This is a story that explores the awesome mystery of being. An enigmatic vessel of light arrives on Earth from the depths of space, revealing nothing of its occupants or purpose. It waits, a powerful symbol of humanity's weakness. Joseph Williams, a priest, devastated by the loss of a great love, confused by powerful mystical experiences and tormented by unanswered questions as to the meaning of his life, is pulled out of obscurity into a strange relationship with the vessel. Plunged into a great adventure, he is forced to go into hiding from worried governments. Help comes from an unlikely alliance of a Wiccan wise woman, a bishop and a mysterious Greek magician. Given sanctuary by an ancient esoteric sect, glimpses emerge of what might be happening. But it is only in his final, climactic encounter with the vessel of light that understanding comes. In finding answers to the riddles of his own life, he is confronted with the greatest questions of existence and forced to make a fundamental choice as to the future.

This is a book about knowing God. It is for those for whom just believing (or not believing) is no longer enough. Through personal experience, anecdote and story, a priest shares an ancient, but neglected aspect of Christian prayer. Contemplation takes us into the depths of the present moment, the only reality there has ever been and so the only place where God can be found. It takes us at different times into mystical oneness with the All, into profound self-knowledge and reveals love in the midst of the world. Contemplation is the universal experience at the heart of all religions. It is the place where their differences fall away and their uniqueness is celebrated. "From the Bottom of the Pond" seeks simply to be helpful. It says nothing new, but says it in a new way; a way rooted in our western culture and history. It suggests that the essence of the great and wonderful enlightenment teachings of the East was always here, hidden in plain sight.

Pacific Underground's groundbreaking play Fresh Off the Boat, written by Oscar Kightley and Simon Small, which examines the tragi-comic trials and tribulations of an immigrant family and their attempts to make sense of their new home -- Samoan life in the Big Smoke -- has been published at long last.