CMC is having a good book writing year. 

This past Sunday Katie Mast shared that she and Ivan have co-authored a book with their daughter Krista about the family’s journey with Krista’s schizophrenia.  It’s rare enough for someone with this illness to be willing and able to write openly about it.  It’s another thing when it’s a family you know.  Orange Roses: A Memoir on Mental Health from One Family’s Perspective is now available for order.

Sarah Werner has written Rooted Faith: Practices for Living Well on a Fragile Planet which is available for pre-order, released September 19.  It integrates Sarah’s work as a scholar and practitioner.  The title speaks for itself!

And Elisa Leahy has written Tethered to Other Stars, also available for pre-order, released October 3.  The fictional story is partly inspired by CMC’s relationship with Edith Espinal.

There may be other books in the works or already out this year I’m not aware of.

There’s a shelf in our church library for books by CMC authors and a few weeks ago I was browsing those titles and came across Where There is Darkness, Light: Finding Faith and Hope in the New Millenium.  It’s a book of poetry by David Wirick, Ellen Kreider’s late husband.  As I read through the pieces, which David calls “psalms,” there was a clear resonance between the spirituality David expresses in lyric and what we value when we gather for worship – an open and searching heart rooted in Divine love. 

This Sunday is Pentecost, when we celebrate the Spirit’s enlivening presence in all people.  Along with scripture and song, David’s poetry will be laced throughout the service.  Words, like bodies, are an incarnation of spirit, and we’ll be invited, like those first disciples at Pentecost, to allow the poetry of the Spirit to animate our bodies anew. 

Joel