Elizabeth Davey

St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians is a bold declaration of love. We were in the ruminations of Abba before the stardust formed into galaxies and the earth coalesced into its present shape. Indeed, Abba's dream for his people already existed in those primordial days. Today we have the opportunity to wake up and embrace his dream with enthusiasm and intentionality. As members of his church, individually and collectively, we want to embrace God's desire for a dynamic people infused with his passionate love. The church as the bride of Christ is a powerful metaphor engaging the apostle as he writes his letter. Paul's passion becomes ours as we meditate on his words, which evoke spiritual desire. It is in this relationship of love that the central purpose of our lives is found. As we gratefully receive Christ's amity, and as his bride returns it, so the entire earth is enflamed with the fires of his love. At the same time, we recognize it is a mystery--this love between Abba and his church. When we receive and reflect Christ's overtures of love as a community of faith, a synergy is created and released through the interconnectedness of our gifts, talents, and zeal. The church contains the spiritual energy of a nuclear explosion, and when it detonates, it releases a fallout of love, mercy, and compassion, bringing healing to the world and drawing others to the divine presence. ""St. Cyprian said that those who did not have the church as their mother could hardly have God as their father. The church, after all, was already the fourth 'I believe' in the primitive Creed, after the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the Daveys plunge us further back, into the Ephesian letter of St. Paul, probing his deep and rich metaphors for the church and pointing us back to what we have been losing: not 'fresh expressions' or organizations or institutions or consultants--but the local church. Entirely refreshing "" --Paul Friesen, St. Paul's Church, Halifax, and Atlantic School of Theology ""Alan and Elizabeth invite us on joyful journey to listen to the music of Paul's ancient letter for shaping our lives in the community of faith. There's mystery, contemplation, and wisdom in gentle abundance."" --Norm Allen, Touchstone Ministries Alan Davey is the senior pastor of Weston Park Baptist Church, an inner-city church in Toronto, Canada, and adjunct professor of Christian spirituality and worship at Tyndale University College and Seminary. He is coauthor of Climbing the Spiritual Mountain (2014) and Abba's Whisper (2017). Elizabeth Davey is professor emeritus of English at Tyndale University College in Toronto, Canada. She is coauthor of Climbing the Spiritual Mountain (2014) and Abba's Whisper (2017), and author of A Persevering Witness: The Poetry of Margaret Avison (2016). For more information, visit climbingthespiritualmountain.com.

Birkenhead is essentially a 19th-century ‘new town’, its planned grid of streets still stretching westwards from the Georgian elegance of Hamilton Square. Two hundred years ago it did not exist. The settlement, such as it was, consisted of a mere scatter of farmhouses and cottages, which supported a population in 1801 of just 17 families living in 16 houses. Yet this tiny community lying on the east shore of Wirral was not entirely a backwater. The mid-12th century had seen the foundation of a Benedictine priory, while half a century later, in 1207, the granting of letters patent to Liverpool brought ever-increasing activity to the Mersey. The ferry meant there was plenty of coming and going, and local farmers, fisherfolk and ferrymen lived far from mundane lives. The catalyst for change was the introduction of a steam ferry service, and by the end of Victoria’s reign the town numbered over 110,000 inhabitants. It gained its first MP in 1861 and became a borough in its own right in 1877. The docks first opened in 1847 and the great shipbuilding firm of Cammell Laird provided a backdrop to the town’s spectacular growth. Birkenhead had the country’s first publicly funded park, designed by Joseph Paxton, the first street tramway and, with the Mersey Rail Tunnel, the first underwater railway in Europe. Today, although shipbuilding has ceased and activity in the docks has declined, much of the legacy of this magnificent past has survived. This fully illustrated new account sheds light on Birkenhead’s fascinating heritage and traces the town’s development from its earliest years. Based on a wide range of local and national sources, it provides a readable and accessible narrative, which will be welcomed by all those keen to know Birkenhead better.