We’re All Equally Human:
Conversations in a Coffee Shop Book 2.
Susan Jones.
Pbk 194pp. ISBN 9781988572970.
PGPL (2022).
$25.00.
[40 in stock]

__________

eBooks

When you pay online at Payhip
you can download your titles immediately

PDF, ePub & Kindle/Mobi:
$20.00

 Overseas customers please click here to order your print books

Meet Charity; young, lesbian, Christian, in a happy relationship with Katy and disturbed by her church’s attitude to LGBTQI people. Supported by her minister, Charity shares her experiences, and gains new confidence about her identity and role in her local church. She learns that interpretations of key Bible texts about gay people don’t cover loving committed adult same sex relationships.

And she also learns that interpretations and translations of so-called anti-homosexual key Bible texts are recent, wrong and don’t cover loving committed adult same sex relationships.

Importantly, after studying research on how people adopt new ideas with her minister, Charity learns that people can change their mind and their attitudes, but that this happens at different paces for different people.

This non-fiction novel also includes:

• a glossary of terms associated with LGBTQI topics
• a liturgy – Recapturing the Flame
• a list of rainbow resources for LGBTQI people and their families
• four reflections preached by the author
• a ‘coming out’ poem, and
• a Baby Thanksgiving and Naming.

You’re invited to join Charity on her journey of discovery

“I am especially thrilled by We’re All Equally Human. A stream of people come to talk to me and I point them to books. This one is so locked into Aotearoa, its stories, and church life, that it will be so useful. I will be recommending it widely to those on the journey of relating faith and sexuality.” Professor Peter Lineham, MNZM, Massey University, Albany.

“As Charity discovers each unexpected, if not surprising, response to her spiritual journey of self-recognition, her coffee conversations reveal rich, insightful explanations. They move across cultural, historical, sociological, and importantly, biblical and theological pathways offering empathetic reassurance. I found myself saying ‘yes’ and ‘yes’ and finally ‘Hallelujah!’”  Yvonne Wilkie, former Archivist, author in the history of women in Religion.

Stories We Tell Ourselves:
Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe.
Richard Holloway.
Pbk 272pp ISBN 9781786899965.
Canongate (2021).
$34.50.
[Allow 4 weeks]

Throughout history we have told ourselves stories to try and make sense of our place in the universe. Richard Holloway takes us on a personal, scientific and philosophical journey to explore what he believes the answers to the biggest of questions are.

He examines what we know about the universe into which we are propelled at birth and from which we are expelled at death, the stories we have told about where we come from, and the stories we tell to get through this muddling experience of life.

Thought-provoking, revelatory, compassionate and playful, this a personal reckoning with life’s mysteries by one of the most important and beloved thinkers of our time.

The Power of Regret:
How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.
Daniel H. Pink.
Hbk 256pp. ISBN 9780735210653
Riverhead Books (2022).
$62.00.
[Allow 3-4 weeks]

Drawing from new research in social psychology, neuroscience, biology, as well as from more than 10,000 people in 35 countries who responded to his World Regret Survey, Pink challenges the idea of regret being a drag on our self-esteem and outlook.

Understanding how regret actually works and using those insights to reframe our perspective of it will help us reclaim regret as an indispensable emotion that can help us make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school, and bring greater meaning to our lives.

Pink sets down a dynamic new way of thinking about regret and frames his ideas in ways that are clear, accessible, and pragmatic. Packed with true stories of people’s regrets as well as practical takeaways for reimagining regret as a positive force in your own life, this book shows how we can live richer, more engaged lives – with no regrets.

The Quiet Before:
On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas.
Gal Beckerman.
Hbk 352pp. ISBN 9781524759186.
Crown Publishing (2022).
$66.00.
[Allow 3-4 weeks]

We tend to think of revolutions as loud: frustrations and demands shouted in the streets.

Beckerman shows that our most defining social movements – from decolonisation to feminism – were formed in quiet, closed networks that allowed a small group to incubate their ideas before broadcasting them widely.

This extraordinary book is a search for those spaces, over centuries and across continents, and a warning that, in a world dominated by social media, they might soon go extinct.

Beckerman shows that our most defining social movements – from decolonisation to feminism – were formed in quiet, closed networks that allowed a small group to incubate their ideas before broadcasting them widely.

But Facebook and Twitter are replacing these productive, private spaces, to the detriment of activists around the world. Why did the Arab Spring fall apart? Why did Occupy Wall Street never gain traction? Has Black Lives Matter lived up to its full potential?

Beckerman reveals what this new social media ecosystem lacks – everything from patience to focus – and offers a recipe for growing radical ideas again.

Breath of the Spirit:
Photographs & Joyful Words for Gentle Meditation.
66pp, 8.25″ x 8.25″ Full Colour.
ISBN 9798803023876.
Philip C. Garside; Alexander Garside photographer.
PGPL (2022)
Print book was $34.00, now $25.00
[First print run sold out.
25 copies due by 17 May 2022]

Do you feel tired, stressed, over busy? Does the world around you seem dull and flat?

Pause and let these 57 full colour photographs with simple words boost your spirit.

Photographer Alexander Garside helps us to see the world through fresh eyes, and to appreciate the beauty of nature and our urban landscape. There is joy, light and life all around us.

eBooks and other digital products
based on the book are also available on our Payhip online store here:

Grace-Filled Moments with Sr. Joan:
365 Reflections on Life, Loss, Healing and Joy
Joan Chittister.
Hbk 139pp. ISBN 9781627856423.
Twenty-Third Publications (2021)
$47.00.
[Allow 3-4 weeks]

“…The challenge of this book is to make a personal commitment each day to take up silence — to set aside quiet time for reflection and reconnection. Silence, Joan insists, is the antidote to the chaos and busyness of modern life — in the words of Thomas Merton: “A way of resting in the One whom we have found, who loves us, who is near to us, who comes to us.”

This book is full of hope, inspiration, good advice and it will appeal to a wide range of people. On a practical note I found the smaller size of the book and larger than usual text very helpful.”

From the review by Julie Randall in Tuimotu Interislands  April 2022.

Work Won’t Love You Back:
How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone.
Sarah Jaffe.
Pbk 448pp. ISBN 9781568589374.
Bold Type Books (2022).
$49.00
[Allow 3-4 weeks]

Jaffe, a preeminent voice on labour, inequality, and social movements, examines the “labour of love” myth – the idea that certain work is not really work, and therefore should be done out of passion instead of pay.

Told through the lives and experiences of workers in various industries – from the unpaid intern, to the overworked teacher, to the non-profit worker and even the professional athlete – Jaffe reveals how all of us have been tricked into buying into a new tyranny of work.

Jaffe argues that, understanding the trap of the labour of love will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth. And once freed from those binds, we can finally figure out what actually gives us joy, pleasure, and satisfaction.

The Nowhere Office:
Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future.
Julia Hobsbawm.
Hbk 208pp. ISBN 9781541701939.
Public Affairs (2022).
$60.25.
[Allow 3-4 weeks]

The global shutdown changed everything we thought we knew about work, including where and when it needed to take place. Up to one third of the world’s permanent workforce may soon become remote. Hobsbawm offers a strategic and practical guide to navigating this pivotal moment in the history of work and provides lessons for how both employees and employers can adapt.

Hobsbawm draws on her extensive networks in business, academia, and entrepreneurship across generations to offer new ideas about how to handle hybrid working. She also provides deep insight into how the way we work is being transformed by larger issues such as community, hierarchy, bias, identity, and security.

She describes a unique moment in the history of work which, if understood and handled correctly, can provide a springboard for the biggest transformational change in the workplace for a century: something better, more meaningful, and more workable for everyone.

Listeners Dare:
Hearing God in the Sermon.
William H Willimon.
Pbk 144pp. ISBN 9781791023980.
Abingdon (2022).
$43.50.
[Allow 3-4 weeks]

The gospel is news that passes from the lips of one who has heard to the ears of one who has not yet heard, then (God willing) burrows in the soul, energising the hands in daring response to a word received.

Preaching is instigated by an astounding claim: Good news; God has spoken to us.

The Christian life is what you get when ordinary folk respond: I have heard.

The book is for anyone who listens to sermons, including preachers, since there’s no way to preach without gaining skills as a listener.

Willimon shares a love of preaching and also lets listeners into some of the secrets of why preaching is inherently connected to the Christian faith as one way God has chosen to relate to us and to disclose God’s will for each of us.

Preachers will profit from the book by becoming more astute listeners to preaching, and listeners would be able to increase their ability to get something out of sermons or examine their distractions that block this vital means of grace through worship together.

Connections Worship Companion, Year C Volume 2.
David Gambrell.
Hbk 300pp. ISBN 9780664264970.
Westminster John Knox Press (2022).
$66.00.
[Allow 3-4 weeks].

This volume offers complete liturgies – from the call to worship to the closing charge, with prayers and litanies for every need in between – for all worshiping occasions for the season after Pentecost of Year C.

“The Connections Worship Companion is an indispensable aid for worship planners and preachers. With liturgies from a diverse range of voices and attention to both the Revised Common Lectionary and the Narrative Lectionary, these volumes provide creative, faithful, and lyrical words for worship. Editor David Gambrell’s wisdom and eloquence grace the introductions to each liturgical season, offering concise and compelling insights into the Christian year. These volumes are a gift to the church and a guide to worship that is beautifully embodied, spiritually alive, and theologically rich.”
Kimberly Bracken Long, editor, Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching, and the Arts 

​​
Five Marks of a Methodist:
The Fruit of a Living Faith.
Steve Harper.
Pbk 80pp. ISBN 9781791026394.
Abingdon Press (2022).
$33.50.
[Allow 3-4 weeks]

Five marks confirm Methodists identity as genuine and fruitful followers of Christ:

1. A Methodist Loves God
2. A Methodist Rejoices in God
3. A Methodist Gives Thanks
4. A Methodist Prays Constantly
5. A Methodist Loves Others

Harper provides a meditation on each of these characteristics to help all Christians to prayerfully apply them to your journey with Jesus.

Each chapter ends with questions for reflection or discussion.