Graham Hedges
Graham Hedges served as the secretary of Christians in Library and Information Services and a trustee of the Christian Book Promotion Trust until 2020.
Book review: Home – The quest to belong
4 November 2019The author is the writer of several books and married to an Anglican clergyman, originally from the US. She has lived in the UK for more than 15 years now, but during her earlier life lived in a lot of different places in five countries and three continents. During her lifetime she has lived in around 30 different houses. She says that moving house is something that she knows how to do.Jo describes herself as a ‘third culture kid’, someone whose parents came from one culture but who was brought…
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Some moments of privacy, please
24 October 2019Harry and Meghan’s tour of the African continent attracted much favourable comment from the media and the public, but the ITV documentary on the tour has revealed that all is not well with the royal couple. In an interview with journalist Tom Bradby, Meghan revealed that since her marriage she has struggled to come to terms with the intense media scrutiny of her personal life. “I did not think it would be easy, but I thought it would be fair,” said Meghan. Prince Harry admitted to concerns…
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Book review: Jesus in Town
15 July 2019Elizabeth Mednick, the author, is well qualified to tell this story, as she is married to Michael, the instigator of Barking Churches Unite and a pioneer of inter-church cooperation in the boroughs of east London. The book begins with short biographical sketches of the author and her husband, and brief accounts of their early lives as Christians, before describing their pioneering work in encouraging united church action in the London Borough of Newham. After being involved in this work for…
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Barking Churches Unite: taking faith onto the streets
15 July 2019Michael, who has worked for many years as a teacher of special needs children, shared that around the time of his fiftieth birthday, and during a week at Spring Harvest, he had become convinced that God was calling him to begin a ministry leading and promoting joint church initiatives. When he approached local church leaders in Barking and Dagenham, the London borough that neighbours his own, he was surprised by their positive response. It wasn’t long before Barking Churches Unite (BCU), a new…
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Book review: It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way
8 April 2019The theme of the book is living with disappointments and the president of Proverbs 31 Ministries has certainly had more than her fair share in the recent past. In the last few years she has had to come to terms with marital breakdown, serious illness, and treatment for breast cancer. Her book includes some moving accounts of nights of solitude when she has had to suffer alone at a time when she was estranged from her husband and her grown up children had all left home. Setting forth her reasons…
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The Test Room: a real life story of passing the test of love
25 March 2019Through the pastor’s book The Test Room, I discover a lot more about this ministry to some of the most vulnerable men in London, and the challenges that Rev Alex Gyasi, his family and his church congregation have faced along the way. In his foreword for the self-published book, Dr Jonathan Oloyede, organiser of the National Day of Prayer and Worship, suggests that there are two types of Bible-believing Christians: the church-minded ones and the kingdom-oriented disciples. While many church…
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Book review: Catching Contentment: How to be holy satisfied
6 February 2019If, as a casual browser, I had persevered, however, I would have discovered that the book comes with commendations from several well-known Christians including author Jennifer Rees Larcombe, who describes it as “the best book I have read in years”. So, what is it about this book that inspires such enthusiasm from a number of Christian leaders? In essence Catching Contentment is an extended commentary on St Paul’s words in Philippians 4:12, where the apostle says: ”I have learned the secret of…
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Justice for the poor and great
2 November 2018This gave the media licence to refer to Sir Philip in conjunction to the story, and he has received saturation coverage since. Sir Philip broke his silence when he told the Mail on Sunday on 28 October that he had suffered the “worst week of his life” and that there was “zero evidence” to support the complaints against him. There have been calls for Sir Philip to be stripped of his knighthood and reminders of his decision to sell British Home Stores for £1 and concerns regarding the viability…
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Is God's creation still in crisis?
30 October 2018Some years ago, when I was working for the library service in London, I remember a conversation with a young woman who was concerned about the environment, and such issues as global warming and climate change. Louise told me that she had been brought up in the church, but when she raised her concerns with members of her congregation, there was a lack of interest and an attitude that it wasn’t their problem. Eventually Louise drifted away from the church and found an outlet for her interests…
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Book review: Phoebe by Paula Gooder
22 May 2018Paula is well known as a New Testament scholar and as a populariser of Christian theology and biblical studies. In Phoebe she adopts a new role as a writer of Christian fiction in an attempt to bring to life some of the characters and situations mentioned in the biblical text.The central character, Phoebe, is mentioned in Romans 16:1-2 as a deacon in the church of Cenchreae (a town a few miles from Corinth) and as a benefactor or patron. Basing her storyline on the knowledge that Phoebe was a…
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