Arts Articles
Healing terrorism
Today I am the doorkeeper – welcoming all who cross the threshold. Greeting each one coming to our Quaker Meeting. Recognising the divine in each person. Responding from that same ‘that of God’ which dwells within me. In us all is that holy love, able to be given as a gift,...
Images of Christ: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree
When I started this series, I knew it would probably be as much about me as Jesus. By the third month it was beginning to dawn on me that it was probably not by coincidence that this idea had come to me this particular year. As we struggle with the...
Doing time in Holot
On a recent visit to Israel to find out more about the lives of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers there, I chanced upon a photography exhibition at the Israel Museum featuring the work of the Israeli photographer Ron Amir. It was entitled ‘Doing Time in Holot’. Holot is the detention...
That’s music
Feet tapping, fingers clicking, Swaying and dancing. That’s Music. Sorrowful dirge, mourning lament, Slow march for the dead. Sad Music.
Images of Christ: The Road to Emmaus
The post-Resurrection appearances of Jesus are for me the most beautiful, but also the most problematical, parts of the Gospels. They have inspired some of the greatest works by some of our most highly revered artists – just think of Titian’s ‘Noli me tangere’ and Caravaggio’s ‘Supper at Emmaus’...
Thomas and the lost coin
Thomas was the doubter, who felt the wounded hand, And not for single moment was Thomas ever banned. No fire was lit, no stones were thrown, just balm for anxious mood, Great Love was what was found there; a Gospel understood.
Swarthmoor
This is where history speaks through the present, opens up new possibilities: we cross-fertilise, plant and nurture vulnerable seedling thoughts.
Images of Christ: The Ruthwell Cross
‘When fishes flew and forests walked/And figs grew upon thorn…’ I must have learned GK Chesterton’s poem ‘The Donkey’ when I was about ten. I loved its magical opening. I thought he wildly overstated the donkey’s odd appearance – did he never ride on one at the seaside?...
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.