Stop by the new bookstore located in St. Stephen's parish office. This store is a natural outgrowth of the growing demand by our parishioners and visitors for books, from originally stocking works by visiting authors, to offering books recommended by clergy and staff, to Advent and Lenten selections and books for various groups and classes. In addition to a wonderful selection of books, the store offers St. Stephen’s Blend coffee, olive oil from the Middle East, candles, notecards and prayer beads. Staff members in the office can help you with your purchases during regular office hours, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. In addition, a selection of items from the bookstore is available in the Large Fellowship Hall on Sundays.
Books at St. Stephen's
St. Stephen's has been blessed by the presence of wonderful guest speakers, including clergy, theologians, writers and monks. We have copies of books for sale in the parish office, most below retail.
In addition to books by St. Stephen's speakers, we offer a broad selection of other books as well.
A partial list of books by recent speakers is given below. Stop by the church to see the complete selection.
Frances Murchison
Breathe. See. Nourish. Energize. A Pathway to Healing
J. Philip Newell
Listening for the Heartbeat of God: A Celtic Spirituality
Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation
Sounds of the Eternal
Celtic Prayers from Iona: The Heart of Celtic Spirituality
A New Harmony
Temple Cone
No Loneliness
That Singing
Kathleen Singh (coming March 24-25, 2012)
The Grace in Dying: How We Are Transformed Spiritually as We Die
Becca Stevens (coming April 28-29, 2012)
Sanctuary: Unexpected Places Where God Found Me
Hither & Yon: A Travel Guide for the Spiritual Journey
Finding Balance: Loving God with Heart and Soul, Mind and Strength
Funeral for a Stranger: Thoughts on Life and Love
What we’re reading: clergy and staff recommendations
Blueberry Fool by Thom Rock
I am excited about recommending this tiny book of meditations as a Lenten companion or as a book to treasure anytime. Each meditation is only 3 to 4 pages long, and each one invites a slow, savoring read. The author, Thom Rock, lives in remote northern Vermont and is beautifully attuned to the rhythms of nature, the journeys of our lives, and the way memories can enrich our present. Thom is a gentle and very human guide in his meditations, and readers are quickly drawn into a place where we all feel a sense of being at home. As I said to my wife, these are the kinds of meditations that would benefit from being read out loud with someone we love or in a small group of receptive listeners (see Gussie Bannard’s similar response below).
In a noisy, fast-paced, and information-oriented climate, Blueberry Fool might be just the ticket for you to do as Jesus regularly did, to remove yourself to a quiet place apart from it all, collect yourself, and savor the sometimes neglected depths of this mysterious and wonderful life we live. –Gary D. Jones
On “Now and Then,” the first meditation in the book:
I want to have it read to me. The cadences, the rhythm, the sounds of the words—I want them to wash over me in their beauty. I don’t really want to discuss it but I want to hear it with others, hear the memories, hear the continuum of then and now, the words and sounds and meter woven together. It feels like beauty. I was so refreshed by the upholding of memory when we so glorify “living in the moment” these days. But I see that memory is not idolized or idealized, but admitted into the now, the present, with honor. Memory is honored. – Gussie Bannard
Poetry recommendations from the Vicar
For me, Lent is a time of sober contemplation, of exploring what befalls us and considering what redeems us, and the brevity, cadence, and perspective of poetry are especially suited to the starkness and surprises of the season. Following are three of my favorites. –Weezie Blanchard
Given by Wendell Berry
Most of this exquisite volume of poetry is made up of Sabbath observances of the natural world as commentary and inspiration on the lives that inhabit it.
What the Living Do by Marie Howe
These are poems about loss and pain, and also about redemption. They are straightforward and clear, so you think you know what’s coming. Then they take your breath away.
Sinners Welcome by Mary Karr
Mary Karr’s poetry is as spiritual and irreverent as her three deservedly best seller memoirs (Liars Club, Cherry, and Lit). She is deeply faithful, achingly funny, and disarmingly passionate.
Other recommendations:
A Whole New Life by Reynolds Price [recommended by Tom Smith]
The Desert: An Anthology for Lent by John Moses [recommended by Janet Allen]
Reconciliation by Martin Smith (instruction on how to make confession in the Episcopal Church) [recommended by Gene LeCouteur]
The Word is Very Near You by Martin Smith
“A classic on praying and particularly praying with scripture.” [Gary Jones]
Recommendations from the Inquirers Class
Gary Jones recommends several books each time he teaches an Inquirers Class for those who are new to the Episcopal Church, or those who are interested in learning more about it.
These modern novels that will help immerse you in the “Anglican Ethos” and the whole business of “what it means to be an Episcopalian.”
Glittering Images by Susan Howatch
“There’s no doubt that sex and religion can make exciting bedfellows; add mysteries within mysteries, scenes of charismatic spiritual healing and a deft creation of a middle-class milieu that disappeared with WW II, and you have an engrossing novel that challenges the reader’s sense of the fine points of morality. Howatch succeeds in making the subtle and complex theological points of a spiritual transformation both credible and exciting in a narrative whose dramatic tension never abates.” -- Publishers Weekly
Glamorous Powers by Susan Howatch
“The time is 1940. Jonathan Darrow is an Anglican priest when he receives a shattering vision and knows he must leave the monastery that has been his home for seventeen years. As he plunges into the temptations of the real world, a crisis sends him into the labyrinth of his past to pluck out the buried truth beneath the deceptions he has been living through.”
Also in this series (known as the “Starbridge Series”) by Susan Howatch: Ultimate Prizes, Scandalous Risks, Mystical Paths, Absolute Truths
Father Melancholy’s Daughter by Gail Godwin
“Godwin brings empathy, understanding and a 19th-century sensibility to this novel of a young woman deeply attached to her father, a moody Episcopalian minister whose wife has abandoned him.” -- Publishers Weekly
“Ambitious, wise...unforgettable...an engrossingly good read...a novel that explores timeless concerns of faith, love, and morality.” -- Atlanta Journal and Constitution
Evensong by Gail Godwin
“Godwin’s latest novel is as comforting and evocative as its title. It’s striking, at a time when so many books on spirituality are flooding the market, that so few novelists of skill and perceptiveness seem drawn to religion as a subject. Susan Howatch is one, of course, but Godwin has surely scored some kind of first in making her heroine here a female Anglican minister. … The carefully researched details of a woman minister’s daily rituals are fascinating, and Godwin offers her usual insights into her characters’ shifting feelings, compounded of psychological astuteness and keen empathy. Gracefully written and embracing a worldly but genuine sense of goodness and human possibility, this kind of book is rare these days.” -- Publishers Weekly
More Episcopal books
Those Episkopols by Dennis Maynard
With humor and insight, Dennis Maynard explains why the Episcopal Church, deeply rooted in scripture, tradition and reason, will not accept simplistic answers to complex questions.
The Episcopal Handbook
Morehouse Publishing
A guide to Episcopal Church culture, with a glossary of Episcopal worship terms, diagrams, illustrations and more
A People Called Episcopalians: A Brief Introduction to Our Peculiar Way of Life by the Rev. Dr. John Westerhoff
A series of essays on what it means to be an Episcopalian: Anglican Identity, Anglican Authority, Anglican Spirituality, Anglican Temperament, and Anglican Polity. Includes a glossary.
A Dictionary for Episcopalians by John N. Wall
From “Abbey” to “Year, Church” (there are no z’s!)
The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559 and 1662; edited by Brian Cummings
The words of the Book of Common Prayer have permeated deep into the life and literature of the English-speaking world. For nearly five hundred years, and for countless people, it has provided a background fanfare for a marriage or a funeral march at a burial. Yet this familiarity hides a violent and controversial history. When it was first produced, the Book of Common Prayer provoked riots among Catholics, and 4,000 died in a rebellion in Devon and Cornwall to oppose it. In the civil wars of the seventeenth century, it was banned by radical puritans, who believed it encouraged superstition and idolatry, and it caused riots all over Scotland. Conversely, with the spread of the British Empire, it was translated into a host of global languages and adopted as the basis for forms of worship in the United States and elsewhere.
This edition presents the work in three different states: the first edition of 1549, which brought the Reformation into people's homes; the Elizabethan prayer book of 1559, familiar to Shakespeare and Milton; and the edition of 1662, which embodies the religious temper of the nation down to modern times. All texts are freshly edited from original copies, preserving much of their original appearance, orthography, and punctuation. The Introduction explains the historical significance of the book and the controversial process by which it was put together and revised, the changes to the text from the Reformation to the Restoration of Charles II and the 1662 version, and the significance of the book for everyday life and for the history of the English language and its literature. The book includes a glossary, extensive notes, and two appendices.
Praying Our Days: A Guide and Companion by Frank Griswold
This book is the first new devotional resource of its kind for Episcopalians in more than two generations. It includes devotions to mark the rhythm of the day (brief prayers at fixed hours); the mystery of time and the rhythm of the week, the months, and the Christian year; self-examination and preparation for reconciliation and the Eucharist; intercessory prayers; devotions to the Mother of Jesus; praying with the saints; plus praying with icons. Each section of the book will open with a brief introduction and teaching by Bishop Griswold [former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church], guiding the reader in the effective use of the material.
Fiftieth Anniversary of A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L'Engle's classic for young people, A Wrinkle in Time, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. We carry this treasured book in our bookstore. You can listen to an NPR story about A Wrinkle in Time here.
This is just a partial list of what's available in the bookstore! Stop by to see it all, Mondays-Fridays, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
