Our library in Hewett Centre is open every Sunday after service during Coffee Hour, and now the Library Team will be offering related reading lists based on the topic of Sunday service. Here is their list for the upcoming May 26 service.

VanU library books related to this Sunday’s sermon:

1. Salted with Fire: Unitarian Universalist Strategies for Sharing Faith and Growing Congregations, by Scott W. Alexander, 1994, 289.13 ALE [Dynamic collection of Unitarian Universalist religious leaders’ essays filled with philosophy, practical advice and passion about their commitment and passion for the growth of Unitarian Universalism].

2. Planning For Growth & Vitality For Smaller & Midsize Congregations: Congregational Team Planning Guide, 288 UUA/CUC.

3. The Almost Church: Redefining Unitarian Universalism for a New Era, by Michael Durall, 2004, 289.1 DUR [Delves into how UU congregations can become stronger-minded, as well as more effective, in achieving their hopes and dreams in the future].

4. The Interfaith Alternative: Embracing Spiritual Diversity, by Reverend Steven Greenebaum, 2012, 201.5 [Gift of Mary Bennett; There’s no them – there is only us – with a common humanity, including each of our spiritual paths having the primary tenets of faith including universal love, acceptance and compassion].

5. The Common Heart: An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue, edited by Netanel Miles-Yepez, 2006, 201.5 MIL [Provides Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Indigenous perspectives in interreligious dialogue gathered from twenty years of Father Thomas Keating’s “Snowmass Conference”].

6. How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships, by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 2006, 294.3 BST [This offers a simple, yet illuminating, program for transforming self-centered energy into outwardly directed compassion, thus helping us to open our hearts and minds to the experience of unlimited love, resulting in transforming every relationship in our lives and guiding us ever closer to wisdom and enlightenment].

(Image credit: Kimberley Farmer / Unsplash)

Our library in Hewett Centre is open every Sunday after service during Coffee Hour, and now the Library Team will be offering related reading lists based on the topic of Sunday service. Here is their list for the upcoming May 12 service.

VanU library books related to this Sunday’s sermon:

1. Gandhi on Non-Violence: A Selection From the Writings of Mahatma Gandi, by Mahatma Gandhi  1965, 172 GAN [Gift of Phillip Hewett, In memory of Charlotte Pennell].

2. The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace, by Howard Zinn, 2002, 327.17 WEI [from Beacon Press, this is the first anthology of the alternatives to war, with the most salient and persuasive arguments for peace in the past 2,500 years].

3. Enough Blood Shed: 101 Solutions to Violence, Terror and War, by Mary-Wynne Ashford with Guy Dauncey, 2006, 303.69 ASH [Signed by a co-author, this provides an alternative perspective (to that of people believing they’re powerless to change the reality of a world awash with weapons and war) based on solutions where their previous use has proven them to be successful].

4. Gandh’s Truth, by Erik H. Erikson, 1969, 921 GAN [Subtitle is “On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence].

5. Nonviolence: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Modern Library Chronicles), by Mark Kurlansky, 2008, 303.61 KUR [History, from ancient Hindu times until now, of nonviolence being a distinct entity, a course of action, rather than just a mere state of mind].

6. The Spoils of War: Power, Profit and the American War Machine, by Andrew Cockburn, 2021, 973.931 [Donated by Gerta Moray, this explains how the American war machine can only be properly understood in terms of the “private passions” and “interests” of those who control it, in particular, a passionate interest in money].

7. Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, by Greg Mortenson, 2009, 371.82 MOR [Tells about the humanitarian effort to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, with Wikipedia’s article stating “Due to attention paid to Mortenson’s books first by their wives, US military leaders in Afghanistan have sought Mortenson’s advice on how to work with the elders of local Afghan communities since 2007”].

8. We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work, Jimmy Carter, 2009, 956.05 CAR [Nobel Peace Laureate and former President Jimmy Carter, for three decades, has studied the complex and interrelated issues of the region’s conflicts and has been actively involved in reconciling them].

(Image credit: Kimberley Farmer / Unsplash)