Latest Posts
And there was light – Hannah Stone’s weekly reflection
At this dark time of year, half way through the second lockdown, we need some ‘light at the end of the tunnel;’ what a ‘light’ the news of a vaccine is! Coincidentally, many world religions celebrate festivals of light round now. For Hindus, the celebrations of Diwali...
The tension between organising and faith
Leeds Citizens and Leeds Church Institute work together to employ a local Community Organiser, Becky Howcroft. In her latest theological reflection, Becky considers how tension is something that we have to learn how to use in an effective way, something that we need...
Hearts at Peace: Poet Theologian Hannah Stone’s weekly reflection
At this time of year we call to mind the departed, especially those who died in warfare, and normally we’d see people out and about wearing poppies, both the red ones associated with the poignant flowering on Flanders fields, and also white ones encouraged by Quakers...
I was in prison
Hannah Stone, our Poet Theologian in Virtual Residence, considers how, as we enter another national lockdown, prisons can be metaphorical and shares a poem that reflects on the experience of a friend emerging from a long period of depression. I write on the day...
“And there was no more sea” Hannah Stone’s weekly reflection
Thinking again about refugees, I’m very struck by the portrayal of the Mediterranean sea on the cover of the booklet, Refugee Realities in Church Art (it’s from the St Nicholas window in Christ Church, Upper Armley).The sun is glinting on it, and the waves look like...
A Matter of Life and Death
In this podcast Dr Lynn Bassett explores the ways our approach to death, dying and bereavement has changed in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This recording was made as part of a series of online events in Autumn 2020 to help us see dying as...
The Lord commanded the storm
This week our Poet Theologian in Virtual Residence, Hannah Stone, considers how the imagery of storms can convey many difficult emotions and upheavals and, with Leeds Church Institute's recent exhibition 'Asylum in Art' in mind, shares a moving poem by Carolyn...
They had no reason to keep me
Hannah Stone writes "In the last couple of weeks, LCI has provided some marvellous opportunities to engage with creative responses to the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers, first through a zoom launch of the Refugee Realities in Church Art pamphlet (an...
Ethical and legal
This week Hannah Stone, our Poet Theologian in Virtual Residence, turns her attention to Ninian Smart’s ‘dimensions’ of religion – ethical and legal, and asks us to watch out for the opportunities to "act on the spirit of the law, and cherish it, being warmed by acts...
Narrative and mythic
In the context of Leeds being in 'local lockdown' our Poet Theologian, Hannah Stone, considers how we can be nourished by the narratives of whatever faith we hold to, knowing that in reading and thinking about them we are sharing in a wider community and shares her...