Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

I was fascinated to read yesterday that one of the great treasures of Welsh history is being protected by an innovative piece of green technology. Bishop William Morgan’s translation of the Bible into Welsh in 1588 is credited not only with making scripture available, but also with saving the Welsh language. One of the rare remaining copies is kept in the farmhouse in Snowdonia where he was born. It's been threatened as rainfall has become heavier than usual, and more persistent. Long-term forecasts suggest there’s more on the way; and moisture, no respecter of antiquity or worth, is the great enemy. Now a pump in a nearby stream is generating electricity to control humidity levels. The method is a conservation first for the National Trust, and those who worry about ancient books sigh with relief. I can happily spend many hours with musty documents - especially the volumes of local newspaper files which take me straight back into the experience `of people at a particular time: all human life is here. Traditional family Bibles can do the same, recording births, marriages and deaths, listing without commentary generations of joy and sadness, and doing it all within the covers of a book crammed with epic stories, and offering wisdom and comfort, hope and love, for every conceivable situation. All human life is here, too. It’s right to value the heritage of a Bible used by someone who’s been a major influence. It can also be deeply humbling to come across handwritten sheets from communities where scripture has been in short supply because of poverty or repression. When people take the trouble to transcribe page after page, sometimes at risk of severe punishment, it reveals much about the depth of their faith, and the passion to share what they see as profoundly good news. These people mean business. William Morgan’s work is continues today in many forms. You can nibble at a few verses downloaded as a daily ration to your phone or computer. There are audio libraries, versions for people who understand best through cartoon or picture, for children, for teenagers, for readers using a second or third language…and so on. Driving it all is the conviction that while people must be at liberty to choose any faith or none, they should always be offered the opportunity to consider what Christians believe to be the way of life. I recall a preacher of my youth who failed to draw any listeners in a market square. Nobody wanted to know. Until he threw his Bible on the floor, danced around it, and shouted, ‘It’s alive, it’s alive.’ He had his crowd. A showman, yes. But passionate for much more than the worthiest conservation project.