Bible with Bill

Tuesday morning saw us say good bye to Bram who gave us a crash course on information gathering techniques. He gave us some great advice about how to do interviews, distil information and what the general rules are for various mediums. The quote that I will always remember from Bram is this, "Art is never finished; it is only abandoned." Brilliant! When we create something we can spend far too much time trying to make it completely perfect and, of course, we can never attain that.

And so we bid farewell to Bram and then welcomed The Reverend Canon Bill Cliff to our midst. Bill is a Biblical scholar and has taught me more about how to read and interpret Scripture than any of my courses in theological school. He doesn't "dumb down" his approach at all when it comes to working with young people and that is a great gift he gives.

His "Three Rules of Biblical Interpretation" are legendary. I have posted them here before but they always beg to be reposted.

1. Scripture is always astonishing; and if it isn't astonishing you are not reading it right.

2. Scripture is never fair.

3. God always acts first.

Applying these three seemingly simple rules and break the scriptures so wide open that they will truly "mess with your head," to quote Bill.

We looked at two very short parables using this method and there were many minds blown away and old preconceptions obliterated.

He then taught us about the "Myth of Redemptive Violence". I have heard this many times and every time I hear Bill teach it I receive more and more from it.

In the afternoon we met friend of the program Karen Kloibhoffer who taught us about our "True Colours". This is an exercise in finding out what your personality traits are and what strengths and weaknesses those traits have. I am a "Gold" - for those of you who know what this means it will come as no surprise to you!

After supper it was Blob Time and then worship with Andrew Stevens-Rennie. Andrew will be leading us through exploratory sessions on music and justice.

I fell in to bed once again happy and exhausted.