The new Bishop of the new diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales, Bishop Nick Baines has signed up to kick off an 84-hour non-stop Bible reading marathon.
Bishop Nick will read the first 15 minutes of the beginning of the Bible at the reading event called Alpha to Omega which will take place in St Mary's Church, Gomersal, in the Huddersfield Episcopal Area this September.
The organiser, Trees Fewster-Verhaar, who is pictured here being interviewed by her local Christian radio, Branch FM about the event said: “I am delighted that Bishop Nick has accepted to start off the challenge of our 84 hour non-stop reading marathon – and not only that, but he will also preach at the 9.30 am service on that Sunday.
“This gives the whole project an enormous boost and we are all extremely grateful for his spontaneous and generous response.”
The event – which will take place under the guidance of St Mary’s vicar, the Revd Karen Nicholl, will start on Sunday 14 September at 11am and run through the following nights to finish 84 hours later around 11pm on Wednesday September 17.
Alongside Bishop Nick, Bishop Tony Robinson of the Wakefield Area has agreed to do a slot, as has Paul Blakeley, MBE, the founder of the Street Angels project, members of the Mothers’ Union, volunteers from as far as Todmorden and Warley,and more closely from Birkenshaw, Scholes and East Ardsley plus two local councillors, Coun Andrew Palfryman, a former mayor and deputy mayor of Kirklees and Coun Simon Alvy, local Labour councillor for Liversedge and Gomersal.
Anyone can sign up for a slot. People will read for 15 minutes at a time and the church is looking for anyone willing to take responsibility to fill at least one hour and source their own readers to fill this hour. Everyone taking part will receive a certificate.
Said Trees: “The project was not devised as a money raising event though readers could make it one if they wanted to, particularly if they were reading in the middle of the night.
“We just wanted to do this solely to raise a better awareness of the Holy Bible. We want to give people the chance to read, handle and sense the Bible in its entirety,” she added.
SIGN UP at mfewster.41@brinternet.com or call her on 01274 873485.