The Magazine

The Way Under Our Feet: A Spirituality of Walking
Graham Usher
SPCK (Pub date 16/04/2020, can be pre-ordered) £12.99
Revelation price £10.00

Walking is one of the simplest things we do as humans. It’s a basic way by which most of us experience life. Walking gives us innumerable benefits to mind, body and spirit when we take time to stroll at three miles an hour. We think better; we observe more deeply; we tune into the rhythm of the soul.

In his new book The Way Under Our Feet, Bishop Graham Usher vividly conveys how exhilarating it is to walk into the depths of our humanity. We can become more ready to recognise the needs as well as the joys of others; we might seek to heal our battered world, even as we glory in the beauty of nature; we may experience Jesus walking alongside us, listening, teaching, challenging, loving us into the people he wants us to be.

Soulful Nature; A spiritual field guide
Brian Draper
Canterbury Press (2020) £14.99
Revelation price £12.00

In our busy and often pressured world, the natural world can be a powerful counterbalance, offering wisdom for the challenges, pain and dislocations of life, as well as for the beauty, wonder and healing. Brian Draper and Howard Green encourage the reader to get outside to make deeper connections with creation and its Creator.

Over the course of a year, they chart walking journeys through both rural landscapes and town streets, showing how the natural cycle of the changing seasons can awaken us to the rhythms of our own lives. Each chapter explores a different landscape, focussing in on the small details of the natural world as well as panning out to the wide-screen beauties of time and space. Simple and practical exercises are provided throughout.

Creative Ideas for Wild Church: Taking all-age worship and learning outdoors
Mary Jackson and Juno Hollyhock
Canterbury Press (2016) £19.99
Revelation price £17.00

This innovative and imaginative resource offers learning and worship activities as well as whole service outlines, to help church members engage with the outside world and keep connected with their local communities whether rural or urban. We are being encouraged to reconnect with nature; schools are building outdoor classrooms, while Forest Church, the Eco-congregation and the rewilding spirituality movements reflect this trend in churches.

This resource is definitely not just for the energetic outdoor types, the authors creatively blending the Christian year with the natural seasons; such as an all-age Advent outdoor adventure, creating an Easter garden outside, kite flying at Ascension, building life-size David and Goliath, going on a prayer pilgrimage, collecting autumn leaves and using tree ribbons for remembrance.

Practical advice on making the most of the outside space available, inclusiveness, health & safety and safeguarding included.

Hebrews; Race to Glory
James Reapsome
IVP revised edition 2018 £4.99
Revelation price £4.00

At times we can all be tempted to ask, “What’s the use?” We work and try to live as Christians and sometimes feel that we are getting nowhere. Indeed, that’s exactly how the original readers of the letter to the Hebrews felt! Yet the author of the letter encourages the readers to stay on track and never quit, to reach the finish line by the power of Jesus Christ. Through this revised Lifebuilder Study in Hebrews, readers will also hopefully find the encouragement needed to stay in the right lane.

It features questions for starting group discussions and for meeting God in personal reflection, as well as the “Now or Later” section within each study.