Anglican Mainstream

by Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent

They may be found in every hotel bedroom, and are widely available in prisons and hospitals, but members of the clergy claim one of the last places you will find a Bible is in a church.

The absence of the Word of God from the pews is of such concern to the Church of England that it is to debate the issue at the next meeting of its General Synod, or “Parliament”, next month.

The complaint was raised by Tim Cox, a Synod member from Blackpool, who said he had been dismayed to discover that churches he visited “all too often” had no Bibles for worshippers to follow the readings and the sermon.

“Sometimes they have the passages printed in their noticesheet, sometimes they even have bibles available – but have them locked away in a cupboard without the key being available,” he said.

“The saddest thing about this is that whilst our churches fail to make available the scriptures, hotels, prisons, schools, hospitals and even offices can often be found too have a Gideon’s Bible available for each and every visitor.”

Mr Cox, whose private members’ motion was catapulted up the agenda after a groundswell of support from fellow Synod members, said anyone entering a church building or attending a church service should have “easy and unfettered access” to a version of Scripture.

In 1536, Henry VIII made it a legal requirement for an English version of the Bible to be placed in every church, and they proved so popular with the public that they often had to be chained to the pulpit.

They can now be easily obtained for less than 50 pence a copy, Mr Cox said in a Synod briefing paper prepared for the debate. Gideons International had placed nearly a million copies in this country last year, more than half of which had gone into schools, he said. However, there were numerous examples of clergy being unable to provide worshippers with Bibles at a time when they would be most useful – during services.

“A priest was asked to cover another church; he was handed seven books in order to lead the Eucharist: none of them were the Bible, and the only Bible easily accessible was the one he had brought,” said Mr Cox. “One church, whose parochial church council had previously provided Bibles, chose to remove them on the grounds that ‘they were too difficult to dust’.” He added: “Through the Bible God speaks directly to every man, woman and child, but unless people have the Bible in their heart language, they cannot read his message of life, hope and salvation.”

In a separate paper, the House of Bishops recommended seven versions of the scriptures, including the Authorised Version or King James Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible and the Standard English Version.

During the Synod, clergy and laity will also attempt to defeat Church plans to transfer the ownership of vicarages from incumbents to diocesan parsonage boards, which they claim is an attempt to seize assets worth £4 billion.

The four-day meeting in central London will also debate Government plans to extend the current 28-day maximum period for detention without charge of terrorist suspects.

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