Alan Jesson writes:
ABOUT this time last year, when we finally knew that I would be taking early retirement from the University Library, I expected that by Christmas 1999 we would have moved from Swavesey and been installed in a new parish somewhere as the priest-in-charge. I certainly didnt expect to still be here, and I didnt expect to have the job I am now doing not surprising because it didnt exist then!
In 1994 the Italian Ministry of Library Heritage and the Vatican Library formed a joint committee to celebrate the Bimillenary of Christ.
The idea was to lead up to 2000, the Year of Jubilee, with a series of major exhibitions under the general heading of Faith and the Written Word. In June 1999 the Director of the Apostolic Library of the Vatican, wrote to the United Bible Societies (UBS) explaining the background to a major exhibition being planned under the general title Gospels and Peoples. On behalf of the Bimillenary Committee he invited the UBS to organise a further exhibition showing the development and cultural adoption of the Gospel in vernacular translation throughout the world since the invention of printing.
This was an exciting challenge! The UBS were well aware that the limitations of time, space and resources meant that only a small part of the story could be told, and only in snapshots rather than connected narrative. I was invited to carry out a feasibility study of the project, and when the UBS decided to go ahead I was asked to be Project Director. So since last September I have been going to and from Rome negotiating with designers, publishers and Ministry officials. Our exhibition The Impact of the Word on the World is becoming a reality and, if all the planning works, will open on 15th July 2000. The Ministry have made available their splendid exhibition centre in the heart of Rome, until the end of October, and thanks to their generous support admission is free!
Our theme is that the impact of the Word of God on the World is a continuous and continuing narrative. To the Christian the Good News is embodied in a person, Jesus Christ. His life, death, resurrection and ascension had a major impact on the world at the historical time when the events took place and have continued to impact on the world ever since. By focussing on a particular technical development and on cultural aspects, we hope to raise if only a little the awareness that the Good News is as valid for the Twenty-first Century as it was at the time of the historical events.
If you are likely to be in Rome this summer, here are the details:
The Impact of the Word on the World
Teatro dei Dioscuri, via Piacenza 1, Rome
Open daily 15 July 28 October (probably 10.00 18.00 but this is to be confirmed)
Admission free.
Alan F. Jesson