Reflections of a Canadian Churchman

I have been informed that the first print run of my book Prayers for Healing from the Anglican Tradition is nearly sold out. A second print run has been ordered and will be arriving in stores soon. I wish to thank all those who have bought copies and have supported this project to date. I am very pleased at the amount of publicity that the new book is getting. There was a nice write-up in this month's The Anglican (the monthly newspaper of the Diocese of Toronto the story is found on page 12 - a pdf of the paper can be accessed here ), a wonderful colour advertisement in the Augsburg-Fortress Canadian Lent mailing, and today, Ali Symons the news writer for anglican.ca (the official website of the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada) has published a story entitled "Book of Healing Prayers Pocket-sized but Powerful". It looks like a mini-tour is coming together as well. I have already attended a couple of events, and on Saturday, March 6th, 2010 there will be s...

At a meeting of the Richard Hooker Society last fall, I had a conversation with one of the senior scholars of the society, Lee Gibbs, about our shared love of books and of owning a good library. Lee related to me some words of wisdom that his father had imparted to him many years ago, “Don’t ever get rid of your books, they will be your friends in your old age.” Lee told me that he had certainly found this to be sound wisdom. I am only in my fortieth year, but I certainly know the friendship of books. When we read we are mystically connected with those who have gone before us, who have thought about similar subjects, wrestled with similar issues and problems, who have attained wisdom we can only hope to attain. The most apparent communion (or dissonance) that we share is in the author-reader relationship. There is a conversation of the most intimate sort that happens between the author and reader, a conversation that laughs at death for death cannot silence words on the printed page,...