shotleyfieldsforever

  There are many synonyms:  friendliness, geniality, affability, amiability, congeniality, good humour, cordiality, warmth, warm-heartedness, good nature, sociability, gregariousness, clubbability, companionability, cheerfulness, cheeriness, good cheer, joviality, jollity, gaiety, liveliness, festivity, bonhomie. And one rather sad antonym: unfriendliness.   In interdiac the definition of conviviality has three elements drawn from an understanding of the social and community aspects of life in the Iberian Peninsula where Moslems were able to live freely and openly with their Jewish and Christian neighbours.   The conviviality of life in 19 th  Century Paris with its free and unconstrained conversation.   The work and writings of Ivan Illich in which he described the transformation of relationships between people and their environment and technology.   In Manchester in the early 1970’s I worked in an inner-city environment which was scheduled ...

  Eco Housing at Snods Edge: an experiment in conviviality.    During a long ministry of fifty years following my Deaconing in 1969, a constant theme in that ministry has been housing.   As a curate I founded a housing project for homeless young people, Nightcap, in Bolton in 1971.   I also created a guerrilla housing movement ‘squatting’ families in empty houses in my parish which were awaiting demolition for an urban motorway   I have served on both the boards of Church Army Housing (later English Churches Housing) and Hanover Housing.   In my work with Toc H housing development and the re-development of the property portfolio were a main preoccupation especially with regard to the Head Office re-location which was achieved through the development of the site into a sixteen unit housing development aimed at the over 55’s.   I am now living in the Vicarage at Snods Edge in Northumberland, in the Diocese of Newcastle.   The house has seven be...

The broad history of Brexit in the UK is a history of incompetence, lies, prejudice and an underlying belief in the exceptionalism of the UK, relating to its role in both WW1 and WW2, an Empire which had been transformed into a Commonwealth and a belief in the continued significance of the ‘Anglosphere’.   There are two reservations to be shared here, one is the question often asked about Europe best expressed by the statesman Tony Benn, ‘who elected you and how can we get rid of you’ this was particularly directed at the European Commission. The second is a particular view expressed in a pamphlet which I reviewed in the early 80’s which demonstrated how the rebalancing of power in Europe following Maastrict ``I believe, would create a strong centre based on the Ruhr with the centrifugal influence of that meaning that the edges of the empire would be poorer.   My own position is very much as a remainer, I voted remain in the belief that the longer-term future relationship of t...