Sundays Down South: A Pastor's Stories (Folklife in the South Series) - Softcover

Chatham, James O.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1496814940 ISBN 13: 9781496814944

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 2018

Synopsis

A revealing picture of southern character as seen in a minister's recollections of his congregations

About this title

About the Author

James O. Chatham, Asheville, North Carolina, is pastor emeritus of Highland Presbyterian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, where he served for twenty-five years. He is the author or editor of several books, including Matching and Dispatching: Wedding and Funeral Stories of a Battle-Toughened Pastor and Faith Grows by Risk: Stories from the Life of Kentucky Refugee Ministries.

Review

"This southern Presbyterian minister collects uplifting stories he has heard and experienced. Chatham gathers his stories from parishes in Virginia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Kentucky; and many of the tales relate how folks overcame difficult odds. Other stories convey the homespun philosophy of people such as Mr. Cecil, a high school history teacher in Fayette, Mississippi, who holds forth on mid-1960s segregation, or Miss Susie, an 87-year-old Fayette lady whose tales of reaching out to poor folks are remarkably heartwarming. As the stories move into the 1980s and 1990s and into more cosmopolitan areas, such as Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky, helping troubled youth and drug addicts becomes a common topic. The centerpiece of the latter portion of the book is Chatham's experiences with two Louisville congregations, one white, the other black. All this is related in a friendly, Mayberry-esque style."

--Booklist
"'This is not a religious book,' notes Chatham, a pastor with a social conscience who gives us stories about the lives of poor people struggling 'to live in the sunshine' in four southern locations. Poignantly addressing daily life, these cultural pictures tell tales of heroism and tragedy, ingenuity and vanity, triumph and foolishness. Along the way, Chatham observes that moral purpose and conviction are essential for survival and that 'the most sturdy and courageous hearts often come in very plain packaging.' Chatham explains that his churches were always 'more concerned with life in the present than with life in the hereafter,' and his stories reveal him to have a listening heart that only judges the outside world insofar as it promises and never delivers."

--Library Journal

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1496814940
• ISBN 13: 9781496814944
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 242