Participants of the bible seminar in Kraudaranau village, South Rupununi. (Photo credit Medino Abraham)

Participants engrossed in the bible study.

From Pius Ernest chairman; and church team of Kraudaranau

Last Sunday June 10th, the Catholic community of Kraudaranau, a village about 15 miles from Aishalton in the South Rupununi held a Bible Seminar. It was organized by the chairman and the church team of the above village. The Seminar was conducted by Mr. Medino Abraham who is based at Aishalton. Since he is based in the South Rupununi and had held a Bible Seminar in Aishalton the church team of Kraudaranau requested that he come over to our church to share his time and knowlegde with the people of Kraudaranau. So he came over, and we told him that we would like to learn more about the bible and especially the Gospel of Mark which we are hearing most in the readings at services for this year.

Hence, the theme of the seminar was on the Gospel of Mark. Forty persons, made up of children, youths and adults attended the religious education activity. The Bible seminar began after the Sunday Service held in the morning, and it was kept in the church building.

Medino gave us a very good explanation and instruction about Saint Mark the evangelist who wrote the Gospel. It was good to learn of this great evangelist and his gospel. It was also good to learn especially for the younger ones, how the Gospel of St. Mark and other readings came to be included in the lectionary. We heard about the Seasons of the Liturgical years in the church for example Advent, Christmas and the Ordinary Time and how the liturgical calendar follows a three-year cycle, each year represented by the letters A, B and C.  The gospel of Mathew is year A, Mark- year B and year C is Luck. The Gospel of John is proclaimed on particular Sundays in each of the years.

The presenter used various methods to instruct the participants including songs, games Power Point presentations and vídeos –some taken from Youtube of Catholic Religious Education, and dramas of bible stories which kept the lessons lively and interesting to those participating.

Reading the bible, in particular Mark´s Gospel, and finding scripture verses was a good mental exercise for the participants. It prompted interest in us to pick up the scared book regularly to find good teachings and inspiring messages from it. However, apart from the mental or academic aspect to use the bible, the Jesuit also taught us another dimension of scripture which was reflection.This involves reading a scripture passage and praying or reflecting on it and putting ourselves in the story. This exercise was very helpful because it touched our inner feelings. In concluding, we would like to say that the bible seminar helped us to discover the power of the Word God in this scared book, the Bible! Blessings to all!