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Ideas

Jul 27

Toneworks

I recently visited the old Toneworks factory in Wellington, Somerset, which has been decaying beautifully for over 20 years now. Somerset Council acquired the site in 2020 and since then have been doing essential repair and stabilisation works to make the site safe. As part of this they are offering guided tours for small groups at several points in the year, which always sell out. I was lucky enough to get a place on a tour so I could visit, and the results were well worth it as I’m really pleased with the images I’ve captured.

I would have loved longer in there to take more photos (sorry to the nice council lady who kept having to say “STAY WITH THE GROUP PLEASE” to me), and there are parts of the site that are too dangerous to access. In some ways limitations like this are often helpful to creativity. You have to prioritise what you want to capture, not overthink things, and be realistic about what you can do in the time you have.

Huge respect to Somerset Council and Wellington Town Council for putting the tours on! My top tip to get a place on the tour is to sign-up for their newsletter (it’s as thrilling as it sounds) as tours are announced there first. Click here to do that.

I hope you enjoy the images. Some of my favourites are below but you can see the full set on my Flickr page here.

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Apr 19

Lyra Poetry Festival

Lyra is a brilliant poetry festival held in Bristol each year. As part of the festival there is a poetry slam. This is a poetry competition where poets battle it out to be crowned the Lyra Grand Slam winner! I was really pleased to make it through to the qualifying rounds this year, and via Zoom I performed a poem called ‘#NewProfilePic’…

At the qualifying rounds, each poet performs and is scored by a mix of scores from three judges (all professional poets) and votes from the audience. I was thrilled to make it through to the grand slam final! This was held at the iconic St Georges’ in Bristol, in front of hundreds of people watching both in person and via a livestream. It was an experience I’ll never forget – performing with so many other amazing poets on such a big stage! I chose to perform a poem that’s really important to me. It’s called ‘Little Jo’ and it’s me as an adult revisiting younger versions of myself, saying what I felt I might have needed to hear at those points in my life. You can see my performance in the video below. Check out www.lyrafest.com for more information about the festival.

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Posted in Ideas, Poetry

Feb 21

Self-Care and Service

At Oasis Church Bath, as part of speaking series called ‘Hands In’, I explore how we can strike a healthy balance between looking after ourselves, and getting involved in our church and community hub.

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Posted in Ideas, Uncategorized

Nov 28

Reimagining Church Leadership

As part of a series at Oasis Church Bath called ‘What’s On Your Mind?’, I ask how we might reimagine what church leadership could look like in the light of a progressive theology. With failures around safeguarding and morality by prominent Christian leaders hitting the headlines recently, what can we learn and how should this change our approach at Oasis?

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Nov 21

Explaining Evil

If we are born good and wired towards goodness, then how can we explain evil, and the choices we sometimes make that harm ourselves, others and the world around us? Is ‘original blessing’ just a way to avoid facing up to our mistakes, and how do we ensure it doesn’t stop us from continuing to seek wholeness and forgiveness? 

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Nov 01

Rethinking ‘Sin’

If we reject the notion of ‘original sin’ as progressive Christians, what do we do with the word sin? What does it actually mean and how can we develop a helpful and healthy understanding of it in relation to our faith and the lives we live? In this talk for Oasis Church Bath I encourage us to think differently about sin, and ask how we might reimagine it in light of being ‘already good’.

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Jul 25

Oasis Church Bath: Sofa Sunday Interview

Once a month at the church I currently lead we have a Sunday called ‘Sofa Sunday’ where we invite a guest to sit on our sofa on stage and answer some questions, as well as welcoming questions from those attending. In July 2023 instead of being the interviewer, I was the interviewee! It was fun being on the other side of the sofa and reflecting on my role, my faith and some things I’ve been thinking about recently.

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May 10

Reimagining

In a talk for Oasis Church Bath, I talk about the concept of ‘reimagining’, drawing on biblical concepts and examples to inspire us as we think about how to reimagine our plans, beliefs and expectations when things in life perhaps don’t go as we’d hoped or expected.

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Jan 14

Nomad Podcast

As a longtime Nomad Podcast fan aka ‘beloved listener’, it was a great privilege to have this great conversation with Azariah France-Williams for the podcast. The topic was leaders within faith settings who deconstruct, or go through a big faith shift. Azariah and I share our stories with one another, commenting on how the faith shifts we’ve experienced have impacted us, and the roles we do now. It’s a very personal conversation as I share parts of my story I’ve not shared publicly before, but it felt important to be honest about the journey I’ve travelled. You can listen below, and you can find out more about the Nomad Podcast here.

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Jun 02

Rethinking the Bible: A Progressive Perspective

How can we see the bible through a progressive lens? For many of us who have deconstructed faith, or seen the bible used to harm or control, how can we reimagine our relationship with it? For this talk given at Oasis Church Bath, I explore the purpose and place of the bible in our lives.

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