Culture

Zeus Publications, 2009 RRP: $31.95 Reviewed by Barbara Smith, a member of Buderim Uniting Church Lady Catherine McGregor brings the seed of a tree growing in the grounds of her stately home in Scotland to Van Dieman’s Land in the early 19th century. Against all odds the tree does grow and blossom. Katy, her brother Angus and his wife leave ...

Publication of the New Zealand Hymnbook Trust, 2009 RRP: $19.99 Reviewed by Ruth Beasley, a composer and music leader at Mareeba Uniting Church. Readers who are familiar with Alleluia Aotearoa, faith forever singing and Carol Our Christmas will be delighted to see this new book, another publication from the New Zealand Hymnbook Trust. The quote on the fly leaf , ...

Paulist Press, New York, Mahwah, NJ 2009 RRP: $ 29.95 Reviewed by Rev Anneli Sinkko, a retired Uniting Church minister in Rockhampton. When I started to read C. S. Lewis on the Fullness of Life it took me some time to divorce myself from the image of an old bus puffing towards Deep Heaven – the bus being the transport ...

Monarch Books, 2009 RRP: $22.95 Reviewed by Rosemary Wycherley who owns a cattle farm in Esk and is an elder in her local Uniting Church . This gem of a book takes the reader on a journey into the world of the modern day shepherd, exploring David’s Psalms and drawing eye-opening parallels with God’s role as the shepherd. The Sheep ...

Lion, 2008 RRP $27.95 Reviewed by Jock Dunbar, a Minister of the Word Intern at St Mark’s Mount Gravatt Uniting Church. IN The Lost History of Christianity, Professor Philip Jenkins tells “the story of the churches in the East and how they became extinct” from the years following the fall of the Roman empire in the West to the fall ...

Lion Hudson plc (Oxford), 2009 RRP $24.95 Reviewed by Peter Harvey, Frontier Services minister on the Flinders Patrol This book consists of double page spreads of different topics taking the reader through a very full spectrum of Christian beliefs and their background. A bevy of key topics are addressed, among them basic Christian beliefs; celebration and worship; prayer; and the ...

Darton, Longman & Todd (London), 2008 RRP $47.95 Reviewed by Peter Harvey, Patrol Minister for Frontier Services’ Flinders Patrol This is not a new book, but rather a new edition of a volume published in 1999, with an additional chapter. Ministry in Three Dimensions is addressed primarily to an Anglican (and British) context, though those from other denominations and places ...

Lion Hudson 2009 RRP $14.95 Linda Hanson is interested in finance matters and is a member of Cooroy Pomona Uniting Church. This book lives up to its name as this book is easy to read and comprehend in sixty minutes. Living out what it says will take longer. The book provides good practical advice for finding your way out of ...

Acorn Press, 2009 RRP $29.95 Reviewed by Karyl Davison, rural ministry coordinator for the Central Queensland and Mary Burnett Presbyteries. Recognising that the church faces a challenging future, with declining and aging congregations, this collection of short essays brings together 22 bishops of the Anglican Church in Australia seeking to give clear indication of some options for the way forward. ...

Jossey-Bass, 2006 RRP $32.95 Reviewed by Karyl Davison, Rural Ministry Coordinator for the Central Queensland and Mary Burnett Presbyteries. For too many people, their congregation is little more than a haven from the big bad world, a dispenser of religious goods and services, the ministry agent primarily a caregiver who looks after the private, personal needs of individuals. Congregations that ...