Welcome back

The Abbey creaks back into action

Time to get writing again

Greetings, people of Earth. I feel slightly like a visiting alien after two months without writing or email. It’s been excellent. But now autumn is here. The morning mists arrived right on time on the first day of September, and the fruit is hanging heavy on the trees. Spider webs, heavy with dew, festoon the gorse along the edges of the bog. Pots of damson jam are cooling on the kitchen worktop. It’s time to get back into the scriptorium.

Later this week, I’ll be starting the new phase of my work here. If you visit the site, you will spot our spring clean, complete with bespoke images like that above. More about them, and their creator, soon. In the meantime, here are a few bits of news.

Firstly, some events coming up. Next month, I’ll be on a rare visit to the US of A, where I’ll be speaking about the Machine at the Front Porch Republic conference in Madison, Wisconsin, which runs from 20th to 21st of October. The event was sold out, but has been moved to a bigger venue, so more tickets are available here. If you’d like one, grab it soon because they are likely to go fast.

(Incidentally, if anyone from the city can tell me if there is an Orthodox church in Madison where I might be able to attend Sunday liturgy while I’m there, I’d like to hear about it.)

Back in Europe, I’ll be speaking in London in November with my old friend and fellow Orthodox beardie Martin Shaw. This will be an evening of stories and saints, as we continue to dig into the rich, leafy aspects of our Christian heritage that often go unexplored. Here’s a funky poster, in which I look ten years younger than I actually am:

Tickets are available, and affordable, here.

In the meantime, the talk I gave at this summer’s Percy French Festival, and at my event in Dublin with Martin and Jonathan Pageau, has appeared online, with good audio and my complete accompanying slideshow. It’s about the age of the Machine, and how the way of the wild saints offers an alternative. You can watch it here:

Finally, and still on the wild saints theme, I was interviewed last year for a film about Paul of Thebes, the original desert father, and more broadly about the wilderness tradition in Christianity. That film has just appeared, and I have a cameo appearance, as do a few other interesting folk, such as Graham Pardun. You can watch it below.

Both of these videos, and plenty more, can also be found on my Youtube channel.

Autumn blessings to you all. More from me soon.

Paul