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Book Review – Iona Dawn
Edited by Neil Paynter (Wild Good Publications – www.ionabooks.com £7.99) Getting this book for your next Holy Week might be a wise move. The dramatic events of the days leading up to Easter Sunday are expressed here through biblical readings and the reflections of several well-known Iona Community members. This is a more devotional book…
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Book Review – The Eye of the Storm
The Eye of the Storm: Spiritual Resources for the Pursuit of Justice by Kenneth Leech This is an honest spirituality. Kenneth Leech knows that an authentic engagement with God will mean that everything changes. Here is a writer to knows that to separate spirituality from justice is to do great damage to Christian consciousness. A…
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Book Review – Changing Rural Life
This new book addresses a number of different themes facing rural life, which we are assured is changing in particular and distinctive ways. Drawing together essays by many contributors, the editors attempt to stimulate reflection on the rural economy, the environment and community issues. Of particular interest is a chapter by the Most Rev Bruce…
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Book Review – Making Church Buildings Work
The task of managing creaking church buildings is one which is mostly undertaken by volunteers in almost every community the length and breadth of the country. It is surprising therefore that so little has been written to aid those who take on this mammoth task. Those of us who do undertake such work now have…
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Book Review -Complete Bible Handbook
This is an attractive and lavishly illustrated handbook which deals with the Bible on a book by book basis. For each biblical book, there is a description of its origins and significance, the retelling of the main stories, background, history and theological themes. Religious art is used to the full. Taking the journey from Genesis…
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Book Review – Re-Pitching the tent
Richard Giles’s book is a modern, best-selling handbook on the design and use of church buildings. The prose is at once funny, profound and opinionated. Paradoxically, this is liturgical space management from someone who would affirm the primacy of the whole people of God and yet also is a Priest Who Knows Best. Excellent illustrations…
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Book Review – The God We Never Knew
Marcus Borg writes for those seeking an adult understanding of God. His description is of a Christian faith which has more to offer modern people than the easy answers of fundamentalism. Borg uses his own spiritual journey to describe a fresh and authentic view of God. This is faith for those who respect science, recent…
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Book Review – Holy Ground
This is the kind of book that Wild Goose Publications do well. Here there are liturgical snippets for a wide range of occasions. Not everything in a book like this will be suitable for all churches at all times but that is not the point. All kinds of global concerns are represented here which are…
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Book Review – Disclosures: Conversations Gay and Spiritual
The issue of homosexuality continues to polarise the churches, but what are gay people themselves actually saying? Michael Ford meets gay and lesbian Christians from the US, US and Africa and documents their own voices and their own views on current events. This is an engaging and readable book which explores the dynamics of being…
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Book Review – Lectionary Reflections Year B
Like a number of improving books (Bridget Jones and Tales of the City come to mind), this book began as a newspaper column. Jane Williams’ thoughtful reflections on the lectionary readings first appeared in the Church Times in the ‘Sunday Readings’ slot which is surely designed to prompt desperate preachers who have not made their…