Centre for Public Christianity (June 2024)

Among other items, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted a ‘Life and Faith’ interview (here) with Elizabeth Oldfield on her book, Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times.

‘In this interview with Life & Faith, Elizabeth talks about “steadiness of soul” in an increasingly chaotic world and what it means to live in a small, intentional community or “micro monastery” that can fit 18 people around the dinner table. The conversation also covers how Elizabeth has managed to cultivate a space for profound chats across social divides in the podcast The Sacred, and what it meant for Elizabeth to flout careerist dogma and quit her stable, secure job to rest and lean into a different way of life.’

Colin Bell et al. on Religious Faiths and Sustainability

Colin Bell, Jonathan Chaplin, and Robert White (eds.), Living Lightly, Living Faithfully: Religious Faiths and the Future of Sustainability (Cambridge: The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, 2013).

Jointly published by the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and KLICE, the above book, based on the ‘Sustainability in Crisis’ conference of 2011, is available in print form at £7 or free as a PDF and on Kindle from here.

Here is some blurb:

‘Living Lightly, Living Faithfully explores the distinctive contributions that religions can make to confronting the challenges of sustainability. Originating from a conference at Cambridge University, it contains essays from a wide variety of authors representing diverse faith and secular positions, helping us chart a path towards a more sustainable future, and inspiring us to set out on it with renewed passion and hope.’

Peter Meadows on Being Busy

A friend and former colleague has drawn my attention (via a Facebook link) to this blog entry by Peter Meadows:

Could it be my fault I’m ‘this’ busy?

His three helpful points are:

(1) We foolishly believe our value is based on what we do or achieve rather than who we are.

(2) We fail to recognise that saying ‘yes’ to ‘this’ means saying ‘no’ to ‘that’.

(3) We don’t say ‘no’ because we are not clear enough about what we have said ‘yes’ to.

Unusual personal reflection coming up…

Unless I am completely lacking in self-awareness, I don’t have a personal problem with point 1. (As in, I don’t do things or say ‘yes’ to things out of some system that attaches value to what I do or achieve… although nor do I want to diminish the importance of taking into account what people do ‘do’ or ‘achieve’, as if that has no significance whatsoever.)

Points 2 and 3, however, are much more interesting to me…