Bible readings have been taking place in a St Agnes bar as part of the Bishop’s Lent Challenge for 2017.

This year’s ‘In2 the Bible’ challenge asks people to read the Bible with another person, and to let this start a conversation.

St Agnes church volunteer Charlotte Irwin said: “In St Agnes we have joined together with the Methodist church, and decided to do it as a meeting in the pub, and so, on Tuesday morning there were 16 of us, plus two dogs, sat in the pub with coffees at 10.30am.

Conversation flows in the bar

“We divided into groups of four and used the first reading from the booklet, which is the creation story. We did use a couple of the suggested questions from the booklet too, but we found that conversation flowed on its own.

“The Bishop’s Challenge for this year is really interesting, and has caught many people’s imaginations. Through my work I deal with one man who is interested in religion, but is not religious in any way, and even he was asking me what this is all about.

“The people who attended really enjoyed it too, and several have already told me that they will be returning, so we hope to see more people coming back over the next few weeks.

“The booklet has been so useful, it costs nothing, and saves us from having to do any preparation, we can just turn up and begin. It was lovely to sit and have a conversation with people in such a relaxed setting.”

Setting his challenge in a letter to parishioners, Bishop Tim wrote: “Simply put, I am encouraging you and challenging you to see that reading the Bible is a familiar and everyday part of our Christian journey together.

“That word “together” is important, discipleship is a journey taken in company, so my challenge is to read the Bible together, with another person or two this Lent. To read, mark, learn and maybe even inwardly digest Scripture together.”

The challenge runs throughout Lent, with meetings at the St Agnes Hotel every Tuesday morning at 10.30am.