www.bibleinbrief.com  aoroland@gmail.coma

Hi Friends,

It’s been a mind-bending month!

It started before the start with a radio interview on February 27th.

Fr John Dickson

College Island Discs aka Shipwrecked 

At the end of January I went to St Philip’s, Earls Court, and heard a sermon by John Dickson, the Roman Catholic chaplain of Royal Holloway College.  Chatting to him over coffee afterwards, he invited me to take part in his weekly radio interview at the RHC.  I got to choose 12 pieces of music, and talk about 12 significant chapters of my life, from my  father escaping from Nazi Germany to the One Way Inn evangelistic coffee bar in Earls Court.  I had a lot of fun.  My chosen book to take with me was “The Devils of Loudon” by Aldous Huxley, which John commented was on the Roman Catholic Index of forbidden books!  It is in fact a fascinating and profound book – nothing like Ken Russell’s dreadful film. You can listen to the interview on: 

https://www.mixcloud.com/upload/john-dickson4/rev-andy-roland-shares-his-music-and-fascinating-story/complete/

A Mental Earthquake

That’s, what it felt like, anyway.  Here’s what happened:

 Sunday 3rd  10.30  Got invited to an open lecture at St Mellitus on Monday on “The Christology of John”.  Decided to go.

Monday 4th   7.00  Heard a talk by Prof David Ford of Cambridge.  He mentioned several interesting books, including one by Richard Bauckham, Cambridge Professor of New Testament studies.

Tuesday 5th Read “The Testimony of the Beloved Disciple by Richard Bauckham; it turned all my previous ideas upside down.  The author wasn’t John son of Zebedee from Galilee, it was an unknown Jerusalem disciple, also called John  Suddenly John’s gospel made sense to me!

Thursday 7th  My only free day to work out my talk.  Help!

Monday 11th  Gave my St Cuthbert’s Talk on “the Puzzle of John”.  It went well. 

It took me a further ten days to turn my new thoughts into two blogs – “The Puzzle of John – a Solution” and “The Puzzle of John – the Evidence” – and send the first one out to you.  I have not worked my brain so hard for years!

Monday 18th  Worked on blog(s) from 9.30 am to 12.30 a.m.  Finished!

I am pleased with the result.  One comment back was “very interesting and informative”.  What do you think?

Marketing 

An active month, with sunshine and showers. 

On Thursday 14th I took the train to Manchester to the Christian Resources Exhibition.  Expensive, but a lot less expensive that hiring a stall.  It set me free to talk to all the book publishers and retailers there and try to persuade them that “Bible in Brief “ is worth stocking.  To my surprise the keenest were “Christian Friends of Israel”, and “Good News in Prison”.  CLC (Christian Literature Crusade) and St Andrew’s Bookshops, two big retailers, said they would consider it.  

An online bookshop, Aslan, has sadly refused because they only stock books from “major national publishers.”

But there is some good news.  On Wednesday 27th Feb I popped in to the Brompton,  the cafe and bookshop in the basement of Holy Trinity Brompton.  I spoke to Sharon, who knew of me because a friend had given her my “Discovering Psalms as Prayer”.  She was very helpful and said she would put my book before the review committee which decides on what books to stock.  On 27/3 they replied, ‘”Bible in Brief” seems like a great resource that many of our customers (and devout readers) would really enjoy and appreciate. We get many customers that come into the bookshop wanting to study the Bible, but not knowing where to start!’   I have replied and offered to do a book signing.

Meanwhile my mailing list continues to grow – now past the 100 mark.  And that, dear reader, of course, includes you.

Please help

Have you got one of my books?  If you do, it would be a great help if you could post a review on Amazon.  It will appear even if you have not bought it from Amazon, it will just not be reflected in their algorithms.  But provided you have ever bought anything from Amazon, you can post a review.  “Inspiring”, “Made me lose my faith”, anything really. 

A present from Amazon

I never invite people to buy my books from Amazon.  But today is an exception.  I find that Amazon are selling my “Week of Prayer in Jerusalem” for just £1.90, + p&p.  No way can I compete with that!  Go and buy quickly, before they repent of their price. 

And of course, put in a review!!

Posts and Tweets

Here are some of my month’s favourites:

Secret London – the oldest room in the City:  the crypt of St Mary-le-Bow.  Church destroyed 1666 and again in 1945.  But the crypt survived, built 1080! 

Secret Jerusalem – the Ethiopian monastery built on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

“What  Lent means”.  It reached 1,856 people, and 20 made some sort of response.  Perhaps it was the daffodils.

Writing

What writing?  Oh dear.  Must do better.

Have a wonderful Holy Week and Easter.

God bless,

Andy

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