Reflections of a Canadian Churchman

I am pleased to announce that ABC Publishing (The Anglican Book Centre) will be publishing an anthology of healing prayers that I have been collecting for some time. Prayers for Healing in the Anglican Tradition is a collection of healing prayers from official prayer books from around the Anglican Communion. The tentative release date is January 2009, pending the securing of rights and permissions from the respective copyright holders. My hope is that clergy, lay visitors, lay anointers, those involved in prayer chains, those leading the prayers of the people, or simply anyone involved in the healing ministry will find this book useful. The collected prayers are grouped thematically (e.g., general collects, prayers for recovery, for those facing chronic or terminal illness, those facing depression, those preparing for surgery, etc.). Each section is introduced with a short series of "pastoral considerations." The book's Introduction gives a short history of the healing m...

A parishioner recently asked me about the rather pretentious-looking list in the right-hand column of this page labeled “Currently Reading.” He asked if I was really reading that many books at one time. Before I get around to telling you how I answered him, perhaps a word is in order as to why this list, and its companion list “Recently Read”, are even on this page at all. Many will know that I was, for many years, the Retail Sales Manager of Toronto’s Anglican Book Centre. I spent a good deal of my time reading catalogues, meeting publishers’ sales representatives, ordering books, classifying books, recommending books, publicizing books, and of course, selling books. One of the great joys of bookselling was to receive what we called the “front-list” catalogues, that is, the catalogues of new titles for the upcoming season. It was as much an art as a science to come up with order quantities for any given new title. Much was involved in making that particular decision. In additio...