Six New Things – Week of January 6, 2025

This New Year, it’s ‘out’ with the old ideas of supremacy and ‘in’ with ‘perfect’ love that welcomes regular people into belonging and upholds ‘old-timey’ equity.

ONE

The perfectly beautiful Ping’s Perfect Pot (Beaming) will inspire ‘anyone feeling discouraged over learning something new’ to find ‘perfection’ through ‘practice, patience… love and effort’. The book includes backmatter on the deeper meaning of Lunar New Year traditions and symbols found throughout the book. Lunar New Year is Wednesday, January 29, 2025.

Find more in our new National Observances: New Year & Lunar New Year lib guide.

TWO

Patience, love, commitment and courage will be hallmarks of this year’s Lenten practices – for everyone. Bring folx together with:

  • Prone to Wander: A Lenten Journey with Women in the Wilderness (Herald)
    • Invites us into the stories of 30 Biblical women – from Eve to Mary Magdalene – who had their own wilderness experiences of ‘doubt and questioning, of dryness and distance’, and show stories offer ‘guideposts for the inevitable wilderness periods in our own lives’.
  • Draw Close: A Creative Companion for Lent (Upper Room)
    • A unique Lenten companion for all ages – for individual or group use –  encourages drawing as a way to practice faith. ‘Draw closer to God’ with a pencil or pen; perforated pages allow for hanging favorite creations on the wall or fridge.
    • Read a sample here.

Find additional Faith Formation ideas for Lent & Easter in our lib guide

THREE

Expand Lenten engagement among all ages and identities through worship, devotionals, studies, and more with:

  • Everything In Between: Meeting God in the Midst of Extremes (A Sanctified Art)
    • ‘an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives with more faith, intention, and openness to be transformed… [through] weekly [exploration of] supposed binaries, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief and hope”… [which], within the scriptures, [are depicted with] nuance and complexity. We might find that God is present in between.’
  • Bread of Life (Illustrated Ministry)
    • which ‘amidst injustice and tragedies’ invites us to ‘gather together to break bread, savor the divine generosity of God, and rise to share [love and grace] with the world out of the abundance we have received from the bread of life.’

Find additional Worship: Lent & Easter resources in our lib guide.

FOUR

Who isn’t showing up this Epiphany (or Lent)? Might they be longing for a sense of belonging? All the Lonely People: Conversations on Loneliness (Picador UK), ‘opens a window onto the inner lives of regular people – the forgotten, misplaced or misjudged – who all feel isolated in some way’ and ‘questions what we can do to build stronger human relationships and be a part of something bigger than ourselves in an increasingly disjointed world’.

Sounds like a recipe for ‘church’.

Discover additional Pastoral Care support around Loneliness in our lib guide.

FIVE

Some contend that loneliness lies at the root of supremacy ideations and nationalism. Bring Back Your People: Ten Ways Regular Folks Can Put a Dent in White Christian Nationalism (Broadleaf) is, a ‘mouthy, practical guide to resisting, organizing, and holding conversations with your cousin Randy or anyone else who has been misled by White Christian nationalist ideas’. Rev. Dr. Liz Theo Harris calls it a ‘must-read’ for folx who ‘believe we must build a multiracial, intergenerational, inclusive, and peace-loving democracy dedicated to all humans flourishing and a sustainable planet’.

Find additional support for these conversations in our Church & State/Christian Nationalism lib guide.

SIX

Disrupt new-fangled, supremacy-based ideas about equity with Learning to Be Fair: Equity from Classical Philosophy to Contemporary Politics (Fortress). It may not be for all the regular folx in your context, but it will certainly inform preaching and teaching about ‘one of the most durable principles in Western ethics’, as it, ‘connects current debates about the role of equity to long-standing ethical questions about civil disobedience and the possibility of teaching people to be good’.

Find more on Politics and Social Structure in our lib guide.