St Mark's Gospel Live, as it happened

Pewsey Rural Dean, Canon Gerald Osborne spent 3 years memorising the Gospel before, with the help of fellow Deanery priest and scriptwriter Revd Colin Heber-Percy, he began to perform it live.

Gerald has performed in his Deanery and at venues all over the UK, including the Edinburgh Festival, Salisbury Cathedral and Bath Abbey.

But with the Coronavirus pandemic meaning audiences are having to stay at home to save the NHS, he has taken to social media in a very special Holy Week project.

Gerald says:

"Each day I will be posting the events on the day they happened (as we can best surmise) from the Gospel of St Mark.

"Tradition dating back to the second century together with much evidence within the gospel itself shows that Peter was Mark’s main source in a gospel full of eyewitnesses, written within 30 years of the events recorded, and so let us walk with these eyewitnesses through Jesus’ passion and death.

"And as we hear these stories once again, many of them very familiar, one suggestion is to meditate on what the gospel is telling us about Jesus, who he is, why did he come and what it means for us to be his disciples. Sometimes we see this directly, but often it is in the reaction of others to Jesus, be it the disciple themselves, the religious authorities, the crowds or individuals such as the women with the alabaster jar of perfume or the centurion at the foot of the cross.

"Palm Sunday and Monday are quite short readings, while Tuesday takes us from the end of chapter 11 and into chapter 14. The gospel is silent on events for Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are more complex as many of the events happen overnight, so I will finish chapter 14 on Thursday, with chapter 15, which starts, “Very early in the morning...” on Friday."

On Palm Sunday Gerald recounted that, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem, we see him in his kingly glory. But he asked us to consider what it was like to be one of the crowd (listen here).

On Monday we were reminded that Jesus created mayhem in the Temple (listen here),

and on Tuesday Gerald began with one of the more curious happenings in the gospel, the evidence of the withered fig tree (listen here).

You can hear the Maundy Thursday episode here,

Good Friday here,

and finally Easter Day here.

Lots of our Churches are offering daily reflections online over Holy Week,to find out more, go to your Church's website, Facebook page or AChurchNearYou.