James awarded the Dunstan Award for Prayer and the Religious Life, 2020

For his distinctive contribution in exploring over 65 years the relationship between art and life, the creative and the spiritual.

James Roose-Evans has made a special contribution to the theatre and the arts, considered as a vehicle for the Spirit. His own autobiographical or semi-autobiographical works (Inner Journey, Outer Journey, Opening Doors and Windows, and Blue Remembered Hills) show something of his spiritual journey – the background to his ordination in mid-life and his work to establish the very remarkable Bleddfa Centre for Spirituality and the Arts in Radnorshire in 1974, making use both of a redundant church and its neighbouring outbuildings and of his experience in spiritual practice.  His interest in theatre and ritual has also led to important publications.  His writing is vivid and fresh, and he combines an unfussed candour about his own experience (including his sexuality as a gay man who spent many years in a committed relationship) with a hospitable and literate curiosity about the classical sources of Christian spirituality and a clear, practical approach to how they are to be inhabited today.  The Bleddfa venture grew out of many years of living part of the year in that remote area of Mid-Wales and ministering there in rural parishes when needed. There is an impressively ‘rooted’ quality to what he writes, and some of his books could stand alongside Kilvert’s diaries as a witness to local life in the area.  The combination of his formidable reputation in the professional theatre (where he is a very highly regarded director indeed) with his record as a teacher and communicator of spiritual tradition is unusual if not unique


Did you know, you can watch videos of James all in one place? Visit the videos page.

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15 thoughts on “James awarded the Dunstan Award for Prayer and the Religious Life, 2020”

  1. That is so wonderful James. I value our long friendship and the wisdom and kindness you share so freely.

  2. This is wonderful news James! I cannot imagine anyone more deserving. You give and share with us all in so many ways. Thank you always. xx

  3. Oh how wonderful, James! Many congratulations on this acknowledgement of the inner riches you have been sharing with the world over countless years, and to our eternal benefit.
    Love & gratitude, Griselda xx

  4. It lifts the spirit to know the Dustan award has come your way James. Congratulations. It is so good to know, hope giving, even, that all you have shared and continue to share is recognised in this way by those who are responsible for giving the award.
    With love and thanksgiving
    Diana

  5. Dear James
    Delighted, and congratulations. Your books and presence have made a difference to my life. Thank you.
    Anna Ferris

  6. Dear James,
    Remember me from Kington and Bleddfa? I’m now in Winchester. Geoffrey (90) and I loved OLDER and I want to WRITE to you about it and other things. Catherine is married and lives in Stockholm, still working for Triratna, the largest Buddhist organisation in the West. Her father William is 90 and belongs to the Garrick. He lives in Hampstead. Lots of things to talk to you about – lots of memories of Bleddfa etc. I don’t have your address – I want to write a LETTER, one of those things wrapped in paper with a little coloured square stuck in the upper right-hand corner, remember?
    Melisa xx

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