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Climate Justice: Following Jesus in a World of Climate Breakdown (Teaching Videos)
The science is clear. We are living in a warming world due to fossil fuel emissions. The world’s most vulnerable are already suffering...
Jon Swales
Sep 23, 20241 min read


Credo (I Believe)
Morning prayer. The chapel hush before the day begins. Candle flickers, breath misting in the half-light. The words come again— I believe. I stop. How many times have I said them? How many times have I meant them? Some mornings they rise like birds, other mornings they drop like stones. I believe— help my unbelief. Not as one who understands, but as one who clings. Belief now is not a certificate of certainty, but a slow turning of the heart, a leaning toward mercy, a yes tha
Jon Swales
2 hours ago2 min read


East of Eden: Bread of the Manger
Before there was sound, there was Word. Before there was time, there was Love— vast, uncontainable, breathing galaxies into being. And Love became flesh, so that flesh might become love. The Eternal bent low, clothed in the smallness of a child, laid where creatures feed. The One who shaped the stars rests now in a trough of straw. The Source of all sustenance becomes the food of the world. The Unbounded becomes breakable, so the frail may taste divine life. In Bethlehem— the
Jon Swales
3 days ago1 min read


Numbered, Named, Found
Prison number A34719. That’s who he is on paper. A number. A file. A ticked-off risk. "Repeat offender." "Unlikely to engage." He’s out now, if you can call it that. No fixed abode. He kips in the underpass, names of the dead sprayed on the walls. Sometimes he wonders if his will be next. He begs for a sandwich, but what he really wants is a tenner to shut out the noise: those voices that snake through his skull: You’re nothing. No one’s coming. He goes to the feeds, not just
Jon Swales
3 days ago2 min read


When Hearing Becomes Doing: The Wisdom of Obedience in Luke’s Gospel
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus invites us not just to hear his words but to embody them. Not to admire his teaching from a safe distance, but to let it take root—deep and disruptive— until it changes how we live, love, and lose ourselves for the sake of the kingdom. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46) Two builders.Two houses.Two foundations. One listens and acts, building on rock.The other listens and does nothing, building on sand.And when the s
Jon Swales
Oct 203 min read


East of Eden: The Train to Release
“You brought me out into a spacious place.” – Psalm 18:19 He boards the early train at Minsterleigh. Black coat buttoned, collar set. A Canon on study leave – though others know what that means. The carriage smells of coffee and rain. Across the aisle: a student scrolling, a man tapping at a laptop. He takes the window seat, bag at his feet, carrying the kind of tiredness that lives behind the ribs. He serves at the Cathedral – a place of beauty, liturgy, and gentle control.
Jon Swales
Oct 153 min read


East of Eden: Not a Wedding
Jo and Nina had been coming to Lighthouse for years. A couple, kind to each other, kind to others, and if you watched closely, you’d see they looked out for the ones nobody else noticed. They were in their early fifties, short hair, hoodies, tired eyes and warm smiles. They sat near the back, hands wrapped around mugs, listening more than talking. They were drinkers, gentle with it when at church, but chaos was never far behind. Nina ignored the letters. “What hospital appoin
Jon Swales
Oct 154 min read


Quiet Revival: Fruits
They say there is a quiet revival. Praise God for it. Students and seekers return. The disenchanted bow the knee. Secularism loses its...
Jon Swales
Oct 12 min read


East of Eden: Gateshead
The Angel of the North rusted, enormous, stands watch over broken estates. Not protection. A witness. Rev Pam walks the cut towards the youth worker’s flat. Grey drizzle. Bin bags spilling. Shouting from upstairs windows. Trained at St Hild near Leeds, cut her teeth in a suburban curacy, but felt the call North, to where the Angel spreads its arms. She passes Kenny, voice like gravel, eyes red from Stella. “Church lot divvent knaa, pet,” he mutters, “kids roond here haven’t a
Jon Swales
Sep 224 min read


East of Eden: Priests
The church was full. Old hymns sung with cracked voices. A life remembered. The old priest laid to rest. Afterwards, six deacons, six...
Jon Swales
Sep 166 min read


East of Eden: Deacons
The First Word — Heralds Two days before ordination, six wait in cassocks that itch against the skin. They gather in the retreat house...
Jon Swales
Sep 1610 min read


East of Eden: The God Who Leapt Off the Page
He was trained in philosophy and systematics, raised on Reformed dogma: the Perfect Being, the God who always gets his way, a...
Jon Swales
Sep 153 min read


East of Eden: Britannia
Redminster bears its wounds— mills rusting, shops boarded, estates sagging under years of neglect. At the bypass sits the Britannia...
Jon Swales
Sep 142 min read


East of Eden: Unite the Kingdon
Thomas, parish priest, opens the Bishop’s statement on his screen: “We are deeply concerned to hear of the planned ‘Unite the Kingdom’...
Jon Swales
Sep 143 min read


East of Eden: Questions
Morning Prayer ended. The last “Amen” drifted through the nave. Candles flickered low, the air cool with stone. Charlotte closed the...
Jon Swales
Sep 113 min read


You gave a full stop
You gave a full stop. But it could have been a comma. A pause, a breath, a turn of the page. Another line waiting. Another dawn not yet...
Jon Swales
Sep 111 min read


East of Eden: Burnley
The priest from Burnley remembers weekends away, instant coffee, cheap pastries, voices saying the Bible was flawless. Later, at college,...
Jon Swales
Sep 52 min read


East of Eden: The Kingdom
He left the cottage quietly, wife having a mid morning snooze, the newspaper folded neat. Two weeks by the sea, far from vestry quarrels...
Jon Swales
Sep 53 min read


East of Eden: Not a Museum
I. Prayer The nave is empty. Candles gone cold. Stone heavy with silence. He kneels, old knees aching. Hands grip the rail. His whisper...
Jon Swales
Aug 263 min read


East of Eden: Not a Business
Rain at the window. The fire spitting ash. Two priests, two pints. On retreat, The air thick with weariness. Steve leans forward, voice...
Jon Swales
Aug 263 min read
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