11 August 2011
The Methodists' Handwritten Bible goes live online
The complete Methodists' Handwritten Bible, created by tens of
thousands of people across Britain and Northern Ireland, is now
online.
The Handwritten Bible contains 7,000 pages of text and
illustrations transcribed by people from every part of Britain and
further afield. More than 30,000 volunteers joined in from across
communities - including prisons, schools, colleges, libraries,
nursing homes, airports and shopping centres - to copy the whole of
the NRSV translation of the Bible after Methodists voted to
transcribe the Scripture at their Conference in Portsmouth last
year.
Since the first volume went live on the Deepening Discipleship
website last month, the Handwritten Bible has been viewed more than
1,000 times. Most of those readers accessed the site from within
the UK, but there have been visitors from 76 other countries,
including the United States, Malaysia, Australia and South
Africa.
Revd Jenny Ellis, Co-ordinator of Evangelism, Spirituality and
Discipleship, said: "We have already had many people asking to
display the hardbound copies of the Bible, including a request from
the Caribbean. The Handwritten Bible has been divided up into 31
volumes; some of those volumes are currently on display at the
Liskeard Methodist Church in Cornwall while others are on show at
Worcester Cathedral. Now that all the volumes are online, people
can view the whole Bible. It's a way of connecting us all together
as we value and celebrate the Scriptures."
As part of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, people
were invited to join Methodists in handwriting verses from the
Scripture. Verses have been written in English, Chinese, Welsh and
Braille with accompanying illustrations.
Dave Webster, Internet Communications Coordinator who was
responsible for uploading the Handwritten Bible online, said: "The
Handwritten Bible has the human touch. The care and love that
people put into it are expressed in the ever-changing handwriting
and illustrations. This makes reading it a unique and moving
experience."
The Methodists' Handwritten Bible will be available for display at
churches, Bible Fresh events, anniversaries and museums up until
the 2012 Methodist Conference.
Read the Handwritten Bible here