On December 8, 2013, Canterbury Books & Gifts held their grand opening at St. John’s. Items like personalized prayer books, holiday ware, and confirmation and baptism gifts were for sale. All profits benefited St. John’s Outreach Ministries. Over the last eight years, a host of volunteers and store managers have contributed their time, talents, and energy to a store where customers could find anything from a tumbler with the Episcopal shield on it, to a book by theologian Walter Brueggeman, a former Dodson lecturer at St. John’s, to Advent calendars. Canterbury Books & Gifts also sponsored authors at well-attended book talks, including local author Beth Macy, who spoke about Dopesick to a packed audience in the parish hall. 

We’d like to take a moment, in this season of thanksgiving, to offer a heartfelt thank you to all the people who helped build, grow, and sustain the bookstore since its inception. Especially we’d like to thank the latest bookstore manager, Helen Hill, for her dedication to the store.  

The store will be closing at the end of the year. Please stop by the store until then to purchase items. Everything is at least 75 percent off, and the store will be open after our 10 am worship services through December as well as open during its regular hours. There are plans already under way for using the space where the store is currently housed. We look forward, with anticipation, to what will come next for that space, but take time now to honor and give thanks for eight faithful years of Canterbury Books and Gifts at St. John’s.