In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: Community

  • The late David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham

    Posted:

    Following the death of David Jenkins on September 4th, I want to bear witness in my own small way to his great stature as a man and true priest. The first obituaries I read gave prominence to his Virgin Birth and Resurrection “denials.”  And of course, in his time, he was called “The Red Bishop”…

  • Sayings

    Posted:

    Reaching for words is like searching the earth for stones and then shaping them one after another into a path.     Your words took my breath away. They killed me with their song. They made my womb turn over. Sing to me again.   The words I must speak will sentence me to death.…

  • Can Liberal Democracy Survive our Tumult ?

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    Can liberal democracy survive our tumultuous, bewildering, frightening, dangerous times ? Can it surmount them ? Can it contain and even direct the flailing social forces at work towards positive solutions, a viable human future ? As things stand, it seems not to be coping at all. It is surely in great danger of allowing…

  • Post “Brexit” Blues and Bubbling Ferments

    Posted:

    Here I have collated various addresses I have come across or been sent during the past few weeks. They link to various initiatives and/or reflections which I find interesting and helpful, following the referendum decision and the course – “Brexit means Brexit” – which appears to have been set for our unknown destination on the…

  • Democracy & the Lie: do they go hand in hand ?

    Posted:

    During July, two articles by Andreas Whittam Smith appeared in The Independent newspaper on successive days.  Here are the links to them: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/broken-democracy-spin-doctors-destroyed-uk-politics-theresa-may-repair-it-a7135146.html ; http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fix-broken-democracy-smash-political-class-two-simple-things-a7137131.html Whittam Smith co-founded The Independent and his two pieces are worth reading. They explore the Brexit campaign’s “victory” and contain proposals for starting a process of renewal of the UK’s…

  • Six Truth Works Three Tattoos

    Posted:

    Here in the UK, recent elections and this Summer’s cataclysmic EU referendum have been opportunities for liars, demagogues and PR specialists to practice their skills on the population, in order to sway it to their will. The phenomenon is not unique to the UK, nor of course is it unprecedented. But the pervasive dishonesty, recklessness…

  • Where to Look for Answers ?

    Posted:

    Post Brexit, despair floods in, layer by layer ; the lamentable result itself, how it was arrived at, and the background from which the mayhem welled up, now cascading all over us. Any space anywhere for hope ? In search of hope, where might we expect to look ? To the steppe from whence the…

  • How can we Defend Free Speech from the Lie ?

    Posted:

    This piece follows the recent UK referendum on our membership of the EU. Both the quality of the debate and the “decision” that came out of it have left many millions of people reeling and horrified. But how was that decision arrived at ? Why do so many of us find it impossible to accept…