Thinking the future

Powerful message from Catholic Peacemaker

NOBEL Peace Prize nominee and globally recognized advocate for peace and nonviolence, Fr John Dear SJ, is taking part in the Festival of Spirituality and Peace on 22 August.

The Catholic priest will be on the platform alongside the Rev Kathy Galloway, who is the head of Christian Aid in Scotland and a former leader of the Iona Community. The conversation session is entitled 'The Spirituality and Practice of Peace in a World of War'.

The event takes place at St John's Church, Edinburgh (Venue 127), from 6.30pm - 7.30pm on Wednesday evening. The discussion, which will be moderated by Brian Larkin, Coordinator of the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre, will explore the resources needed to engage in active peacemaking in a world Fr Dear believes is "addicted to war and weaponry".

More here.

Leave to remain

FOLLOWING a personal experience of bereavement, writer Jo Clifford and actor Suzanne Dance created Leave to Remain, which you can see this afternoon (Monday 20th August 2012) at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace.

The show, widely acclaimed from the first performance on 13th August, uses live music, ritual and storytelling to create an uplifting performance that is as warm-hearted as it is cathartic. The performers are ably assisted by cellist Harriet Davidson.

The performance runs from 4-5pm in the Chapel at St John's Church (Venue 127). Tickets are available from the Hub, or on the door at the venue.

Writing in The Scotsman newspaper, noted critic Joyce MacMillan said: "There’s something intensely moving and comforting about this brief and beautiful experience."

Come and see for yourself.

'Scottish Six' starts at 6pm today!

AFTER much talk about the need to debate Scotland’s future, and the prospect of a Scottish debate-free zone on the Fringe, land reform campaigner Andy Wightman and myself have decided to join forces and stick our heids o’er the parapet. So we’ll have a show on at six o’clock nine weekday nights across August 14-24 as part of the Festival of Spirituality and Peace - writes Lesley Riddoch. 

"It’s called The Scottish Six - debates you don’t get on TV. But the BBC and Scottish media will figure only fleetingly in the first gig. Our much bigger concern is the way that inequality, entitlement and disempowerment disfigure Scotland and limit the ways most Scots can imagine the future. Each night, land campaigner Andy Wightman (Who Owns Scotland and The Poor Had no Lawyers) will kick off The Scottish Six with a characteristically hard-hitting look at how the nexus of money, politics and property has created an unequal society in which too many people are powerless to make a positive contribution."

More here. Runs from 6-7pm, 14-17th and 20-24th August in the Hall at St John's Church (Venue 127). Tickets on the door or via the Hub. £6 (£4 concessions).

Reflection: The Festival and Humanism

The 'Happy Humanist' symbol,
first adopted in 1995

THE Festival of Sprituality and Peace is an Interfaith and intercultural event; there are Jewish, Islamic, Christian and Daoist events, for example, as well as artists from every contintent but Antarctica. The focus is on diversity and co-operation, and above all on being all-inclusive.

But what is the relationship between 'interfaith' and 'no faith'? Where do Secular Humanists fall in this atmosphere of inclusivity?

The question of whether Humanism and theism are or can be compatible is a difficult one. Many Humanist organisations insist that Humanism necessitates scepticism, secularism, and rejection of all 'supernatural phenomena', but at the same time there are religious individuals who happily identify as Humanists. So is Humanism compatible with the Festival of Spirituality and Peace?

As a Humanist and dedicated FoSP blogger, I clearly think so! Though I do have the occasional disconcerting moment when I find myself, a lifelong atheist, sitting alongside a bookshelf of hymn books writing blurbs for prayer meetings, at its heart I find the spirit of FoSP very close to that of Humanism.

Humanism draws on spiritual backgrounds including Confucism, Buddhism, ancient Indian philosophy and Christian teachings. The principles behind Humanism are love, humanity, and above all community. One of the big draws of Humanism is being part of a non-religious philosophical community that brings together a diverse range of people.

Most critically, Humanism is about rationality, and about making sense of the world using reason and empiricism. In this sense, Humanism is compatible with any religion willing to question and re-evaluate itself when necessary. Many of FoSP's conversation events such as Disorganised Religion (Thursday August 9) and Women in Religion (Tuesday August 21) are very much in the rational spirit of Humanism.

Is the difference between ‘faith’ and ‘no faith’ really as stark as it seems? There are religious Humanists; there are atheists who identify as Christian. When it comes down to it, we all want a better world, and we all have faith that we can achieve it. In this sense, Humanist philosophy, despite its lack of overt spirituality, is not only compatible with FoSP but at the heart of it.

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(c) Katie MacFadyen is a fourth year student of Classics at the University of Edinburgh, about to start a dissertation in Reception Studies: the study of how classics is and has been used in subsequent cultural contexts. She also writes speculative fiction and theatre, as well as film and book reviews. Her theatre reviews from the Fringe Festival 2011 can be found on http://thenewkid.co.uk and http://somesuchlike.wordpress.com. She is a media intern for the Festival of Spirituality and Peace 2012 and contributes regularly to Spirituality and Peace News.

Sacred sound journey

SOUND is one of the oldest forms of medicine; we are by nature a mass of vibration and frequency, which is why we are so receptive to sound.

Led by Scottish sound healer Suzanne Harris, this is a chance to rest and journey in a magical soundscape, to ease aches and pains and to feel your stresses melt away.

Combining ancient knowledge with modern scientific understanding, the Sacred Sound Journey is truly powerful, relaxing and engaging.

Tomorrow afternoon, let the rich and nurturing sounds of Tibetan bowls, healing drums and gentle flute songs draw you into the deepest relaxation; explore your relationship with sound and with yourself!

Monday 6, Wednesday 16 and Monday 20 August, 2pm-3pm, in the Persian Tent at St John's (Venue 127). Buy tickets here or at the venue box office.

Cooperation requires tough collaboration

COOPERATION is a natural thing, but it isn't easy. It requires a real willingness to work together across different world views.

That was the message of keynote speaker Dr Stephen Cherry, from the Anglican Diocese of Durham, as he helped launch the 2012 Festival of Spirituality and Peace.

A rich cultural mix and a meaningful religious exchange requires more than polite toleration or middle-class liberalism, he said. Rather it involves a much more gutsy, world-changing effort. We need leadership that makes for peace.

'Collaboration for peace' is a good way of extending the 'cooperation for change' message of the Festival, suggested Dr Cherry. It is a challenging business. Sometimes collaborators are suspected of being traitors. A combination of idealism and realism is required.

Likewise, peacemakers will face awkward questions, become critical friends. They will need to develop visionary determination, honourable virtues and spiritual maturity.

The business of building peace and collaborating for change is a duty for people of faith, but not an invitation to turn things into an olympic race between beliefs. Rather, we need a peace olympics that uses our distinctiveness to good purpose, said Dr Cherry.

School of the heart

A 'SCHOOL of the heart'. That could be a good name for the Festival of Spirituality and Peace. It's also the name of a fine blog from Jesuit priest Fr Tim Byron, currently working in Edinburgh in the city centre parish of the Sacred Heart.

Tim's blog has that title. In Latin it's Schola Affectus. He writes: "Having returned to Edinburgh from beautiful Arisaig it is impossible not to notice all the posters that have popped up all over the place.  They announce the imminent arrival of the Edinburgh International Arts Festival and its 23 associated festivals.  There are book festivals, jazz festivals, politics festival, contemporary art festivals, street performance, internet festivals and interestingly a festival of spirituality and peace.

"In its twelfth year, the base ... is an Episcopalian Church, St Johns on Princes Street although there are over 400 activities across 21 venues. With speakers, conversations, performances, film, food, exhibitions, family activities, workshops, art, culture and more ‘FOSP’ is now looking forward to its twelfth year.

"The programme is eclectic varying from a Soweto based dance troupe, Poetry in a Persian Tent, sessions on Ethical Banking, Jewish storytelling and Asian & Arabic fusion dance.  I am booking tickets for some discussion events, including one with the title of ‘Where are the Organisational Healers?’ and another intriguingly entitled ‘Churches own 8% of the planet’."

You can follow Tim's blog here.

Examining the Arab revolutions

AS IMAGES of the fast-changing situations in Libya and Syria continue to flash across our television and computer screens, what is going on undereath the surface?  

Moreover, what is the 'Arab Spring' all about?  Can largely non-violent revolt succeed in the face of armed dictatorship?

These and other urgent questions will be explored in major sessions at the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace in Edinburgh this weekend. Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf from New York is among the prominent speakers taking part. The full Festival programme is here.

Thinking more imaginatively

HOW we see and think about the world shapes our responses to each other, and what we produce by way of interventions and effects.

A fascinating conversation about how to distinguish 'wood from trees' and what is entailed in interpreting the world, texts, each other and much more took place at lunchtime on Saturday 20 August at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace.

Over recent centuries, has there been a drift towards literalism, fundamentalism and scientism in western culture. It was suggested that this ‘left brain chauvinism’ can make us dangerously unaware of all that the right brain can offer – the big picture, meaning, metaphor and spirituality.

Iain McGilchrist, psychiatrist and writer (author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Modern World) explored these issues with Dr Joe Bouch, consultant psychiatrist and editor of Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, and John Munro, philosophy of science graduate, retired Church of Scotland minister and member of the Scottish Institute of Human Relations.

Finding a desert in the city?

SOME say that monastic communities are an escape from reality, others that they are a journey into reality where you cannot hide from God, from others – or from yourself.

Which is it? Dom Mark Caira, Abbot of Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw and Sister Candasiri of the Amaravati Buddhist Monastery looks at the issues in conversation with Ruth Scott, Anglican priest, writer and broadcaster, who for many years has worked with a number of religious orders as a facilitator. Saturday 20 August, 11am – 12noon St John’s Church, Edinburgh.

This is an important theme for the 2011 Festival of Spirituality and Peace, which is bringing together some 25,000 people for 300 performances and 200 events across 15 venues in Scotland's capital. 

Feeding heart and soul

MARTIN Aelred is among those performing at Sacred Space at the Festival of Spirituality and Peace in St John's Church this coming week.

The singer-songwriter promises to "feed your heart and soul" on Monday lunchtime, 22 August (12.15-1pm and free).

Sacred Space is an opportunity to experience the stillness and peace of a beautiful church. It provides music and silence in the midst of a busy festival.

Spend an half an hour with some of Edinburgh’s finest musicians in one of its most stunning buildings. Open to those of all faiths or of none.

The upcoming roster is: Monday 22, Martin Aelred –Voice and Guitar; Tuesday 23, Sacred Sphere with Mio Shapley – Harp; Wednesday 24, Norman Lamont – Wave forms – gentle layers of sound;  Thursday 25, Ben Kearsley – Classical Guitar.

Looking back to look forward

ACCORDING to one old saying, "There's no point in looking back. You have to look forward." But that assumes that what we build tomorrow will be unrelated to what we attempted before - and that's not true.

It depends how you look back, really. Wallowing in nostalgia may not help with the challenges of today. But a sense of history, of gratitude, of inspiration carried forward, of lessons learned, of friendships made, of wisdom stored, of possibilities nurtured, of gifts harvested, of decisions made and re-made? Those are surely forward-thinking positives.

There's an old Aboriginal tradition which says that you need to "back into the future", because while no-one can quite know what will happen next, you can gain a good sense of direction by looking at what has been shaping the journey so far.

Anyway, that's our excuse for a quick revisiting of the riches of the Festival of Spirituality & Peace in 2010, 2009 and 2008. Hopefully these will give a good flavour of what's in store for 2011: 'Faith, Hope and Reality'.