Rev. Harold Munn book talks God for secular ears

BY ANGLICAN PARISH OF SSI

The Reverend Harold Munn is no stranger to Salt Spring Island, having been a frequent visitor on holidays and a house-sitter over many years.

A large part of his latest book entitled “Faith in Doubt – How my dog made me an atheist and atheism made me a priest” was written during sojourns on our island.

Munn will introduce his book in two upcoming events on Salt Spring Island:

• Friday, Oct. 25, 7 to 8:30 p.m., at All Saints by-the-Sea, where the experienced church leader will speak about the challenges facing religion in secular society and where he proposes some fascinating and unexpected opportunities that science and secularism may offer.

• Saturday, Oct. 26, 2 p.m. at the Salt Spring library, where Munn will speak of how science, secularism and faith may be connecting in new ways. Copies of his book will be available.

Admission to both events is free and open to all, spiritual and secular, young and old, committed or curious or neither.

About the Book:

What happens when an atheist and a believer find themselves next-door neighbours? What happens when religion finds itself in a culture of science and secularism? Could they hold hands? Could they fall in love?

Faith in Doubt claims that churches speak about faith and God only from within the world view of an ancient culture — as foreign to modern people as Latin. No wonder there is a precipitous decline in church attendance. Faith in Doubt proposes that churches start a conversation with secularism by learning to speak of faith and God from within the assumptions of modern secular culture. Faith in Doubt explains how.

Faith in Doubt grounds the discussion with accounts of real incidents in the author’s own life as a child and later as a priest in urban, rural and First Nations contexts. He experienced disbelief and strains in important relationships —unexpectedly finding those challenges to be sources of new life and joy. Readers, whether believers or not, may discover similar experiences happening in their own lives.

About the Author:

Munn has led congregations ranging from tiny churches in Canada’s far north to All Saints’ Cathedral in Edmonton, Alberta. He is an associate of the international Society for Ordained Scientists and has received awards for his writing.

In addition to the cross-cultural experience of being a priest in secular culture, Munn has lived in, or in close proximity to, many cross-cultural contexts, teaching science in East Africa; with miners in northern B.C.; with oppressed women in Edmonton’s inner city; with First Nations villages in the Yukon, on the Naas River and on Vancouver Island; in Victoria addressing homelessness, addictions and mental health issues; and in prisons outside Vancouver. He lives on the campus of UBC, Vancouver, with his wife of 50 years.