James’s funeral took place a month today, on his 95th birthday, 11 November 2022. It was a perfect occasion.
We have added a section to his website in which you will find:
We will continue to send you James’s fortnightly blogs and continue to update the website.
Warmest Yuletide Greetings!
Today would have been James’s 95th birthday. He died quickly and peacefully at home just a fortnight ago, on a warm Autumn evening, 26 October, comfortable, cared for, and surrounded by love.
Continue reading 11 November 2022Together is a small book of some of the talks given by members of a meditation group of which James is a member. With these talks, the hope is that it will encourage others to form similar groups in their homes. James edited the book and wrote the introduction.
The idea of your group is splendid. Inspirational. Your sending me this book ties in for me with just the same sense of need I recognise locally and within myself – the quenching of loneliness with a sense of belonging. There are so many now heading puzzled towards the edge of institutional worship from different denominations and indeed other belief systems, needing a sense of belonging, of welcome. Within the small group with whom I share fortnightly centering prayer, and beyond it too, there are some who I think would be truly inspired to read this small book and might be encouraged to think about its value. Who knows where it might lead.
Photo by Muhammed Fayiz on Unsplash
A collection of artwork and reflections for each week of the year pairs beautifully painted quotes.
Available online: https://www.rpbooks.co.uk/behold-the-word-52-visual-meditations
Also from James…
Available online: https://www.rpbooks.co.uk/inner-journey-outer-journey
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.
