Culture Articles
The Peacock
There are no endings, branches certainly, a life stops.
A snowdrop in our midst
The wind from the east blows wild, And so I know I am alive; Despite the freezing snow.
Wellsprings
Come to the wellsprings. Bring only the real, authentic you. No qualifications needed. No imperfections excluded. No aptitude or personality test. No interview or selection day.
Sing out
Afew thoughts have come to me and have combined into a prompting. I have been impressed (as usual) by the high standard of music playing and, in particular, of singing (solo, duet and choir) at the 2016 Welsh Eisteddfodau. This reflects the time and effort put in, the value attached to...
Images of Christ: (Non)violent upheaval?
In selecting works for this series, I didn’t want them all to be safely immured in churches, or in museums and art galleries. But it has to be said that Christ driving the Moneychangers from the Temple hasn’t fared too well outside them. It’s down some steps...
Beyond belief
Hugh Mackay has written a new book, Beyond Belief: How we find meaning, with or without religion, that contains much interesting information about the current state of religion in Australia: only about eight per cent of the population, for example, go to church each week; about twenty per cent go...
Essex girls
I’m an Essex girl And I don’t care what you think, Essex girls are great fun-makers, Jolly hockey sticks! Give us a wink!
Out of the silence
There is a light that shines from Terry Waite’s new book Out of the Silence. It is the light of hope – a light that sustained him throughout his prolonged period of captivity between 1987 and 1992. He was in solitary confinement for four of these years, often chained, beaten and blindfolded,...
Images of Christ: Twelve encounters with Jesus
If you live within reach of London, you have less than a month to hotfoot it round to the British Museum, and, in their ‘South Africa: The art of a nation’ exhibition, see one of the most surprising religious images of the late twentieth century.
Images of Christ: Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Before Christmas I was lucky enough to see, in Edinburgh, Johannes Vermeer’s Christ in the House of Martha and Mary in the Scottish National Gallery. It confirmed to me the idea of this series. My choices, in selecting twelve images of Christ, are bound to be personal, so where...