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A Prayer Book of Days

Aug 29, 2025 | 2025 – Autumn – Free, Book Reviews

A Prayer Book of Days

Author Gregory Cameron
Publisher Canterbury £12.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781786225955

Looking for something to stimulate your devotional life? Interested in the development and diversity of Christian prayer? Why not try A Prayer Book of Days? Thirty-one short chapters, beautifully illustrated with icon-like portraits, explore significant figures in the history of Christianity, each focussing on one signature prayer. Beginning with David, Jesus and early Christian saints, we are led through continents and ages to the present, meeting many who feature as ‘Lesser Festivals’ in Common Worship. Some, like Augustine of Hippo, St Patrick, or Ignatius Loyola, are well known, others, like John Climacus or Edith Stein perhaps less so. The stories of these ‘saints’ are interesting, accessible and sometimes moving, reminding us that prayer can take many forms, from prose to song, from words to silence. The material could prove invaluable for incorporation into sermons, reflections or group discussions.

Yet, primarily, this is a book to use day by day as a springboard into our own prayer times, for experimenting with new insights and patterns and making some of the famous prayers our own. It is a book to treasure
and re-visit.

Reviewed by Prayer

Advent, Nativity

 

Perfectly Ordinary

Aug 29, 2025 | 2025 – Autumn – Free, Book Reviews

Perfectly Ordinary

Author Marcus Throup
Publisher Canterbury £14.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9781786225856

This relatively short accessible book is about Christian leadership, for those in, or preparing for, leadership as well as those training or mentoring them. The focus is ordained ministry rather than lay, and the context is primarily Anglican. Throup specifically addresses the issue of unhealthy models of leadership and how they can lead to spiritual abuse. He characterises types of spiritually abusive leaders as overprotective, egocentric or narcissistic. These and their manifestations he defines and pictures vividly and starkly. I wondered if there are not perhaps more nuanced, less obvious but equally harmful, variations to be considered. Characterising all manifestations as the work of ‘showmen’ enamoured by the spectacular, he urges leadership that is unspectacular, authentic, humble, pastoral, prayerful, faithful and Christ-centred. A longer book might have considered abusive lay leadership, or how a managerial emphasis on quantification, centralisation and hierarchy in the institutional church may unwittingly devalue the ‘perfectly ordinary’ leadership of the title. Nonetheless the book is insightful and incisive A concluding section on self-care for leaders is typically thoughtful, sealing a recommendation.

Reviewed by PETER WRIGHT

Christian leadership

 

Chaplaincy: Contemporary and Global Perspectives

Mar 31, 2025 | 2025 - Summer – Free, Book Reviews

Chaplaincy: Contemporary and
Global Perspectives

Author Grace Thomas and Kim Wasey (eds)
Publisher SCM £35
Format pbk
ISBN 9780334066217

This is a collection of essays written by a range of practitioners, most (but not all) from the UK. The editors have actively sought ways to establish and celebrate an inclusive and progressive ethos, something which is often seen within the world of chaplaincy ministry itself. One of the contributors refers to an earlier writer, Ewan Kelly, for whom ‘the intentional use of self is a core skill of chaplaincy, rooted in and developed from self-awareness’: this maxim is amply reflected across the range of personal stories and insights presented in the volume. Contributors reflect on their work (and, inevitably, themselves) within specialised contexts such as the police, prisons, industrial and retail settings along with aspects of health and social care provision. Educational chaplaincy seems slightly marginal to the main material, although the essay by Ian Delinger on higher education chaplaincy makes sense as a concise and comprehensive ‘how to’ guide. Nik Hookey’s detailed account of NHS chaplaincy is invaluable to those in parish ministry wanting to get to grips (or up to date) with what is often seen as a mysterious parallel universe. Insights derived from any particular setting are often transferable to many of the others and, as editor Grace Thomas concludes in her essay-contribution, ‘chaplaincy is a discipline that holds together a multitude of different models and approaches to practice. This book is a clear example of the many ways in which chaplaincy is lived out and the diversity of contexts it inhabits’. Groups of essays on broad topics focus on ‘Multifaith and Secular Dimensions’; ‘Chaplaincy and Christian Mission’; and ‘Research and Reflective Practice’, and these will amply satisfy readers’ appetites for fresh thinking and wise reflections. Throughout the volume, full regard is given to the fact that today’s chaplains are adapting (or have adapted) to contexts and clienteles which are increasingly less ‘Christian’ and where the idea of ‘mission’ is in need of continual redefinition. Each essay is accompanied by a detailed bibliography, and Thomas and Wasey have certainly succeeded in providing a landmark resource which will be of lasting value to those engaged with the emergent discipline of chaplaincy studies.

Reviewed by STEPHEN LAIRD

Chaplaincy

 

Anna and the Angel

Mar 31, 2025 | 2025 - Summer – Free, Book Reviews

Anna and the Angel

Author Eleanor Williams
Publisher Authentic Media £7.99
Format Parthian £10 pbk
ISBN 9781917140140

This is a delightful and original retelling of the apocryphal book of Tobit, vigorously reimagined and transported from the time of Israel’s exile in Assyria to contemporary south Wales. In the original, the focus is on Tobit himself, recently blind and dreadfully depressed, on Tobias his only son, and on Raphael (known as Azariah), the benign, heroic guardian angel. Tobias marries Sarah, a distant relative and, through prayer and obedience, family fortunes are restored, and Tobit is healed. In this retelling, the narrative is imaginatively given to Anna and Edna, the mothers of Tobias and Sarah, who correspond by email as the remarkable adventure unfolds. This allows the innermost feelings and concerns of two women who are mentioned in the biblical text, but who are otherwise peripheral to the original narrative, to be explored and celebrated. There is an enchanting freshness to the text which encourages the reader to recognise the hidden hand of God in guiding our lives. I certainly recommend Anna and the Angel, but I suggest it could be helpful to revisit the often-neglected book of Tobit first.

Reviewed by KATE BURTON

Apocrypha, novel

 

Mixed Ecology

Mar 31, 2025 | 2025 - Summer – Free, Book Reviews

Mixed Ecology

Author Ed Olsworth-Peter
Publisher SPCK £19.99
Format pbk
ISBN 9780281089376

If the advent of phrases such as ‘mixed ecology (or economy) church’ have left you feeling confused and out of touch, this might be the book for you. The author takes us through the debates around why we might need a mixed ecology, how to integrate one, how to inhabit one, and he describes different models for leading and shaping churches in mixed ecologies. The basic idea is that different sorts of church, such as traditional parishes, pioneer ministries and new congregations are better at both surviving and flourishing if they work together. The text is supplemented by useful diagrams to show how the different elements might fit together. The conclusion admits that the discussion is mainly theoretical, because there are not too many examples of mixed ecologies around. That does not undermine the book’s usefulness for grasping what some projects are aiming for, however, it did leave me wondering how far a metaphor such as mixed ecology can be stretched before it loses meaning.

Reviewed by DAVID HEADING

Ecclesiology

 

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