Peter Owen Jones Letters from an Extreme Pilgrim

The alert follower of this blog may notice that I have added something else to the Heading. It was apparently the writer and campaigner Alastair McIntosh who said somewhere that there is no more noble cause than bringing beauty to ugliness. I don’t know exactly where he says this, which one of his books, or speeches, or articles. But what a lovely sentiment that is.
The other night I went to Rochester Cathedral to hear Peter Owen Jones, the Sussex vicar, read some of the chapters from his book Letters from an Extreme Pilgrim: Reflections on Life, Love and the Soul. He wrote these letters while he was living for three weeks in a cave in the Sinai Desert, lent to him by Father Lazarus, a Coptic monk and hermit. In this lovely collection he writes to those many who have shaped his life, to Joan, Daddy, Satan, God, the Girl in the Field (my favourite) and many more, including one to the Prime Minister, where he mentioned the saying from McIntosh. And in the questions that followed the readings he opened his heart and soul to us, displaying his vulnerability and humanity, his faith and his own personal struggles, in his own inimitable way. Peter is a treasure. Those of my English readers amongst you, do go to hear him if you get the chance. For whatever reason this latest book does not seem to have made it yet across The Pond.

And if you are not yet familiar with Alastair McIntosh’s classic book Soil and Soul I suggest you get a copy now and read it. Beautifully written, it is a kaleidoscope of Celtic faith, a call for ecological change, and as George Monbiot wrote, an adventure in theology, economics, ecology, history and politics.

Soil and Soul was an early inspiration for my own book; I discovered Peter Owen Jones more recently. Both authors have endorsed my book, as we all share similar views on the dangers of our current behaviour and our appalling treatment of this wonderful Earth.


"Humanity is set for a time of fundamental change. Our relationship with the environment is spiritless and broken. But we have also lost sight of the spiritual essence in our communities, our economy, in medicine and our creativity, even in our faiths. With its wealth of wisdom this wonderful book explores how we have arrived at where we are and what all of those who call themselves ' religious' or are otherwise ‘of good faith’ need to do to heal this wounded world." The Revd. Peter Owen-Jones, Author of Letters from an Extreme Pilgrim: Reflections on Life, Love and the Soul and presenter of the BBC TV programme Around the World in 80 Faiths.  

"In this book Eleanor Stoneham points to the central role of spirituality in healing the human condition in our troubled times. Nothing is more important if we are to have hope for a dignified future, come what may in the come-to-pass."Professor Alastair McIntosh, Author of Soil and Soul and Hell and High Water. 

Tourist or Pilgrim?

I wrote on 5th November of the conference I attended organised by Resurgence: To be a Pilgrim or a Tourist. But I did not say much there about the session given by Peter Owen Jones, and for my money he was the most brilliant speaker of the day.
I love Peter, as indeed do many others. I am sure he has broken a few hearts in his time. But he is not to everyone's taste! Maverick priest he has been called by some. The Times has called him "the bravest vicar in Britain...a man living with his soul." But his message is clear, sincere and persuasive. We have to act as individuals and communities to restore spirituality back into our lives, for the sake of our future, because there is an emotional and spiritual illiteracy amongst our leaders, in local and national government, and indeed globally.
The computer age, Peter explained, has destroyed our calling to explore, and a general loss of hospitality is destroying the opportunity for pilgrimage. And pilgrimage is not the same as travelling. Intimacy is of the pilgrim, not the traveller. The experience of the pilgrimage enriches us, we return changed. As travellers the effect is short lived - we simply return to the life we were escaping from, the life we have created - nothing changes there.
Why are we still travelling? What are we looking for? Paradise is actually around us if we only have eyes to see. And he reminded us that holidays were actually "Holy Days," for rest and quality family time, not for frenzied shopping, consuming, driving, travelling, generally stressing ourselves!

This all reminds me of Peter's wonderful book I reviewed some time ago on Amazon; Letters From an Extreme Pilgrim: Reflections on life, love and the soul. (For some reason this is not available from Amazon.com).

Do read the book. It is a gem.

Paint the Church Green

"Yes but the trouble is..." "OK but what difference will that make?" "Why should we be the first to do anything?" "How can we possibly make a difference when we see the sheer vastness of China and what is going on there?" "How can I do anything - I am on my own, consume little, have a very small footprint on this earth already!"
We were sitting around a table in one of those lovely big French style kitchens - where everyone can comfortably congregate and chat and eat and drink and be in fellowship one with another.
Who are we? Last year we formed an ecumenical group of ten or so Christians, to meet together regularly with a common purpose, to try to Paint the Church Green. * This is the name of the excellent little book by Ellen Teague around which we based our discussions, taking a chapter at a time. The book was written specifically as a group course, to enable us to explore the relationship between faith and concern for the natural world, encouraging, it says in the blurb on the back, positive suggestions for change.
And that is when the negative comments started coming. This was our first get together after a summer break, when, somewhat ironically, so many people go away - yes flying, driving long distances, getting away, as Satish Kumar and Peter Owen Jones both remind us, from what we ourselves have created!
And I was frustrated by those negative comments - perhaps reacting more strongly than was diplomatic in the circumstances. And of course they do all have good answers. For another blog post perhaps.

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." (Robert Kennedy, in a speech he made in Cape Town on 7 June 1966).

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world – indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.”
American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead

There is an old story of a man who was walking along the surf at the edge of the sea. Every now and then he knelt down to pick up one of many hundreds of starfish left stranded by the tide, and threw it back into the water. ‘Why are you doing that?’ asked his friend. ‘How can that make any difference?’ ‘It makes a difference,’ came the reply, ‘to that one.’

So come on people - be positive. Start your own little ripples of hope. As Gandhi is so often quoted as saying: You have to be the change you wish to see in the world.

* The book by the way is published by Kevin Mayhew and I have not been able to find it on Amazon. The red roses were probably flown in from abroad - not a green thing to do when we have so many beautiful flowers of our own to enjoy in their own seasons - as again pointed out to us by Satish Kumar.

To be a Pilgrim or a Tourist

Are you a tourist or a pilgrim? Do you travel within the landscape of desire and greed, never fulfilled, seldom satisfied, always seeking something more? Or do you travel in a landscape of love, recognising the sacredness of the place you visit, the sacredness of the earth on which you tread, travelling as an earth pilgrim?

Pilgrims celebrate what they find with gratitude; they do not complain. Tourists find plenty to complain about: the bed not soft enough, the room not big enough, the food not good enough, the view not pretty enough. We all can recognise ourselves I am sure.

Last weekend I went to an excellent conference in London, “To be a Pilgrim or a Tourist,” organised by Resurgence. These were the opening comments from the editor of that wonderful publication, Satish Kumar, who introduced an excellent team of speakers for the day. We heard Rupert Sheldrake, Ursula King, and Peter Owen Jones, with poetry readings from Deborah Harrison and Martin Powell, and some lovely singing from Annemarie Borg accompanied on the piano by Gabriel Keen. Sadly Caroline Lucas Leader of the UK Green Party could not be there. Between them they gave us all plenty of food for thought.

Why, asked Satish, do we go on holiday? Why do we run away from ourselves and our homes and countryside, which is so beautiful; the autumnal colours are particularly spectacular this year. Why do we fly to far -flung places just to laze away time in some “paradise” that does not meet expectations, and contributing to the greenhouse gas emissions that are changing our climate?

That is all very well – and he has a good point to make. But…..

The previous day we had delivered harvest festival food goodies from our church to another church community in our diocese; in a very poor and run down part of the city. The traffic ground along at snail pace, the streets were dingy, no sign of greenery anywhere to relieve the landscape, apart from a few trees grimy and poisoned from being bathed in constant exhaust fumes.

I am no expert on eschatology, but as we drove through this gloomy and deprived suburban sprawl towards our destination it crossed my mind that God would be justified in weeping at what we have done to his beautiful creation, and I would not blame Him wanting to destroy such as this and start again. As Peter Owen Jones observed later in the day, we are travelling to get away from what we have created.

Satish lives in a very beautiful part of England and has all the wonders of nature on his doorstep. Not everyone is so privileged.

OK, so we want to get away on holiday but do we have to travel solely as tourists? Could we reintroduce the spirit of pilgrimage into our travel?

Yes we can and we should. Rupert Sheldrake, following on after Satish, gave us some ideas, and I’ll write about his thoughts in my next post …

The event was filmed with a view to showing it on the Resurgence website. As of time of writing this has not appeared, but the link takes you to the details of the conference and its speakers.

The photo is of the Priory Ruins at Walsingham, taken on my pilgrimage there earlier this year.

Letters From an Extreme Pilgrim

As I prepare tonight to watch How to Live a Simple Life, the latest TV series from our very own wacky reverend Peter Owen Jones, I am delighted to see that his latest book, Letters from an Extreme Pilgrim: Reflections on Life, Love and the Soul is doing so well in the Amazon UK rankings. I reviewed this a few weeks ago on Amazon - this is what I said then:

"This book is based on a disarmingly simple idea: to write letters to those who have played an important part in the author's life, whilst exploring and reflecting on the spiritual nature of those relationships and what they have meant to him.
But do not be deceived. On one level certainly the book may be undemanding. But it is also on another level spiritually challenging and in today's fractured world we need to accept that challenge and be receptive to the new era of spirituality and consciousness that we now enter. We need to rediscover our spirit and our soul, and the author will help us do this.

The author is honest, open and courageous as he bares his own uncertainties and vulnerabilities to reflect on love, beauty, the soul, and the nature of God. There is a certain poignancy to some of his letters, for example the story of the lost love of the Girl in the Field. Here he sensitively explores the different types of relationship between man and woman, the different experiences of enchantment, intimacy, desire, and he certainly helped me understand a little more about my own relationships. And by way of contrast he is not afraid to tackle religious fundamentalism head on with his letter to Osama, which must surely make us all examine our own position on love and faith and respect of our fellow beings.

I like The Times description of the author as "the bravest vicar in Britain...a man living with his soul." The book is unusual and refreshing for that. I can recommend this little volume - it will help us all make more sense of this world, help us understand a little more of who we are and I hope will help us reconnect with our own souls for a better world"

I'm not sure I understand why this book does not appear at Amazon.com.

The random photos by the way are from a holiday in Norfolk last year!

Reflections on Life, Love and the Soul

I am reading a super little book. It is by Peter Owen Jones, a rather wacky Church of England priest, who after presenting Around the World in 80 Faiths for TV, disappeared high up into the Sinai Desert in Egypt to live in isolation in a cave for a while, to pray, think and of necessity live extremely simply.
From his soul searching during this time he wrote several letters, letters to friends and family, to the Prime Minister, to Jesus and God, and even to Osama and these have been collected into a neat little volume, Letters From an Extreme Pilgrim - Reflections on Life, Love and the Soul, (although he makes clear that he wanted to call it Letters From the Moon, and refers to his cave and landscape as The Moon throughout.)
In these letters we see his own vulnerabilities and uncertainties, even his own tortured soul, as he grapples with understanding himself and rediscovering, even healing, that soul within the context of all his different relationships and within the context of this crazy world.
"God, I loved the desert," he writes in the Epilogue. "It allowed me to see what was broken - with all my hate, with all my love, my unknowing, my unbeing - and gave me the time to begin to mend." And in that mending and in his forthright and honest writing, I believe he can be a wounded healer for all of us who are honest enough with ourselves to know we need that healing of our own soul and spirit.