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EasterArt: A Preposterous Prophet

Today in the Daily Lectionary my mate Jonah made another appearance and so as my #EasterArt post I shared this illustration from the Cervera Bible, a late 13th century Hebrew folio in the Lisbon Museum, illuminated by Joseph the Frenchman. I love the image, and I love the fact that the artist, who was working in Spain at the time was simply known as “Joseph the Frenchman.” 

In 2019 as part of my Sabbatical I headed off Holden Village, a Lutheran Retreat Centre in of the north Cascade Mountains in Washington State, USA, where I could easily have been referred to as David the Irishman because (for that week at least) I was in a minority of 1. I Had the honour of being invited to lecture there, and indeed, was supposed to be returning to share a second set of lectures this coming summer but Covid-19 has put paid to that. The subject of last year’s lectures was the book of Jonah, a book which I have been fascinated with for years, and I incorporated in the lectures the series of monologues which a number of my congregations and the 2004 Irish Methodist Conference have experienced in one form or other over the years. I've also posted them all here over the years...

The title of the lecture series was “Preposterous Readings of Preposterous Stories” and a couple of people have asked whether I would be willing to share them on this side of the Atlantic… Well, since I’ve got nothing better to do over the next wee while, I’m going to do a number of things: 
  1. Weather permitting, I’m going to record the original Jonah monologues as rehearsed readings tomorrow and put them up on the Circuit YouTube Channel over the next couple of nights. 
  2. Starting next Wednesday night 29th April at 7.30pm I am going to be sharing the above-mentioned “Preposterous Readings of Preposterous Stories” as a series of 7 40 minute studies followed by (after a 5 minute comfort break) the opportunity for a 40 minute Q&A facilitated by a different victim each week. This will be on the Zoom platform with the link being published on the Circuit Facebook page in advance. 
  3. Then on the Friday evening after the last of those studies (Friday 5th June) at 7.30pm I will share a rehearsed reading of a one man show/storytelling event entitled “On Joppa Shore”, allowing us to hear some of the story of Simon son of Jonah – a preposterous apostle. 
So that’s the theory… we’ll see how it all goes in practice… 

But watch out for the appearance of Jonah – the preposterous prophet in the next day or two…
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