Exploring the Presence - Print.

This heartfelt sequel to Faith Evolving explores the Divine Feminine, weaving personal reflections and spiritual insights into a rich tapestry of post-denominational spirituality.

This book:

• Provides an authentic exploration of post-denominational women’s spirituality.
• Encourages readers to reflect on their own spiritual journeys, especially those who have left the church.
• Offers unique insights into the Divine Feminine and its role in faith development.
• Combines prose and poetry for a multifaceted reading experience.
• Challenges traditional views while maintaining a deep connection to the Catholic Christian tradition.
• Explores themes of pilgrimage, community, and personal transformation.
• Is written by an experienced spiritual director, making it a valuable resource for clergy, lay leaders, and spiritual seekers.

Features

• Sequel to Faith Evolving, continuing the author’s personal and spiritual journey.
• Engages with themes of pilgrimage, the Sacred Feminine, and social justice.
• Blends prose, poetry, and personal stories to create a compelling narrative.
• Explores the experiences of women in spirituality and faith.
• Draws from the author's encounters with First Peoples and international pilgrimages.

Soft cover 179pp
7" x 10" B/W
ISBN: 9798878031608
Republished by Philip Garside Books 2024

Exploring the Presence: More Faith Patches is a bold and reflective continuation of Trish McBride’s spiritual journey, following her departure from the institutional church and discovery of the Divine Feminine. Through prose, poetry, and personal reflection, McBride invites readers to journey with her as she explores the Presence of the Holy One in all aspects of life. From pilgrimages to Crete and the Whanganui River to experiences with spiritual communities, this book touches on deep spiritual themes that will resonate with those who have felt the need to leave traditional religious institutions in search of something more expansive and inclusive.

Rich in wisdom, honesty, and spiritual insight, this book is a powerful resource for anyone seeking to understand the evolving nature of faith, especially within the context of women’s spirituality. McBride’s reflections challenge conventional notions of God while celebrating the sacredness of all life.

Whether you are a spiritual seeker, clergy member, or lay preacher, Exploring the Presence will inspire you to reflect on your own journey and the ways in which the Divine Feminine can bring new meaning to your faith.

Free PDF Sampler of articles and poems from Trish's three books

Want a taste of the quality and breadth of Trish's writing?

Click here for a free 35 page PDF containing extracts
from Faith Evolving, Exploring the Presence and A Love Quilt:
Download Free Sampler

Books by Trish McBride

Read together, these three books (Faith Evolving, Exploring the Presence and A Love Quilt) document Trish’s 75-year life and faith journey from childhood to her 80s – a unique longitudinal record of women’s spirituality and thinking. They are both spiritual biography and contextual theology.

Along the way, Trish moves from a traditional Catholic faith to embracing feminist theology and on into a post-denominational, inclusive, integrated Gospel-centred spirituality. She has used a patchwork metaphor across all three books, connecting writings of many colours, shapes and textures.

Her purpose in all three has been to encourage others to ponder and record their own faith journeys.

Praise for Exploring the Presence

“This is a passionate and courageous book. Trish McBride shows us her soul as she invites us to journey with here and her friend Jesus, from the rich warm memories of the Catholic books and liturgy of her childhood to a broad an open place where she finds Godde in all things. The section ‘Thinking it Through’ has particular value. She raises and puts into a wider, sometimes surprising perspective many of today’s questions. Through inner and outer journeying she explores the mystery of Godde through personal reflection, story, poetry, pilgrimage, play and many other ways of discovering in the midst the Sacred Feminine, so enriching to her life. As old secure images of God crumble this book will help many to discover new depths and meaning.” 
Marg Schrader, Spiritual Director

“Trish McBride’s brave and creative book deserves a wide audience. She is a fearless spiritual explorer dedicated to making sense of her own journey and the world around her. With a faith that is genuinely life-giving and liberation-focussed, she travels everywhere across the planet, across religious and spiritual traditions, across ethnic and gender divides. ‘Faith seeking understanding’ can and must go in any direction!”
Mike Fitzsimons, Writer and Publisher

“Those who loved Faith Evolving will welcome Trish McBride’s invitation to continue with her on her deeply personal journey, ‘holding the hand of Jesus’, to times and places where, as a woman, she could worship in her own language, her own culture!”
Dr John Broomfield, Former President, California Institute of Integral Studies

About the author

Trish McBride was born in Lancaster, England and came to Aotearoa New Zealand in 1952. For most of her life she was deeply involved in the Catholic Church. She has subsequently spent times with ExAlt, a women’s spirituality group, a Progressive Presbyterian parish, and the Religious Society of Friends, and now identifies as post-denominational.

Now retired, Trish has been a spiritual director, chaplain in various contexts, counsellor and supervisor. She is mother to 7 and delighted grandmother to 23, some acquired, and is now (2024) happily settled in a retirement village.

A high point in her writing career was as a prize-winner in a 1994 international competition for religious journalism awarded by The Tablet, London. Others have been contributing chapters to five Aotearoa Catholic-based theology books, (The God Book, A Thinkers Guide to Sin, Journeying into Prayer, But is it Fair? and Living in the Planet Earth), publication of two academic papers in USA, and completing her own unintended trilogy: Faith Evolving, Exploring the Presence and A Love Quilt.

Many of the articles and poems in her books have previously appeared in a variety of publications. Formal studies included MA (Hons) in Classics, Diploma in Pastoral Ministry and Recognition as an Associate in Christian Ministry (interdenominational).

Involvements include family, social justice, nurturing friendships, quilting, reading, swimming, walking and occasional painting.

Table of Contents

• Foreword
• Preface
  

Changing Church

• In the Beginning…
• Stories of Saints
• The Charismatic Legacy
• Shabbat Shalom – Building Bridges
• Labyrinth
• Christmas Blessings
• Kiwi Spirituality
• After Christmas
• Untouchable Life
• Suspended in Time
• A Journey Towards Perfection
• Spiritual Crossing
• Waiting for God
• Brains
• Regrowth
  

Womenspirit

• The 5th Womenspirit Rising
• ExAlt Reflection
• ExAlt Investigated
• Spirituality at Women’s Convention
• Leaving my Church
• The Grail Girls
• Visiting Hildegard
  

Stories and Playing

• Storytelling and Spirituality
• And Then Came the Dancing
• Toucan
• The Creative Spirit
• The Spirituality of Quilting
  

Pilgrimages near and far

• Pilgrimage
• Sacred Stones
• Impressions of Poland
• A Stone
• A Goddess Pilgrimage in Crete
• Going Back
• Sacred Times in San Francisco
• Take this Bread
• Desert Stories
• Kōhanga
• Wairua

Pacific Stories

• Papatūānuku
• Wellington Essay
• Henry Lawson’s Story
• Alcatraz – the other story
• The Story of Matiu/Somes
• Fiji Diary: The Good News!
• In Memoriam:Jean-Marie Tjibaou (1937-1989)

Thinking it Through

• Re-Imaging the Cross
• ‘…as we forgive them…’ or not: when forgiveness is inappropriate
• Finding Connections
• Shamans and Mystics
• The M-Word
• Expanding the Metaphors: Validating Feminine Images of God
• Mary and Me

Relationships

• Presence
• Words
• For Columba
• Saints Alive!
• Eclipse
• Dream Child
• Culmination
• And then…
• White
• Separating
• The Cross
• ‘I Call You Friends’
• A God-friend
• God as ‘Friend’
• Remember the Rainbow?

And Now…

• Life@65
• Converging Paths

• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• About the book
• Praise for Exploring the Presence
• Books by Trish McBride

Click the links for:
3 Print Book set | Faith Evolving Print Book | Exploring the Presence  Print Book | A Love Quilt Print Book |

3 eBook set | Faith Evolving eBooks | Exploring the Presence eBooks | A Love Quilt eBooks