Dear friends,
This May marks the 20th anniversary of the opening of our Peace Tent. Designed on principles of sacred geometry and ringed with seven stained-glass windows celebrating peace in seven languages, the tent is a uniquely inspirational space. Over the years we’ve hosted countless dialogues in the tent, bringing people together across differences of faith, worldview, politics and culture.
Originally intended to be a temporary structure, the tent has endured far longer than its founders might have expected it to. It’s weathered countless rain-lashed English winters, and a decade of major construction next door. We have oddly fond memories of meditating through the blare of jackhammers, just on the other side of the goat-hair walls! Along the way the tent has been stripped back and re-covered. But still it’s here, and we hope it will endure for another twenty years. If you’d like to contribute to another two decades of dialogue in our peace tent, there are lots of ways you can get involved. Please do read on to find out more about upcoming events, especially now that our Festival Programme is live! Some special events taking place in the tent at the festival include an interfaith dialogue between Chine McDonald, Director of Theos, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, and Zaza Elsheikh; a workshop from More in Common exploring Shattered Britain through its Seven Tribes model; and book-signings with Martin Shaw, Sharon Blackie, and others.
Meanwhile, last week’s UK local council elections spoke to the volatility in the current political climate. With SNP and Plaid Cymru claiming much of Scotland and Wales, and the Green Party and Reform making gains across the country, many are ringing the death knell for the traditional parties. While some may be celebrating—or decrying—the electoral success of the various parties, it’s worth pausing to note the costs of the polarisation dynamic itself. A constantly shifting political settlement (we’ve seen six prime ministers since 2010, and may well be on the verge of yet another) creates paralysis and stagnation. The constant shifting of allegiances erodes effective policy-making. In-fighting within parties contributes to this endless stop-start approach, which has led many to despair that any party will actually fulfill its mandate to voters. A recent Ipsos poll revealed that 66% of UK voters lack confidence in our current political leadership—a pessimism that cuts across allegiances and points, ironically, to the one thing most people can agree on.
That’s why at St Ethelburga’s we diagnose polarisation as a core part of the problem, and we offer tools for how to mitigate it. Recently we published our Radical Centre Manifesto, calling for a renewal of our public conversations with one another. The concept of the Radical Centre was inspired by our Peace Tent. By uplifting the hope of a shared ‘centre’ where we can meet despite differences, we’re not proposing a political centre ground, or an agreed set of values or talking points. Rather, we take inspiration from the design of the Tent, to offer instead a mythic space that appeals to something deeper in the imagination. Our tent is a circle, a place that posits the possibility of a shared common ground where even those suffering through deadlocked division can discuss their differences.
I admit I’ve always secretly thought of St Ethelburga’s as akin to Rivendell: the mythic Elvish outpost, half- way between Hobbiton and Mordor, where erstwhile warring tribes of Men, Dwarves and Elves are able to overcome their differences in an act of heroic vision, touched with magic. Our Peace Tent is flamboyantly, unashamedly mythic in style. Myth is a deeper mode of sense-making than politics. One does not replace the other. But I think a touch of the mythic can open the imagination in dark times, and invite hope to those who feel hopeless.
‘Our lives are mythic, but we lack more and more the sacred braille to read it so,’ writes Martin Shaw in his recent Liturgies of the Wild. Myth, sacred story, and landscape are key themes at our upcoming Spiritual Ecology Festival, where Martin will be speaking, alongside other mythologists and storytellers like Sharon Blackie, Sicelo Mbatha, Tommy Tiernan, and more. Please read on to find out more about the festival programme, and our other upcoming events in the Tent!
Join us online for Non-Violent Communication & Conflict Transformation on 20 May, and in person for Listen to the World with charismatic bandura player, singer and multi-award-winning Ukrainian musician Mariia Petrovska on 4 June. Come inside the Peace Tent for our monthly Contemplative Practice on 9 June, followed by Facilitation Training on 22 June, Embodied Peace: The Somatics of Grief on 26 June, and our three-day Holding a Radical Centre depolarisation intensive from 29 June–1 July.
With all warmest wishes,
Clare Martin
And the rest of St Ethelburga’s Team