Sex, Power, Control:

Responding to Abuse in the Institutional Church

By Fiona Gardner

A powerful and revealing account of how the Church of England failed to come to terms with the child abuse scandal within its own ranks.

Published 2021 by The Lutterworth press

See review: http://survivingchurch.org/2021/04/08/linda-woodhead-reviews-sex-power-control-responding-to-abuse-in-the-institutional-church/

 January 2021

Taking Heart
Experiences of spiritual searching, self-acceptance and journeying to the heart of faith

The meaning and mystery of life is ultimately found in personal relationship, sometimes with another and, for those who search, sometimes with God. In Taking Heart the experiences of four people who are spiritually searching and looking for a direct experience of God are explored, and their different journeys through self-doubt to self-acceptance and to the heart of faith are discussed. These four people are neither especially religious nor spiritual, and nor are they famous. They are ordinary people on an extraordinary search for meaning. As with all journeys there is discovery but also an uncovering and a recovering. All heart journeys are an exodus that takes us out of captivity and are also the passion story which is at the heart of the mystery of faith, a journey through the very worst and towards the very best. And, throughout the spiritual journey, God is shaping and forming our inner life in the unknown depths of our heart.

christian-alternative.com
Paperback | ISBN: 978-1-78904-543-7 | $14.95  |  £8.99 | 8.5×5.5 inches | 216×140 mm | 152PP e-book | ISBN: 978-1-78904-544-4 | $7.99  |  £4.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Taking-Heart-Experiences-self-acceptance-journeying/

 

Life as a spiritual journey 

Welcome to my website and to this relatively simple way of keeping in touch with one another and of making new contacts.

I’ve set this up as a space to explore some ideas mostly linked to contemplation and psychotherapy. The connections between spirituality and psychotherapy have been an ongoing interest for most of my adult life, sometimes one or the other taking precedence, but mostly it’s been about the interaction and connections between the two. Whilst of course there are contextual differences both contemplation and certainly analytical psychotherapy particularly the Jungian approach aim to gradually dismantle the false self parts of ourselves that obscure what the analytical psychologist Carl Jung, the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and the Trappist monk Thomas Merton all called the true self – admittedly with a slight variation of meaning…

I hope that some of you reading this page might also want to exchange thoughts on these subjects and I plan to post reflections on them regularly.

I  have retired as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and now see a few people for spiritual direction. I am an author and on the publications page you can find details of  the books I have published. I have a book out in January 2021 (see above) called Taking Heart, and another called Sex, Power, Control: Responding to Abuse in the Institutional Church is to be published on 25th February 2021.

I’ve meditated for many years following different spiritual practices and for the last eightteen years have been inspired by the writings of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton on contemplation. I now identify as a Christian taking communion regularly, but also follow Buddhist especially Zen practices too.

Currently finding daily yoga practices with Schuyler Grant through the Commune website invaluable and the exciting yoga practices set up by Eoin Finn and his blissology/ecokarma websites.