What's in Kelvin's Head

Here comes another book trying to persuade me that life in rural churches has a different set of challenges, presumptions and priorities to those which apply in an urban setting. To articulate that is also to articulate an uncertainty about who this book is aimed at. It might be written to encourage others engaged in [...]

Fr Gadgetvicar has been reading Patricia Meldrum’s book about Evangelicals of yore. So have I. This is the review of the book that was published in this month’s inspires. Conscience and Compromise – Forgotten Evangelicals of Nineteenth-century Scotland Patricia Meldrum (Paternoster Press – £29.99) As the oft repeated quotation says, those who do not remember [...]

Reclaiming the Sealskin: Meditations in the Celtic Spirit by Annie Heppenstall-West is a series of meditations on themes that are mostly drawn from the natural world (eg Ripples, Deer, Fire, Otter). Each theme has a beautifully drawn card that comes ready to be pressed out of the book. The idea is to take a theme [...]

Mission Implausible – Restoring Credibility to the Church (Paternoster Press £15.99) Duncan MacLaren’s new book Mission Implausible should be required reading for all those formulating mission strategies and schemes in the church, as well as for students of the mission of God’s people in the world. Contemporary sociological analysis of society is used by the [...]

You’ve Got To Have a Dream – the message of the musical by Ian Bradley (SCM Press £16.99) What will we have a theology of next? Ian Bradley’s book is a theological reflection on musical theatre. We’ll start at the very beginning. Despite cheerfully admitting that it is rather difficult to locate references to God [...]

Consecrations, Blessings and Prayers – A Pastoral Companion to the Ritual and to the Book of Blessings – Compiled by Sean Finnegan. Canterbury Press £16.99 This is a handy little hardback book filled with lots of helpful prayers for all kinds of pastoral situations. Stemming from the Roman Catholic tradition, there is much here for [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]