Anglesey, The Concise History by David A. Pretty

Anglesey: The Concise History : The Concise History (History of Wales)

In this enjoyable read David A. Pretty gives us 9000 years of history in just 156 pages and therefore, without criticism, one must note that this is a selective history of Anglesey. 

It is also a very “traditional” selection, with many decades whizzing past during which the only comment is about who was elected MP.  Industry gets a mention as does education, but mainly in terms of who was in charge rather than giving a sense of the “lived” experience of the ordinary Anglesey people.

There are notes on the changing dynamics of the religious life of the island, from the stronghold of the druids to a bastion of Methodism and now a seemingly listless present.

But it is the ability to give a narrative arc across the centuries which is the strength of this volume.  That very long term trends have been determinative in the make up of island life is drawn out in a way that much “modern” historical writing with its micro focus fails to do.

Clergy Robes by Andrew Atherstone and Dressing for Worship by Dick Hines

Clergy Robes and Mission Priorities (Worship Series)
 Dressing for Worship: A Fresh Look at What Christians Wear in Church

Grove Books have a well deserved reputation for providing high quality and accessible material which enriches the life of the Church by encouraging thoughtful engagement in key issues among the general reader. 

Andrew Atherstone’s Clergy Robes and Mission Priorities can therefore only be understood as the exception that proves the rule.  His starting point is that Clergy Robes are a barrier to Mission, however he advances no evidence to substantiate this.  Instead this is an unremitting tirade against the rules of the Church of England based on the assumption that those who uphold these rules are backward, blinkered, and ignorant.

Dick Hines’ Dressing for Worship, which is amongst Andrew Atherstone’s bibliography, is a much more worthy offering.  It is a useful foundation for considering the position of the Church of England on clergy dress, acknowledging the deep tradition of giving clergy distinctive outfits and the many positive arguments in favour of the retention of this practice.  It does also give space for consideration of the down side of this practice and the reasons why some feel that the obligation on clergy to robe should be removed.

Travelling Light by Mike Lees

Travelling Light: Dramatic Reflections on the Life of Jesus by Those Who Knew Him

This collection of short dialogues based on Biblical stories provides some useful material to enliven services.

They are solidly written but perhaps stay a little too safe, and one or two of them rely too heavily on clichés, these are a good starting point for those who want to try out some dramatic readings within worship – they are going to be invaluable in finding ones feet and building confidence.  

That said I feel that you would quickly get to the point where you would want to do more, to write you own dialogues and to push the boundaries of what the disciples were thinking. 

Drama is often most powerful when used to allow a congregation to think the “unthinkable” – to give motivations to the actors within Biblical stories that are beyond the sanitised versions that we have often become over familiar with.

In the Beginning - Pictures by Jan Pienkowski

In the Beginning

I have always been a great fan of Meg and Mog and so the recent discovery of this book made it a must have.

Its arrival came with a couple of surprises, first its large format – 15 inch square – I had expected, without justification, for it to be the same size as your standard Meg and Mog.

The other surprise came reading the cover notes, Jan Pienkowski is a man – this came as more of a surprise than I expected.  Somehow we do tend to align the creator with their creations and so it was natural for me to bracket Jan and Meg together.  

I have always held Meg as something of a role model and so there was some deep, if ultimately small, shift in my self understanding to realise there is a significant discontinuity between Meg and the real world, as embodied by Jan (or perhaps I am overplaying the importance of gender).

The selection of Bible stories are all from the Old Testament and there is a delightfully “Old Testament” approach.  We have the murder of Abel, bones at the bottom of the ocean below Noah’s ark, Mrs Potiphar, Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea etc. It is good to have a quality “children’s” book that does not sentimentalise the Bible. 

The text is just a verse or two per page, and many stories are given with just a one page “snap shot”, but around them your could sit and tell the story – it is a book to engage children with rather than to leave them to read alone.

In some ways this might seem a very simple book, but the pictures have a rich charm which will bring you back to them time and again.  For example it is interesting that Jacob’s ladder is shown as a double helix – that set a whole range of thoughts and imaginings running.  

 

The State of the World Atlas by Dan Smith

The State of the World Atlas

The geographer in me was tempted to buy this Atlas when the religion map was featured in the Church Times a few weeks ago.

There is great coverage of different issues, population, economics, health, environmental and such like and it is seeing the different maps together that really begins to add up to a bigger picture. 

We all know there are no lies like Statistics, and when stats are given visual expression extreme caution is needed.  Published by the New Internationalist the narrative and the selection of issues is clearly within a particular political world view (for example the comparison of Gross National Income to the revenue of transnationals has an implicit suggestion that the power of these transnationals is problematic).

However when on map after map there is a great red sweep across the centre of Africa you can’t avoid acknowledging there is something going on.   Also startling is seeing that per capita China’s Gross National Income is in the same bracket as Angola and St Lucia.  It is making these kinds of connections which are the strength.

The Art of Tentmaking - Making Space for Worship Edited by Stephen Burns

The Art of Tentmaking: Making Space for Worship

This collection of essays in honour of Richard Giles is best described as "slight". Despite a line up of fairly heavy weight writers we get a selection of personal anecdotes strung together with flimsy theorizing and much hyperbole.

There is lots about Giles enthusiasm to share his vision and his charismatic abilities to do so - but if we are blunt the vision has made little impact beyond the regimes in which Giles had the authority to autocratically put vision into practice.

One eassy that did stand out was that of Steven Croft, seeking simplicity in liturgy after decades of escalating complexity in Common Worship - simplicity not just within particular liturgical acts but simplicity in the landscape of a worshipping community week to week.

Another, and perhaps related theme, from Stephen Cotterell seemed to be that if we get the actions of liturgy right then the words will become much less important.

The reflection I will take most strongly way from it is Richard Giles' interesting way of understanding "the priesthood of all believers" - that this should not be taken, as it almost invariably is, as an individualistic identity.  It is not that each believer is in and of themselves endowed with a separate priesthood, but that all believers share in a collective priesthood.  The exercise of this priesthood therefore is only intelligible within community.    

However overall I was left feeling a little let down. 

The Congo & the Cameroons by Mary Kingsley

The Congo and the Cameroons (Penguin Great Journeys)

Like many of the Penguin Great Journeys The Congo & the Cameroons, while generally enjoyable, is at times a little uncomfortable. 

The blurb tells us that Mary Kingsley had a scepticism for the European Imperial and Missionary activity in Africa and yet there is often a patronising air about her descriptions of her African guides and helpers.  She seems to despair at their behaviour in the same way that a weary Cub Scout leader might feel after a weekend camp with some troublesome youngsters.  Although of course none of this was necessarily racially determined – she may well have spoken in similar terms of the “working class” folk she encountered back in England.

We can not ignore this but we have to hold a tension there – Mary is a remarkable woman for her time, her travels and her writing would seem to have been pushing the boundaries of what was possible or acceptable for a “lady”.   She was enlightened even if by our own standards that enlightenment was incomplete.

I have recently shared my love for Miranda Hart, and there are many moments when Mary Kingsley sounds like she has been lifted from a Miranda sketch – little turns of phrase which are very dated and yet still echo from the mouths of the tweed wearing upper classes.   There is also a certain gung-ho spirit to it all, I kept waiting for her to say “…and then a crocodile chewed off my right leg – Such fun!” 

On balance I spent more time enjoying the company of Mary Kingsley than I did worrying about her views.