by Rev. John Hunt

Published December, 2003.

Now OC Books Best-Seller for four months in a row!

New Review! contributed by Neil Churcher 28.7.04

Margaret Harvey's wonderful illustrations

Margaret Harvey's wonderful illustrations

Click on image to see larger picture

Reviews

“WE WELL PEOPLE”   by John Hunt.

John Hunt is a fascinating, delightful, impressive sort of person.   Whenever I’m in Christchurch I try to go to St. Giles, Papanui, so that I can experience worship under John’s leadership.   It is always satisfying, intelligent, and inclusive.  It also has about it an ingredient of mystery and a depth of prayerfulness that come from John’s understanding of who he is within the love of God, an understanding enveloped in his experience of Celtic spirituality.

Not surprisingly, “We Well People” is like John.   I think the secret of its success is that it is so personal and so genuine.   It is full of simple stories which, though they are mainly out of John’s own experience, yet engage easily because they encourage others to match them out of their own experience.   The stories lead into suggestions for prayer, often a simple Celtic verse and some lines of John own.

The first part of the book is a very helpful introduction to Celtic spirituality and the Celtic story.   Part Two is a month’s devotions following the seasons of the year.   What a bald description of so many helpful insights!   But you have to read it, experience it and pray it for yourself.   Then you will be able to accept the suggestion at the end of each page, “Dwell in your sense of well-being.

John’s first book, “We Spirited People”, has been through a number of printings and is still selling well.   This new book has already sold over 1000 copies.   Order one soon.

                                                                                                       Neil Churcher.

This is a slight book, barely 108 pages. it encompasses a wide field. Divided into three sections, John begins with a brief but pithy and adequate dissertation on Celtic Spirituality.  Pages 17 and 18 are particularly apt as he lays the base with Good Earth and Good People - 'Celts believed people are basically good and friendly; Indeed a stranger might be someone in whom we encounter Christ...' before tracing the path to the loss of this understanding in the Western and Mediterranean world through the centuries, touching briefly on such world changers as Augustine of Hippo and Constantine.

Gently he gives us a local nudge - look at the southern Alps and feel the awe and wonder of our physical world. This is a mighty and striking example - not the only one.

The story of the isolated Harris woman, suffering from leprosy, who lived on shell fish and plants by the sea, bathing in liquid from these natural sources, cured eventually, is shattering. She ascribed her cure to 'the love of god in all of nature - plants, sea, the good earth'.  Hunt is leading us to his own discovery: '

Everywhere I go I find 

God is with me, at my side'.

The Celtic Story in section two, occupies but a few pages, but echoes the tones of Columba as he sets for in sadness, an exile to found his mission 'wherever wind and tides carried him' - again at the merchy of the elements, Iona became the destination and ultimately the seedbed of Celtic spirituality.

Tales of the founding, growth and spread in the area are personal even though relating to over a thousand years ago. Celtic wisdom of the spirit runs deep as John Hunt expounds it.

The third and longest part of this book comes directly from a man who has lived this Celtic Spirituality.  He expresses this in verse -

I sing of seasons of my years,

Of summer smiles, of winter tears,

Of autumn death, of spring new-birth

My life as one with all the earth.

Delight in all the wonder of the world, awe of creation, shines from each section of part two devoted to the seasons of the year.  Illustrations enhance the theme and the Celtic emblems keep us reminded of the underlying principles of Celtic spirituality as well as the rhythms of nature.  We face up to, clearly but gently, to the stresses and troubles that are part of daily life - depression, woe, loss.  This is no book of aphorisms.  John Hunt goes to the point - and the point is always the caring Creator who watches his beloved flock -

In loving arms, in warming sun,

God's love is here for everyone....

In this book John Hunt comes across as a man of God, convinced that the world and all that is in it, is a living, glowing testimony to the Creator who cares and heals and makes all new and bright again. Truly, a treasure.

                                             Reviewed by:

Joan M. Morris, smsm.

John Hunt is a taonga; one of New Zealand’s undiscovered treasures. In his books, as in his ministry, he helps ordinary people to become more aware of their spiritual depths and more confident in their expression of them. We Well People is a successor to his first guidebook to Celtic spirituality, We Spirited People (1998) which was a delight, and is still in print.

Now John offers a Celtic year, a series of reflections, prayers, anecdotes and insights which show how the Christians of Scotland and Ireland saw their world over 1200 years ago, and relates it to our own daily life. As well as the Celtic vision of a good God, a good Earth and good people, we are given an insight into our own 21^st century relationship with God, Earth and other people.

What sort of Christian church might we have had if the Synod of Whitby had turned out differently, if Rome’s control had not been imposed so firmly and if the special vision of the Celtic people had not been obscured?  On the western borders of Christianity, the Celts had seen their spirituality as an aspect of the natural world around them. God was present in their daily round of work, and in the cycle of the seasons.  The ideas, songs, poems, stories and pictures of the Celts reflect this unity.

“He blessed myself and my house,

My cattle and my dear ones

And the lark sang in her song.”

We Well People is arranged to follow the seasons of a year, reflecting the rhythms of nature, and the Celtic world-view. “They saw at the heart of life every thing related to every other thing: the trees, the sea, the streams, the birds and the people” and saw this same harmony in the relationship of the Trinity: “they saw at the heart of God, Creator, Saviour and Spirit in relationship with each other.”

The real merit of We Well People is that John Hunt is able to convey his enriching message in a way that is easily accessible to all. His greatest strength, both as writer and as preacher, is that he is aware of God’s presence in the mundane actions and human encounters of everyday life.  Even better he has the gift of passing this vision on to others in his words. I have been listening to John Hunt’s sermons for 18 years and every one has been fresh and involving, encouraging and interesting.

I remember his first application for study-leave to visit Iona and his excitement at his realisation that Celtic spirituality had so much relevance for all Christians. This enriched his services and led to his leading study groups and workshops as well as writing his books. 

Trevor Agnew - Reviewer