Sunday, October 22, 2006

My Own Illuminated Bible


This morning there was a lovely acknowledgment of my service as Director of Christian Education at both worship services. Besides the many good wishes and support for my new "job" as Moderator-Elect of our presbytery, I was presented with two volumes of the St. John's Bible: The Pentatuch and The Gospels and Acts.

I've always loved illustrated manuscripts. I remember saving money from my first summer job to buy a beautiful hardbound copy of a Book of Hours that I still have in my library. When Portia was about four I took her with me to an exhibit of illuminated manuscripts from the British Museum that came to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. She loved them, too, especially the fanciful animals and birds the monks drew around the edges of the text.

Although I had heard about this project which involves modern scribes writing the entire Bible and illustrating it in a modern style at a monastery in Wales, I'd never seen it. It's gorgeous. It's stunning. I'm amazed and very grateful to have these two volumes.

"Bet you can't read this Bible in 90 Days!" the clerk of session told me. Oh, no. It will take a lot longer than that. Thank you all. For everything.

7 comments:

spookyrach said...

How cool!

Unknown said...

Wow! That was some gift.

Gannet Girl said...

What a magnificent gift.

reverendmother said...

I'm glad someone else loves it as I do!

I have one of the volumes (Gospels/Acts). R gave me a print of the Creation illustration when M was born.

AND [dramatic pause] I'm taking a group from the church to see the actual Bible on exhibition at the Library of Congress next month!!!! [happy dance]

I hope it comes to Houston sometime so you can see it!

Unknown said...

What a lovely gift.

see-through faith said...

wow! a lot of love and thought went into this gift

Anonymous said...

what an excellent gift.