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TOGETHER NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2022

FROM THE PUBLISHER And Finally… Sadly, this is my final opportunity to write a thank them for their support in the An Introduction

early days.
few words at the front of Together magazine
as the November issue is our last. It was in
Over the years the team has changed, and I
to the Church
September 2012 when I was approached by
would like to particularly thank John Watkins,
Clem Jackson, who was the former editor
of The Christian Marketplace, with an idea
regular columnists. The magazine owes a
to publish a new magazine for the Christian
great deal of its success to Yeomans, who
retail and supply trade. Having never published Fiona Lloyd, Kevin Campbell along with our Calendar
from the start have been the designers and
a magazine previously and with no funds overseen print and despatch. I can only
available it was an easy decision; let’s go ahead describe them as a ‘dream team’ to work
and do it! The idea of a trade magazine to with especially Phil Broad, Alistair Hill and
support and complement Christian Resources Charlotte Hull.
Together and the Retailers & Suppliers Retreat
seemed an ideal fit. Finally, a special thanks to Mandy who Lent is inescapably about repenting.
literally sits by my side, day-by-day working
In the first issue of Together, published in on the magazine. Without her the Together We often experience the Lenten fast
February 2013, I wrote, ‘I am very aware of the magazine would never have happened.
size of the task we are taking on; however I do Thank you for the privilege it has been to as either a mindless ritual or self-
believe through God’s grace He has brought serve you all. improvement program. In this short 978-1-5140-0048-9
together a team of people that have the vision
and ability to publish this new magazine – Clem Stephen J Briars volume, priest and scholar Esau
Jackson, Editor and Eddie Olliffe, Consulting Publisher & Managing Editor,
Steve Briars Together Magazine McCaulley introduces the season of
Editor.’ May I take this opportunity to personally
Lent, showing us how its prayers and The Fullness of Time series invites
rituals point us not just to our own readers to engage with the riches of the
REFLECTIONS The rains had washed away the desert Were it not for Garmin, my new bestie, I merciful Savior. church year, exploring the traditions,
My Trusted GPS Device
sinfulness but also beyond it to our

prayers, Scriptures, and rituals of the
might still be lost in Harewood Forest.
tracks. We’d driven in circles for three hours,
and night had fallen. Our experienced driver
was disorientated and when we eventually
happened on a village we were twenty Through dense forest and head-high To order, contact sales@spck.org.uk seasons of the church calendar.
bracken, across heather-covered moor
kilometres from where we were heading. We and stubble-sharp fields, when all paths
slept on camp beds beneath the stars, beside and signs disappeared, the GPS device
the police post at the entrance to Niafunké, kept me on track. The comforting bleep FORTHCOMING TITLES AND AUTHORS
home of the Malian musician Ali Farka Touré. of a ‘proximity alarm’ told me when I was
on course and when I had strayed. When in the Fullness of Time series
Come morning, the police advised us how storm damage, boggy ground, newly
to continue safely to Timbuktu. For a while erected barbed wire and bulls in fields
it had felt as if we were completely lost. The forced detours, I could always find my
atmosphere in the car had grown tense. We way back.
had no radio, no satellite phone. But that was
a long time ago. Today, I’m sure even the It was a rare and quietly awesome
desert salt traders use GPS devices to guide experience to be the only person in a
their camel trains across the shifting dunes. landscape for hours and miles on end, but Pentecost Advent Epiphany
it would have been daunting without the Eley McAinsh by Emilio Alvarez by Tish Harrison Warren by Fleming Rutledge
I’m a recent convert to GPS devices. It took electronics in my hand. I said a little Spring 2023 Fall 2023 Fall 2023
persistence to master the software and the ‘thank you’ whenever an alarm sounded. Approaching Holy Island, at the end of St
decidedly unfriendly ‘user interface’ but the Oswald’s Way, the so-called Pilgrim’s Path is
effort was well-rewarded when I walked Feeling lost, physically and spiritually, washed away twice a day. A line of slender
St Oswald’s Way in early September. I did can be terrifying. It can also be marker posts shows the route across the wet
carry paper maps, but my map-reading skills transformational. If we can resist panic, in sand at low tide, as powerfully symbolic of
weren’t up to the challenge. The colourful the midst of disorientation we learn new God’s guiding hand as the bleep of my
Harvey map showed many dotted red lines ways of thinking and being; we discover proximity alarms. Christmas Eastertide
between Heavenfield and Holy Island, but new depths of trust and confidence, in by Emily Hunter McGowin by Wesley Hill
their appearance was deceptive: the dots our own resilience and in the constancy of Eley McAinsh is press and media Fall 2023 Winter 2024
represented the long sections of the route God; new paths open up before us as the officer for BRF and also editor of
where there was ‘no visible path’. prophet Isaiah promises they will. “Bible Reflections for Older People”.

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