August 31, 2010

Salvation at Hand for St Andrew Press? Kirk Proposes Deal with Hymns Ancient and Modern

Posted by Phil Groom under Christian Publishers, News | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |
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SALVATION may be at hand for St Andrew Press, the Church of Scotland’s publishing division, in the shape of Hymns Ancient and Modern (HM&A), which took on publishing responsibilities for the Church of England only last year.

St Andrew Press was faced with the threat of closure earlier this year as part of a controversial cost-cutting exercise by the Kirk which led to John Brown, brother of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, stepping down in protest from his position as a lay member of the Kirk’s Publishing Committee when redundancies left the Press with just one member of staff to oversee operations.

According to the official Kirk announcement, three bids were considered for St Andrew Press and the Mission and Discipleship Council, which is responsible for the Press, felt that the bid from HM&A was “the best option” with a final decision due to be made by the Council of Assembly. The Revd Mark Johnstone, Convener of the Mission and Discipleship Council, described it as “a win win situation for the Church as we get to retain our valuable St Andrew Press brand, increase our market reach and raise money for the Church, all at no cost to us.”

Perhaps he is right, if that’s what winning is about. The press release makes no mention of what a handover of operations to HM&A might cost the sole surviving member of staff or what the implications might be for booksellers in terms of trade representation: at present St Andrew Press is represented by the SPCK-led Christian Publishers Representatives (CPR) team.

If — as seems likely — the deal with HM&A goes through then St Andrew Press would seem set to become part of the growing Norwich Books & Music distribution portfolio alongside Church House Publishing and Darton Longmann & Todd, amongst others. Whilst it will remain possible to place orders via the PubEasy network, it will no longer be possible to pay invoices or process returns via batch.co.uk as NB&M have yet to sign up to batch.

If you, beloved reader, are a batch.co.uk user, perhaps now would be a good time to contact NB&M and gently encourage them to join.

Reports Elsewhere (most recent first)

 

August 5, 2010

Is there a Case for Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide? George Pitcher says not.

Posted by Phil Groom under Author Interviews, Book News, Guest Posts, Lion Hudson | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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George Pitcher: A Time to Live

George Pitcher: A Time to Live

MY THANKS to Simon Cox of Monarch Books for pointing me in the direction of George Pitcher, author of A Time To Live: The Case Against Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide (9781854249876, Monarch Books, 1st July 2010, £8.99). Whatever your personal views on the topic, it’s an area that we can ill afford to ignore as this recent BBC News report, for instance, makes clear: Locked-in man seeks right to die

George is an Anglican priest and, until recently, was The Daily Telegraph’s Religion Editor. I invited him to tell us about the book. He writes:

I don’t believe that a case can be made politically, culturally or medically for helping people to kill themselves. I believe that it brutalizes not only those who choose to die by taking a lethal dose, but also brutalizes those who enable them to die – and that would very often be doctors and nurses. I believe that it would create a two-tier structure for the value of human lives – where the terminally ill, the frail, the elderly and the disabled will come to think that society has affirmed that their lives are not worth living, that their lives are worth less than those of the healthy and able-bodied. And I believe that it would undermine our world-leading standards of palliative care, if death becomes a clinical treatment option. All this, is explored in my book.

I was anxious that the publishers didn’t just want a “religious” book. And those of us who oppose assisted suicide and euthanasia are a bit sensitive about our religious objections to the practice. This is partly because some of those who support euthanasia want to characterise the debate as between swivel-eyed religious bigots (apparently, like me) and compassionate and rational secularists who have the best interests of the suffering at heart.

It’s meant, frankly, that many of us have rather avoided going into theological arguments against assisted suicide and euthanasia. And this may mean that we neglect what our Christian faith informs us about the business of living and dying. There is surely a balance to be struck here – the Christ does not wish us to suffer, but he nevertheless says “Follow me”.

It’s as if he’s not wishing his suffering, his Passion and death, on those who follow him. But he is inviting us to go the extra mile with him. Because it’s at the cross – and at our own cross – at that moment of revelation when human death meets divine life that the most profound knowledge of life and death is vouchsafed.

The very loss of control, the dependence on the care of others, is where lives are most intensely cherished, with the affirmation that every life, however diminished, bears the image of God and is of value beyond measure.

The word “dignity” is very often used in the context of assisted suicide or euthanasia to mean personal autonomy and control over the moment of death. Again, I think this is to miss a point that is made in our faith.

The very loss of control, the dependence on the care of others, is where lives are most intensely cherished, with the affirmation that every life, however diminished, bears the image of God and is of value beyond measure. It is also a life laid down sacrificially, because it is a life that is given as a living sacrifice, which protects the vulnerable and itself requires protection.

But it’s not just that sense of self-sacrificial love and ministry – it is that confirmation that every life is treasured by those who love, as God treasures them every minute, even to the bitter end. It is that unequivocal statement that, even now, even in the moments before death, this life is of immeasurable value, a treasure beyond price.

It is, finally, also to say that there is a miraculously wonderful reason – and a sure and certain hope arising from that reason – why our gospel story does not end in Gethsemane, with Jesus asking his disciples to help him to die to avoid the hours that come after. And it is, of course, ultimately our duty and our privilege to join with him in saying “Not my will, but thine be done”.

 

March 13, 2010

God on your own: Finding a Spiritual Path Outside Religion

Posted by Phil Groom under Book Reviews | Tags: , , , , , , |
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God on your ownGod on your own
Finding a Spiritual Path Outside Religion

Joseph Dispenza
ISBN 9780787983123 (0787983128)
Jossey-Bass
£15.99

Category: Spirituality
Reviewed by: Áine Ryan

God on your own is a blend of a personal account of Dispenza’s disillusionment with organised religion and leaving monastic life, plus reflection on the process of finding one’s own spiritual path. He draws on Jung’s assertion that it is part of being human to search for the spiritual and that the major task of the second half of life is to find a spiritual outlook. Dispenza argues that religion, rather than help us in that search actually separates us from God, and holy books curtail discussion about the spiritual life. Despite this, however, we fear taking responsibility for finding our own path and experience a profound grieving process in leaving organised religion. Again using Jung he looks at the archetypes of Seeker and Destroyer and their usefulness in this process. The Seeker brings sacred scepticism and fear of conformity while the Destroyer breaks down old attitudes and beliefs. The Destroyer is not simply destructive, dismissing the concepts and beliefs of organised religion, but rather makes way for the new and the possibility of unravelling genuine truths from religious rules and doctrines.

For Dispenza it seems the key thing in creating one’s own spiritual way is a shift from a belief in a God “out there” withholding something from us, to seeing God as “in here” in oneself. With this in mind he moves on to explore and reinterpret his vows of “poverty, chastity and obedience” as “detachment, innocence and responsibility”:

  • Detachment not as disengagement or indifference but as a letting go of compulsive or rigid clinging to ideas, people, and things.
  • Innocence as non-judgemental, truthful, trusting, avoiding doctrine and easy answers.
  • Responsibility for ourselves and the rest of the world.

He suggests that the age of religion is at an end and this is the start of an age of spirituality wherein we recognise that we are all one and widen our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures. Organised religion with its divisiveness must come to an end for us to be able to grow into authentic spiritual adulthood.

This process of transforming rather than destroying already held beliefs is a helpful starting place perhaps for many who are finding their own spiritual paths. However I wonder if Dispenza’s account of his spiritual path might be differently received depending on why one is embarking on that path. He opens his account with an experience of walking on hot coals, going on to recount at some length his out-of-body experience and uncovering of past life memories. I wonder if this might be liberating for those who are making their own way because their experience of organised religion is of a too narrow, judgmental approach to what is seen as acceptable spiritual practice. However, I think it could further alienate those who are leaving organised religion because they are no longer able to believe what the church teaches. Dispenza’s apparently uncritical embrace of new spiritual practices could perhaps helpfully bear an encounter with the Seeker and Destroyer archetypes if the wounds of previous experience are to be healed rather than simply bypassed.

Áine Ryan, March 2010

Áine Ryan is a counsellor/psychotherapist in the NHS, and studied theology with Exeter University.

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