Donald McCullough, a respected Presbyterian pastor and president of the San Francisco Theological Seminary, lost his job and suffered estrangement from friends and family when a private confession of an affair became public knowledge. Facing a bleak, uncertain future, his faith utterly shaken, McCullough was left with nothing to do but to walk along the ocean shore by his home. Then he noticed the pelicans. Observing these evolutionary "survivors," he marveled at how they had developed graceful yet resilient techniques for flourishing on the margins of the earth, the mysterious border of land and sea. In this moving meditation on life, loss, and faith, McCullough reveals how he drew strength from nature almost unconsciously, gradually recovering a sense of hope.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Given the many books about spiritual wisdom drawn from the sea, one might wonder at another addition to the genre, but this is an extraordinary gem well worth reading. McCullough wrote this only a few years after he was forced to forfeit his religious leadership as a Presbyterian pastor and as president of the San Francisco Theological Seminary once the story of an adulterous affair, long confessed and repented of in his private family life, became public. Stripped of his professional identity, and feeling judged by the church he loved and served, McCullough began walking the beaches near his home and watching the pelicans who live and fish along the water's edge. In the hands of a lesser talent, drawing moral lessons from pelicans might get mired in the maudlin and the trite. McCullough, however, is a master of language. His observations are compelling, intelligent and full of powerful parallels to spiritual growth. His reflections on grace are particularly memorable. But McCullough's greatest accomplishment is that he can talk openly and intimately about his despair without ever crossing the line into self-pity; he is self-aware without being self-conscious. Even though he aches to be understood and forgiven, the purpose of the book is not to beg for public absolution, but to share some of the ways in which he has begun to weather this very personal "long dark night of the soul." This is a beautiful work of Christian pastoring, told from the trenches, not from the pulpit.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Searingly honest. . . . A beautiful and deeply moving story. (Archbishop Desmond Tutu)
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Wisdom of Pelicans -- Minister Confronts His Fall,
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This review is from: The Wisdom of Pelicans (Hardcover)
This is one man's story of a fall from grace. Donald McCullough has had a distinguished career in the ministry as president of San Francisco Theological Seminary and as author of several books. His is a deeply moving account of being chiseled down to the essential man and facing a bleak future.
Dr. McCullough smoothes the surface of the traumatic experience served to him by the presbytery. Rumor of infidelity, long ago resolved, was leaked by a "confidante". The information reached the authorities in another area, the presbytery where he was president of the San Francisco Seminary. The church authorities decided to hold a trial very much like a civil court with four judges and a female prosecutor. For some reason, they opened it to the media. The trial was intense and long and extremely costly. It ruined him and hurt everyone involved. He writes with grace of this crushing circumstance that could have destroyed him completely. The disgrace that dismantled his career left him without a house, a car, and in a state of fear and emptiness, not knowing who he was or what he was going to do. "Circumstances of my life have stripped away my identity. It's frightening to be deep into middle age and not know who you are; it's scary to look in a mirror and see a stranger." He walks on the beach surrounded by the power and ancient rhythms of ocean life to meditate, slowly reconstruct his life, and see what would come. Paralyzed by depression, he watches the pelicans from the shore as they calculate the altitude and the speed of descent from the sky. They soar at great heights riding the wind. Pelicans have been doing this for millions of years. A firm conviction forms. "...the only way to fly is to rest on the breath blowing up from the face of the Deep." The barefoot man on the beach became the essential man, unmasked by the person he had been. He became "increasingly aware of One standing near me, the Marginal Man, One whose eternal place was in between: he hung on a cross stretched between earth and heaven, the mediator between our humanity and the mystery of God." McCullough has a profound spiritual ascent to a deeper understanding of the faith he preached before. The beauty of the prose and the development of his story make this a poetic and worthwhile read. It is a book to give to friends who have experienced a similar kind of dark night of the soul. It is also a book to enjoy for sheer insight.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Honest and frank!,
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This review is from: The Wisdom of Pelicans (Hardcover)
McCullough writes of disappointment, failure, and the road back to a useful life. Using his own life and his study of pelicans, he brings us in close so that we might hear his heartbeat. He writes for all who know failure and loss and, as in his own life, points us back to the way of life and light.
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