A PLACE AT THE TABLE

About

About the book

Rooted in the story of the Christian environmental conservation charity, A Rocha, and the life of its late co-founder Miranda Harris, A PLACE AT THE TABLE (Hodder Faith, September 2022) is a profound reflection on hospitality and the transformative power of community.

Miranda Harris’s tragic death in 2019 sent a shockwave across the globe to those closest to her and the many who found her approach to hospitality and community a life-long inspiration. Her daughter Jo Swinney honors her mother’s dedication to a life of community and fellowship with A PLACE AT THE TABLE—pairing her own words with her mother’s writings and exploring how sharing food is at the heart of a shared life.

Lyrically written and structured around the shape of a meal, A PLACE AT THE TABLE explores the six parts of a meal:

    • – Hunger—a God-given gift reminding us to seek out what we need to live and experience joy
    • – Preparation—preparing our houses, ourselves and our food, and doing so with love 
    • – Welcome—the biblical practice of hospitality and how it challenges us to open our hearts and homes to people very different from ourselves
    • – At the Table—how sharing meals forms relationships and the meaning and significance of community
    • – The Clean-Up—tending to the messiness of life: inner messes, outer messes, relational messes
    • – The Forever Feast—God’s promises for tomorrow foreshadowed today and loving God’s people in the waiting

With prayers, biblical examples and stories, and personal reflections A PLACE AT THE TABLE meditates on themes of belonging, loss and community and is an encouraging call to action to make hospitality a party of daily life.

About the authors

Miranda Harris was a co-founder of A Rocha. Married to Peter, she had four children and eight grandchildren. Miranda loved hosting the ever-expanding A Rocha family and was known for her prolific letter-writing, engaging communication style and ability to connect deeply with anyone she met. This is her first book.

Jo Swinney is Miranda’s eldest daughter and mother of two of her grandchildren. Jo wrote her first book in her twenties and has continued writing and editing books, articles, and Bible notes ever since. She has inherited her mother’s love of hospitality, food, and the God from whom all good gifts come.

www.joswinney.com | Twitter: @joswinney.com  | Facebook: Jo Swinney  | Instagram: joswinney1

About A Rocha

A Rocha is a global family of Christian organizations which, inspired by God’s love, engages in scientific research, environmental education and community-based conservation projects in more than 20 countries and across six continents. www.arocha.org

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