Dearly Beloved
By the Reverend Andrew MacBeth
(Church Publishing, 2007)
By the Reverend Andrew MacBeth
(Church Publishing, 2007)
I have to confess that I read Andy MacBeth’s new book as a student pastor who has already learned to be apprehensive about weddings. Please don’t get me wrong. The liturgy for Christian Marriage is some of the truest and most beautiful liturgy that the church offers. But I have learned that few people who come to be married in the church notice – or even care. What most want has far more to do with expectations and fantasies that have been formed by popular culture and family pressures than with a rich and beautiful vision of how marriage can and should embody the good news of Jesus.
With thoughtful explanations of the wedding service woven throughout, MacBeth’s book gently urges us to let the liturgy shape our expectations. Liturgy at its best is a communal performance of praise and thanksgiving which reorients our lives by immersing us in the presence of the living God. Like any good and wise pastor, he wants us to give the church’s liturgy a chance to do what it does best – and to receive it as a gift.
At the same time practical and thoughtful, this little book is refreshingly easy to read – like sitting in a cozy study sipping tea while having a conversation with a good pastor. As easy as this book is, though, MacBeth does not avoid controversial subjects like same-sex unions and weddings for those who have been divorced. But no matter where you turn in this book, you sense that every word flows from a pastor’s heart.
Lurking beneath the surface of the book is a persistent question for those who want to be married in the church (and for their families and friends): Why not trust the church and its liturgy, its pastors and other servants, to do what we do best? That seems to me to be a very good question. And Dearly Beloved poses that question with grace, honesty and good humor.
With thoughtful explanations of the wedding service woven throughout, MacBeth’s book gently urges us to let the liturgy shape our expectations. Liturgy at its best is a communal performance of praise and thanksgiving which reorients our lives by immersing us in the presence of the living God. Like any good and wise pastor, he wants us to give the church’s liturgy a chance to do what it does best – and to receive it as a gift.
At the same time practical and thoughtful, this little book is refreshingly easy to read – like sitting in a cozy study sipping tea while having a conversation with a good pastor. As easy as this book is, though, MacBeth does not avoid controversial subjects like same-sex unions and weddings for those who have been divorced. But no matter where you turn in this book, you sense that every word flows from a pastor’s heart.
Lurking beneath the surface of the book is a persistent question for those who want to be married in the church (and for their families and friends): Why not trust the church and its liturgy, its pastors and other servants, to do what we do best? That seems to me to be a very good question. And Dearly Beloved poses that question with grace, honesty and good humor.
I gladly recommend this book.
The Reverend Steve Ingram, Hampton Court United Methodist Church
For the Episcopal Bookshop,September 13, 2007
The Reverend Steve Ingram, Hampton Court United Methodist Church
For the Episcopal Bookshop,September 13, 2007
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