February
News from the past month or so + my book What Has Been Left Behind is now available!
Dear friends,
I hope you are doing well.
Welcome to another edition of the my monthly newsletter. Thanks for reading along and sharing with others. I’d love to keep spreading to the word about what I’m doing here, so please share this with folks who might be interested.
Big highlight for this month: What Has Been Left Behind, my first book of poems, is available for purchase. You can find it here or on Amazon. More about this below under the “writing” heading.
Planning
I’m writing this (at least in part) from the Montreal airport. I was privileged to be asked by the Primate (the Archbishop of Canada, first among equals amongst the bishops of the Church) of the Anglican Church of Canada to be part of commission to examine the structures of the Canadian Church as we plan for the future.
While some of the details of the commission are confidential, some are shareable:
For one, the proposal for the commission is publicly available, which you can read more about here.
So is the scope, which includes asking:
Where are the gaps in current church structures? Who are emerging demographics? What alternatives might there be to existing structures?
If you are a church nerd you can read more about the commission and who’s part of it here. (Note I am actually not canonically resident in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and PEI… but that is alright).
What’s the upshot of all of this, especially for those whose eyes glazed over while reading the last few sentences?
For me, it means I get to continue to be a part of the work for the good of the Church in which I was ordained and still deeply love, while serving in another part of the Anglican Communion which has been a rewarding a grace-filled experience.
Writing
It’s been a busy last month for me, revising proofs and getting two books ready that I’ve been working on.
The big news is that my first collection of poems is now available. These poems have been collected from over the past few years. I’m excited to share them with the world.
Front cover of my book... I plan to send another newsletter out highlighting the book. In the meantime, check it out . I’ll also be purchasing some copies to have on hand if you one to pick one up from me.
My academic book is coming along too. I sent in the last proofs this week and now have a publication date for Anglican Biblical Interpretation in the Nineteenth Century. It will be out April 25, 2024. I’m looking forward to unleashing it in the world.
This past month I also published a short review on Naturalism in the Christian Imagination by Peter N. Jordan over at Reading Religion. You can find it here.
And two little pieces for our church news letter, The Crucifer:
Preaching: You can find recent sermons here (for last week’s) and here (for the weeks before).
Reading
It was a rich month of reading
Last month I forgot to mention Stephen Griffith’s Gorilla Priest.
This is a nonfiction account of Al Griffith’s, an Episcopal priest who spent much of his early ministry in the Philippines during the first years of WWII. He was raked into the local politics and the American resistance, though he remained faithful to his pastoral calling throughout. This is to say nothing of the way he cared for his family amidst all of the swirling uncertainty and danger of those years.
Why did I read this book? Deacon Stine lent me a copy and mentioned that the Al’s daughter is a member of our congregation. It sat on my desk for months, but when I got to it I was pleased. It’s lively, interesting, and helped me connect with a parishioner.Seamus Heaney’s Selected Poems: 1966-1987 was another recommendation. I’d read Heaney’s translation of Beowulf, but not ever his own poetry. Some of it was over my head, to be honest, but much spoke to me. It was sad in the way that only the Irish can be sad.
Karl Ove Knausgaard is my favourite living author. And his six-volume My Struggle was life-changing. I read his more recently translated The Morning Star. What an intriguing book! I finished it last week and am still pondering it.
The title of the book comes from the biblical image of the morning star, which is associated both with Satan (Isaiah 14:12) and Jesus (Revelation 22:16). Knausgaard weaves together a narrative from disparate first-person accounts of a new star rising over Norway over the course of two days. Each character encounters some form of subtle, spiritual evil in a way that leaves the wall between the physical and spiritual seem porous.
The book ends with a longish essay by one of the characters, Egil, about death and dying.
Many narrative threads in this book are left undone, and I am not sure if this is part of the book’s charm or its downfall. But it’s haunted me, and I’d like to read it again with an eye to writing more about it.Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country was a delight to read, like all of Bryson’s books. To me, he is a reliable source of literary enjoyment. His writing is clear and just sophisticated enough to be interesting without causing me to roll my eyes.
This volume is a travelogue detailing his romp through Australia. Australia’s not a place I think about a whole lot, so Bryson’s book was a good primer. I especially enjoyed learning about all of the deadly creatures as well as the Giant Gippsland Earthworm.
Giant Gippsland Earthworm
How precious to me are your thoughts O Lord! How vast is the sum of them!
Listening
It’s been a while since I had listened to Leif Vollebekk, but my trip to Montreal put him in mind. It’s actually been a number of years since he’s released a new album, but it looks like he is still touring.
How do I describe Vollebekk? This is music you want to listen to on dark, cold, rainy, winter nights. The mood is reflective and soulful. The music is jazzy and you’ll catch yourself tapping your desk with your finger, or tapping your toes.
I like all of his albums, but his 2019 (and newest album) New Ways is a great place to start. I love the song “Change”.
The picture of Leif on Wikipedia.
Watching
This past month, we watched The Holdovers.
This film was fantastic and one of the best I’ve watched in the past year. It had all of the lovely WASPy vibes of Dead Poets Society but it was actually good. The story had heart. The atmosphere was fantastic. It was funny. I plan to watch again during the Christmas season next year.
Tasting
There has been lots of tasting this month as Lent looms. A couple of highlights:
Anything truffle flavoured. I picked up an after-holiday pack of truffle salt, honey, and sauc,e from World Market and have been reading about it truffles ever since. Truffles have such a rich, dark, inviting flavour. They even look interesting:
I couldn’t leave Montreal without bringing home some Montreal bagels. They really are the best.
Well folks, that’s all from me this time around. I will send out a second newsletter in coming days with some more info on my book of poems, endorsements, and maybe a few excerpts. I still haven’t received my author copies, but they should arrive any day.
Please share this newsletter with anyone you might think interested. And subscribe if you haven’t!
In Christ,
Cole+