Madeleine Grantham

A few words about April’s story cafe: The theme is ‘Crazy stuff you never knew was in the bible’ as a nod in the direction of the season (Passover and Easter). BUT please no sermons or religious agendas. Instead we wanted to revel in the rollicking good stories contained within the bible. It seems that storytellers are more than happy to plunder the religions of other cultures for source material (Buddist, Hindu etc) not to mention tales of the doings of the gods from Norse and Greek religions. Yet here is a collection of stories that are at the root of three world religions (not just Christianity) and at the heart of our (UK) cultural life, that tend to be avoided by storytellers. Even within religious gatherings there are many stories from the bible that rarely get a hearing. So here is a chance to let them see the light of day - will we hear about: the talking donkey, or the naked drunken seafarer, or the beauty contest, or the fire-walking vegetarians, or the prophet who buried underpants in the garden, or the outlaw who pretended to be mad so he could hide with some foreigners, or of the many prophets who spent a lot of time whining about how hard done by they were, or the lip stick loving fame fatale, or the many uses of tent pegs? Come along and give it a try - we promise no hymns!