Colouring Competition 2026
28 Jan 2026 | Uncategorized
For our Colouring Competition this year the subject was, in a way, chosen for us! In 1526 William Tyndale’s translation of the New Testament into English was published so this is the 500th Anniversary of the First New Testament to be published in the English language!
As a child, WilliamTyndale was very intelligent – he studied really hard, and while young he learned to speak and read English, French, German and Latin. It was vital that he learned Latin, because when he went to Oxford University all lectures were in Latin! Much in the academic world was in Latin. If you went to church, the services were all in Latin and the Bible was written in Latin … not the language that everybody spoke in England and some were able to read. So only the highly intelligent were able to read and understand the Bible.
When William went to university, he added Greek, Italian, and Spanish to his languages, and went to teach at Little Sodbury Manor, near Bristol. In any of his spare time, he worked at translating the New Testament from Greek into English.
One mealtime, William was sitting at the table with the family and some important visitors. One of the men started arguing with William about the Church and the Bible. William kept telling the man what the Bible really said, and concluded, ’If God spares my life … before long I will make sure that a farmer’s boy knows more of the Bible than you do!’
The man was incensed, and after dinner William had to escape and went to London where, for 9 months he worked very hard at his desk, day and night, translating the Greek New Testament into English.
Soon William had to leave England; he escaped to Germany to see Martin Luther and carry on with his secret work. There he learned Hebrew to help him translate the Old Testament into English. When he completed the New Testament translation he moved to another part of Germany where he took it to a printer. The printer had just started printing his translation, when someone found out where Tyndale was!
Quickly he moved to Worms, found another printer and soon his New Testament in English was printed, the first New Testament ever to be translated from Greek into English.
William began to send his New Testaments to England. The King and Authorities in England heard that Bibles in English would soon be smuggled into England, so they watched all the ports in London and round the country where they might be brought in. They arrived in many ways -some were smuggled in, hidden in bales of cloth. Any Bibles or Christian books in English that were found were put on a bonfire, and anyone found with a Bible risked being put to death.
But William carried on; he moved from place to place and carried on translating the Old Testament and writing letters to the Christians in England, also writing books about the Bible to help people understand it better. He fled to Antwerp but was captured and put on trial. He wrote a letter to explain that he believed in ‘justification by faith alone’, explaining that the church couldn’t make you a Christian, it is only by trusting in what Jesus Christ did when he died on the cross to take away our sin, that we can be saved.
William was sentenced to be burned to death, and on 6th September 1536 he was taken and put to death. Just before he died, he prayed … …’Lord, open the King of England’s eyes’.
But that wasn’t the end of the story … 2 years later some of William’s friends in England took William’s New Testament and all that he had translated of the Old Testament, and completed the work … in English. On 5th September 1538, Henry VIII, the King of England made a law … ‘The whole Bible of the largest size in English, is to be placed in every parish church in England.’ It was called ‘the Great Bible’. The Bibles had to be chained to the lectern, or pulpit of every church, so that anyone could go into the church and read them … in English. They were considered of great value so were chained, and hence they are often known as ‘the Chained Bible’..
So God had answered Williams’ 2 prayers …
1. He said at the dinner table, ‘if God spares my life, the farmer’s boy … or the boy who drives the plough, shall know more of the Scriptures than you do’. And now everyone could freely read and understand the Word of God!
2. He said just before he died, ‘Lord, open the King of England’s eyes’ … and now the King had given his permission for everyone to read the Bible … in English!
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We would like to encourage children to take part from Home, Schools and Sunday Schools across the Country – there are no territorial limits!
The pictures will be judged in 4 age groups. 3-4 years,5-7 years,8-11 years & 12+ years
The closing date for the Competition is 2nd May 2026
Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each age group.
Download a copy of the colouring competition sheet here. It may be printed and distributed to as many people as would like to take part.
Important: Please clearly print your name and age (your age on 2nd May) on the back of the
picture, with your address and email address (or name of School/Sunday School)
… and post your entries, marked ‘Colouring Competition @ CHC’ to:
Mrs. A Burrows, 27 Beauty Bank, Cradley Heath, West Midlands B64 7HZ
Winners will be notified, and their names will be published on the website on 9th May 2026
* All entries will be on display on the Centre’s Bank Holiday Opening Days on 23rd & 25th May; the winning entries will also be on display at the June Book Sale, July and the ‘Cream Tea -1st August’ openings. *
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