Culture Articles
Madonna and child
In just a heartbeat Space dissolves And time stands still And oh! the ecstasy, the thrill In that dissolving unity That tender gaze… A blink before the birth of fear When cruelty was a distant cloud A devil’s joke And there was love, and peace, and hope And all...
A Disabled Apostle: Impairment and disability in the letters of Paul, by Isaac Soon
When he wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul felt compelled to tell his correspondents about what he called the ‘thorn’ in his ‘flesh’, a mysterious ailment that has long puzzled readers. Isaac Soon’s book is the first to be devoted to this enigmatic complaint, and to other...
Alison Lapper: Lost in Parys
There was depressing news recently for the creative arts in the UK, as the government cut funding for performing and creative arts courses at English universities. All the more reason, then, to celebrate a new initiative to encourage young people’s engagement with the arts, focusing on how art can...
Confession
I come to a place of light in an ocean of darkness. They said: Stand still in the light, submit to its power. When temptation came and troubles appeared I was to sink to the bright seed. Troubles would be hushed and darkness fly away.
Bayard Rustin: A legacy of protest and politics, ed by Michael G Long
Everybody knows something about the 1963 March On Washington, when Martin Luther King delivered his powerful ‘I have a dream’ speech. Fewer people know that it was organised by a black Quaker, Bayard Rustin. This new book of essays on Rustin reveals how, over five decades of activism, Bayard did even...
Negotiating With the Devil: Inside the world of armed conflict mediation, by Pierre Hazan
Winston Churchill is not the first person to come to mind when one thinks of a mediator. But something he said came to mind while reading this book.
Vantage point
If I need a better life, I build one, dig its foundations below the soles of my feet, plough the potholes with the heels of my shoes and, into the arms of a good neighbour, entrust my...
Jesus As Witnessed By the Disciple He Loved: A commentary on the gospel of John, by Alan Asay
The gospel of John has often been called the ‘Quaker gospel’, mainly, perhaps, because of its many references to light, which chime with much Quaker theological conversation today. Early Quakers were greatly inspired by this gospel, and it gives each new generation of Friends much food for thought. Alan Asay,...
Worship
We lost a Friend this week. He died just round the bay where the estuary meets the sea. A sweet day for us today surfing, sunshine and Meeting – it’s all worship, isn’t it?
Spell God
I write it in the dirt today in the bottom of the grave where New Year’s worms ease in the writhe or relent of human hate.