Husband 🏳️🌈 Quaker🕊 Druid /|\ Theologian ✝️ Woodbrooke Programme Coordinator for Applied Theology & Biblical Studies. "1970s Liberal" in @greenparty.org.uk. Lover of dogs, Utopian Socialism, Dutch beer, old musty books, & slow autumn afternoons.
'Dear Mr. Whitman My sister Bessie & I both thank you very warmly for the present you sent us of your book. Edward Carpenter sent it on to us—we send you our warmest greetings & best wishes for your birthday—we never forget it—& always wish you all good. Your's very sincerely Isabella O. Ford'
Ben WoodIsabella Ford (1855–1924): Quaker, Socialist & advocate for animal welfare. She founded the Leeds branch of the Independent Labour Party, was Chair of Leeds RSPCA, & set up a branch of the Women’s Peace Crusade. She was a friend of Edward Carpenter & corresponded with Walt Whitman. #YorkshireDay 🏵
'...we live in an age of bloc politics; left v right. Few now shift between blocs, but many move parties within their respective bloc. The Manchester mayoral vote saw the progressive bloc consolidate behind Labour...but they backed the Greens in Gorton and Denton earlier'.
The Manchester mayoral result holds the key for the future of progressive politics | Neal LawsonVoters on the left may be fragmented – but they will pull together behind a convincing cross-party message, says Neal Lawson, director of cross-party campaign organisation Compasswww.theguardian.com#YorkshireDay 🏵🧡/|\
Dr Clare Lesley HughesDid you know that the River Wharfe is associated with a Romano-Celtic Goddess called Verbeia? A stone carving thought to represent her depicts her as wearing a long, pleated robe & grasping two large snakes. She represents beauty, danger, life & death just like the river. www.herbalhegemone.co.uk
Tolkien's connection with Yorkshire began in 1916 when he went on a military training course in Otley. I wonder what he made of the Chevin? Did he get an inkling of what would become the Shire? Tolkien would return to this landscape as a young academic at Leeds University in the 20s. #YorkshireDay 🏵
Yorkshire Bylines✍️ Sculptures honour East Yorkshire’s role in shaping Tolkien’s Middle-earth In Roos, Allen Stichler’s oak carvings commemorate Tolkien’s wartime romance and the landscapes that shaped his legendary world By Angus Young @angusyoung61.bsky.social
“I call my situation in Leeds a happy one… I have been at full liberty to speak, write or do what I have judged that the interests of that particular society or for Christianity in general" (Joseph Priestley, 1773, pp.ii-iv). #YorkshireDay 🏵
Ben WoodYorkshire has long been a hub for spiritual & political radicalism. Below is Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel in Leeds. #YorkshireDay 🏵
Yorkshire has long been a hub for spiritual & political radicalism. Below is Mill Hill Unitarian Chapel in Leeds. #YorkshireDay 🏵
Ben Wood'W. H. Channing, who was then acting as Unitarian Minister at Leeds, insisted on giving me letters of introduction to various friends of his on that side...Emerson was very charming and friendly. I stayed one night at his house and dined with him and his wife & his daughter Ellen' (Edward Carpenter)
What Origen is wrestling with in this passage is perhaps the most scandalous aspect of Christianity; that a man who lived his life in obscurity, & who died in ignominy, is in fact the axis around which cosmic history revolves. Two millennia of familiarity has blunted the claim's radicality.
Ben Wood'There was no need that there should everywhere exist many [...] spirits like Jesus [...] For the one Word was enough, having arisen as the "Sun of righteousness" to send forth from Judea His coming rays into the soul of all who were willing to receive Him' (Origen, "Against Celsus, 6:79").
It's a good start. There's a bit more the government could do: ✅️ Speed up land reform: Make it easier for communities to buy & develop land for civic purposes. ✅️ Expand participatory budgeting. ✅️ Provide tools so locals can shape & co-design public services. ✅️ Provide startup finance for co-ops.
Josiah MortimerThis new devolution statement from the government is genuinely radical. Devolution will be the default Grants replaced by a share of local income tax for every mayor from 2028, buses brought under public control faster, every area to have or be establishing a strategic authority by end of 2027...