• More B&B owners in court
• The Commentary
  21st-century us?
• Southern Comfort
  Dr. Bruce Ware interviewed about the transformation at Southern Baptist Seminary
• Common myths about church planting
• Making strangers welcome
  How do you make newcomers to church feel at home?
• Updating origins
  Some recent scientific developments
• Pulpit pop culture?
• Monthly media and arts column
  Generation Wii
• Unapologetic Christianity
  God is dead (again)
• The Music Exchange
  Strictly no dancing?
• Robin Wells, 1935-2011
  Obituary
• The Third Degree
  Who is God?
• Randle Manwaring, 1912-2010
  Obituary
• Keith Mawdsley, 1931-2010
  Obituary

other articles

• Never let me go
• Plastic people - How Queer Theory is changing us
• Tangled
• The Bible in Voice and Verse
• The theology of B.B. Warfield - A systematic survey
• Beware of living too long!
• Jonah - Pride & Prejudice
• Silences and nonsenses - Collected poetry, doggerel and whimsy
• Anne Bradstreet - Pilgrim and poet
• Stronger than the sword
• The spirit level - Why more equal societies almost always do better
• Faith unfeigned
• Shadow gospel - Rowan Williams and the Anglican Communion crisis
• Generous justice - How God's grace makes us just
• Rich - The reality of encountering Jesus
• Problems - Solving them God's way

With Christianity being asked to be more and more ‘relevant’ in the 21st century, it was striking to see an event which celebrated the 400th anniversary of one of the oldest translations of the Bible, the King James’s Version (KJV).

Armed with just this translation, some classical songs heavily influenced by it and some images, Christian actor Lance Pierson, soprano Belinda Yates and keyboardist Heather Chamberlain have come together and are bringing the KJV ‘to life’ through a number of performances throughout the UK.

I was at the launch at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity on February 3. First off, for someone who was brought up on a cocktail of the Youth Bible, the NIV and, latterly, the ESV, I found the performance of this much older version surprisingly and refreshingly easy to engage with. This isn’t to say that Pierson and Co. tinkered with the original text, jazzing it up. The entire performance was faithful to the original from start to finish. The whole story of the Bible was also loyally represented. The show proved that Christian arts events can be both entertaining and informative while being faithful to the original text.

As far as the actual performance was concerned, I felt it was a professional effort throughout. Pierson was able to both be both slightly comedic, somewhat of a novelty, when orating the creation of the world, for example, and engagingly sombre, his narration of the crucifixion being a prime instance of this. Yates, like Pierson, appeared very professional and in tune (something essential in singing, I’m told) and, helpfully for operatic novices such as myself, the words she was singing were displayed in bright white type on a projector at the same time.

This performance is definitely something I’d recommend. Clearly, the cast know how to put their orating and singing gifts to good use.

For further information and details about their itinerary: http://www.invoiceandverse.co.uk or 020 7731 6544.

David Binder