People have signed up from all across Australia for “Meeting Jesus in the Gospel of Luke”, the first ever Bible conference for the Catholic diocese of Broken Bay (which is squeezed between Sydney and Newcastle), and one of the first ever official diocesan Bible conferences in Australian Catholicism.

“My hope is that with this conference, we will be giving people skills in reading the Gospel and encountering Jesus,” says Dr Michele Connolly, one of the presenters. “I’m looking forward to people seeing that with some simple strategies in reading the Gospel, they can come to understand what a passage means and see the richness that is there to sustain them in their lives.”

Dr Michele Connolly is a Sister of St Joseph of Lochinvar. She will be joined by Rev Dr Brendan Byrne SJ who is the only Australian biblical scholar to have served on the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome.

David Walker the local bishop also sees scripture as central. He has consistently promoted the reading and study of scripture across the diocese in order to encourage people to engage with the Bible as an opportunity for a life-giving encounter with God.

“My hope is that it will be an experience that is rich and fun and that there is delight in it and at the end of the conference, people will feel that they have journeyed a great distance”, Connolly says.

Registrations close 24 July 2013. www.dbb.org.au/bible 02 9847 0444 or bibleconference@dbb.org.au