Laurie M. Brock Paraclete Press, 144 pages Reviewed by Jennifer Meyers As a teenager I rode my horse on a large network of trails, often alone. In the solitude of the woods, I attempted to imitate the form of professional jumper riders I’d observed at the last horse show. More importantly, my horse and I listened to each other. He is the only one who did not cower as I practiced songs learned in church, and I would pray. I never tried, like Laurie M. Brock, Episcopal priest and former attorney residing in Lexington, Kentucky, to put words to the experience of worshipping God on the back of a horse, but I can attest she gets it right. In 17 essays succinctly summed up by one-word titles (Still, Collect, Balance), she offers an extended meditation on how the bodily act of riding horses opens her soul to a new experience of divine presence, one that discards words to express a different tongue: “The language of healing that only horses speak.” She explains, ”These creatures teach … [Read more...]

Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Graham Hill IVP Books, 208 pages Reviewed by Rachel Cheney Starting conversations about change can be uncomfortable in most communities with political and sociological diversity. Even within denominational boundaries, individual churches have unique histories and perspectives. In our cultural context fraught with untrue binaries, divisive polarization and reactionary tribalism, communities of faith are challenged to confront injustice in their midst and in the world. “Healing Our Broken Humanity” offers a roadmap to begin the process of healing through dialogue and action in the church. With candidness, the authors suggest nine practices congregations and small groups can use to begin conversations about how to identify entrenched oppression in the church, repent for collective wrongdoing and subvert cultural tendencies toward sins of omission and commission. At the end of each chapter, the authors suggest practical tools for readers to apply what they are … [Read more...]

Paula Owens Parker Pickwick Publications, 224 pages Reviewed by Karen Branan Why did my mother get so upset when I asked simple questions about race? Why did I grow up feeling as if I had committed some horrible crime? Why did my father die believing erroneously that he’d killed a black girl? These questions haunted me for many years and in my search for answers, I discovered family systems therapy, the genogram and trauma theory. I wandered from one discipline and method to the other, weaving in historical study, Jungian art and dreamwork, yoga, prayer, meditation, genealogy and regularly walking a labyrinth at Westminster Presbyterian in Washington, D.C. — a 25-year journey that would result in a book and a sense of wholeness long hungered for, but unimagined, in my youth and middle years. Therefore, I am fascinated and delighted to discover “Roots Matter,” a fertile course of which blends genealogy, theology, psychology and history in order to heal generational … [Read more...]