Book Reviews!

On these pages, you'll find some brief reviews of books which inform the life of the Community, books written by friends on the journey, and books that are here just because we like them!

GIVEN FOR LIFE: A GUIDE TO MOTIVATIONAL GIFTS Andy Raine
INTRODUCING THE RULE OF THE NORTHUMBRIA COMMUNITY Trevor Miller
LIFE JOURNEY Mary Fleeson
SEEK THE SILENCES Charles Ringma
A SPIRITUAL FORMATION WORKBOOK from Renovare

GIVEN FOR LIFE: A GUIDE TO MOTIVATIONAL GIFTS by Andy Raine

Many will have come across the wonderful material on Motivational Gifts by Andy Raine (one of the Community’s founders) - and have been frustrated not to be able to obtain a proper copy of it. It’s been frustrating for Andy too trying to get it published. But at last, after considerable rewriting, it is now being published by Kevin Mayhew - click here to purchase a copy by mail order through Cloisters.

‘It’s not what you do, but the underlying WHY that you do it that betrays who you are.’ Andy’s book helps you to unpack this and discover the gift that was always there: the innate responses and abilities you were born with. Are you a ‘prophet’? Or a ‘ruler’ or a ‘mercy’? A ‘giver’, ‘server’ or ‘teacher’? Or perhaps an ‘exhorter’ or a ‘giver’? Or a mixture? Many have been helped to relax into who they really are through working through this material: they no longer feel obliged to try to be somebody else. ‘It’s OK to be me!’

Apart from allowing you to study the different gifts and see how they might apply to you, Andy maps out the spiritual background for his approach, which is different from personality indicator schemes such as Myers-Briggs. He also provides ‘tie-breakers’ for those who cannot decide which gift they have; and he spells out some of the dangers of treating the material superficially, as opposed to working through it carefully and prayerfully.

When you have worked through the material yourself and can appreciate the precious gift you been granted - for life! - recommend it to your friends.

The mail order price is £11; click here for more details, or purchase through Cloisters..
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HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE - INTRODUCING THE RULE OF THE NORTHUMBRIA COMMUNITY

At last the Community has a 'pukka' presentation of the its Rule, superseding the photocopied version that has been around for ages. It is in the new 'How then shall we live?' booklet format and it includes an introduction to the Rule by Trevor Miller explaining why we need one and how we should use it - and emphasising that the Rule is deliberately flexible and adaptable, so that it does not so much 'prescribe uniformly' but 'provoke individually'.

If you are a Community Companion or Friend, when did you last read through the Rule in its 'unpacked' form? Feel it's time to look at it all afresh? Then you need to get hold of a copy of this booklet and keep it handy for regular reference. If you are not familiar with the Community but wish to find out more about it, then this would be a very helpful tool for understanding where it is coming from.

The booklet (Ref Code: HT/RULE) costs £4 by mail order from Cloisters (ring 01289 388235 or email us here), to purchase through Cloisters. And don't forget the other books in the series: The Heretical Imperative (unpacking a key part of the Rule); The City Without a Church (Henry Drummond's trenchant message for today's churches); Follow the Example (liturgies from Celtic Daily Prayer); and Complines. Click here to see the whole series. Watch for news of more titles to follow in the series.
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This is a beautiful book, which will make a superb present - perhaps for yourself!

Mary Fleeson, a Northumbria Community Companion living on Holy Island and a fine artist, has combined her painstaking artwork in the Celtic tradition with words that invite the reader on an inner journey of discovery, adventure, awakening and faith.

Roy Searle, one of the Community leaders, has commended it as 'creative and inspired; the book resonates with the author's own deep faith and touches all the senses through its wonderfully crafted and created pages. The artwork is outstanding and the helpful poems, prayers, meditations, Bible quotations, design notes and suggested activities make for a fascinating treasury and companion for all who are exploring or seeking to deepen their faith.'

The book is a hardback edition with 132 pages - every one a feast for the eye. It costs £17 by mail order.

Click here for mail order details for purchase through Cloisters; alternatively click here to see more details of Mary's artwork and to purchase copies direct from the Lindisfarne Scriptorium.
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The subtitle of this book is 'Reflections on Identity, Community and Transformative Action' and it is chock-full of insights that throw light on the journeys of Northumbria Community Companions.

The author has broken his subjects down into bite-sized chunks of little more than a page, in each of which he takes something from Thomas Merton's writings to illuminate the point he is making. Each one explores some deep reality of life in simple, but profound and challenging, terms. Each one is ideal for a daily meditation (it would take you nearly 5 months to work through the book on this basis).

Trevor Miller, one of the Northumbria Community leaders, says: 'This book exceeded all expectations and I cannot recommend it enough. The often-neglected truth that mission comes out of contemplation is a primary theme as the links between identity, community and transformative action are explored. A book to be prayed through, reflected on and used as a major resource for preaching and teaching - but most of all for living the spiritual life.'

This is a 230 page paperback that costs £11 by mail order. Click here to purchase through Cloisters.
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Renovare is a US-based organisation committed to the 'renewal of the Church of Jesus Christ in all her multifaceted expressions.' Renovare now operates in the UK and Roy Searle, one of the leaders of the Northumbria Community, is its Director in Britain and Ireland; so the links between the two organisations are close ones.

This workbook forms the basis for a group to work its way through a course of 'spiritual formation' - encouraging 'balance' in our spiritual lives, based upon the six major areas of discipline found in the life of Jesus Christ and the corresponding 'Six Traditions' seen in the history of the church. These six traditions are: Contemplative, Holiness, Charismatic, Social Justice, Evangelical and Incarnational. Each of these traditions has something vital for us to embrace. (This whole subject is explored in detail in Richard Foster's book 'Streams of Living Water'.)

Although this workbook was written with Renovare Spiritual Formation Groups in mind, it makes an excellent resource book for Community Groups or for church home groups - and is strongly recommended for this purpose.

This is a 112 page paperback that costs £9 by mail order. Click here for an order form to purchase through Cloisters or for more information about Richard Foster's 'Streams of Living Water'.
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