St. Mary’s Reads & Reviews
Reading List Summer 2023
One of the joys of summer is taking the opportunity to read. This summer, St. Mary’s is encouraging you to read one (or more!) of these 6 books. We are offering 2 books in each of 3 ‘categories’ so you can choose what is most interesting for you. Each of these books is available from bookstores (in paper or digital formats) and there is also one copy of each available for borrowing in St. Mary’s library. We will gather on Wednesday, September 13th (7:30-9pm) on Zoom to discuss the books and share our insights and reflections with each other. Subscribe to the Messenger e-newsletter or email Rev. Roberta to get the Zoom link. Happy reading!
Growing our Faith and Spirituality
Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times, 2020
By Bishop Michael Curry (Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church)
As the descendant of slaves and the son of a civil rights activist, Michael Curry's life illustrates massive changes in our times. Much of the world met Bishop Curry when he delivered his sermon on the redemptive power of love at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. “Love is the Way” expands on his message of hope in an inspirational road map for living the way of love, illuminated with moving lessons from his own life.
The way of love is essential for addressing the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing the world today: poverty, racism, selfishness, deep ideological divisions, competing claims to speak for God.
The Enduring Heart: Spirituality for the Long Haul, 2000
By Wilkie Au
We would all like life to be endlessly ‘good’ and easy. But we all know it doesn’t work that way. There are always ‘potholes’ on the road of life! Dr. Au offers wisdom and resources to help us ‘live with soul’ through the ups and downs of daily life. This book helps us reflect on our personal experience of God and how the smaller events of daily living speak to us of God's presence. Each chapter includes reflection questions and spiritual exercises to help us move through the times of spiritual and emotional ‘dryness’ and loss so we don’t get ‘stuck’. Endurance can be learned, joy is available.
Joining in God’s Mission
Missional: Joining God in the Neighbourhood, 2011
By Alan J. Roxburgh
Many of us want to impact our community, but too often we are still prioritizing church success over mission--i.e., how can ‘being missional’ help grow my church? Roxburgh (who did much of his ministry here in Vancouver) says this is the wrong focus. Missional calls us to re-enter our neighbourhood and community to discover what the Spirit is already doing there--to start with God's mission--and join in, shaping our local church around God’s existing mission in this place. With inspiring true stories and a solid biblical base, this is a book that invites us to change lives and our community through our mission and ministry.
Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope, 2007
By Brian D. McLaren
This sixteen-year-old book is still relevant. McLaren's writing is always engaging and very readable. In this book (one of his many) he provides a solid Christian framework or grounding for our engagement with the world in which we live. While not downplaying the seriousness of our problems as a society and as humanity, he always remains positive and hopeful and shows the reader how to take practical steps.
Creation Care/Environment
The Sacred Balance, 25th anniversary edition: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, 2022
By David Suzuki
This is an extensively updated new edition of Suzuki’s classic book. In it David Suzuki reflects on the increasingly radical changes in science and nature—from the climate crisis to peak oil and the rise in clean energy—and examines what they mean for humankind. He also reflects on what we have learned by listening to Indigenous leaders, whose knowledge of the natural world is profound, and whose peoples are on the frontlines of protecting land and water around the world. The Sacred Balance combines science, philosophy, spirituality, and Indigenous knowledge to offer concrete suggestions for creating an ecologically sustainable future by rediscovering and addressing humanity's basic needs.
Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, 2021
By Katherine Hayhoe
Hayhoe is a Canadian Christian scientist and fine communicator. The book is sobering, hopeful, practical, engaging, honest, clear, and full of anecdotes and stories; she has a light touch and a fine sense of humour, but is, at the same time, very serious. Both problems and solutions are clearly identified. In another section she explains why facts matter but also why they are not enough. In the end, she shows the reader how everyone can make a difference.