Clare Amos, who wrote a Lent course at the invitation of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, found her own heart first ‘burned’ by scripture many, many years ago. After studying theology at Cambridge University, she was privileged to spend two years learning at the École Biblique et Archéologique Francaise Jerusalem. An Anglican by church affiliation, Clare was fortunate enough to be awarded an ecumenical scholarship to study at the École Biblique, which has played a significant role in the development of Roman Catholic biblical scholarship.
Her years at the École Biblique were Clare’s entry point into a life-path that not only has involved teaching biblical studies in Jerusalem, Beirut, Cambridge, South London and Kent, and guest lecturing in Africa, Asia, Australia and America, but also initiated her abiding commitment to the Middle East, to the world church and to ecumenism. Her working life has specifically included periods working for the Methodist Church of Britain, and for the Cambridge Ecumenical Theological Federation. Clare’s final full time position before retirement in 2018 was to have responsibility for the interreligious desk at the World Council of Churches in Geneva. In 2012 Clare was honoured to be awarded a Lambeth Doctorate of Divinity by Archbishop Rowan Williams. The citation at that time referred to Clare’s commitment to sharing the fruits of biblical scholarship as widely as possible among the people of God, which is what this Lent course seeks to do.