EXHORTATION – TOWARDS A TRUE BALANCE

“This is not a poem, it is a tract which I published in 1987.   I was recently asked to read it at a wedding and it occurred to me that it was rather like a pep talk to soldiers on the eve of battle.   It resulted from trying to teach theology to teenagers in the middle part of my life.   I used to ask some of them to rewrite Biblical and Prayer Book passages without using any religious terms.   Then, when I left teaching, I put some of their ideas together, called it Exhortation and printed it on cards, labels and posters.

“It has now been on sale for about thirty years and, judging by the letters I have received from customers, I guess there is an extensive network of people out there who share the same views about these ways of life and they want to pass it around.   I alone have their addresses so the network is anonymous and unorganised.   I suppose you could say that Exhortation works like a sort of yeast in the world.   This possibility is most exciting, for they are not my words but come – via observant youths – from a great reservoir of wisdom many centuries deep.”

Exhortation is available as a pack of greetings cards and A4 poster
in the shop