Scripture Performance Coming to Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE — Frank Runyeon believes the Gospel of Luke was written for people “very much like us.”

“They were gentiles, they weren’t Jews, and they were part of a rich country, and they had lots of entertainment,” Runyeon said of the first-century Roman world where Luke wrote his gospel. “They were people like us.”

The 63-year-old Runyeon, best known for his role in the late 1980s opposite Meg Ryan on As The World Turns, has been performing passages from the Bible for the last 25 years — something he considers “much more fulfilling to do” than the daytime or evening television dramas he acted in nearly three decades ago.

“I was very much enjoying performing on TV, in films, and in Hollywood, but as I got older, my kids wondered about this story we heard in church on Sunday. So I would perform it for them, and they said, you should do this for church!” He said.

So, Runyeon went to seminary to study scripture, graduating from the Episcopal Church’s General Theological Seminary in New York, and then hitting the road to perform his take on scripture for audiences and congregations across the country.

Runyeon is scheduled to be in Moses Lake this weekend, at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Parish, 200 N. Dale Rd., in Moses Lake. He will perform Luke on Saturday, Oct. 15, beginning at 7 p.m., and James on Sunday, Oct. 16, beginning as 7 p.m. as well.

If Luke is the good news preached to people who are hard pressed to hear it because they are too happy, wealthy, and complacent, Runyeon said James — a letter in the New Testament — asks an even harder question.

“Now that you’ve heard all this, how are you going to live?”

Runyeon said he performs scripture — adds theatrical lighting, uses voice “we reserve for television” — because he believes seeing and hearing scripture performed “might help us live the faith story a little better.”

Plus, he added, the Bible is full of some really good stories.

“This 2,000-to-3,000-year old story, which we believe to be inspired by the spirit of God, is a lot more interesting than most TV scripts,” he said.