An Update

Generally I just write articles but this is what I'm up to right now

Gentlefolk,

Firstly, thank you again for following me. It’s delightful.

I’ve been reading up on Fatema Mernissi, a Moroccan sociologist, who spent decades researching and writing about the rules placed on women — primarily Muslim women but expanding to the Western female.

Dynamically, she wrote of how Western women are just a veiled as an orthodox Muslim, by the requirement for youth and beauty. She points out that once a woman no longer has these, she is hardly recognised by society.

Fatema recorded that how a woman dresses, where she walks, when she speaks and who she answers to affects every space where she owns her freedom. and she noticed that whenever a woman moved through public space without permission, it disturbed the energy of that place. The reaction was often anxious, almost panicked by people of both sexes.

A woman who walks freely, speaks freely, and exists freely disrupts a system built on her containment. Her independence reveals how much of the social order was always resting on her silence.

As an independent Catholic priest and a woman, I’ve been free to observe this too. The fact that I don’t ‘belong’ to any system frightens people to the extent that they may say such bonkers things as ‘I don’t believe in women priests’ when I am literally standing in front of them! There is a residual fear that I cannot be controlled and I may say or do something that disturbs the calm of the natural order.

Fatema asked us look again at the rules we have inherited and notice whose comfort those rules protect. It’s not God. It’s not morality. It’s not even safety. It is just an old societal arrangement afraid of being seen for what it is.

Freedom is not loud. It is not cruel. It simply refuses to shrink. It refuses to ask permission of society.

So, it’s time to stand up and be willing to disturb the space of habit. I’ve started making regular videos on reclaiming the mystical heart of Christianity. They are posted on my new Instagram and also become reels on Facebook. If you’d like to follow me on either, I’d be honoured.

A couple of weeks back, I spoke at the Tree of Life Festival in Birmingham and it’s great to be back on the circuit again. I am available for spiritual talks and for comedy and for my favourite, a meld of the two called Noghts of Mirth and Mystery. This year’s talks are focused on The Dark Mother, the origins of creation and on mystical Judaism and Christianity. Comedy extracts the Archangel Michael out of over-serious religion.

I was really touched to receive this testamonial from Marketa and Joginder at The Tree of Life Festival in Birmingham. Very happy to travel to speak :-)

I’m in the middle of my latest book, entitled What If…? Re-imagining Christianity for a Post-MAGA Age and I have an agent which is the first time for a while and really lovely.

And I will continue writing here. Thank you again for joining me.