June has felt like a very long month. A good month, but one in which a lot has taken place.
As a change to the regular rhythms of life and ministry, the month began with a week of family vacation. We drove east through the Deep South to meet up with my Amy’s parents in Tennessee. We’d never been to this part of the country before. It was blast.



The trip included a stop in Mississippi to visit The Country Squire, a tobacconist I’ve followed and learned a lot from via their podcast. It was cool to be there in person. Then we spent a couple of nights on Look Out Mountain in Georgia, which included a visit to Rock City, a place that really fascinated me (and about which I might write in the future). We then stayed in Sevierville and hiked in the Smokey Mountain National Park, before stopping one night in Nashville on the way back. I did not like Nashville.



Hard on the heels of that trip, I made the trek to our diocesan camp, Camp Allen, to teach students training for bi-vocational ministry at Iona School for Ministry. I taught a two part course on Anglican Spirituality. It was lots of fun.
A couple of weeks after that I travelled to Paris… Texas. I was there to do a wedding for a couple connected to Christ Church. It was really beautiful.
And then Amy and the boys were serving at our VBS this week.
Our backyard has also been keeping us busy, mowing the lawn trimming, and harvesting from a little vegetable patch.


So lots happening, lots of time in a car. That’s meant a little less time for reading and writing, but lots time for audiobooks and listening to some great music.
Writing
Not much actual writing to share this month, but a few writing-related pieces of news:
If you’ve been following my newsletter for a while, you’ll know that over the past year and a half I’ve been working on a commission to look at the future of the Anglican Church of Canada. I was one small part of a larger team. And together we wrote a report to bring to General Synod, the triannual gathering of the Anglican Church of Canada. That General Synod met this past week and deliberating about the report.
That report was very well received and adopted by the General Synod. This is gratifying to see and I hope it is useful for the church. You can read about it here.
I also was abled to finish up a short article on practical theology, politics, and the church. This will be out with Christianity Today, God-willing, at the end of July. I look forward to sharing it in my next missive.
You may know, too, that I submitted a proposal for my next book project to a publisher. It was under blind peer-review for the past while and I received reports from two readers this week.
Thankfully both were quite positive. The readers made some helpful suggestions for me to integrate into the proposal, but it is moving forward to the next steps. Since this is a university press, the next step is for the proposal to be reviewed by the university press committee. That will happen in September and I am confident it will be well received. That will be the last hurdle before a contract.I did manage to write my regular contribution to our parish newsletter, The Crucifer. This one is on why I do not and will not use AI in my sermon preparation.
And of course, some sermons! Here is one from this past Sunday:
Reading
I started this month off by reading the first volume of the comic The Department of Truth by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds. Some fellows at Christ Church read it together the past month, but I missed out. I found a copy at Half Price Books and decided to give it a try.
The basic premise is that conspiracy theories are illegitimate, but that if enough people believe them to be true, they actually materialize and alter the course of history. The Department of Truth exists to turn public belief against these theories to ensure history continues as is.
It’s a mind-bending concept and lots of fun, but also a little scary. Reading it felt like I was living in a dream.It has been making a splash for several years now, but I had not yet read Kristin Kobes du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.
There is so much I can say about this book. The first word is “Wow”. It really is jaw-dropping to hear the story of a certain kind of conservative American Evangelicalism from the early twentieth century to the present. It made a sense of a lot of what was in the water in the church while I was growing up, but also highlighted the way that some of the weird American distinctives did not filter their way into Canada or other contexts.
The book was also totally readable and gripping. It is certainly critical, but Kobes du Mez is evenhanded and fair.My big take-away? Certain forms of Christianity can easily cloak the abuse that happens in every ecclesial context. Having lots of light and air, and making sure everyone has a voice is an important way to minimize the chances of this abuse happening and continuing.
I still consider myself an Evangelical, so this was sad to to see some of the darker side to this heritage, even though I am grateful for so much good.This month I also read Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped: A Memoir about her life growing up poor and black in southern Mississippi. This was a very dark book, that coalesced around the deaths of several important male figures in Ward’s early life. It was important story for me to read though, and helped me glimpse some small part of African American life in the South.
I guess I read a lot of dark books this month.
Patti Smith’s Just Kids was another one. I’m not a fan of Smith’s music, but I found this look at the bohemian art scene of the 60s and 70s surrounding the Chelsea Hotel in New York to be compelling. More specifically, Smith writes of her on-and-off-again relationship to Robert Mapplethorpe. This is a culture I do not know well, and frankly, find pretty bleak. But it did help me get a better sense of what life was like for some of the prominent artists from this period.Less dark, overall, but still a challenging read was Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom.
I’ve really come to love Franzen as a novelist, and I’ve been slowly making my way backwards through his novels (Corrections is next) and some of his books of essays.
He is a master of communicating characters and personalities and this is what makes his books so interesting to me. He is a mapper of souls.
I enjoyed Freedom but I cannot wait for the second installment in the Crossroads series.For some truly light summer reading, I enjoyed Tasting Beer: An Insider’s Guide to the World’s Greatest Drink by Randy Mosher. This was a just a fun book that introduced me to the history of beer, a bit of background into brewing, how best to appreciate and taste beer, and a limited catalogue of some important styles and how to pair them. He’s made me almost want to start homebrewing.
Watching
We finally fell into Severance and are already midway through the second season. Save for the weird ORTBO episode, it’s been totally engrossing for both Amy and me. We have pretty different taste in TV shows, so when one comes along that we both appreciate, it’s like striking gold.
Listening
Last month I mentioned I was coming up empty-handed with some great music, but that The Man, the Myth, the Meatslab’s newest album was decent. I take that back. It’s grown on me. And even my kids. It is an awesome EP that’s been on repeat.
Also, a friend Bill Lewis kindly sent me some recommendations, including
The Staves. They really resonated with me and I’ve been enjoying listening to their top songs on my streaming service. They have this ethereal, atmospheric quality to some of their songs, like “I’m On Fire.” That’s what I love best.
Amy pointed out they are also part of Bon Iver’s take of “Heavenly Father” at the Sydney Opera House. And that made me love them more.One of few podcasts I listen to and would recommend is The Living Church’s. And this month they featured an episode about The Hillbilly Thomists. I’m not a connoisseur of bluegrass, but I really enjoy the music made by these Dominican Friars.
Tasting
I’ve eaten so many good things this month. And tasted so many wonderful drinks. Some quick highlights:
Toasted tomato sandwiches (sourdough, mayo, cheddar, salt, pep, and a big slab of a beefsteak tomato) with tomatoes grown in our garden. Best when they are still warm from the sun.
Also Greek salad with fresh garden veggies (wedges of tomato, cukes, red onion, feta, sauced with yogurt, fresh lemon juice, oregano, salt, and pep).
I had a great honey-fried chicken and pimento cheese sandwich from Feed Tavern & Table Co. in Chattanooga on our travels.
I did not enjoy Prince’s Hot Chicken in Nashville, or the 24 hours after consuming it.
Crappie from Milton and Judy, members of our church. Lake fish is not something I usually get excited about, but I’ve learned that nothing beats crappie. It reminds me of cod, perhaps with an even cleaner taste.
While at The Country Squire, I picked up a couple of their house blends (Cowboy Coffee was only okay, but I surprisingly enjoyed a sweet snickerdoodle aromatic, Tombigbee, very much) as well as a tin of Peterson University Flake. It’s a Virginia and Burley blend topped lightly with some plum. It’s wonderful rich and full, with some nuttiness, and plummy/berry-like notes form the topping. It’s really good.
Feeling
My friend David opened a gym, Redefine Fitness. Working out with him and some other guys has been a highlight this past year. It’s difficult and sweaty and sometimes a little painful (in a good way) afterward, but I always feel great after doing it.
He started back to some early morning workouts this month.
Well, that’s all I got for you this month. I hope you enjoyed reading.
You’ll hear from me next month!
In Christ,
Cole+
Kudos on your next book project!
I look forward to reading your article in Christianity Today!
great update Father Cole!