Arts Articles
Sing with conviction
It all began when, among the newcomers to Meeting, was someone who had made a round trip of fifty miles to come. This was not that unusual in North Scotland Area Meeting. I mistakenly thought he’d newly moved to join the music department of Aberdeen University.
Word
The questing Spirit lights the receptive soul. Stirring, the mind in turn conceives a thought. The beating heart sends fresh blood to the brain To forge words whence the sentence may be wrought.
The Nayler Passion
In the summer of 2006 I was immersed in rehearsals of the latest Leaveners youth theatre project George and the Chocolate Factory in Birmingham. Over the dinner table one evening discussion turned to the question of ‘what next?’. The Leaveners had seen musical explorations of the lives of George Fox, Elizabeth...
Summer thoughts
As I lay here dozing on the lawn, I can hear the sound of children, Their joyful shrieks of delight at scoring a goal, And the glee in their laughter as they begin to win the game. The sound of the trees gently swaying in the breeze, The sound of...
Beyond forgiving
South Africans Ginn Fourie and Letlapa Mphahlele form an unlikely team: a white Christian woman and a black atheist man. One has suffered directly from the actions of the other, but both have been victims – and risen beyond their pain. What brings them together is a profound story of tragedy...
In the Large Meeting House
It’s time… Friends scurry and bustle into the Meeting room where they slowly settle shifting like dogs on blankets ...
A climate for concern
In March a book that I have been working on for nearly six years was finally published. Beacons: Stories for our not so distant future is a collection of original short stories by some of Britain’s finest writers. They were tasked with finding new narratives to encompass the enormity...
One unholy journey
‘I guess’, wrote Jill Green in the beautifully illustrated leaflet, which was part of her show of twelve years’ work during Oxford Arts Week in May, ‘I guess I am asking to join the ranks of war artists’. She calls the show One Unholy Journey. This refers to her own...
Poetry saves my soul
Poetry is my way out of a deep dark hole It brightens up my soul, gets the depression out.
Syria found
The Arab League has nailed its colours to the mast but Russia and China have vetoed UN resolutions