At the beginning of Lent, around 30 people gathered in St Michael and All Angels Church in Broadway to listen to and take part in a complete reading of St Mark’s gospel.
The event was organised by Associate Priest, Jo Williamson who had attended a similar event a number of years ago. She said: “It was something that I’d found very moving and discovered bits of the gospel that I’d never noticed before. We originally planned to do our own reading two years ago, but obviously it had to be postponed and the beginning of Lent seemed like an appropriate time to re-organise it.”
The event was publicised in the benefice and the neighbouring churches and Jo asked people to volunteer to read different sections. There were representatives from the local Methodist and URC churches and most of those present stayed for a simple soup and roll lunch afterwards.
Jo said: “We split the gospel into different sections and shared them among the volunteers, but the words of Jesus were spoken by the same three men throughout. The whole event took a bit of organising, but it was definitely worthwhile. There was a great atmosphere and people were really engaged with the text. It was also good to gather together again. I had a number of people say thank you afterwards – it seemed to be appreciated by all.”
