Category: Christ Church Cathedral

Another Trip to the Lighthouse

Whether you made the journey to the Lighthouse this summer or buried your nose in a beach read, we have much to discuss about our summer reading.

I’m a fan of summer reading. When I was a child, my mother, Polly, provided us with Beatrix Potter, The Flower Fairies, The Wizard of Oz, Winnie the Pooh, The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles—anything imaginative and colorful she could find on the shelves of her library or at the local bookstore. Our neighbor, Jane, on the other hand, took us to the library, where she introduced us to Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings, and all those orange biographies of the childhood of every man or woman a 1960s view of American history deemed important—earnest, realistic books which we read as quickly as possible so that the thermometer we had drawn on manila paper to measure our books-toward-goal could rise as quickly as the Texas heat.

My mother never worried whether we finished our books or not. If we wanted to stop midway and get out watercolors to copy the beautiful botanical outfits of the flower fairies, or make chamomile tea like Mrs. Rabbit did for naughty Peter, we were engaging with our books, and that was all that mattered. Sometimes she would interrupt our reading to recite Winnie Ille Pu— Ecce Eduardus Ursus Scolis Nunc Tump Tump–to us, or encourage us to memorize a poem—Annabel Lee anyone? 

My mother and Jane loved and respected each other, but both would make comments over the short hurricane fence that separated our yards about what children really needed—in more areas than just summer reading. And lucky me that I was exposed, saturated in fact, in both of their approaches. I love to read. I have a college degree in reading. And I am always ready for a book adventure.

This summer, I went on a literary trip that I had already experienced. The Cathedral Reads summer reading program featured Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. The last time I read this renowned novel was when I was getting that degree, when the idea was just dawning on me that books were not just for a summer afternoon’s pleasure, but instead could make sense of the widening world. 

When I first read To the Lighthouse, I was floored. There was neither a clear excursion to pick blueberries nor talking teddy bears. There was no plot, and who was speaking anyway? Several lectures later, I calmed down enough to understand that Virginia Woolf was x-raying the thoughts of her characters. I could finally see what other people were thinking! These characters were having thoughts about each other that not only made perfect sense, they made the world seem more sensible. It was amazing: a new type of book, not Polly or Jane, but Virginia. Something completely different.

Time passed. As Mrs. Ramsay did in To the Lighthouse, my mother died. Jane died. When I returned to the novel this summer, everything was different. This time, I thought I knew what the journey to the lighthouse would be like. I knew that when I lost track of who was speaking, I could double back and pick up their voice again. I knew that I would be hit with wave after wave of revelation about life, explanation after explanation about what makes different types of people tick, and how those people can simultaneously endear themselves to us and drive us away. And I knew that sometimes those waves of words would threaten to capsize me.

If I were a diary keeper, I would go back and read what had most impacted me about Virginia Woolf in my college days. But I don’t have that option. My few distinct recollections of literary revelations were shattered when I re-read the book this summer. Mr. Ramsey’s pursuit of knowledge—he had gotten to Q!—seemed so important back when I had not even rounded the bend on D myself. But this summer, it struck me how literal he was, how judgemental to think  his way of thinking was the only path to success, his alphabet the only one that mattered.

I would give anything to talk with my mother or Jane about my return to the Lighthouse. Those conversations would be very different: my mother and I would talk about hospitality, family, Boeuf en Daube, and the inability to ever completely manage a husband; while Jane and I would discuss the importance of bringing woolens to lighthouse children, how many revolutions per hour the lighthouse makes, and Virginia Woolf’s relationship with her father.

In Woolf’s vision of the world, I can have those conversations. She shows me how to telescope the passage of time so that those conversations exist in the same space as my readings of Winnie the Pooh and all the little orange biographies. While my mother and Jane are alive to me in so many memories, habits, and book selections, I still can’t sit down with them and chat.

But I can sit down with you. Are you a Polly reader? A Jane reader? Do you measure your intellectual progress on a linear scale like Mr. Ramsay, or do you make sense of your thoughts through images like Lily Briscoe? Who were you before you read this book, and who are you now? Or did Woolf’s journey to the Lighthouse make you so seasick so you jettisoned your copy off the starboard bow?

No matter. Whether you made the journey this summer, got halfway to the Lighthouse, or held tight to a collegiate animosity towards Woolf and chose not to crack the covers, we have much to discuss. The next time any of us engages with this book, we will be different. Marking our experience with it today will provide an artifact for the future that will show us the path of our reading journey and perhaps offer a few little epiphanies. About our past. About our neighbors. About ourselves.

What did you read, or not read, this summer? Did you mark your thermometer, paint a picture, or flee headlong into beach reading? Whatever your experience, I hope you’ll join us to talk about our summer reading. Canon Zartman will offer us some enlightenment, and we can compare notes. While we can’t promise Boeuf en Daube, there will be snacks. And mostly, there will be good fellowship between the Rite I and Rite II services—a telescoping experience of the past, the present, and the future—a moment in time that Woolf might even consider a religious experience.

For more information on the Cathedral Reads Wrap Up or to view UCLA scholar Emma Ridder’s insightful lectures on Virginia Woolf and To the Lighthouse, click here.

To communicate is our chief business; society and friendship our chief delights; and reading, not to acquire knowledge, not to earn a living, but to extend our intercourse beyond our own time and province.

~Virginia Woolf

The Spiritual Journée

Join Cameron Dezen Hammon, award-winning spiritual memoirist and writing instructor for a Spiritual Writing Workshop, Sunday, October 24, 6 -8 p.m.

When I say, “Spiritual writing,” what do you imagine? Does the image of a darkly clad Victorian lady transcribing messages from the great beyond pop into your head? Or do you think of St. Augustine, pouring out his Confessions? A medieval monk prayerfully copying the Gospel by candlelight in a high tower?

Or do you picture yourself in more modern settings with contemporary tools: a Moleskine prayer journal, where you transcribe prayers and respond to them, or where your original prayers flow freely onto the page? A blog where you click and share your devotional thoughts with others in real time? 

Spiritual writing has taken many forms over the ages, but its purpose has always been to answer the same question: How do we connect with the divine? How do we capture the concept of infinite Love with a few nouns and verbs? How do we convey our feelings and questions about God to other mortals? Words fail.

But words are often all we have. And they are a powerful starting place. Henri Nouwen said, “Writing can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories.” By writing, he said, we claim what we have lived, and we can integrate it more fully into our journeys. In this way, writing can become lifesaving, for us, and for others. It can connect us, to ourselves, to each other, and to God.

We’re all on a spiritual journey, and we can benefit from writing our stories. Whether you want to write your experiences to process them for yourself or to share them with other travelers, the first step is to take pen to paper to capture the details.

It’s interesting that the Old French root for both journey and journal is journée: a day’s length, a day’s work or travel. We experience our spiritual journey one day at a time. If we are going to write a spiritual memoir, we need to begin capturing our experiences one day at a time, journaling until we can begin to see pattern or direction emerge. At that point, we can begin telling the stories of our journey in ways that provide even deeper meaning for us and for our fellow travelers. 

Join us this Sunday evening, October 24, 6 p.m. til 8 p.m. when Cameron Dezen Hammon, who teaches Creative Nonfiction and Spiritual Writing in the English Department at Rice University, leads us in a Spiritual Writing Workshop. She will delve into the ways we take part in a spiritual story that connects us to one another, to the Divine as we understand it, and to the natural world in which we live. We will investigate our own spiritual experiences through writing prompts, conversation, and a short reading from her award-winning spiritual memoir, This Is My Body: A Memoir of Religious and Romantic Obsession.

Take the first step on the writing journey, or find companionship along the path you are already following. Whatever your experience with writing, this evening promises to be centering, enlightening, and encouraging.

Join us before the workshop at The Well, a contemplative Celtic Eucharist, and for Tea & Toast by the bookstore in Latham Hall.

The cost of the workshop is $20, and it includes a copy of This Is My Body, as well as a journal. Register to attend by clicking here. For more information, click here. And, if cost is a hardship, please contact the Rev. Becky Zartman by clicking here.

I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.
~Flannery O’Connor

Spiritual Writing with Cameron Dezen Hammon is presented in partnership with Brazos Bookstore.

Honoring Our Founders

When you ask two powerful women if they’ll start a bookstore for you, don’t be surprised if they are still an integral part of it four decades later.

The Cathedral Bookstore begins its 39th year this month. On October 12, the Dean of the Cathedral honored two retiring founders, Wendy Bentlif and Cynthia Pyle, with a Celebration Tea in the Mellinger Room. The following is an article that appeared in the October 2021 edition of the Cathedral Bulletin and provides some insight on the dedication of these two remarkable volunteers.

The Cathedral Bookstore thrives because of its volunteers 

Christ Church Cathedral Bookstore Manager Lucy Chambers thinks of the store as the front porch of the Cathedral. 

“It is a part of the Cathedral with a long tradition,” Chambers said. “The Bookstore helps to create a welcome and a feeling of family.” 

A large part of the Bookstore’s success is due to its volunteers, two of whom are being honored with a champagne tea on October 12. Cynthia Pyle and Wendy Bentlif, who both recently retired from their duties, had been there since the Bookstore opened on October 16, 1983. 

Bentlif remembers her reaction when former Dean J. Pittman McGehee talked to them about staffing the store. 

“I turned to [Cynthia] and said, do you think we can do it?” Bentlif said. 

The answer was a resounding yes. 

To understand what a community jewel the Bookstore is now, you must consider what downtown Houston was like in the early 80s. 

“It was vacant,” McGehee said of the area when he ar- rived in 1980. “I was a young ambitious priest, and my charge was to bring it back to life.” 

As he told Chambers for a 2017 blog, he followed Henry Ford’s advice: “The greatest wisdom is in doing the obvious.” For McGehee, the obvious was taking an “old-fashioned church parlor” known as the Red Room and repurposing it as a center of intellectual curiosity. Opening a restaurant in The Cloisters was an additional community-building move. “People started coming,” McGehee said. “It became its own presence.”
Pyle, who also was the store’s first manager, was on board with a Bookstore from the start.

“I had asked to volunteer,” Pyle said. “I’d always been involved in books, schools, and libraries. I told Dean Mc- Gehee and Canon Logan that I thought we could do it. I was sure the volunteers – with me included – would make a great team.” 

After Alberta Jones, the former manager of Episcopal Bookstore in River Oaks, helped get the store going, Pyle managed the Bookstore until Kathy Jackson became manager around 2003.  After Jackson started as assis- tant manager beginning in 1993. Pyle stayed on as a dedicated volunteer leader until the end of 2020. 

“I loved creating something,” Pyle said. 

Over the years, the Bookstore has come to hold a special place in the hearts of staff, volunteers, and patrons. 

“The Bookstore is special because it provides a welcoming space for members of the church, the com- munity and the Diocese,” Kathy Jackson said. “Sharing stories and experiences in such a beautiful setting draws many repeat customers who are often surprised at the variety of books and gift options this small store offers. The volunteers are absolutely the key element to the longevity of this ministry.” 

Author, retired priest and 19-year volunteer Earle Martin said he’d always wanted to work in a bookstore. 

“I was the only man back in 2002,” he said. 

Earle was a widower when met his second wife Kristi there. After Kristi passed away, Earle became acquainted with his current wife Nancy through her patronage of the store. 

“We just knew each other over the counter at first,” he said. 

Earle was pleased to do the signing for his second book, The Boy Who Saved My Life, there. 

“The thing that makes [the bookstore] special is the people,” he said. “It’s just a wonderful place.” 

Long-time volunteer Jan Fitzhugh loves that there is a place to see her friends, check out books and gather on Sunday morning. 

“My favorite memories revolve around children sitting on the floor in their section and discovering reading is fun,” she said. 

Frequent patron the Rev. Ed Stein said it’s important to remember that the Bookstore doesn’t just serve the Cathedral community. 

“[Tourists] come into the Cathedral to find something to look at, and then discover the store and the people who are working there that day and leave having had a personal welcome to the city with maybe a purchase or two – and more importantly leave with a really positive experience of the Episcopal church as a place of friendliness and welcome,” Stein said. 

“It’s so rare to find an independent bookstore nowadays and I think we are a hidden gem in down- town Houston,” adds volunteer Roxanne Dolen. 

Chambers, who took over for Jackson in 2017, said that the volunteers are the ones who carry the store’s history. They also start new traditions, like the 1,000-piece puzzle that Truitt Hallmark, husband of longtime volunteer Pat, oversees. 

“I love being in a community of book lovers,” Chambers said. 

Chambers gives Pyle all the credit for the institutional procedures and sound practices she instituted in the beginning .

“We still use them today,” she said.

Chambers also praised Bentlif ’s convivial nature. “Wendy was always right there with you,” Chambers said. “She made me feel at home.”

Pyle and Bentlif say that the Bookstore will always be special to them.

“We all always got on so well together,” Bentlif said. “The store was such a big part of my life all these 40 years,” added Pyle.

Volunteer Catherine Lippincott sums up nicely the magic of the Bookstore, which goes beyond books. “It’s a feeling that is experienced when you walk in the door,” she said. “It is rooted in the history, time and tide of the shop. The books ground the space, but the fairy dust comes from the happy spirits who enter and who work there—past and present.” 

~

If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.
~Margaret Thatcher

pictured above: (left) Cynthia Pyle and (right) Wendy Bentlif at a Bookstore Christmas party in the 1980s

The Logic of Love

Transcending traditional literary alchemy, the plot lines of the 2021 Cathedral Reads choice combine to create the perfect formula for a summer read: sizzling and serious.

What’s your formula for a perfect summer read? If it combines endless love with deep scholarship, dueling medieval and modern churchmen, and truths that survive Nazi persecution, you’re in luck. Join Cathedral friends this summer to explore the logic of love, as we discuss James Carroll’s novel The Cloister. 

Carroll — former priest, National Book Award winner, and author of over a dozen acclaimed fiction and non-fiction titles — brings the romance and rhetoric of the twelfth-century monk Peter Abelard and his brilliant pupil Héloïse to life in this well-researched historical fiction. Opening in post-war New York City, The Cloister weaves the narratives of the legendary lovers with those of a fictional French-Jewish medievalist, his scarred and private daughter, and an Irish-American priest. Through the lens of the Church, it illuminates concepts of love and tolerance—tolerance for knowledge, for difference, and for love that doesn’t fit prescribed categories. Scholar, monk, daughter, lover, friend: each must struggle to determine if redemption lies within the boundaries of the cloister. While academia and the church may celebrate intellectual inquiry, Carroll suggests that those who press the circumscribed boundaries — for love or logic — do so at perilous personal risk.

What were the dichotomous views of the church held by Bernard of Clairvaux and Peter Abelard? Did the Church play a role in creating anti-Semitism? What role did women have in medieval scholarship? Can we overcome life-changing loss? the Cloister delves deeply into questions like these. It’s a love story on all four levels — storge, philia, eros, and agape — as well as a mystery and an intellectual journey. Transcending traditional literary alchemy, its elements combine to create the perfect formula for a summer read: sizzling and serious. 

Sign up to join a small group to discuss The Cloister as you read. Or read at your own pace and join the whole community for discussion during the Dean’s Hour on September 5. Look for more information to come about Cathedral Reads 2021, James Carroll, and his fascinating historical characters. No matter how hot the summer gets, Cathedral Reads 2021 will provide you with some very cool ideas!

To purchase The Cloister from the Cathedral Bookstore, click here.

To sign up for a discussion group, or to watch a marvelous discussion of monastic and intellectual life in 12th century France, click here. Groups begin the week of June 13, 2021.

The image above is of the Cloisters museum in New York, one of the settings for The Cloister. In conversation with Mary Gordon at the New York Public Library, James Carroll said that the structure of this novel was inspired by the construction of the museum from five medieval monasteries, including one where Peter Abelard once walked. To listen to that conversation, click here.

The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.
~Peter Abelard

Unbound Delight

Houston Book Artist Lee Steiner presents at Christ Church Cathedral September 8 and 15

If you’re a hard-core, content-only Kindle reader, you may want to skip this. But if you’ve ever peeked under the jacket of a book to see how it was bound, admired a foil-stamped embossed title, or wondered what a frontispiece is, we’ve got something for you. If a stack of dusty old books doesn’t send you into Marie Kondo fits but, rather, whets your desire to read and sends you running for a cup of tea, please join us for some hands-on book lovers’ delight.

We’re excited to welcome Lee Steiner of Domestic Papers to the Cathedral for two consecutive Sunday evening workshops. Lee teaches bookbinding at local museums and at her East End studio. She grew up in a creative family of handmakers and antique collectors who were always on the hunt for inspiration. The name of her studio reflects her love of everything paper and of traveling to faraway places in search of unique materials for her art. Her travel always holds the promise of returning home to domestic bliss, where she turns her treasures into custom map-covered travel journals, sketchbooks from vintage books, and one-of-a kind writing journals.

On September 8, she will teach us how to understand a book’s true value. We know not to judge a book by its cover, but what factors do go into determining its worth? Do we value a book the same way others do? Lee will explain the elements that give books value in our lives—monetary, cultural, and personal—and show examples of books that may be worth a fortune to one person but are considered trash by another. She will provide a fresh appreciation of the treasures that lie on our own bookshelves, and she will share how she finds books for her antiquarian bookstore and creates beautiful journals and art from books that may initially seem worthless.

Then on September 15, she will lead us in a hands-on workshop to make a longstitch travel journal, a process that can be used to create journals of many sizes and functions. The longstitch binding allows the wide spine to lay flat for easy sketching and writing and creates plenty of room to add photos, maps, and mementos. She will provide all the materials—from paper to awls to a wide variety of map covers—and guide the group through each step. At the end of the evening you’ll have a beautiful, handmade journal to document your next adventure or to give to a friend as a bon voyage gift.

Yes, we know books are magical. But when did you last take time to really consider the vessels that hold the stories? A well-designed book furthers the impact of the words that lie between the covers. Exploring the book arts with Lee will allow you to look at your library with inspired new eyes, unleash your inner book-binder, and provide you some unbound bookish fun.

Valuing Vintage Volumes
Sunday, September 8
Jeffers Room, Latham Hall. 6:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Creating Longstitch Journals
Sunday, September 15
Jeffers Room, Latham Hall. 6:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

(Materials are included for the journal workshop so registration is limited. Please email lchambers@christchurchcathedral.org to register or get more information about either workshop.)

And please join us before the workshops for The Well, a contemplative Celtic Eucharist in the Cathedral at 5 p.m., and for tea and toast in Latham Hall at 5:45 p.m!

The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
~Carl Jung

 

 

There Will Not Be a Test on To Kill a Mockingbird [But Let’s Pretend There Is]

There is a reason that we are still discussing To Kill a Mockingbird 59 years after its publication.

The most I ever learned in college was not from a professor. I’m not referring to life lessons, or extra-curricular information, but specifically to one US Intellectual History class. The professor, well-respected and well-published, provided the spark, the facts, and the direction, but the actual learning came from a motley study group made up of a very-Republican lacrosse player, a brilliant Southern belle, an angsty body-building Yankee libertarian, and me. How we came together I don’t remember, but I am forever grateful for their diverse perspectives and thoughtful intelligence.

Lectures happened MWF at 9 a.m., an early hour at a university noted for its nightlife. We set multiple alarms to ensure that we didn’t miss a bit of our crazy-haired professor’s insight. When exam time came, we picked up pizza and hunkered down in one of our crusty apartments, ready to cram. We didn’t review facts; we just tried to figure out what questions he would ask us.

We didn’t obsess about the details, because our professor didn’t. He wanted us to understand the big picture. We didn’t have study guides or practice tests: we just were supposed to make sense of the thought movements that had influenced the United States, and there were endless ways to consider the topic.  As we tried to determine what mattered, we bickered, disagreeing about what we might face on the test. We couldn’t discount anyone’s opinion, because we just didn’t know. We stayed up late, covering the waterfront. In the early hours we parted, to meet again after we had closed our bluebooks and signed the honor pledge, rushing out of the creaky lecture hall to high-five each other if we had guessed the questions correctly or, even better, if we thought we had known the answers.  We were excited about the material.  We wanted each other to succeed.  And, as we attempted to understand our complicated country in one short undergraduate semester, we didn’t realize what a gift our different perspectives gave us.

On August 4th, the Christ Church Cathedral congregation will gather to discuss Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Dean Thompson will provide us with questions to explore in groups. It will be a conversation, most certainly not a test. But what if we prepared as if it were? What if we thought about this book from the perspective of those most different from us: what questions would they ask?  When we meet to discuss this novel, we will gather across generations. We will gather across political affiliations. Across gender lines, economic lines, and most pertinent to this book, racial lines. But we will gather with the intent of each of us coming away with the deepest understanding possible.

There is a world of intellectual, social, and political history packed in this novel. There is a reason that we are still discussing it 59 years after its publication, a reason that it won the Pulitzer Prize, that the movie won multiple Academy Awards, that Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation for the theater is the top-grossing Broadway play to-date,* and that over a dozen books have been published about Harper Lee and her one story. There is a reason that it is as controversial as it is beloved.

We don’t know what questions the Dean will ask us. But more important than those questions is the preparation we bring to the discussion. Consider the story from your experience. Consider it from the point of view of a Republican lacrosse player, a brilliant Southern belle or a New England libertarian. As Atticus says, climb into someone else’s skin and consider things from that point of view. Because even though there isn’t a test, helping each other to understand the material makes all the difference.

*[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kill-a-mockingbird-becomes-top-grossing-us-play-broadway-history-1208931]

Ideal conversation must be an exchange of thought, and not, as many of those who worry most about their shortcomings believe, an eloquent exhibition of wit or oratory.
~Emily Post

 

The Cathedral Reads: To Kill A Mockingbird

Experience a world much different than our modern, urban home, but in many ways the same—roiled by racial tension, peppered with a few good people trying to make a difference, and inhabited by kids watching and trying to make sense of the grownups’ words and actions.

Our lives are fragmented. We all watch different TV shows, and discussing Johnny Carson or Saturday Night live around the water cooler or the church coffee table are no longer widely-shared experiences. Some of us play bridge together, or attend regular bible study with a group, but others are bowling alone. But this summer, whether we venture to distant lands, enjoy a relaxing stay-cation, or just continue our routine with the AC cranked down, we have the opportunity to take a journey together.

Join the entire Cathedral community on a trip back in time to the Deep South of the 1930s. We’ll experience a world much different than our modern, urban home, but in many ways the same—roiled by racial tension, peppered with a few good people trying to make a difference, and inhabited by kids watching and trying to make sense of the grownups’ words and actions.

We’ll get there by reading Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Many of you have read it, of course, but like the gospel, a good story can be revisited many times and never fail to provide new insights. Read it for the first time and discover why the name Atticus Finch became synonymous with morality and reason, re-read it to discover aspects of Boo Radley’s heart you never considered. Take it further and research Truman Capote’s relationship to the novel or the legal history of the South. We’ll all read it, but how deep you go with it is up to you. There will not be a quiz.

Rather, we’ll have a celebration of story. As summer winds down, we’ll gather to talk about what we discovered in this classic novel. Kids and grownups will have the opportunity to share their insights and learn more. Then, in one of the rare cases where the movie is as good as the book, we’ll enjoy the 1962 Oscar-winning Gregory Peck film together with a little Popcorn Theology. Readers who want to go further will delve into the story with Dean Thompson in book club.

If you can’t make one of the events, don’t worry: just relax knowing you’ll be able to walk up to anyone at the Cathedral this summer, grownup or kid, and say, “How’s that summer reading?” or “What do you think about Scout?” “Do you think Harper Lee wanted to release the earlier version, Go Set a Watchman, or was she pressured into it?” There is much for us to consider in both versions of this story.

Sharing our experiences will be better than retelling Johnny’s jokes or reenacting Roseanne Roseannadanna, and it will leave us with deeper perspective and a little more enlightenment.  For those still in school, it’s a good opportunity to get some actual summer reading done with lots of support.

Whatever your motivation, join the Cathedral community this summer on a journey into a Southern literary classic that has as much to offer us today as it did when it hit the scene in 1933. Harper Lee’s messages, now more than ever, are important for us to consider as a group. In to Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus says. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” While that depth of empathy is not physically possible, exploring an important novel and a writer’s evolving perspective on the world together is a good way to start understanding each other and our own world a little better.

Sunday, August 4, 10 a.m., Intergenerational small group book discussions of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird in Reynolds Hall

Friday, August 16, 6:30 p.m., Popcorn theology (dinner, movie, discussion) of the film To Kill a Mockingbird

Wednesday, Sept. 4, 6:30 p.m., Dean’s Book Club deeper dive into the novel To Kill a Mockingbird

 

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
—Harper Lee

A Wrinkle in Time: Was the Book Better?

Will the new light this movie sheds on L’Engle’s tale of good and evil amplify the message for you, or will your ink-on-paper experience–or your devotion to the specifics of the original story–prevail?

As director Ava DuVernay brings Madeleine L’Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time to life, moviegoers have begun the eternal debate: Was the book better? L’Engle herself maintained great skepticism towards a film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time, but the story’s richness lends itself to further exploration of religion, creativity, and inclusivity.

A quick recap (sans spoiler) for those of you who have not read the book since middle school: Meg Murry, an awkward teenager, must travel through time and space to rescue her little brother from the clutches of evil. The method she uses is called “tessering,” a phenomenon her scientist father studied until he disappeared several years earlier. Meg learns of her mission from other-worldly beings; and the journey demanded of her takes her to the most dangerous landscape imaginable, that of her own heart.

Despite the difficulties of categorizing the quirky story published in 1962, it quickly became an international bestseller. Because of L’Engle’s treatment of religious themes, it soon became as controversial as it was beloved. The American Library Association Office of Intellectual Freedom lists it in the top 100 frequently banned books.

L’Engle, who served as librarian and writer in residence at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City for over thirty years, included many biblical references in the novel, and the ecumenical world view she put for went so far as to suggest a “happy religious pluralism” described by The New Yorker as one in which “Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and even scientists can live together in peace.” Her intimation that love was more powerful than doctrine upset some conservative Christians, who claimed it offered an inaccurate portrayal of God and nurtured an unholy belief in myth and fantasy.

L’Engle suggests that the powerful messages of Christianity are not just for Christians. As Meg’s father tells her, “We were sent here for something. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”  The author appreciated the tension created by opposites and understood that tolerance and love could bridge seemingly irreconcilable differences. In community, she explains, we draw closer to God not through sameness but through our shared life. Love, L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time says, conquers all, and we do not have to be privileged, pretty or perfect to experience the power of this world-bending connection.

Several dozen Cathedral members recently ventured to the theater together to watch DuVernay’s new movie, discuss a little Popcorn Theology, and decide book or movie? A little background, ICYMI: Nominated for the Academy Award and winner of four EMMYs, DuVernay has received critical acclaim for her work across film genres. In 2017, she was named one of Fortune magazine’s 50 Greatest World Leaders and TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. She is the founder of ARRAY, a grassroots distribution and advocacy collective dedicated to the amplification of films by people of color and women which was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies. She gathered an all-star cast including Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Mindy Kaling, and Zach Galifianakis, and A Wrinkle in Time is the first film directed by a woman of color to have a budget of over $100 million.

And our reaction? With its presentation of the full breadth and accessibility of God’s kingdom, Ava DuVernay’s film version matches L’Engle’s creative fire, although some viewers in our group criticized it for combining and deleting characters and for deleting Christian references. The question was also raised: Would children understand the meaning of the story, or would they just be mesmerized by the special effects? But whether or not an individual approved or disapproved of DuVernay’s interpretation of the story, watching the movie together led to thoughtful discussion.

And that division might please L’Engle, who believed that our seemingly insurmountable differences can, in fact, be bridged—through that amazing tesseract we know as love. It’s not surprising that our group would have differing opinions about a movie based on this story. Three generations of readers have loved, questioned, or banned A Wrinkle in Time, and its longevity proves its power to withstand disapproval. More than half a century after the book’s original publication, DuVernay’s newest film opens the story’s arms even more widely and brings its mid-century perspective into the future.

Will the new light this movie sheds on L’Engle’s tale of good and evil amplify the message for you, or will your ink-on-paper experience–or your devotion to the specifics of the original story–prevail?

Book or movie? Strict adherence to the original or a more liberal interpretation? You’ll have to decide for yourself. But whichever medium you prefer, you’ll be reminded that one of the great strengths of the underlying message of A Wrinkle in Time is its ability to carry us beyond the perceived boundaries of our understanding.

Read or reread the book. Watch the movie. Or come by the Bookstore and pick up one of the many books we have by and about Madeleine L’Engle. Whether your path to understanding takes you through fiction, non-fiction, books, movies, or all of the above, we’d love to examine her fascinating world with you.

 

 

A book, too, can be a star, “explosive material, capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly,” a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe. 
― Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

 

Christmas Cheer Starts Here!

Have yourself a merry little lunch hour

Cathedral members know the powerful joy of celebrating Christmas surrounded by the poinsettia-banked rood screen, the gleaming candlelit altar, and the invigorated voices of the congregation raising the roof with favorite carols. As the hushed tones of “Silent Night” reverberate, our hearts fill with wonder at the magnitude of God’s love. For us, despite commercialism all around, this feeling builds through Advent–with wreath decorating, Christmas at the Cathedral, Las Posadas, and so many other opportunities for worshipping together. Our Cathedral traditions feel so familiar that it can be hard to imagine celebrating Christmas anywhere else.

While all are welcome to join us in sharing our Christmas services, many people in our immediate community don’t know our traditions, and they can be a little intimidating for newcomers. What goes on behind the stained glass in that big, beautiful building? Why are those people running around the courtyard in ornate dresses? What if I don’t know when to stand or when to sit? If we are truly to show people that God is in the midst of the city–feeding and clothing people, offering relief from Harvey, providing spiritual guidance, and so much more–we first need to invite them in and make them feel comfortable.

This Advent season, the Cathedral is focusing on sharing our beautiful campus and traditions–with Treebeards customers, our downtown neighbors, and you! Come have a merry little lunch hour filled with Christmas shopping in the bookstore, a great Cajun lunch, a tour of our historic cathedral, and even a noontime Eucharist. Not only can you get body and soul fed, you can learn their way around the Cathedral, ask questions, and determine if one of our beautiful services might be a good fit for Christmas Eve or other times.

Even if you already have a church home for the holidays, the warmth of our hospitality and the help with preparations are a sure formula for reducing the stress and staying present to the real excitement and joy of the season. Whether you decide to bring your kids to watch the pageant, to stay up late with the booming brass and percussion, or to pray with joyful hearts on Christmas morning, everyone at Christ Church wants you to feel that the Cathedral is a welcoming place to celebrate the birth of Christ and the love he brings–the ultimate Christmas cheer!

Christmas Cheer Starts Here!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Lunch Hour
weekdays, December 1-22

Get into the spirit by
discovering unique gifts, jewelry and books
enjoying lunch at Treebeards
celebrating the Eucharist 12:05 p.m.
touring Houston’s historic Cathedral 12:35 p.m.
learning about the holiday service that best suits you:
    Christmas Eve worship at 4, 6 (en espanol), 8 and 11 pm
    Christmas Day at 10 am
picking up wrapped gifts
and returning, reinvigorated, to your routine!

Keeping Faith with Books

We’re celebrating 35 years of our beloved bookstore with a tea.

A good bookstore, by definition, shares stories, but when your bookstore celebrates its 35th year in a church that was established in 1839, it’s important to document and share your own history, too. We asked J. Pittman McGehee D.D. for his recollection of our beloved shop’s beginnings during his tenure as dean of Christ Church Cathedral.

The Founding of the Cathedral Bookstore

Henry Ford said, “The greatest wisdom is in doing the obvious.”  So it was with founding the Bookstore.  There was a kind of old-fashioned church parlor where the bookstore is now.  It was affectionately known as, “the Red Room.” (Obviously because of the decor.) For 99% of the time, it was wasted space, with anachronistic decor.  I had desired a bookstore at Christ Church Cathedral, as symbol and fact that I wanted the Cathedral to become a center of intellectual curiosity. So, on October 16,1983, the Cathedral Bookstore was founded.

There was a historic bookstore in Houston called the Episcopal Bookstore. I asked the former manager, Alberta Jones, if she would consult and help us begin our own store.  At that time I asked Cynthia Pyle, who had been in conversation with me concerning the bookstore founding, to be program director and coordinator of volunteers.  Within a manner of months, it became obvious the Cynthia was more than capable of running the store, so, on January 4, 1984, I appointed Cynthia as manager.  Much of the success of the Cathedral bookstore is due to the innovative leadership of Cynthia Pyle.

In 1993, Kathy Jackson succeeded Cynthia as manager and successfully led the store through some of the most tumultuous times in bookselling history until her retirement this summer. The current dean,  the Very Reverend Barkley Thompson then appointed Lucy Chambers, a pioneer in Houston publishing, to carry on their work.

The rich history and tradition of the Bookstore, soon to be 35 years old, continues thanks to those mentioned above, plus long-time volunteers Wendy Bentlif, Jan Fitzhugh, Pat Hallmark, Earle Martin, Roxanne Dolen and other dedicated volunteers who have served their ministries at the Cathedral as a part of the bookstore.

~J. Pittman McGehee D.D.

Thanks to the faithful work of this team, the Cathedral Bookstore has provided a haven for book lovers for decades, and we are grateful to the Very Reverend J. Pittman McGehee for his vision in 1983. The Cathedral has indeed become a center of intellectual curiosity in Houston, so in addition to a well-curated list of religious, spiritual, general non-fiction, fiction, and children’s titles, we carry books by the many notable speakers who visit the Cathedral and a constantly-refreshed supply of quality used books.

The Cathedral celebrates the store’s history and retiring manager, Kathy Jackson, Friday, September 29th with a tea. For more information, stop by and see us or visit the Cathedral’s website www.christchurchcathedral.com.

God is in the midst of the city, and we are assured that He, too, loves a Good Book!

 

 

[Y]ou might also choose to see it as a cathedral of the human spirit–a storehouse consecrated to the full spectrum of human experience. Just about every idea we’ve ever had is in here somewhere. A place containing great thinking is a sacred space.
~Forrest Church