Sunderland University and St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth, are jointly hosting the international conference attracting artists, speakers and tutors from across the world.

And Sunderland calligrapher Susan Moor's specially-created piece went on display as part of the events.

Susan, of Roker, was specially commissioned to make a full size reproduction on vellum of an opening from the Codex Amiatinus – the acclaimed Saxon Bible.

This is the oldest surviving single-volume Latin Bible in the world, which was produced at St Peter's.

She created her masterpiece in the exact same spot that it was created at the turn of the 8th century, in front of the doorway through which Bede himself would have come and gone during his years at Monkwearmouth.

Susan's commission came from Professor Ewan Clayton as part of Sunderland University's contribution to the Wearmouth-Jarrow bid for World Heritage status.

Professor Clayton is helping to develop an international research centre for calligraphy, which takes its inspiration from the world-renowned scriptorium based at the twin monastery.

The Right Reverend Tom Gibbons, of St Peter's Church, said: "We are delighted to be hosting part of the symposium. Susan Moor has created a remarkable version of a page from the Codex Amiatinus.

"The event provides a way of cultivating the relationship we have with the university and creating key links we hope to use in the future."

St Peter's Church forms part of the twin Anglo-Saxon monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow along with St Paul's Church in Jarrow and is the UK's nomination for World Heritage Site status in 2010.

It was the site of one of the great libraries and scriptoriums of early medieval Europe and home to the community which included the scholar Bede.

For more details on the symposium visit www.slab.
sunderland.ac.uk

For information on the Wearmouth-Jarrow World Heritage Site bid, visit www.wearmouth-jarrow.org.uk