The Watering Hole Blog

BOOK RAISES UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS

BOOK BY WIDOW OF GREEK ORTHODOX POLICE OFFICER RAISES UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS ABOUT CHRISTIANITY


Wed Feb 1, 2012 – What if Jesus came back, as promised…but then turned around and left again because he was so disgusted with what he saw here?

“I think this is a fair question to ask,” says Maryanne Pope, widow of Const. John Petropoulos and author of the creative non-fiction book, A Widow’s Awakening, “particularly if one is a Christian.”

Pope explored this possibility when she found herself on a horrific psychological, emotional and spiritual journey after the sudden death of her police officer husband, Const. John Petropoulos, in Sept 2000.

John was searching a warehouse during the investigation of a suspected break-and-enter, when he stepped through an unmarked false ceiling. There was no safety railing to warn him – or anyone else – of the danger. There ended up being no intruder in the building. He was 32.

“In the end, John’s death was the result of a preventable fall at an unsafe workplace,” says Pope, “hence the public education efforts of the John Petropoulos Memorial Fund.”

“But in that first year of grief,” Pope continues, “I kept thinking his death had to be part of some greater Divine plan, as that was the only way I could accept it. And somewhere in that shattered state of mind, I got to thinking that since we were waiting around for the Saviour to return, maybe John was him…the long-awaited Second Coming of Christ.”

“This,” Pope says, “actually made for some rather comical and much-needed lighter moments in the book.”

But now that more than a decade has past since John’s death, Pope realizes that as ridiculous as her ideas were, perhaps there are greater lessons to be learned.  “At the very least,” she says, “we need to be asking ourselves some really tough questions about our beliefs, such as the concept of a Saviour.”

Please click here to listen to an audio clip (45 sec)  from A Widow’s Awakening.

“I do wonder,” says Pope, “if on some deeper level, many people are waiting for a Divine Saviour to swoop down and fix the many significant and overwhelming issues we face, such as climate change.”

At any rate, Pope’s candid journey is a striking a chord with readers.

“I just finished A Widow’s Awakening,” wrote one person. “Thank you. I laughed, I cried…I laughed when I was crying, and I found a fellow Anglican who asks a lot of the same questions I ask.”

“I LOVED your book!” wrote another. “I cried, I laughed, felt your anger…and was willingly drawn into your opinions on Christianity, the transition from life to death, and your feelings about the environment.”

For additional information on A Widow’s Awakening, please click here.

To purchase a copy of the audio book, please click here.

To purchase a copy of the print version, click here. Bulk rates are also available.

For further inquiries, please contact:

Sarah Hourihan
Pink Gazelle Productions Inc
sarah@pinkgazelle.com
(403) (403) 620-5440
 

Maryanne Pope is the author of A Widow’s Awakening and the playwright of Saviour. She is the CEO of Pink Gazelle Productions and the Chair of theJohn Petropoulos Memorial Fund. If you would like to receive Maryanne’s weekly blog, please sign up here

 

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