In this imaginative retelling, John Pritchard explores the Gospel of Luke by looking through the eyes of the disciple John. The Journey to Jerusalem follows Lukes account from Luke 9:51, as Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. Perfect for individual or group study, The Journey to Jerusalem provides weekday readings for Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday, along with a poem for each Saturday. Questions for reflection and discussion are also included.
‘In this wonderful book, John Pritchard draws you into twenty of Jesus’ most important questions, which ring as true today as ever they did. I loved it.’ PAULA GOODER, CHANCELLOR OF ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, LONDON We usually think of Jesus as preaching and teaching, but throughout the gospels he is often asking questions – searching enquiries, that disarm the hearers into responding unreservedly and provide some of the most profound lessons in the New Testament. But what were the questions that Jesus asked? And how can we learn from them today? Twenty Questions Jesus Asked explores just that. Over four distinct sections, John Pritchard explores twenty of Jesus’ conversations by imagining the experience of those being questioned and reflecting on their significance for us as modern Christians. With contemporary stories, questions for reflection and prayer exercises, Twenty Questions Jesus Asked is a brilliant book for both individual and small group use. With his characteristic grounded thoughtfulness, John Pritchard guides us through Jesus’ questions and helps us better understand the lessons he was trying to impart, so that we can grow as disciples and apply Jesus’ wisdom to every day life.
This provocative novel takes the reader on a wild ride inside the mind of a Mississippi Delta good-old-boy ex-deputy sheriff who is as vicious and racist as the worst 1950s-’60s stereotypes. Junior Ray Loveblood narrates the story in his own profane, colloquial voice, telling why he hates just about everybody and why he wants to shoot Leland Shaw, a shell-shocked World War II hero and poet who is hiding in a silo from what he believes are German patrols. Through a series of sleights of hand, misdirections, and near misses, Junior Ray and his sidekick Voyd give a dark tour of the Delta country as they chase their mysterious prey. Junior Ray’s thoughts are peppered with excerpts from Shaw’s notebooks - sometimes starkly different from Junior Ray’s diatribe, sometimes eerily similar—and by the end of the story, it is up to the reader to sort out whose reality is more fantastic, Shaw’s or Loveblood’s, as the one stalks the other through the pages of this highly original and darkly comedic story.
‘Jesus was a pest to the Romans and a threat to the religious leadership, so they threw him on to the rubbish dump. Little did they realize that it was like trying to put out a fire with petrol. The whole world exploded.’ With characteristic style, John Pritchard takes us on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as he unpacks the five great events that made Christianity – Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost. We explore: What happened? What did it mean? What does it mean for us? Absorbing, immediate and full of stories, this volume offers deeply considered theology, brilliantly communicated to connect with life as we actually experience it. ‘Vividly elucidates the familiar but often not-quite-understood beliefs at the centre of the Christian faith.’ Dominic Barrington, Dean of Chicago Praise for John Pritchard: Rowan Williams on God Lost and Found: ‘Unusually honest . . . superbly well focused.’ Justin Welby on Living Faithfully: ‘A very good book by an exceptional leader . . . takes one back to the face of Christ and the realities of Christian discipleship.’
We’re all called to ministry. There are many situations we find ourselves in as Christians that are difficult to handle. This warm, compassionate handbook offers an easy-to-navigate source of advice on how to respond to the needs of others. It draws on the extensive experience of a much loved bishop, whose companion volume, The Life and Work of a Priest, has become a classic. 'With his usual wisdom and good humour, John Pritchard writes for anyone and everyone curious about the varied work of ministry. This book will refresh and illuminate your perspective on what it means to participate in the growing of God’s Kingdom.' Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Ripon Praise for John Pritchard: Rowan Williams on God Lost and Found: ‘Unusually honest . . . superbly well focused.’ Justin Welby on Living Faithfully: ‘A very good book by an exceptional leader . . . takes one back to the face of Christ and the realities of Christian discipleship.’
John Pritchard's novels Junior Ray and The Yazoo Blues have been dubbed "hilariously tasteless" and "not for the squeamish or pure of heart"—and equally praised by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and lovers of Southern fiction everywhere. In Sailing to Alluvium, the third installment of Pritchard's "Junior Ray Saga," irrepressible ex-deputy sheriff Junior Ray Loveblood and his sidekick Voyd Mudd have become "diktectives" to stop the murderous activities of a semi-secret, lethal organization of Southern women, the AUNTY BELLES, headed by Miss Attica Rummage. Sailing to Alluvium is another brilliant tale of the bumbling duo, with an unforgettable cast of characters deeply rooted in the Mississippi Delta, a place both real and imaginary. The novel, hilarious and moving, revolves around obsessions, underneath which lies the dark history of a class conflict that exists in the Deep South, not among black and white but between the white "haves" and the white "have-nots." John Pritchard's work fits well between the singing prose of James Agee and the rustic lampoon and high humor of Erskine Caldwell. The reader is treated to a unique brand of dark comedy that closes the divide between burlesque and metaphysics, fuses the profane with the sublime, and explains the Deep South as no other writer has done.
Over 12,000 copies of this book have sold since publication in 2004. Containing completely new material, this user-friendly sequel to the bestselling Intercessions Handbook is for individuals and groups involved in the vital task of leading prayers in public worship. Easy to adapt to particular situations and with a wealth of creative suggestions for enlivening the prayers, The Second Intercessions Handbook covers: mainstream public worship festivals and special events, informal worship and worship for small groups, intercessions with children and young people, and personal intercession.
In this highly readable book, John Pritchard explores around 20 experiences common to us all. Each of these, he believes, offers us a route to a more authentic existence, an insight into some aspect of the divine. Whether you are just starting out on spiritual exploration, or have some experience of 'signs of transcendence', this book will reassure you are on the right track, and point the way forward to the 'beyond in the everyday', the 'something more' we are forever designed to seek.
Our lives are increasingly overscheduled, multi-tasking, and hectic. For everyone who could use more than 24 hours in a day (that is, most of us), John Pritchard explores the art and power of prayer and explains how to slow down enough to hear what God wants to say to us. A book for all who are curious about how to become more in tune with the Spirit.
When you dig a bit below the surface, you are likely to discover that many of us who attend church regularly feel we have lost touch with a living experience of God. Indeed, we may find we no longer believe in God at all. The reasons why faith breaks down are multi-layered and complex, and this sympathetic volume has been written for those who aren't satisfied with pious answers to real questions and disappointments. John Pritchard draws deeply on his own experience of dark times in order to shed light on what we may be going through ourselves. He then offers starting points from which we might rediscover and re-imagine a more realistic faith in the God who, despite appearances, is ever present with us, whether apprehended or not.
Methodism played an important part in the spread of Christianity from its European heartlands to the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific. From John Wesley’s initial reluctance, via haphazard ventures and over-ambitious targets, a well-organized and supported Wesleyan Society developed. Smaller branches of British Methodism undertook their own foreign missions. This book, together with a companion volume on the 20th century, offers an account of the overseas mission activity of British and Irish Methodists, its roots and fruits. John Pritchard explores many aspects of mission, ranging from Labrador to New Zealand and from Sierra Leone to Sri Lanka, from open air preaching to political engagement, from the isolation of early pioneers to the creation of self-governing churches. Tracing the nineteenth-century missionary work of the Churches with Wesleyan roots which went on to unite in 1932, Pritchard explores the shifting theologies and attitudes of missionaries who crossed cultural and geographical frontiers as well as those at home who sent and supported them. Necessarily selective in the personalities and events it describes, this book offers a comprehensive overview of a world-changing movement - a story packed with heroism, mistakes, achievements, frustrations, arguments, personalities, rascals and saints.
Having managed during his eventful time as a vicar to become a footnote in ecclesiastical history (!), John Pritchard's current role as a 'jobbing bishop' ensures he is in contact with many parish priests every week. In this lively and hopeful volume, he realistically maps out the life and work of those called to serve God in the pastoral ministry, looking in turn at the only three things he believes need be of concern: the glory of God, the pain of the world, and the renewal of the Church. From those flow the priest's many roles, such as spiritual explorer, multi-lingual interpreter, wounded companion, friendly irritant, creative leader and mature risk-taker.
A book of practical help and encouragement for anyone looking for a new start in their spiritual journey, or wanting to take that journey further for the first time.
Junior Ray Loveblood, one of the most outrageous and original personalities to appear in American literature in many years, returns in The Yazoo Blues, the sequel to John Pritchard’s Junior Ray. Now semi-retired, Loveblood works as a security guard in one of the floating casinos that have replaced cotton as the cash crop in the Mississippi Delta. In his spare time, Junior Ray has become obsessed with the ill-fated Yazoo Pass expedition by a Union armada up the Mississippi River in 1863. He relates dual stories, both that of a soldier slowly driven mad by the haunting countryside, and of Loveblood’s friend Mad Owens, whose search for existential love meets its greatest challenge in the arms of the stripper Money Scatters. Loveblood’s conclusions are hilarious, absurd, and at times intensely revealing. Equally profane and profound, the fictional narrator of Pritchard’s novel illuminates the complex stew of evolving race relations, failed economies, and corrupt politics that define much of the post-civil rights rural Deep South.
Compelled by the belief that a large number of Christians want to come to God with others’ needs, John Pritchard has created this follow-up to his hugely successful volumes, The Intercessions Handbook and The Second Intercessions Handbook. In a gentle, accessible, style he offers ‘starter’ ideas and introductory material to help those who lead intercessions in public worship and small groups, and aims to open the reader’s imagination to enrich their own style of praying. Everyday language, images and experiences are used in each of the three main sections. The first, looking at intercessions in mainstream worship, offers prayers for each of the 12 months for major festivals and their seasons for special days like Mothering Sunday on themes such as light, storms and fear The second section provides intercessions for use in informal worship and small groups, while the third, focusing on personal payers, includes a section for extroverts. Praise for The Intercessions Handbook: ‘A wake-up call to all those who . . . need to find encouragement, freshness, balance and perseverance in this work of grace.’ Methodist Recorder
A unique collection of prayers on the theme of pilgrimage, helping you to see your whole life as a journey and to discover the sacred presence every step of the way.
This Benedictine prayer companion presents a modern reworking of the ancient monastic practice of praying at set hours. For each season of the Christian Year, it provides eight short, simple prayer outlines, complete with readings: • Waking as an occasion for praise • Discernment at the beginning of the day • Wisdom for the mid-morning reflection • Perseverance at midday • Love as a focus of the afternoon • Forgiveness as the day closes • An invitation to Trust at bedtime • Midnight at the time to Watch Everything needed to follow the pattern of prayer is printed out in full, including scripture readings, short meditations, quotations from Christian writings, hymn texts and questions for reflection. Daily Prayer for All Seasons originated in the Episcopal Church of America (where it is authorised by the General Convention) and was compiled by a diverse team of priests, liturgists, writers and lay men and women. Bishop John Pritchard introduces this UK edition.
John Pritchard takes an honest look at what the church is really for and how it works. A book for all who wonder what it must be like to be part of a community of people who are trying to follow the life and teaching of Jesus.
The faith we proclaim on Sunday is just as relevant to the rest of the week. However, too often the teaching and support that church life offers us can seem aimed at deepening our personal commitment to Christ and our involvement in church activities, rather than enabling us to live out our faith at work and in the world. We need to close the gap between sacred and secular, and that's what this book aims to help us do. Each chapter identifies an issue, explores how we might respond and encourages us - through practical ideas, stories, humour, quotes, Scripture, questions and prayer - to seek to make a difference.
Lists can be an entertaining distraction but Ten demonstrates they can be stimulating too. With characteristic wit and candour, John Pritchard attempts to get clear in his own mind what he believes after 40 years of trying to faith understandable to others. Topics include: Ten problems people have with faith Ten things I believe about God Ten things I don't believe about God Ten words of wisdom Ten cliches to avoid Ten ways to pray Ten lessons learned This is a great book whether you're skeptical about Christianity, feel there may be something to it, or simply want reassurance - in the midst of life's frequently bewildering moments - that it really does make sense.
Offering hope and comfort to those facing pressure and anxiety, Pocket Prayers for Troubled Times offers both original and traditional prayers that speak of God's presence and faithfulness in adversity.
Reflections for Daily Prayer has nourished thousands of Christians for a decade with its inspiring and informed weekday Bible reflections. Now, in response to demand, Reflections for Sundays combines material from over the years with new writing to provide high-quality reflections on the Principal Readings for Sundays and major Holy Days. Contributors include some of the very best writers from across the Anglican tradition who have helped to establish it as one of the leading daily devotional volumes today. For each Sunday and major Holy Day in Year A, Reflections for Sundays offers: - full lectionary details for the Principle Service - a reflection on the Old Testament reading - a reflection on the Epistle - a reflection on the Gospel It also contains a substantial introduction to the Gospel of Matthew, written by renowned Bible teacher Paula Gooder.
Features ideas, reflections, and resources on how to extend the message of resurrection through the weeks following Easter and into the rest of our lives. This work includes articles of reflection, ways to celebrate resurrection and to continue the risen life, worship ideas, personal stories, poetry, music, art, a group course, and more.
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