Culture Articles
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Corridors of light
A while ago I heard someone on the radio use the expression ‘mental furniture’. She was referring to those comforting thoughts and ideas that come to the forefront at times of trouble, anxiety, illness or perhaps even danger. They are the thoughts that we turn to in order to give… -
Black Fire
The subtitle of Black Fire is African American Quakers on Spirituality and Human Rights, though no definition of spirituality is given. I would offer: spirituality – a growing into relationship of self with deeper self; self with neighbour; self with cosmos; held together in an embrace of Spirit. What, then,…
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Departure
I am part of what once was But might be so again. Did we love once? Were we one? Two hearts with but a single rhythm? -
Practising the Presence
There is a chamber of the mind prepared for me. When I am ready, willing to surrender. When I am quiet, I may enter there To find a place of stillness, a place already occupied By the light of the welcoming Presence.
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Climb up to the moor
Judith Bromley paints as a way to discover, explore and express the relationship between her inner being and everything around her. She says: ‘For me, the process of drawing and painting is a meditative experience.’ Through this book, Judith’s painting and writing has also become a powerful ministry, creating beauty…
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Magical stories
The Tear Thief, The Greatest Gift and The Barefoot Book of Mother and Daughter Tales are three recent releases by Barefoot Books.
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Meeting for Worship
I lug this great laundry basket to Meeting Filled with damp twisted bundles of problems, tasks and commitments, And I shake them out one by one and peg them on the invisible line.
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Meanings
There he was, standing among them, and they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:36-7). The risen Christ was not a disembodied spirit, in Luke’s view: he had the flesh and bone of a physical man; he could be touched, he could eat physical…
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The story of carols
The carols we love to sing, like Christmas itself, owe much to pre-Christmas midwinter rejoicings at having reached the shortest day – with the prospect of new growth and abundance to come. The many references, for example, in ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ to evergreens refer to the need to…
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Words for the journey
On the face of it, if you want a verse for a corporate Christmas card, I’d be the last person to ask. The phrase ‘greetings card verse’ could sum up most things a serious working poet would want not to be. More than that, I’m a Quaker, and one of…
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