BLACK Country Christians have completed a course designed to relate their Christian faith to their own life and locality.

Around 50 people, including residents from Stourbridge, Dudley and Brierley Hill took the Bishop’s Certificate course over 12 months with the support of local tutors.

The Assistant Bishop of Dudley, Michael Hooper, addressed the candidates before presenting them with their certificates.

Offering the candidates a warm congratulations, he said: “It’s great to see people learning and understanding more about our faith and having confidence in the scriptures.

“The bible is about people travelling with God and that’s what we’re all doing.”

The group drawn from parishes across the Black Country was led by lay minister in Stourbridge, Kath Davis, who said: “We always get such lovely feedback from the Bishop’s Certificate course – it gives people confidence to do things they might not have considered before and read the bible with greater insight.

“The course gives people a really good grounding in the Christian faith, enabling them to connect the New Testament with the often lesser known Old Testament and apply it to their everyday life.”

Julie Lawton, a member of Holy Trinity Church, Wordsley, who joined with a group at St Mark’s, Pensnett, to complete the course, said: “It was a wonderful choice to join with the group – I have met so many lovely people and we have stayed in touch since the course finished.

“It really helped me to explore my faith more deeply and answer some of the questions that I’d had for many years.”

The course covered various subjects including the Old and New Testaments, Pentecost and the Holy Spirit, and living as Christians with people of other faiths.