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Good Faith Book Club

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Formed in 2012, we now meet on the fourth Saturday in alternate months from 2pm to 4pm in The new Welcome Space which is through the glass doors at the front of the church in Buckingham Street. Our meeting months are January, March, May, July, September and November.

So 2019 dates are: January 26th, March 23rd May 25th, July 22nd, September 24th, November 26th.

The aim is to provide a forum for people to explore and discuss matters of faith and what they believe through the discussion of a book in a relaxed, convivial, non-threatening atmosphere.

Everyone is welcome to come along and express their views or just listen over a cup of tea or coffee. The group decides which book to read next. Various members have written the following summaries of our discussions.

Contact Peter Green the Club Secretary:
Tel. 01296 424653
Email: peterb.green@ntlworld.com.

The Shed That Fed A Million Children

For this book, individuals were asked for their personal brief, overall impressions...1. I was struck by the way that the author did not set out with a plan to feed a million children, but started with a vision of the Virgin Mary, something very strange to our Methodist ears — and then step-by-step found himself drawn into a huge international project. But it worked partly because of the approach he took in involving other people.2. When passing through Dalmally on my recent holiday in Scotland, I was inspired to find how isolated the village was, although there was a railway station. How had Magnus been able to found a world charity from such a small place? It demonstrated how God can use most unlikely individuals in such an amazing way. His faith shone through on every page and it makes me think that there are more things in the world that we cannot account for. The visions that triggered the initial work had an effect which cannot be disputed.3. The spirit is moving all the time

Laudato Si

This month the book club had read Pope Francis' encyclical entitled Laudato Si. (Praise be to you) taken from a prayer of St Francis of Assisi, whose love and care for all creation was an inspiration for the Pope. The encyclical was the Pope's analysis of the ecological crisis facing the world, including climate change, and his proposals for ameliorating and perhaps reversing the current trends.Some of the group found the language hard going as some was fairly scholarly, but generally it was an interesting and thought provoking read. A first question asked was who it was written for? As an encyclical it was obviously to the whole Catholic Church community, but it was felt it should be read by all governments and politicians and NGOs who needed to be reminded of the seriousness of our worldwide ecological situation. But as it had some chapters which were very specifically doctrinally Catholic in content, it might put off some organisations that would see it as Catholic propag

Face To Face

All the members present at a meeting of the Good Faith Book Club, agreed that this short book was easy to read and several of them had read it through thoughtfully for a second time. Samuel Wells had written it primarily to encourage fellow Anglican priests, but since Methodists believe in the priesthood of all believers, we felt that it was relevant to our own lives. In the introduction, which made up the first 26 pages of the 97 page book, Samuel described the power of silence, touch, words and prayer. The therapeutic benefit of singing was also acknowledged. The rest of the book consists of brief accounts of the ways Samuel has learned important lessons from contact with a wide variety of people. We discussed a few of these narratives. There was the fireman, who stitched the 3 nails he had been given at a Good Friday service, to his uniform and touched them, as he prayed for faith, courage and hope, whenever the Brigade was called out. Then there was the woman, who was able to forg

Reimagining Britain

There were varied responses to this book by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Some found the vocabulary daunting; others could not get all through; some found it beyond them. But it provoked a really good & passionate discussion.Welby's picture of the present state of the nation was compelling and the great differences between the super-rich and the poor was graphically described, as was the scape-goating of immigrants and we agreed with his analysis of these. He was scathing about the lack of resources to deal with the problems.The film "I, Daniel Blake" was strongly recommended by members of the group, as a heart-wrenching picture of our brutal benefit system. Welby was also firm in his indictment of the Popular Press in purveying the dangerous attitudes that were producing so many of the ills he described. He recommended cooperation and not privatisation, cross-party working rather than the following of party interests. He regretted the transforming of education from a

Meeting Jesus Again For The First Time

On Saturday 26 January twelve avid Good-Faith book readers met to discuss Marcus Borg's book "Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time." We all agreed, whether we were more or less familiar with Borg's ideas, we all had, indeed, seen Jesus afresh through the reading or rereading of this book!The style of Borg's writing is scholarly, logical and assessible, which made it easy to read on one level; the difficult and challenging ideas made it less easy reading on quite another. There was much in the book to challenge any complacency that may have crept into our way of looking at our faith. Borg discusses perceptions of Jesus under four categories: spiritual person, social prophet, wisdom teacher, and movement founder. His central point is that if we consider the character of Jesus looking back from our current perspective, we see Jesus in a particular way, depending upon what aspects of the 2000+ years of Christian history (since Jesus lived as a human on earth)

On God's Side

Written during his sabbatical in the Obama presidency, Jim Wallis's On God's Side forensically, or as one of our number preferred, depressingly, analysed the current state of politics, mainly in the US but with many global similarities. He illustrated the power of money over democracy and argues that all political parties seem to prefer winning over governing, ideology over civility and celebrity culture over leadership. Fear and blame he cites as the default policy, whilst meanwhile, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Since the book was written, we felt that things had only got worse.Wallis called for the need of both the personal responsibility credo of the 'conservatives' and the social responsibility of the 'liberals' and a return to seeking 'the common good'. However, he argued that with a broken political system in so many countries, real change has usually needed a background movement of popular support. We broadly agreed with this, as

Gilead

Most of the books we read and discuss are non-fiction of varying kinds, but this book is a novel. This proved a turn-off for two of our members, but the rest of us enjoyed it and found a lot to reflect on within it.It is in the form of a long letter, with no chapters — only pauses (and this too was a deterrent for some), written by an aging and dying father, the Rev. John Ames, to the son of his old age. It is not morbid, however, and is full of quiet and dry humour. John is a minister in a small town in Iowa. His letter tells how he lost his first wife and child and was supported in the ensuing loneliness by his friend Boughton, a Presbyterian minister in the same town. While remaining the best of friends they enjoy deep theological arguments as Boughton is a Calvinist and believes in the salvation of the elect. In spite of this unforgiving doctrine, Boughton is a loving minister, friend and family man. Ames' reflections on theology and life gave us plenty of opportunity for the

Pastrix: The Cranky Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint

Having already read — and in the main — enjoyed, Nadia Bolz-Weber's book 'Accidental Saints', we decided it would be good to read her earlier book, which tells us more about the journey of her life which had led to her becoming a Lutheran pastor to a highly-unusual congregation of societal 'misfits'.From her baptism, aged 12, in the Church of Christ, Nadia's questioning nature led her to see the gap between what she was being taught as the right way to live, and the actual behaviour of those in the Church. Her rebellion against this, took her into Wiccan practices, where she learnt to value female spirituality, but also into alcoholism. Despite her rejection of the Christianity of her upbringing, and her increasing reliance on alcohol, Nadia did not become an atheist, and felt guided by God, eventually feeling a call to be a pastor to the odd assortment of people with whom she found herself associating. In our discussion, there was appreciation of the fact tha

For Good

FOR GOOD -- The Church and the Future of Welfare by Samuel Wells with Russell Rook and David Barclay was discussed on Saturday at the Good Faith Book Club. Although this was a short book, it was not a quick, easy one to read. It was initially met with mixed reactions. The role of Christians to speak truth to power and to campaign for social justice was thought to underrated. Later though, it was agreed that a balance had been presented between the place of the state and the part played by charities in welfare.It was pointed out, that prior to 1948, the church used to educate the young, care for the sick and support those in distress, as well as worshipping God, preaching, praying and engaging in Bible study. In those days Christian benefactors worked hard to do these things, but the provisions they made were patchy and often tended to be amateurish. When, following the Beveridge Report, the state set out to combat want, idleness, ignorance, disease and squalor, most Christians were de

What is the Bible?

This was a book that led to a lot of lively discussion. Some members of the group found the informal style in which the book was written was too alien for them, while others, while not necessarily enjoying the style, which seemed to be aimed at a different kind of readership, found it refreshing. One or two people really enjoyed its informality. Those who overcame any reservations that they had about the style found that the actual content was very challenging, and offered a number of very helpful insights, both about the nature of the Bible in general, and also in relation to particular passages. The book does not approach the task of talking about the Bible in a systematic way but looks at it in a series of short but lively chapters. It takes a story or even a word, and explores it through raising questions and offering a range of possible interpretations and meanings that can be drawn from it.The way in which Rob Bell dots around with the subjects he covered was confusing for som

A Heart Broken Open

The book is Rev. Ray Gaston's account of his engagement with Islam in the majority Muslim population of the Inner City Leeds parish in which he ministered for twelve years. Views of the book were mixed with most people of the opinion that it was tough going, somewhat repetitive, inward-looking and intense. Despite that, it stimulated interesting and far-reaching discussion.Gaston made a good case for pacifism in his book and explained the differences between the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam clearly. He also reminded us of, probably, the earliest example of a mutually respectful Christian-Muslim Interfaith dialogue almost 900 years ago when St Francis and Sultan Al-Kamil met during the time of the Fifth Crusade in 1219.We noted from Gaston's account that his efforts to reach out to his Muslim neighbours appeared one-sided, lacking reciprocity from the Islamic community with which he sought to engage. We considered possible reasons for this, drawing on our own experienc

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