Elvis Presley's Bible on show in Suffolk church

A Bible once owned by Elvis Presley will be on display in a church.

Needham Market Evangelical Church in Suffolk is celebrating its centenary and as part of the celebrations is hosting a Bible exhibition until Friday.

The king of rock and roll's personal Bible, complete with his own notes inside, is featured in the exhibition thanks to the Museum of the Book in London, which has lent the book.

Gary Stevens, pastor of the church, said other Bibles owned by the likes of 17th Century writer John Bunyan would also be on show.

Mr Stevens said he had heard about Presley's Bible from a friend and then approached the museum to see if he would be able to include it in the exhibition.

The museum said yes, and it arrived on Tuesday night in Needham Market.

"Under Psalm 11, he has written, 'In the Lord I have placed my trust and he will guide me'," Mr Stevens said of Presley's handwritten notes in the Bible.

"Under another Psalm he's written, 'Lord send me light to guide me' and other things we have like, 'Deliver me for I am nothing without you'.

"He was raised in a very devout Christian household in Mississippi, and this Bible was a present for Christmas in 1957 by his uncle and aunt, and they are the ones that guarantee its authenticity."

The exhibition will also include a very rare Bible from King Henry VIII's time.

William Tyndale, an English Biblical scholar from the 16th Century had translated much of the Bible into English, despite the King's laws against it.

"The story goes that Tyndale died asking that the Lord would open the King of England's eyes; he was burnt at the stake for daring to print the Bible in English," Mr Stevens explained.

"Three years later, Henry changed his mind and ordered that a Bible be in every church.

"But so it wouldn't be stolen, it was chained to the pulpit, and so we have one of these very rare Bibles complete with chain."

The exhibition can be viewed from 14:00 to 17:00 BST each day.

Presley died at his home in Memphis, in the United States, due to heart failure in 1977.

Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.