Bonje Prometheans!
The Vestry is in a state of chaos today. I have two workmen here making long overdue repairs to the ceiling. Hence this post is being written under challenging conditions.
Lord Nelson the 22 year old Church Cat is somewhat discombobulated by the disruption. Although that hasn’t prevented him sitting in the middle of the path to and from the affected areas. Fortunately, Lord Nelson’s formidable reputation precedes him and so the workmen are treating him with all due respect.
Anyway… onto the business of the day.
Firstly, a very warm welcome to our new subscribers! The Vestry has experienced a little uptick in both paid and free subscribers. I’m hugely grateful for this. Thank you for joining us.
Later, I’ve private matters to discuss with paid subscribers, which means Substack will automatically lock the comments on this particular post (to ‘paid only’). But if you’re a free subscriber please don’t let that put you off engaging elsewhere! I give Nelson a Dreamie every time I get a like, restack or comment so he’s keen for you to be generous with your engagement.
If you’d like to get in touch directly you can message me:
Do be aware that I work [ undercover ] as a van driver - Wednesday through to Saturday morning. During those times it is especially hard for me to discharge my priestly duties in a timely manner. [ Disrupting the very basis of Capitalism requires a certain subterfuge! Hence three and a half days a week I pretend to hold down a regular job to confuse Capital’s bad actors. ]
Secondly, I would like to share something beautiful with you.
I’d love to refer to you all as members of our Church’s congregation rather than free or paid subscribers but I haven’t quite figured out the correct way to express this yet. But whatever…
Our congregation is blessed with the most extraordinary and brilliant people. Jack joined us a few weeks back and - as often is the case - we exchanged a few emails. What follows is a short documentary on Jack’s project to visit all 238 Lifeboat stations and their crews. Watching it will likely be the best thing you do today.
Jack started - what I’ve dubbed - ‘his pilgrimage’ in 2015, the same year as our first Ritual at The Cube in Bristol. As seems inevitable for anyone undertaking such an extraordinary journey, it has demanded huge sacrifices of him. It is not for me to reveal any of the back story here. Suffice to say that in my eyes Jack has faced stormy seas and is as much a hero as the lifeboat folks themselves.
For those outside the UK - or for those within who are unaware of the RNLI (The Royal National Lifeboat Institution) - it is the most extraordinary institution. It gets no government funding and it is largely staffed by volunteers who risk their lives to rescue those at sea. It exists as a living expression of what David Graeber might call ‘everyday communism’. If someone is in trouble at sea volunteers don’t think ‘what’s in it for me if I risk my life to rescue them’ they just get in their boat and head out to sea. Somehow Jack captures all of this and more in his wet plate photography. It’s magic.
If I could find the words I would explore the idea of liminal spaces - of how the shore line demarks a point between the natural currents and movements of water and the imaginal currentseas and movements of money. I would write about how our Goddess Melusine carried with Her the natural energies of water into the nascent C17th world of finance; about how Her image still adorns the money chest that sits directly under the founding charter of The Bank of England. But the drilling and banging going on here is limiting my already limited literary abilities.
And so the paywall cometh. Please remember all subscribers are bound by the Oath of Confidence! What comes next is definitely not for public consumption. A paid trial is available if you’re able and willing to financially support your Church and would like a sneak peek.
Otherwise please do spread the Word of the Burn - tell folks about The Vestry, Church of Burn and particularly share the video of Jack’s work. Let’s overdose Lord Nelson on Dreamies!
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