Central Church invites you to participate in an author’s reading of the book Sacred Errand in Aboriginal Australia, Sunday, November 19 in the Fireplace Room following the Thanksgiving church service.
Readers of Sacred Errand join author John Harkey as he jets over the Pacific Ocean en route to Australia. At his feet is one of the Aboriginal “holy of holies,” a tjurunga stone inherited from his oilman father. John’s intention was to fulfill the wish of his deceased father that “the stone should go home.” But, after a forty-year absence from traditional ownership, what home and to whom could this sacred object be taken?
John soon found himself caught in the turbulence of two cultures in conflict, the Aboriginal and the whitefella Australian. His quest takes us from museum to Lutheran mission, from Aboriginal settlements to the natural shrine (and tourist destination) of Uluru. Historically deep-reaching, the book is peopled with real-life explorers and pioneer poets, along with Aboriginal mystics and myth tellers, outback townies and bushies, fathers and sons, lovers and despoilers.
Books are now sold from the church office.
Harkey’s Sacred Errand asks questions about the durability of faith both western and indigenous, about concepts of home, and the strain between a father’s cultural heritage and a son’s view of his inheritance.
Purchase the book in the office of Central Church or on Amazon.com as paperback or Kindle edition. All proceeds will benefit Central’s Youth Mission Trip fund. A reader’s study guide is also available in the office.