May 18thJohn Philip Newell's Blog
The feature of Celtic spirituality that is probably most widely recognized, both within and outside the Church, is its creation emphasis. It was certainly this that first drew my attention. Like most children, I had grown up with a sense of awe at creation. Our earliest memories are generally of wonder in relation to the elements. Do we not all carry within us, for instance, something of the memory of first listening to the waters of a river or to rainfall, or lying in the grass, feeling and smelling it and seeing its brilliant green, or watching sunlight dappling through leaves?
The Universal Gift of the Experience of Light in Celtic Spirituality.
My earliest memories of creation are primarily of light. They come to me in a kaleidoscope of recollection, of light reflecting off the waters of northern Canadian lakes where I spent time as a boy or of the clarity of the night skies above those same waters. I often would sit mesmerized by the sun's setting colours or by the immediacy of starlight in the dark. I do not believe that I am unusual in this, nor do I think that the wildness of the context was necessary to the depth of the impression, for I also remember light in the city, glistening off the metallic chrome of cars or dappling through the white curtains of my nursery window. In fact it is important that these memories are not unique, for the experience of the light that is in creation is a universal gift.
Christ of the Celts: John Philip Newell Identifies a Universal Longing for Peace
Written by Gordon AtkinsonChrist of the Celts: John Philip Newell Identifies a Universal Longing for Peace
There is a longing for peace deep within the human soul today. It is a yearning within us and between us in the most important relationships of our lives. It is a yearning among us as nations and as an entire earth community. Yet ranged against this longing peace are some of the most threatening forces that history has seen. These are forces of fear and fragmentation. And they are wedded to the mightiest political powers and religious fundamentalisms of the world today. Yet deeper still I believe is the longing for peace.
A New Harmony: A Vision for Peaceful Relationships Among Religious Traditions
Written by Gordon AtkinsonA New Harmony by John Philip Newell: A Vision for Peaceful Relationships Among Religious Traditions
The word kosmos in ancient Greek means "a harmony of parts." In the classical world, everything in the universe was viewed as moving in relation to everything else. This ancient understanding of the cosmos is being born afresh today in radically new ways. We are realizing that the whole of reality is one. In nearly every dimension of life—whether economic or religious, scientific or political—there is a growing awareness of earth's essential interrelatedness.
Originally published at the Huffington Post
The Iron Lady and The Lady appeared within days of each other. These two newly released films, one about Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher, the other about Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, consider the lives of two extraordinary political leaders. In terms of production and acting, there is no real comparison between the films. Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi is very good but Meryl Streep as Maggie Thatcher is, as ever, in a league of her own. But the films raise questions for us other than artistic excellence. What, for instance, is the type of leadership that we are seeking today for our nations and our world?
Originally published at the Huffington Post.
Throughout the Western World these days, and well beyond, we hear the hope of Christmas expressed in song and word, peace on earth. But how do we turn this creed into deed? How do we move from hope to practice? Much of what we do, whether as nations and individualities, or as religions and communities, contributes to disparity and further separation in our world. How do we translate our Christmas carols of peace into commitment to action for peace?
In January this year I was part of creating the Praying for Peace Initiative. Our founding meeting happened just outside Santa Fe. That same evening we gazed across the high desert landscape of New Mexico and saw the distant lights of the Los Alamos National Laboratory where the atom bombs that killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese in the final days of World War II were designed and tested. We need to find new ways of establishing peace.
Originally Published at the Huffington Post.
Col. Gaddafi is dead. Pray that there may now be peace for the people of Libya. Not that it will be an easy transition, after decades of brutal dictatorship and after bloody battles of civil war and the violent killing of Gaddafi. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "brute-force" is incapable of creating true transformation. Hate-force cannot do it. Only action that is based on a true regard for the other is capable of healing what has been torn apart. This is our true "soul-force," said Gandhi, to heal the world through the hard work of love. How do we access within ourselves this deep energy for transformation?
Praying with the Earth: A Prayerbook for Peace
Written by John Philip NewellOriginally Published at the Huffington Post.
I do not know how many Christians have read the Quran. And I do not know how many Muslims have read the Christian Scriptures. But I do know that until we come back into relationship, until we begin to learn the wisdom at the heart of one another's traditions, we will be less likely to work for peace. And without peace in the household of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar there will not be peace among us as nations today.
Remembering the Past, Re-membering the Future
Written by John Philip NewellOriginally published at the Huffington Post.
Do we have hope for the future? It has been important these days to look back, to honor those who died 10 years ago on 9/11, and to look into the face of our divisions as nations and religious traditions. The question now is, how do we move forward? How do we avoid getting stuck at simply remembering the past instead of also re-membering the future, of bringing back into relationship what has been torn apart?