Welcome to the News and Reflections area of the GreenSpirit website.

Event – New Scientist Live Weekend – Review
The New Scientist magazine ran their annual weekend of talks and stalls at ExCel London – a large exhibition space – in October 2024. With amazing lectures about science, stalls by green group and more, this event was both inspiring and practical.…more

App – All Trails – Review
Do you go rambling, forest bathing or hiking? Well, here is a game changer to help you. In the same way that sat navs have transformed car travel, I am sure that this app (and similar ones) will transform hiking in the same way…more

Festival – Buddhafield – Review
I’ve been to Buddhafield five times, and each time I’ve enjoyed it. If you are not a Buddhist (I’m not), don’t be put off by the title. The festival is more of a Buddhist/Pagan infusion, and it has a lot in common with green spirituality…more

Book (fiction) – Any Human Power – Review
Alanna Penhaligan made a promise to her grandson Finn on her deathbed, that she would come back to him and play wargames on the internet with him. In doing so, she bound herself to the ‘Between’ in the afterlife…more

A Visit to Kew Gardens – Review
Ten minutes’ walk from London’s Kew Gardens Station are the botanical gardens themselves. Founded in the late 19th century, Kew is London’s largest UNESCO World Heritage Site, which holds the world’s largest collection of living plants and consists of various well-known glasshouses that are surrounded by expansive green areas where such things as a Bamboo Garden and large Rock Garden can be found…more

Film – Wilding – Review
This is a wonderful film about the Knepp Estate (https://knepp.co.uk/), which is a farm that has been rewilded – mostly by letting Nature do its thing but also with the introduction of some animals such as pigs…more

Virtual Reality – Life Chronicles – Review
This is a Virtual Reality experience taking you from the formation of the Earth 4.5 billion years ago through to today. In the experience, after seeing planet Earth formed, the story moves on to early life. Later there are primordial forests, dinosaurs and an early form of humans – a different branch than the one that led to homo sapiens…more

Documentary – Teilhard: Visionary Scientist – Review
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 – 1955) was born in the Auvergne region in France and became a Jesuit Priest. He was deeply committed to his spiritual journey and, throughout his life, he did not waver from his vision of a loving divine presence embedded in the world. However, his scientific work, particularly in palaeontology where he became an advocate for evolution, put him at odds with the dogma of the Catholic Church…more

Art Exhibition – Artists and Disability – Review
GreenSpirit member Lesley Illingworth gave a speech in the House of Commons building to support her art exhibition: Artists and Disability – Oppression: Up Close and Intensive…more

Book – Anthology of Poems for GreenSpirits complied by Joan Angus – Review
The Anthology of Poems for GreenSpirits is the eleventh title in the low-cost GreenSpirit Book Series, compiled by GreenSpirit’s very own Joan Angus, which comes across as a 188-page labour of love, consisting of nine essential sections covering topics such as Seasons, Lifestyles, Relationships, Meeting Nature’s Communities, and Healing…more

Music – Mass for the Endangered by Sarah Kirkland Snider – Review
Available for streaming, as an MP3 download, and CD, Snider’s Mass for the Endangered is described in the sleave notes as “a hymn for the voiceless, a requiem for the not-yet-gone.” It was first performed in 2018 at St Paul’s Chapel in New York.…more

Music – Luminosity: Exploring the Wonder of the Universe and Our Place in it – Review
There was a standing ovation for Gary Albert’s performance of Luminosity, his musical composition. Gary is inspired by the writings of Brian Swimme – someone who has also inspired many in GreenSpirit…more

Play – The Life of Pi – Review
This play is an adaptation of the wonderful novel Life of Pi by Yann Martel. This stage production is amazing, with stunning visual effects and life-sized puppets of animals such as a tiger, orangutan, hyena and zebra. These are animated by puppeteers, and it’s done so well that I was captivated by their life-like portrayal…more

The Quiet Garden Trust by Chris Holmes
The Quiet Garden movement has been in existence for over thirty years, making it more or less contemporaneous with GreenSpirit. The movement arose from the vision of an Anglican priest, Philip Roderick, who saw a need for making the retreat experience available as part of everyday life. Retreat houses are great, but are beyond the means of many and require a time commitment which is not always possible…more

Gathering, Flowing and Separating by Judith Bromley Nicholls
A weekend with other GreenSpiriters has reminded me that community can be supportive and loving and embracing. That we do not all have to think alike and agree, but that we can encourage one another in our individual uniqueness… We value the Earth and believe all things in the natural world are sacred… We recognised each other as a family, a tribe to belong to, before we scattered back home in all directions…more

Documentary – Earth Series by Chris Packham – Review
This is a series of 5 programmes about the 4.5 billion year story of life on Earth, through its many upheavals and blossomings and how we humans came to be on our planet…more

Cosmic Mass at the International Parliament of the World’s Religions by Mary Plaster
It was my recent pleasure to join the Cosmic Mass (TCM) team with my friend, postmodern theologian, and author, Matthew Fox, at the international Parliament of the World’s Religions (PoWR) in Chicago, Illinois, USA, August 14-18 2023. As a spiritually-based visual artist, I have provided giant props (mostly larger-than-life puppets) for 17 TCMs since 2005, beginning when I was a D. Min. student at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California…more

Festival – Vegan Camp Out – Review
This festival was held at Bicester, Oxfordshire 28th – 31st July 2023. I am currently pescatarian and vegan curious and I’ve been cooking more vegan meals lately so I thought it would be a good idea to check out this festival to find out more about veganism and I was so pleased that I did.…more

Eco-Centred Wisdom: Embracing Green Spirituality Across Religions and Cultures
AI generated article
In the face of mounting environmental challenges, a growing movement of green spirituality is emerging, drawing on the wisdom of various religions and indigenous cultures. While traditional environmental stewardship has its merits, there is a compelling argument for shifting towards an eco-centred wisdom approach that recognises the interconnectedness and intrinsic value of all life on Earth…more

Art Installation – The Waters are Coming by Phil Barton
Have you ever looked out to sea and been mesmerised by the waves rolling in? I have on many occasions. For me, I feel a visceral connection with the Earth when I see water rising and falling. And this is why I found this installation so compelling. It’s about rising sea levels and our need to address human induced climate change…more

Film – A Trip to Infinity – Review
The concept of ‘infinity’ is amazing. Did you know that it can be shown, mathematically, that there are different kinds of infinity, some bigger than others? I find that incredible. This documentary takes you through the ideas of infinity, where it started, different kinds of infinity and the puzzles that are thrown up by the concept.…more

Some thoughts on ‘Deep Time’ and Green Spirituality by Chris Holmes
The wonderful GreenSpirit Walking Break in late Spring of 2022 provided a happy coincidence for me. Our location at Monckton Wyld was very close to Dorset’s fascinating ‘Jurassic’ coast, and came just as I was reading the final chapter of ‘Otherlands’. In this superb book, the palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist Thomas Halliday takes the reader back to specific times and places over the past 550 million years of Earth’s history (the period of complex multi-cellular life and just one eighth of the total 4.6 billion). The Dorset coast, ‘Otherlands’ and walking in Nature with fellow GreenSpirits (plus mainly sunny weather) made me feel very open to all that ‘Deep Time’ offered, open to the astonishing journey that the Earth has been on. There is a real joy in knowing one is part of something so magnificent – but in what way is it ‘spiritual’? The following paragraphs will, hopefully, help to explain…more

Book – ‘Folk Tales from the Garden’ by Donald Smith – Review
What lies at the heart of Green Spiritual practice is the ever turning wheel of the seasons, the constantly changing lunar cycle as the moon waxes and wanes, the cycle of the year as Spring grows to Summer. Donald Smith has produced a lovely little book which celebrates just that in the form of stories and of his own garden. Enchanting tales punctuate his telling of his own year journey, from snowdrops to ivy.…more

Music Album – Fossora by Björk – Review
I  have been a fan of Björk’s incredible singing abilities and creative compositions for some years, especially since her crossover album Vespertine, which signalled a change in direction from predominantly Techno music to establishing a newer style of compositions and sounds. On the album before Vespertine, Homogenic, Björk began to experiment with more than just electronic wizardry and drums and included much more of an array of instruments in her compositions. And since Vesperine, she has included traditional choirs in her songs and music, which have become almost impossible to categorise, except perhaps Björkian…more

A Meditation on the Cross – A Celtic Interpretation by Andrew Rivett
…For the Cross has many meanings, some of which long predate Christianity. And, especially when you combine it with a circle in the Celtic Cross, its symbolism is rich indeed… The cross is angular, finite – though its arms may stretch to infinity – and very much male: a yang symbol. In contrast, the circle has no beginning, no end. It is smooth, enfolding. It is feminine, a yin symbol. So in the one Cross there are both male and female – a true synthesis of God and Goddess.…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #9 – ‘A Life of Two Halves’ by Mary Jo Radcliffe
I was born in London 10 days after war was declared into a very ancient traditional Catholic family. After 2 months my elder brother and I were sent with a very strict nanny, to a deaf Grandfather in Yorkshire. Obedience and fear were born. In January 1942 we came back to Stanmore to find another brother had arrived. Here bombs, air raids and gas masks accompanied by Catholic prayers were the pattern of a fear filled life though nothing was spoken of…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #8 – ‘My Green Spiritual Journey’ by Jenny Joyce
To me, green spirituality means having a sense of the sacred in the ordinary, everyday and miraculous world we live in….
…But then, in my mid-thirties, I had what I could only describe as a spiritual crisis, prompted by an acupuncturist asking me if I felt there was a part of me as yet unknown. I felt deeply threatened by this question, but I couldn’t let it go. I started to have powerful numinous dreams, and to experience synchronicities which I couldn’t explain with my rational mind…more

Music – Blue Pearl – Review
Blue Pearl is a ground-breaking new oratorio for choir, four solo singers and orchestra. It conveys a contemporary view of spirituality which transcends individual religious traditions, embracing humanity, and the earth, as a whole. ‘Blue Pearl’ is the earth, as seen from space: a unity; our precious home.…more

A Cosmic Walk Down Under by Catherine Hutchison
Catherine Hutchison writes about a workshop she attended on the Universe Story (the story as revealed by Science from the Big Bang to the present day) in Australia and why understanding the Universe Story is so important for our human evolution…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #7 – ‘My Journey into GreenSpirit’ by Janice Every
…A new role in a large complementary health and education centre in Letchworth opened my understanding further. I learned about energy medicine, experienced every type of therapy from homeopathy to hypnotherapy, medical herbalism to Ayurvedic medicine – and did training in some modalities myself. It was an amazing time of learning through experience. During this mind and spirit-expanding time, I was growing away from my evangelical church. I still loved the community it gave me, but my growing understanding wasn’t fitting comfortably with the theology of my church…more

Film – Becoming Cousteau – Review
This film is about the life of this incredible man, his personal journey and how it profoundly changed him. Early in his life, he had a bad car accident which propelled him towards swimming and diving to help relieve pressure on some of his bones. And this led to a life long passion for the sea and all of its ecosystems…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #6 – ‘Finding the Spirit’ by Joan Angus
From an early age I have felt more comfortable out of doors than in buildings. I was raised in a Christian family; my father was an Anglican Minister, and I was educated in an Anglican Convent boarding school. I accepted all I was taught without question, and did not really connect religion with Nature. But I was spiritually drawn to the natural world. Biology was my favourite subject, and I loved messing about in ponds in the holidays, bringing tadpoles and caterpillars home to watch as they developed into beautiful creatures.…more

“The Search for the Elves’ Cure” – a storybook for young GreenSpirits
Paths that change direction as you walk, mysterious green mists, friendly and not so friendly nature spirits, magical inscriptions, brambles that smother your path, eyes that follow you everywhere you go. Protected only by special herbs, Jack and his sister Ruby face all of these and other dangers in their quest to find the Elves’ Cure. But are they prepared for the greatest evil of them all, the shape-shifter?…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #5 – ‘A Gradual Awakening’ by Sky McCain
After I had been wandering for nearly 25 years in the wilderness without a personal spirituality, Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics piqued my interest in the relationship between science and spirituality. Subsequently, I attended a week’s seminar with Fritjof at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. This experience was the beginning of a gradual awakening and led me to a whole new world of thought and experience through the doorway of his next book, The Turning Point. I can still feel shockwaves of the “Aha!” as I turned a page and first read about the Gaia Hypothesis. Yes, yes; a living planet became the hub of so many connecting spokes. Of course, this explained why I had always felt so fascinated when standing near and looking at massive stone formations and clouds, listening to bird song, talking to trees and especially my childhood farm experience.…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #4 – A Gradual Unfoldment, and Twisting and Turning Path by Santoshan (Stephen Wollaston)
From an early age I pencil-sketched reams of pictures whenever I could, quite naturally discovered ‘art as meditation’, cherished quiet moments in my parents’ East End council house garden, ran energetically around with friends and my family’s dog in local grassland parks and nearby exquisite densely wooded regions of Epping Forest, and enjoyed family outings to the sea or countryside. I would lose myself for hours drawing, being in amazing and magical green spaces, creating, playing music when I took up bass guitar at 13, or simply staring wondrously at the shapes of mesmerising morphing clouds and the gyrating activity of bees hopping from flower to flower while they made intriguing buzzsaw-like sounds…more

Film – Minamata – Review
Starring Johnny Depp and Bill Nighy, Minamata is essentially two bittersweet true stories that become intertwined. Depp plays Life magazine’s photojournalist William Eugene Smith in his twilight years in 1971, who has become a risk for the magazine as he didn’t complete his previous assignment and drinks heavily. He is reluctantly persuaded by two people from Minamata to take on what was to become his last photo assignment in Japan to document a largely fishing community fighting for justice against a chemical manufacturer polluting local seawater…more

Latest News on Rewilding in the UK: Four out of five Britons support it!
An opinion poll commissioned by the charity Rewilding Britain shows that 81% of Britons support rewilding, with 40% strongly supportive and just 5% of people opposed.

Rewilding Britain defines rewilding as the large-scale restoration of Nature to the point it can take care of itself – restoring habitats and natural processes, and where appropriate reintroducing missing species.

Leading pollsters YouGov asked 1,674 Britons: ‘To what extent do you support or oppose rewilding in Britain?’ The poll, conducted last October, also found that 83% of the public support Britain’s national parks being made wilder, with areas set aside for rewilding. This huge level of support is significant as the UK Government has just announced a 12-week public consultation on how to ensure these national landscapes can do more for nature, climate and people…more

Film – Don’t Look Up – Review
This film is about a large asteroid heading for the Earth which would devastate much of life on the planet. The story is about a small group of scientists and helpers trying to alert the world about this impending catastrophe. They find so many obstacles in their way and are exasperated to find that a simple, clear, scientific truth gets distorted, manipulated or dismissed by vested interests…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #3 – ‘The Long Road Home’ by Marian Van Eyk McCain
As a young child, I lived in the city. And in WW2 my city, Plymouth, was one of the most heavily-bombed in the UK. So my early experiences were almost totally shaped by war – as I chronicled for the BBC WW2 History Archive. But the one thing that for me was not affected by the war in any way was my fascination with the natural world. I used to spend hours in our little garden, watching the birds and the beetles. I scooped up frog spawn from a pond in the park and put it in an enamel dish that I made into a mini-pond with stones and moss so that I could watch the eggs hatch into tadpoles and slowly become frogs. Most of all, I loved those very occasional times when my mother took me walking on Dartmoor or my great-aunt took me blackberrying along the Devon hedges…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #2 ‘My Healing Journey’ by Ian Mowll
I was brought up in the Evangelical Christian tradition. Whilst I felt the loving energy of a divine essence, most of the rest of the religion felt like a lot of rules and constraints. And so, during my adolescence, I questioned and challenged. I really wanted to find answers but to some, I was too much, and one person described me (in a prayer meeting) as “an attack from the devil” – which got a loud round of “amens” from others. And so, I left the safe shores of my upbringing and began a long quest for a spiritual home…more

Music – Luminosity – Review
The performance of this piece of music in October 2021 in London was inspired by the book The Universe is a Green Dragon by Brian Swimme. Therefore, it’s all about the amazing unfolding of the universe from the big bang to the present day…more

My Green Spiritual Journey #1 ‘Caring for All Creatures’ by Margie Schneider
I grew up in a steel town in Ohio, where industry rather than Nature played a huge role. I also existed in a very strict Byzantine Catholic environment, where I was sent to a Catholic girls’ school which was equally strict, and upon graduation I got married young, and worked as a secretary, and then later became a nurse. It seemed that even during my young adult years I was oblivious of the importance Nature should play in my life. As a result, the jobs I took and the religions I followed seemed to lack something for me, but I still did not realize what that might be…more

Any views expressed in this section are personal and are not written on behalf of everyone involved in GreenSpirit.