am still very lonely.

I am still very cold.

 

Posted by Hank

Joyful Banners

Last Sunday we were all amazed when we entered the church sanctuary to see the new banners for Palm Sunday. 

They were designed and artfully crafted by Joy Wickett.  What a wonderful addition and a blessing to our worship service!

Yesterday I mentioned to Joy that I would like to do a blog entry about her work with the banners, and asked her for some thoughts on this – such as why she creates them, what inspires them, and how she sees them as being part of worship.  She said, “What if I send you an email message … ?“

So this is what I received this morning … (I added the photos)

…………….

I have been working in hand sewn felt works since the early 70's.  Up until 7 years ago, my pieces were always small ornaments, or small hangings no bigger than 12 inches by 10.  Then one day, I found a book of church banners.  One appealed to me and I made it, using felt and satin.  However, it was not until I joined Whitehorse United Church that I really began to create large pieces for the church. 

The song "Many Gifts One Spirit" seems to embody this place.  I  kept for many many years a picture of an embroidered piece and  up until that day, I never knew why.  This piece is also felt and fabric, a hard combination at that time.  It is small compared to the banners that came after it.  Now they are rarely less than 5 feet across and 5 or 6 feet long.

After that, ideas came at any time and place.  I would sketch them or write cryptic notes on any blank part of bulletins( yes I know I always look like I am listening to the Sunday sermon).   Bits of music, or scripture are always in my head to inspire me. That is the easy part.  It's the material that can be the problem.  An example is the parable of the lost sheep.  I knew what I wanted but spent at least two years trying to locate sheep like fabric.  Several people went Outside with tiny bits of the closest I could come to what I wanted.  Then the perfect fabric showed up in town in 2 "sheep" colours!  People tell me how much they enjoy the "90 and 9" banner, the 99 sheep, some eating, some with their backs to the viewer, most of them quite smug on their green field. Soon the church had a respectable collection for the year. 

Christmas and Advent still needed something and nothing was coming to me.  Last year, I had the idea of 4 panels of  4 tall candles with the words Love Joy Hope Peace.  I let it "cook" in my imagination and then in summer, I saw them as clearly as this page.  Each would have a different blue background and candle, and I would put them up one at a time.  Each would be 15 inches across and 65 inches long, so together they would fit the width of the space where they would hang. 

One night I woke up with a start.  How great would it be to make them reversible with Christmas on the other side! This plan had several drafts; pieces of paper all over the house, as I tried to come up with the perfect combination; 4 panels 15 inches wide and 65 inches long.  The Words "O Come/Adore/Him with a glorious golden angel with stars (and silver slippers)  and the sparkly silhouette of a village at the bottom. I was inspired.  Then at the end of October, I broke my wrist.

As if that was going to stop me. It was not my needle hand, just my fabric holding hand.  Sewing the letters was easy; so was cutting.  The first Advent panel went up before the cast came off.  Now for the hard part.  Because I  was hanging the panels as they were finished each week, I had no guiding panel to make sure all of them would be the right size.  In spite of some wrong guesses (hidden by adding another layer of "village" to the bottom), when all the pieces were up, only one was out by a half inch.  All hand sewn in gold and silver metallic threads.  Nobody saw the Christmas side or knew about it until the Christmas Eve service. I cannot remember ever enjoying giving a gift so much!

Unless it is the latest Palm Sunday banner.  Palm Sunday was the second piece I had made for the church.  The choir liked it so much they wanted it left up through Easter.  But the background felt is stretchy and I was never happy how it hung, no matter how hard I tried to fix it.  This past January, at our annual retreat, I started having visions of happy running children.  And a donkey.  They never left me (well, the donkey bowed out pretty fast) and I realized that they were the children running to greet Jesus.

I found some images  in a colouring book, had a friend draw them all the same size so I could blow them up for patterns.  How could I make this?  If I used green or blue background, I could not use those colours for clothing.  One morning I woke up and I knew.  These children would be free of backgrounds and panels. 

So there they hung on Palm Sunday, suspended from the rod by fishing line, with weights in their toes to keep them flat against the wall.  They made me so happy I cried as I saw how they looked.  I remember wishing I could draw so I could make them look like children in the congregation.  I don't know why I ever worried.  People saw those children's faces in the fabric ones.  It made them smile.  It made them happy.  Another gift to give.

Because they are all gifts.  A thank you for all the support and  kindness and compassion given by the congregation to me and to others.  I suppose these are my sermons, my prayers,  my songs. My contribution.   And there will be more.  A handful of flower patterns and my favourite line of music, "Hearts Unfold Like Flowers Before Thee".  Someday there will be a golden "Rise Shine, Give God Glory."  I have stopped worrying about colour and content.  After fretting that  February's "Love is All you Need" in pinks and reds on a dusty rose background might be all wrong for the wall, it turned out to be so calming and pleasant (to me at least) it will go back up for Mothers' Day. Unless a better idea comes along.

……………

Isn’t she wonderful?

Posted by Hank

Keystone Kops at the ‘Sourdough Rendezvous’

The Sourdough Rendezvous is our winter carnival and it’s happening this weekend.  There’s lots of fun with all kinds of outdoor events, including flour packing, dog team races, chain saw throwing, etc. We also have our world famous snow carvers creating awesome sculptures.  And then there’s the crowning of our Rendezvous Queen.

A great time to get out and take in the excitement, especially when the weather has been cooperating as it has.

But, you have to ‘get with the program’ and wear something that proves you’re in the spirit of things.  Otherwise, you might get ‘arrested’ by the Keystone Kops.

Guess who was their latest target?

Oh, Oh, Reverend Bev doesn’t have her Rendezvous Button.

However, she is wearing the traditional Rendezvous garter!! Ha, Ha.

So, all’s well that ends well.

Posted by Hank

Lead, Kindly Light

While convelescing from my recent surgery, I decided to do some reading.

A couple of weeks ago I had, therefore, stopped in at Well-Read Books to find some 'new' reading material - looking for something that might be a bit different from what I would normally read.

One of the books I took away was Lead, Kindly Light - Gandhi & the Way to Peace by Vincent Sheean (Random House 1949). The book's summary on the inside of the dustcover got my attention ...

Though this book is in some sense an attempt to reveal the meaning of Mahatma Gandhi's power and life and teaching, it is, in a more important sense the author's eloquent testament of belief in Ghadhi's mission. Vincent Sheean went to India to ask Gandhi many questions. It was a quest brought on by the failure of every other human institution to supply hope for the future. What he learned there, from Gandhi and others, is of immense, immediate importance to all people everywhere and to the future of humanity.

In the early part of the book, it's clear that for author Sheean a huge mind shift was necessary. Here's some information from his bio, also on the book's dustcover ...

He was a foreign correspondent at the time of Mussolini's march on Rome, he was present in Vienna when Hitler moved into Austria and in Prague when he took Czechoslovakia. And was in Paris when France fell; in England during the Blitz; and left the central pacific Wake Island just one plane ahead of the Japanese attack. He also served in the United States Air Forces in North Africa, Sicily and Italy; in the China-Burma-India Theater, and later in Austria and Germany.

This sets the context for the following comment by Sheean:

... the armature of a child of the century, born in a materialist society in the age of scientific supremacy, was not easily penetrated. We absorb the assumptions of the time and place, almost without knowing it, and find ourselves equipped with weapons we have never bought. It takes years to learn how to throw them all away and go, defenseless and undefending, toward whatever the truth may be.

This observation was made 60 years ago. I can't help but wonder just how many years Sheean contemplated it might take for us, as a society, to learn how to take this different approach. Considering the conflict in the Middle East, in Iraq and Afghanistan, we're not there yet.

Which makes me think the Canadian Department of Peace Initiative is a step in the right direction.

Posted by Hank