Category: Uncategorized

Mystic Wisdom for Modern Times

As demands piled up, a battered copy of Revelations of Divine Love led my introverted friend and me to contemplate Julian of Norwich.  “I want to be an anchoress,” said my friend. “No way,” I replied. “Even you can’t stay home all the time.” Not long after that, we found ourselves at home all the time. What better time to read a new novella about Dame Julian?

Before the virus, daily life was busy. Phones were ringing, emails flying. There were coffee dates, yoga classes, meetings, and dinners; between them all, texting, Instagramming, and sometimes — when I could stand the acrimony — Facebooking. There were also many lovely hours at the Cathedral Bookstore engaging with volunteers and customers, discovering and selling books, searching for delightful gifts, and decorating for the seasons of the church year. When everything rolled along smoothly, it was wonderful, but the smallest stick in the wheel could quickly turn busy to overwhelming.

A friend who volunteers at the Bookstore calls herself a recluse, but she’s actually very social—on her own terms. The term “friendly introvert” comes up frequently in our conversations. One day as demands piled up, we were therapeutically sorting used books. A battered copy of Revelations of Divine Love led us to contemplate Julian of Norwich, and the lives of anchorites in general.  “I want to be an anchoress,” said my friend.

The cloistered existence sounded peaceful. Not ready to deal with the world? Draw the curtain. Hungry? Eat the food that appears at regular intervals. Inspired? Pray, write, sing, knit.  Have visitors when you open the curtain, and a front row seat for every service in the cathedral. Mainly, exist at a safe remove from the messy demands of daily life. But in modern times? “No way,” I told her. “Even you can’t stay home all the time.”

Not long after that conversation, we found ourselves at home all the time. We still have virtual ways of connecting; but we are not busy the way we were. Aside from work, we can draw the curtain and log off when we want. Rather than peaceful, though, it feels more stressful than the busyness did. I thought of Dame Julian again, this time wondering how she had the strength to live all those years sealed in a small room.

When I found a recently published novella about Julian, I was quick to buy it. Lady at the Window: The Lost Journal of Julian of Norwich by Robert Waldron tells the story of a Holy Week late in Julian’s life. With God’s “shewings” many years in the past, she must draw on the deepest well of her faith to remind herself that God is still with her.

Each section presents a day in Holy Week and incorporates Julian’s own words from Revelations. She shares her wisdom about God’s omnipresent love with a homeless wounded soldier, a frightened unwed mother, and several others who fear not only their situation, but also the church’s condemnation. Each visitor leaves Julian’s window feeling uplifted and beloved, even as she herself struggles to re-enter the divine light that she once experienced. The book details her daily routine, a grueling regimen of prayer, fasting, secret writing, and opening herself in complete vulnerability to the pain of her community—not at all the stress-free existence my friend and I had romanticized. Julian expresses her gratitude and deep love for the God she refers to as “My courteous Lord” and “Mother Jesus,” as she beseeches this loving entity to end her spiritual darkness.

The novella is spare but richly referential.  It weaves medieval spellings into the text in a way that feels compelling rather than gimmicky. By the end, I had to remind myself that it was not based on a real journal of Julian’s. Waldron’s text combines the interior life of the notable mystic with her larger historical context, presenting her in a way that made me want to delve more deeply into her actual writings.

Waldron presents the mystic experience thoughtfully. His twenty books include six on Thomas Merton and two on Henri Nouwen. He has received four fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and multiple awards for his writing on modern spirituality. In the afterword, he says Julian of Norwich’s writings serve as “a window, though which we can at any time gaze, and see the great beauty, wisdom, and counsel she has to offer for the twenty-first century.” His novella provides an accessible entry to her world.

Reading it reminded me that while the virus cloisters me away from the daily joys — and pains — of busily interacting with the world, there are still many ways to engage with my own life, with my community, and with God. In Julian’s darkest week, she remains fully present to all three. Reading about the profound mix of light and darkness in her Holy Week provided the centering thought that if we focus on the presence and love of God in everything — even in our modern plague — all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.

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Lady at the Window
The Lost Journal of Julian of Norwich
a novella
978-1-64060-534-3
$16.99
Paraclete Press
To purchase, click here.

 

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language 
And next year’s words await another voice.

~T.S. Eliot

Our Beloved Becky Has Written a Book!

Cathedral Canon Becky Zartman’s new book is a testament not only to the love of God, but also to the strengthening love that individuals in community can provide for one another—even, and especially, in college.

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Before the pandemic, college students lived in dorms and struggled to make sense of classes, friendships, themselves and God. Chaplains were there to walk with them on their journeys and serve as experienced, loving companions. Though the current college experience may be in flux, Belovedness: finding God (and Self) on Campus reveals the vital role chaplains can play in helping students understand their relationship with God, their communities and themselves, virtually or in person.

This collection of essays by the Rev. Becky Zartman, the Cathedral’s Canon for Welcome and Evangelism; the Rev. James Franklin, her dear friend who serves as Campus and Young Adult Missioner in Winston Salem, North Carolina, primarily at Wake Forest University; and eight other college chaplains from a variety of denominational backgrounds, begins by explaining the concept of belovedness, something those we honor as saints have understood. What made them saints, the introduction explains, was “their fidelity to who they are and whose they are. The love of God set them free and enabled them to change the world.” College, with all its “questions of vocation, relationships, and navigating young adulthood” is fundamentally about the question, ‘Who am I?’” The editors and authors in this collection want college students “to believe wholeheartedly that belovedness is the innermost ‘I am’” of their identity in God.

Each chapter asks “How would you [fill in the blank] if you knew you were loved beyond all measure? How are you going to choose to live into your belovedness?” and fills in the blank with a full range of collegiate experiences: making choices, success and failure, relationships, worship, sex, sexuality, partying, and mental health. For each topic, a particular chaplain shares anecdotes, scripture, and empathic understanding to help students understand how they might handle this aspect of college if they lived into their belovedness. Each chapter also includes further resources regarding that topic.

The book is a testament not only to the love of God, but also to the strengthening love that individuals in community can provide for one another—even, and especially, in college. Each chaplain seems carefully chosen for the subject of the chapter, and each shares their understanding in clear and specific detail, with an open and warm heart.

The last chapter, “Holy Sh*t,” written by Becky with all the energy and intellect that have made her so beloved by Cathedral members, begins by extolling the virtues of compost. She goes on to reassure students that even when they face such traumatic experiences as grief, eating disorders, sexual assault, controlled substance abuse, burnout, failure, or academic probation, “our God takes garbage and makes compost. God is working, even right now, to redeem all things. Even though you can’t see it or even imagine it. Redemption is happening; death is being turned into life.”

Finally the conclusion, “What Now?” sends students out to face their college years with the understanding that, like Jacob, their role is to wrestle with God. Only they can do the struggling necessary to grow into themselves.

Belovedness includes an appendix which explains how to find a campus ministry that will truly allow students to live into their belovedness, instructions on the prayer practice the Observatio,and step-by-step instructions for creating a small group to discuss the book.

Whether on campus or in a virtual setting, beginning or returning to college, any student who wants to find balance and peace while experiencing all that the college years have to offer will feel that they have found trusted friends and mentors in this group of chaplains and will benefit from their collaborative wisdom.  Belovedness would make a meaningful gift for graduation or back-to-school and will remind readers even long past the college years “who they are and whose they are” and how important it is to live with this understanding.

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.”
~Nelson Mandela

 

In Praise of Summer Reading

The shared experience of reading books in the cool of the air-conditioning will help us to understand ourselves—individually and as a group—a little better.

On the first day of summer when I was a little girl, my next-door neighbor would gather all the kids from our block and take us to the library. She’d sign us up for the summer reading program—charts and suggestions and prizes, and mostly all the wonder of books. For the rest of the summer, she would take us back once a week to get new books and check in with the librarian about our progress. The dusty cool shelves provided respite from the hot Houston humidity, and the new friends we met between the book covers became permanent additions to the language of our neighborhood group—Max from Where the Wild Things Are, Harold with his purple crayon, Alexander with his terrible horrible no good very bad day, and so many other memorable characters.

Last summer, many decades later, when the Cathedral began Cathedral Reads, it brought back all that summer reading joy. Our dean, Barkley Thompson, chose Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird as the book for kids and adults. We set dates at the end of the summer for a congregation-wide conversation, a movie night, and a deeper dive into the book with the dean.

On a hot August morning, well-over two-hundred people gathered between services to discuss the book. The dean gave an overview, and then at tables of ten with a facilitator and five questions, over coffee and cake, we brought our widely different perspectives on the book to the table. The following week, we ate popcorn and pizza as we watched Gregory Peck’s 1962 Academy Award-winning version of the movie. Afterward, the dean lead popcorn theology, and we compared the messages of the book and the film. The program wrapped up at a special version of the Dean’s Book Club.

The shared experience of the book created new friends, engaged old friends, and gave everyone an entry to conversation. Differing viewpoints were presented and heard respectfully, and we all came away understanding ourselves—individually and as a group—a little better.

Throughout this past year, people kept coming into the bookstore asking what the next Cathedral Reads book would be. The dean took suggestions, considered many titles, and finally chose two books: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving for adults, and Wonder, by R.J. Palacio for kids, youth and adults who may not have read it yet. The books are linked by the concept “What Does Brave Look Like” and the discussions will focus on identity, courage, and faith. Both books will have Zoom reading groups throughout the summer to discuss questions regarding the reading to date, and the Dean will facilitate two larger Zoom conversations on Owen Meany. Then, circumstances permitting, we’ll meet up for a larger discussion and to watch the movie Wonder together, before the program wraps up again with the Dean’s Book Club.

We’re none of us sure when we’ll be able to gather, but we are finding creative ways to connect. And having the shared experience of books to read in the cool of the air-conditioning will introduce us to people different than ourselves, and show us their hearts. It will help us to understand ourselves—individually and as a group—a little better. It will give us new friends and make us more thoughtful people.  Just like the library’s summer reading program used to do way back when.

Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity. 
~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

 

If This Cathedral Could Talk

Houston historian Mike Vance shares the wild times Christ Church Cathedral has witnessed

Christ Church Cathedral was founded March 16, 1839. Recalling seventh grade Texas history–or any of the many fine books you may have read on the history of our great state–you’ll remember that at this point Texas had only been independent from Mexico since March 2, 1836. Houston became incorporated on June 5, 1837. It would still be a good eight years until we became annexed to the United States on December 29,1845. These were wild and uncertain times to be a Houstonian.

In 1836 the enterprising Allen Brothers hired Gail Borden to map the town. He laid out the streets on a grid. Texas Avenue, the new town’s principal east-west thoroughfare, measured a grand 100 feet across, wide enough to turn a full team of horses around. From the corner of Texas Avenue and Fannin Street, Christ Church Cathedral watched this town grow from a motely group of yellow-fever infested men trying to make something happen on the muddy bayou banks into a major international metropolis.

And thank goodness the Cathedral persevered through its own challenging history to bear witness to it all. This uncivilized mess of a town was in dire need of churching. Bars, brothels and brawls marked Houston’s early days, and even as things settled down somewhat, the city continued to draw and create colorful characters—powerful men and women whose influence is still present and whose names linger on streets and buildings all around us.

Who were they? What were their stories? How do they relate to the Cathedral on Texas Avenue?

Sunday evening, September 22 at 6:30 p.m., Houston historian and author Mike Vance brings all this history to life as he shares stories and images from his new book Mud & Money: a timeline of Houston History. He’ll focus on what was going on in town in the early twentieth century: What was it like in the days when Houston had established itself as a dynamic city with Jesse Jones at the helm? When air-conditioning was finally making the city liveable? When skyscrapers were sprouting all around the Cathedral?  How had the dream represented in Gail Borden’s muddy map become a reality?

These walls can’t talk, but Mike Vance sure can. And he has many fascinating tales to tell. Join us Sunday evening to learn more about the history of our very unique city and the beautiful Cathedral that still thrives in its heart.

Mike Vance presents Mud & Money: a timeline of Houston History
Mellinger Room in Latham Hall
Christ Church Cathedral
Sunday, September 22
6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

And please join us before the presentation 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 more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.
~Maya Angelou

 

 

 

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

 

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!

23 and Billingsley

As KPRC’s Chief Meteorologist Frank Billingsley unravels the mystery of his DNA, he gives us all important perspective.

Gregor-Mendel-examines-peasWhen Gregor Mendel’s little gardening experiment with peas revealed the way that particular traits are passed down through the generations, he could never have imagined the myriad uses that technology would find for genetic information.

Want to know if you’re going to be bald? What your odds are for contracting Parkinson’s, psoriasis or palsy? Or do you wonder about your ancestors? What distant shores did they roam? What did they look like? What were their names? What’s your (real) name? Who’s your (real) daddy?

Spit into a cup, swab the inside of your cheek, and everything you ever wanted to know about your heritage can be revealed. But how much do you really want to discover?

Knowing he was adopted, Frank Billingsley, KPRC’s beloved meteorologist, had occasionally wondered about his birth parents, but he had such a strong relationship with his adoptive parents that he never considered searching for his roots. It seemed somehow disloyal. When a chance email set him on a genealogical search, he soon found himself compelled to know more. He swabbed and spat into myriad genetic test kits, and scoured the Internet late at night for connections to names he discovered. What he found surprised him on a multitude of levels and unfolded as an intriguing mystery.

On Sunday, October 22, the Cathedral Bookstore welcomes Frank from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to share his recently published book, Swabbed and Found: An Adopted Man’s DNA Journey to Discover His Family Tree. Frank’s experience reminds us that while the technology provided by companies such as 23 and Me enables us to know exponentially more than Mendel or other early geneticists dreamed possible,  in the end, whatever our genetic makeup or history, when it comes to our common humanity, we are all still as similar as peas in a pod.

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I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”
~Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

 

Continue reading “23 and Billingsley”

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

The Peace Builders’ Poems

Taking more time for stories won’t solve our problems, but it provides an understanding that is the first step. 

The Jerusalem Peace Builders, Israeli young adults from the each of the Abrahamic faiths–Christianity, Islam, and Judaism–spent the week at the Cathedral. On Sunday, before reading the lessons in the service in Hebrew and Arabic, they explained themselves to us by reading poems they had written.

Each poem began, “I am from…” And each list-format poem included sweet, mundane ingredients that made up these young men and women: my mother’s hummus, my sister’s tabbouleh, roses and olive trees. But going beyond the sugar-and-spice-and-everything-nice aspects of their character, they also shared darker ingredients: trouble, chaos and death, and the ways love had softened hearts of stone.

As they had opened up to each other through the course of the week, they opened themselves for the coffee-hour crowd. They shared their inside jokes and their respect and love for one another. They will never be able to look at a person from another religion as other, because by sharing their stories, their “I am,” they created connection and empathy.

At the Cathedral, the Dean has a book club. The titles are varied, selected by the group, and we carry them here in the bookstore. The title for September’s meeting is My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, by Ari Shavit. Called a “must-read book” by Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times, Shavit doesn’t try to tell us what to think about Israel, instead, he shares its story, intimately intertwined with his own.

“The Israel question cannot be answered with polemics,” he writes. “As complex as it is, it will not submit itself to arguments and counter arguments. The only way to wrestle with it is to tell the Israel story. That is what I have tried to do in this book.”

Taking more time for stories–for sharing our own openly and listening to and reading those of others intently–won’t solve our problems, but it provides an understanding that is the first step.

The heartfelt group hug after the Jerusalem Peace Builders’ reading testified to what an important start knowing and understanding one another is on the path to peace.

 

The shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story.
–Anthony de Mello