We love bringing you quality paperbacks and board books, and we love to teach the Accessible Church School model of learning. What better way to combine these loves than to open a bookshop with an incorporated classroom and small conference space? Our new shop is currently undergoing renovations, and we plan to have it blessed at the end of September. (For you Jane Austen Pride & Prejudice fans, yes! This means we are taking possession at Michaelmas.)
What’s In Store: Books
We will have all of our Park End Books publications stocked, plus all of our Accessible Church School tools, plus wonderful book and gift options from Orthodox and Catholic companies such as Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Newrome Press, Ancient Faith Publishing, Legacy Icons, Potamitis Press, SVS Press, Paraclete Press, Shining Light Dolls, Waystone Press, and many book club, read-aloud, and local interest selections from other publishers. We will have a READ LOCAL shelf with books by Greenville and Michigan authors, too.
What’s in Store: Gifts
Need a baptism or confirmation gift? We will stock a variety of beautiful icons, gift books, saint dolls, prayer books, Bibles, 100% pure beeswax candles from Big Dipper Waxworks and local makers, a small selection of incense, stickers from Orthodox artists, and Holy Unmercenary Healers teeshirts for your gift-giving needs. You’ll also find learning tools like Folkmanis puppets, visual timers, and Stockmar beeswax crayon sets.
What’s in Store: Classes
Our store is centered on an Accessible Church School classroom where we will offer classes on a regular schedule for both adults and children. The classes will feature premium arts and crafts supplies from Stockmar, Kodo chalk spinners and wind tunnel games, as well as acting out stories with silks, crowns, and soft building cushions along Accessible Church School patterns. All 1 hour classes will be themed around a simple feast day, saints’ life, or Bible story, and they’ll be interactive with plenty of sensory enrichment. We will post our seasonal class schedule along with printable visual schedules for each class on the Classes tab on this website. We will also offer 1.5 hour sensory soothing craft nights where teens and adults can interact with our sensory tools in a quieter environment. Special events will include decorating beeswax prayer candles and making interactive prayer boxes.
What’s in Store: Tea
Though our tearoom is still under development, we will offer hot tea and prepackaged gluten-free snacks for purchase in our 30-person tearoom. We will have tea samples available in our bookshop room during the cold months so you can sip while you shop. As we are a wheat allergy and celiac family, we cannot permit outside food, but you are welcome to grab a coffee from the shop down the block and bring it in with you.
What’s in Store: Writing Groups
One of the joys of working as a publishing company is getting to help emerging authors find and polish their voices. We will gather local adult writers of all genres together to share their (G, PG, PG-13) excerpts of works in progress for mutual edification.
What’s in Store: Accessible Church School Training
One of our joys is to share the Accessible Church School model of teaching, which includes people of all abilities in learning about the faith. Based on the methods developed by our owner Summer Kinard (M.Div., Th.M.) in her books Of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability (Ancient Faith Publishers, 2019) and Accessible Church School: Incarnational Practices for Participating in God (Park End Books, 2023), these training sessions will allow teachers to interact with the tools they need for hands-on learning, empower them with reliable resources for storytelling, create and print their own class group plans (visual schedules), work out how to teach according to the order of attention using their lectionary, the church feast calendar, and saints’ lives, and go back to their parishes confident in their abilities to share the faith.
What’s in Store: Calm Down Cloud Room
We know that even an accessible classroom with sensory-soothing tools is not sufficient for self-regulation when you’re learning to be part of a group. That’s why the very heart of our shop is a calm down room lit by colored LEDs behind polyfill “clouds” on the ceiling. If you need a break, take a break.
What’s in Store: Safety
We have installed windows in our calm down room and hallway door, along with safety mirrors and cameras so that the entire shop is monitored. We want everyone to be safe here, and vigilance is the primary ingredient to make sure no one is isolated, bullied, or preyed upon. Our staff is trained in safe church practices, and we are mandatory reporters for suspected abuse. We plan to coordinate with local providers to make sure that information about escaping violence is available to all of our patrons.
What’s in Store: Welcome for All Ages
We have a stocked baby changing station near our back entrance. We are happy to have our young customers color or play in the classroom when classes are not in session.
Our shop is located at 113 S. Lafayette Street, Greenville, Michigan 48838. Our business phone is 616-302-0216.
