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Northern Lights: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Writing in Canada

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Edited by Byron Rempel-Burkholder and Dora Dueck

(John Wiley & Sons Canada)

The recently published Northern Lights: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Writing in Canada has considerable connection for Fredericton-area readers. The book is a collection of contributions from 46 Canadian writers that makes a statement on Canadian spiritual identity.

In their Introduction, editors Byron Rempel-Burkholder and Dora Dueck, both from Winnipeg, state "our aim was not to analyze, define, or argue about Christian identity in Canada. We wanted to discover it [Christianity] in a variety of genres, from poetry to fiction, memoir to meditation."

The book reflects the "many church traditions represented in Canada, from evangelical to Catholic, mainline Protestant to Orthodox, Pentecostal to Anabaptist." The writing is "from literary figures, religious leaders, public figures, and activists. The text is divided into six sections: Dance to Creation, A Place in the World, Sorrow and the Wild, Leaps of Faith, Transformation, and Glimpses of Glory.

Three of the authors who are included in Northern Lights now reside in Fredericton.

Linda Hall is an award-winning mystery writer whose Celestial Navigation takes readers on a journey in the fog on a 28-foot sailboat through the Reversing Falls, Saint John Harbour and out into the Bay of Fundy en route to Dipper Harbour, a moving, sensitive piece.

Michael W. Higgins, president and vice-chancellor of St. Thomas University, contributed his entertaining, and tongue-in-cheek essay On Monks, Monsters, and Manuscripts in which he weaves a poignant pattern of words, experiences, and references that reflect on his faith.

Rev. Peter Short, a former moderator of the United Church of Canada who came to Wilmot United Church in 1999 and who is now in the process of retiring, presents a rather moving passage in Wild Roses in which he draws parallels between growing roses in a harsh Canadian climate and living a life of faith in this country's moral climate.

Other writers in Northern Lights include George Whipple, born in New Brunswick, grew up in Toronto, and now lives in Burnaby, B.C.; Father Ron Rolheiser, a columnist in the Saint John Diocesan newspaper The New Freeman, and James Loney, a reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams who was captured and held hostage in Baghdad for four months in 2006 and whose credits include a project in New Brunswick. The table of contents also lists numerous other prominent Canadians.

Northern Lights is a thought-provoking title on the "spiritual landscape of Canada."

- reviewed by

MICHAEL O. NOWLAN

For The Daily Gleaner