Instructions for the End of the World, a selection of Anglican priest Maggie Helwig's stirring sermons, affirms the importance of solidarity in turbulent times.
Helwig (Encampment) is the rector of inner-city Toronto's St. Stephen-in-the-Fields. Anglican homilies offer short reflections on set readings from the church lectionary. With the exception of a funeral address given for her father in 2018, these pieces date from 2020 to 2025. The early speeches--delivered online--capture the fear and isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic years. Helwig achieves the improbable, shedding fresh light on overfamiliar stories such as the parable of the Good Samaritan. Being a neighbor, she insists, means a willingness to step up. Wisdom comes from poetry by the likes of W.H. Auden and T.S. Eliot as well as from the Gospels and Hebrew scriptures.
With wars, climate breakdown, and the stripping of rights from transgender people and immigrants, "it is not in any way unrealistic to feel like we are living in the end times," Helwig acknowledges. Yet ordinary people committing to social justice can change the world, she asserts. This is not theoretical for her congregation but an everyday mission, seen most clearly in her church's efforts against the city's repeated attempts to shut down a camp of unhoused people in their churchyard. "To proclaim good news to the poor is an act of resistance," Helwig declares, fueled by Jesus's "logic of radical equality."
Helwig's vibrant voice speaks truth to power. This work of practical, progressive theology will likely elicit hearty amens from readers of Anne Lamott and Brian D. McLaren. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck