Sing a New Song: Portraits of Canada's Crusading Bishops

by Julie H. Ferguson

For the first time, Sing a New Song tells the stories of four Canadian bishops who pushed the envelope and changed the world. All have faced severe opposition; one was involved in the only Anglican schism in Canadian history; two jeopardized their careers; and one was voted the sixth most important person of the twentieth century whose world view has transformed the wider society. Over the last 150 years, George Hills, David Somerville, Douglas Hambidge, and Michael Ingham adopted unpopular causes with their eyes wide open. They were the men who fought for and won rights for aboriginals, women, and gays and lesbians.

In finely drawn and thoroughly researched biographies, Julie H. Ferguson weaves the bishops' impact on society into Canada's history while delivering compelling insights into their personal and spiritual lives. Meet this quartet of sharply contrasting and fearless bishops in Sing a New Song.

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Julie is a working writer, author, and a voracious reader.

A writer for forty-seven years, Julie is the author of five books for writers, including "Book Magic: Turning Writers into Published Authors" (now in its third edition) and "Crafting Irresistible Query Letters that Result in Publication," and fifteen other nonfiction books. Julie's many articles and photographs have appeared in international, national, and regional publications, as well as on the Web. Today her focus is travel writing and photography.

Julie has experienced it all — commercial and self-publication, print and electronic publishing, as well as print-on-demand.

Her first non-fiction book, "Through a Canadian Periscope; the Story of the Canadian Submarine Service" (Dundurn) appeared in 1995. Not only was it hailed as “a major contribution to our naval history,” Canadian booksellers chose it for Books for Everyone for Christmas 1995 and Dundurn re-released it in a second edition in 2014 for the centenary of the Canadian Submarine Service. Her second book, "Deeply Canadian: New Submarines for a New Millennium" (Beacon Publishing), was released in the fall of 2000 electronically (commercial) and in print (POD). Now updated, it is available in its 2nd edition as an ebook with restored and additional images. "Sing a New Song: Portraits of Canada’s Crusading Bishops," again from Dundurn, came out in May 2006 and her last Dundurn book is a YA biography, "James Douglas: Father of British Columbia" that was also featured in Books for Everyone in 2009.

Since early 2001, Julie has also self-published (DIY) six books for writers, speakers, and teachers, travel journals, two family histories, one for a health authority, and sixteen photo portfolios.

Not only is Julie a successful author, she is also an accomplished professional speaker and trainer who taught for Vancouver Community College and presented at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference for nine years. From 1997 to 2010, she was also in great demand with school districts and leads sessions for teachers' professional development events and students that inspire participants to develop their writing skills while having fun. Julie's keynotes and many break-out sessions for writers include "All Aboard the Electronic Express," "Pitching in a Cold Climate, and "Create Gorgeous Family Memory Books." She is also a facilitator of one of the acclaimed Port Moody Writers' Groups that have been running for over forty years

Julie's honest, one-on-one coaching practice guides writers who seek either commercial or self-publication for their books and/or articles, as well as assists with writing promotional material, such as bios and book descriptors.

"...from inspiration to publication" TM

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book portrays the life and work of four Anglican Bishops. Three were living when Ms. Ferguson was researching and writing. And all four were chosen because they encountered conflict and opposition as Bishops. I read two chapters fully, and skimmed the other two. I did study the second chapter on Somerville very carefully. I disagree with her interpretation.

Ms. Ferguson is a woman writer, and she sees the ordination of women in the Anglican Church, in 1975, as a paradigmatic event of Progress. So, she stereotypes the before 1975 Church as old, oppressive, dark, sluggish, boring, etc, and the after 1975 Church as intelligent, sensitive, reasonable,humane, etc.

Now, this reader is a traditionalist male. I have worked as an ordained minister in the Anglican Church. So, I tend to see claims of being Progressive as exaggerated and self-serving. In her portrait of David Somerville, she does describe his life well, but she talks about Somerville "having hunches", and portrays him as a prophet.

I disagreed with her description of a 1966 women's conference at which Somerville gave a talk. In this talk, he said "The old models of God are dead indeed". But Ms. Ferguson only partly contextualizes the conference. She mentions Pierre Berton's book, the Comfortable pew, written in 1965. But she fails to mention Bishop John Robertson's book, Honest to God, written in 1963. It was Robertson's book that started the talk about models of God. He was talking about an understanding of the world as having three levels, heaven, earth, and hell. Thus, he was talking about "God up there". Robertson, an English Bishop, writes he himself could not longer believe in "a God up there".Having a English Bishop publicaly say he didn't believe in a traditional concept of God created a lot of debate. Somervilles talk was reported on in the Vancouver Sun. You can still read it in the Public Library ARchieves, for June 1966 (June 8, page 53). I went and found his comments, and found he was more nuanced than Ferguson reports. What Somerville means is the old models do not communicate the faith with many people in contemporary society. But Somerville clearly encourages the Anglican women to still believe in God, in spite of Bishop Robertson's doubts. By repeating this quote, I think Ferguson is suggesting a feminist interpretation, that masculine images of God are bad and non communicating, and out of date. But, in 1966, Somerville wasn't talking about that,masculine language and the God concept.

I did appreciate Ferguson reporting that Somerville, made a project to visit every parish in the Diocese, and spend a week visiting. He visited the priest, his family, even lived with them, visited the parish, attended events, and attended Sunday morning worship. This was a huge project. There are over eighty parishes in his Diocese. How idealistic and naive.....But, it was the 1970's, an exciting time of experimentation. And, naivete and idealism were part of Somerville's personality.

In writing a long chapter on each of four Bishops, she does provide good sketches of these Bishops, and gives us some of the history of their times. But one could write a whole book on each of these guys. We do owe Ferguson some gratitude for writing these portraits, and helping us not to forget our history.

I did not read the fourth chapter, about Bishop Ingham and the politics and manoevering around homosexual issues. But I am an Anglican who dislikes too much social activism. I find there is too much emotionalism and subjectivity in these debates. When a Bishop himself takes a strong position on one side of the issue, that skewers the ability to have objective discussion and dialogue. So, if I disagree with Anglican progressives, I get stereotyped as an old guy, as part of the old, medieval bad Church, and I am excluded from the circle of enlightened, progressive Christians. I'm sorry, but I find the feminist concept of inclusion in the after 1975 period is no better than the Christian concept of neighborliness, or brotherly love, we practiced in the before 1975 period.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sing a New Song: Portraits of Canada’s Crusading Bishops is a captivating blend of history, biography, and religion told through the lives of four charismatic B.C. Anglican bishops; men who fought (and are still fighting) for change not only within the church, but in society. As someone without a religious background, I found Julie Ferguson’s story of the Anglican church, and those who’ve made a difference, an easy-to-follow, compelling read. This book changed my perception of religion as an institution permanently stuck in the past and oblivious to current social concerns. It was encouraging to learn that there are clergy who welcome all people to the Anglican church, and who want to make the world a better place without attaching blame or judgement in their quest. Thanks to Julie Ferguson’s knowledge and passion for this topic, I enjoyed an informative and thought-provoking read.