Church of Our Saviour » COS Reads

COS Reads: My Sister, Alicia May

sara — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:53:38 +0000

From the Boston Globe comes news of a special book by a local author that will be of particular interest to families with young children. My Sister, Alicia May, by Nancy Tupper Ling, is the story of two young girls, one of whom has Down syndrome. Nancy Tupper Ling wrote this not just about these two real sisters, but about anyone who has a sibling or a friend. Although written for children ages 4-8, Ling does not over-simplify. As Beverly Beckham says, “It is the story of what it’s like to love someone. Sometimes the people you love most irritate you the most. Sometimes you want to pretend you don’t know them. Sometimes you don’t want them tagging along. Sometimes you’re so proud of them you want to tell the world.”
This wonderfully illustrated book is a conversation starter. Like any good conversation it is about questions, not answers. It is a way to open up your child’s questions about people who are different from them. It is a continuation of what we began recently in Sunday School. Mary Knab, our resident professor of physical therapy, generously came along and answered questions on physical disabilities. What’s it like to walk with crutches? Why do some people walk differently or talk like that? If your leg breaks and it can get better, how come your spinal cord can’t?

For children to include others they need not to be afraid. Talk with them. Answer their questions. Start with a good story. As you know, you’ll probably learn a lot yourself!

COS Reads: The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

sara — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:50:06 +0000

If you’d like an uplifting, delightful spring read, pick up this book with the funny title, written by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It’s set In post-war England with a quirky cast of characters who survived the German occupation by inventing a book group when they were found out after curfew following an illicit pig roast. Written as a series of letters between the unlikely literati of Guernsey and a British writer, Julia, who is looking for a new project, the story unfolds with surprising momentum.

We meet a colorful array of odds and sods who might be cousins of the Vicar of Dibley’s crowd. They each read whatever book they were assigned and then offer rather startling opinions on the classics. There is Isola, who has a home-made potion for whatever ails you, and is disgusted by the way those Brontë girls were always cleaning up after their dissolute brother. Eben is a a fisherman who loves Shakespeare and Will Thisbee is a rag-and-bone man who created the famous potato peel pie. When Julia goes to Guernsey to meet them in person, she discovers a community knitted together by the profound care of community as they endured the privations and hardships of wartime. It is a graceful, redemptive story, well told and thoroughly entertaining.

Says Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the international bestseller Eat, Pray, Love, “I can’t remember the last time I discovered a novel as smart and delightful as this one. Treat yourself to this book, please—I can’t recommend it highly enough.” But more importantly, the Rector spotted it on a parishioner’s side table, right next to Team of Rivals. Read that, too, but you’ll smile more with the Potato Peel Pie people.

COS Reads: The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

sara — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:50:06 +0000

Lenten Series Schedule: March 5 to April 2, 7:30-9:00 pm

sara — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 03:00:35 +0000

Week One, March 5: Beginning
A brief introduction to the faith of Islam as a background and aid to reading A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Week Two, with Karen King, March 12: Martyrdom in the early Church
Its historical context, and a look at some of the writings of and about the earliest Christian martyrs. What does it mean for us now to embrace a faith whose creed and biblical canon was shaped by and fixed during a time of violence, and the possibility of martyrdom.

Week Three, with Karen King, March 19: Resurrection Faith
How do Jews, Christians and Muslims talk about resurrection? Karen will have recently returned from a seminar in Jerusalem in which Jews, Christians and Muslims, themselves living with the ever-present threat of violence, religiously approach life and death.

Week Four, March 26: The Holy Week Story
Who are the many characters in the events of the Holy Week and how did their choices reflect their best effort to be faithful to God and to one another in a time of crisis?

Week Five, April 2: Wrap Up
What are we prepared to say about Jesus’ choices in his ministry and especially during Holy Week? Which of those choices are we called to imitate? What does it mean for us, in 21st century America, to “take up our cross” and follow?

We will meet each week from 7:30-9:00. Child care will be provided.

COS Reads: Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

sara — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:40:26 +0000

Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, is a read that is all the rage among young adults. It’s a book parents will want to be able to discuss with them. Set in the future, following a catastrophic uprising/civil war, it is a mix of suspense and philosophy, romance and adventure. Panem is the shining capital of the country that rose up from the ashes of what once was called North America.

Katniss Everdeen, the unfortunately named heroine, is a 16-year-old who lives in one of thirteen impoverished districts that ring the capital. She supplements her widowed mother and sister’s diets by hunting with a bow and arrow. One day, her sister is chosen to represent the district in the Hunger Games and Katniss volunteers to take her place. The premise of the Hunger Games is simple. As punishment for the uprising, each of the districts must send one boy and one girl as “tributes” to play in the Hunger Games. The twenty-four tributes are imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena containing multiple hazards. The competition lasts several weeks and the participants must fight to the death. The last one standing wins, bringing rewards such as food to the district. The Games look a bit like the Olympics and reality TV but their purpose is to demonstrate the total control of the rulers. Worst of all, the populace is forced to treat these games as a festival, “a time for repentance as well as thanks.”

Pretty dark, eh? It is an absorbing read for a young person—the rector consumed it in one long snowstorm—but presents a deeply troubling picture of our future that ought to be challenged. It demands serious discussion, between adults and young people, of the mythic world as well as our own.

Coming in Lent: The Cross in the 1st and 21st Centuries

sara — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:32:11 +0000

The weeks of Lent culminate in Holy Week and Easter—stories of life, death, hope and struggle which are at the heart of our Christian faith. The context of those stories—Jerusalem in Jesus’ time—was a violent and volatile political setting that is vastly different from life as we know it in the United States in 2009. How do we understand the stories of our faith in peacetime and in a culture where Christianity is culturally understood to be the religion of the land?

To get a sense of the dangers of life in wartime today, we will be reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini (2007). Written by the author of The Kite Runner, the story is set in Afghanistan and tells a story of family and community life through the experience of two women whose lives intersect as both struggle to survive in a culture which must endure one war after another.

With Karen King’s help, we will look at how suffering and dying has been regarded in the Christian tradition. What might it mean for us to “take up our cross and follow”? We’ll look at the variety of ways in which “resurrection” is understood, with a particular focus on early Christianity. We will ask what it means for us today.

Finally, we will take a look at the Holy Week narrative itself. Who are the major players? Are there really any “bad guys” or is it the tragic account of many different people each struggling in wartime to make the best and most faithful decisions they could?

Our Thursday evening meetings will be from 7:30 – 9 p.m. Child-care will be provided.

COS Reads: Payback, by Margaret Atwood

katherine — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:23:08 +0000

“Debt – who owes what to whom, or to what, and how that debt gets paid – is a subject much larger than money.” So says Margaret Atwood, author of Payback: Debt as Metaphor and the Shadow Side of Wealth. The book is based on the prestigious Massey Lectures, given annually in Canada, and delivered by Atwood last fall. She examines “debt as a human construct … that peculiar nexus where money, narrative or story, and religious belief intersect, often with explosive force.”

For Atwood, “the whole theology of Christianity rests on the notion of spiritual debts and what must be done to repay them.” This is not a dry-as-dust argument but a kind of conversation with a brilliant writer who is usually in the business of creating narratives to condense and carry meaning. Here she does the reverse and unpacks the meaning of some of our most familiar and revered narratives, from biblical stories, to fairy tales, to 19th Century novels, to the fall TV lineup. A timely, thought-provoking, conversation-starting read.

Hear Margaret Atwood discuss Payback on NPR’s “On Point” . You can listen to the book/Massey Lectures as a stream for free on CBC or download for a fee at iTunes.

Resources for the Spirituality of Children

katherine — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:58:08 +0000

The following resources are suggested by Mary Ann Christie Burnside, Ed.D.

www.withheartsandminds.com

David Wolpe. Teaching Your Child About God.

Episcopal Diocese of Alabama . Scope and Sequence.

Jean Grasso Fitzpatrick. Something More: Nurturing Your Child’s Spiritual Growth.

Ronald Rohlheiser. Against an Infinite Horizon

Sofia Cavalletti. The Religious Potential of the Child 3-6 Years Old

Sofia Cavalletti. The Religious Potential of the Child 6-12 Years Old.

Sofia Cavalletti Patricia Coulter, Gianna Gobbi, & Silvania Q. Montanaro, M.D. The Good Shepherd and the Child: A Joyful Journey.

David Robinson. The Christian Family Toolbox: 52 Benedictine Practices for the Home.

Mimi Doe & Marsha Walch. Ten Principles of Spiritual Parenting: Nurturing Your Child’s Soul.

Epiphany Book Group

katherine — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:01:05 +0000

In the spirit of the “season of revelation” an intrepid group of COS members began to meet in the cold of January to discuss the writing of Brian McClaren. Selections from his book, Everything Must Change were made available by the diocese as “Epiphany Papers.” Joyce Scheyer, our seminarian, convened the group.

According to McClaren, the book asks two essential questions: What are the world’s top crises, and what do the life and message of Jesus say to those global crises? He believes many young people see Christianity as a failed religion because it fails to address systemic injustice, poverty, and dysfunction. He thinks we can do better.

You may have an opinion on one or the other of these questions. The group continues in February on the first two Thursdays, 7:30-8:30. No need to read in advance-just come and join the conversation.