Instructions for the End of the World - by Maggie Helwig (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Contemporary responses to biblical texts offer hope and guidance in difficult times.

When lifelong activist and celebrated author Maggie Helwig became an Anglican priest, she brought both her social justice wisdom and her incomparable literary prowess to the role. Where other priests might make of the homily - the weekly act of taking pre-assigned sections of an ancient and sometimes cryptic biblical text and making them speak to their time, their place, their community - a rote exercise, Helwig takes the language and narrative very seriously. These homilies, selected from those presented to her congregation over the last five years, talk about the Bible, and by extension, the world, through both an activist and a literary lens.

'Instructions for the End of the World' is how Helwig describes the gospels. As we live through the climate crisis and the rise of fascism around the world, Helwig's responses to the ancient texts feel urgent and necessary, reminders of hope and meaning during a time of great anxiety and fear. Whether you're religious or not, these homilies offer a basis for resistance and resources for building communities that may sustain us all.

Review Quotes

Praise for the author:

'In crystalline prose, [Encampment] sheds light on not only the struggles of the unhoused but the heartlessness of a society that would rather not see them at all.' - Publishers Weekly, ★ STARRED Review

'Helwig is a natural storyteller who effortlessly weaves the various threads of her worlds into a rich, compelling tapestry. She is a candid and surprisingly non-judgmental writer. She also has a wonderfully dry sense of humour with an eye for the comical and absurd - a precious asset for a book such as this.' - Stuart Mann, The Anglican, on Encampment

'Encampment represents an important contribution to literature regarding homelessness.' - James Hughes, Literary Review of Canada

'In Encampment, Helwig casts an unapologetic gaze at how our government and society fail to provide homeless people with the basic necessities of life, spotlighting the beliefs and rationalizations that lead to these failures, and the dire implications for the health and well-being of unhoused people.' - Christina Palassio, The Philanthropist Journal

'It's like the start of a bad joke: an Anglican priest walks into a homeless encampment. Except it's her churchyard the encampment is in, and the people who live there become her community. She experiences life with them, grieves with them when a friend is lost or a temporary dwelling is uprooted yet again; she administers Narcan and stands with them before the Claw the city uses to tear down their tents. She fights with them, and in doing so invites us to look unflinchingly at a population many of us would prefer to ignore. These people are real, the systems that keep them on the streets are deeply rooted, and it is important for us to see, to bear witness, to engage.' - Anneka Weicht, Changing Hands Bookstore (AZ), on Encampment

'Helwig is a priest, human rights activist, poet, caregiver, friend, mother, Mother. And she is, most admirably, a reader--a reader of sacred texts, yes, but also a reader of a city, of a neighbourhood, of bureaucracy, of poetry, of law by turns incensing and nonsensical, and of a community frequently deemed illegible or illegitimate in their living because the living looks different. With this book, Helwig maps a space for difference. Encampment enacts the gesture of a hand reaching out to meet another, of a question being formed, and of a need--however difficult to translate its utterance--that is listened to with respect and responded to with attention. Reader to reader, Helwig asks us: How might we better live together?' - Claire Foster, Type Books (Toronto, ON)

About the Author

Maggie Helwig (she/they) is a white settler in Tkaronto/Toronto, and is the author of sixteen books and chapbooks, most recently Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community (Coach House Books, 2025). Her novel Girls Fall Down (2008) was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award, and was chosen as the One Book Toronto in 2012. Helwig is a long-time social justice activist, and also an Anglican priest, and has been the rector of the Church of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields since 2013