Resurgence Summer Camp is back...

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Bringing the art of gentle protest to this year’s festival season!

The ideas, ethos and spirit of Resurgence & Ecologist will spring to life again at our annual Resurgence Summer Camp from Friday 30 June to Sunday 2 July, when we return to the beautiful Green and Away tented eco village, near Malvern, in rural Worcestershire. Please note the early booking deadline is 15^th May.

Having taken a break in 2016 to make space for Resurgence’s 50^th anniversary ‘One Earth, One Humanity, One Future’ festival in Oxford, this year’s Summer Camp – billed ‘Resurgence Live’ – is an invitation to “build community and share solutions for a sustainable future”.  

“Continuing our quest to inspire a happier, healthier, more sustainable world, our ‘Resurgence Live’ Summer Camp is a weekend of inspiring talks, workshops, music, storytelling, poetry, craft, and gatherings around the campfire,” says Greg Neale, Editor-in-Chief of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. “It’s a time and place to share rich experiences, recharge, rest and enjoy.  Join us for a live experience of Resurgence & Ecologist in action and share inspiration for living a more meaningful life.”

Headline speakers at the event include Satish Kumar, Editor Emeritus of The Resurgence Trust; Leo Johnson, co-presenter of the BBC Radio 4 series Future Proofing; “free thinker” Matthew Shaw, who advises ethical cosmetics company Lush on activism and social change in the digital age; nature connection facilitator and grassroots activist Kara Moses; and Sarah Corbett, who uses craft as a tool for gentle activism to influence long-term change.  The Craftivists’ approach “If we want the world to be more beautiful, kind and fair, then shouldn't our activism also be more beautiful, kind and fair?” is a theme that runs throughout the weekend programme, with talks and workshops that will be both challenging and uplifting.

Music highlights include Ombiviolum, with their magical mbira-infused Zimbabwean rhythms, and Eleanor Brown, a creative activist and songwriter using words, music and rhythm to connect, express and uplift. Poet Matt Harvey brings his inimitable sprinkle of humorous, lyrical activism, and – by popular demand – Denise Rowe and members of Ombiviolum will also be running an African dance workshop.

The tranquil, riverside Green & Away site, charged primarily by solar power, has a range of “back to nature” accommodation on offer, including the chance to rent bell tents and yurts.  

Tickets for this small, convivial event (including all vegetarian meals) are limited to 140 places, so book early to avoid disappointment.  To take advantage of the Early Bird rate, book by Monday 15 May!

For more info and to book visit www.resurgence.org/summercamp
or email us at the Resurgence office

Satish Kumar turns 80

Satish Kumar, internationally renowned environmental and peace activist, who has been editor of Resurgence for 43 years, turns 80 today, Tuesday 9th August.

Satish - who once famously undertook an 8,000-mile peace pilgrimage from India to America - will mark his 80th birthday and the 50th  anniversary of Resurgence (Resurgence & Ecologist since 2012) with a festival at Worcester College, Oxford calling for a more sustainable future (22nd-25th September). He’ll also be making a 50-mile pilgrimage from the source of the River Thames to Oxford (arriving 21st September), raising the curtain on this landmark event.

Entitled  ‘One Earth, One Humanity, One Future’, the festival - held in partnership with Oxfam, UPLIFT and Network of Wellbeing - will bring together 50 plus international speakers and performers to share ideas and inspiration for building a healthier, more equitable and united world. And echoing a core theme of the festival, Satish’s pilgrimage - to be joined by 50 walkers for the last 30 miles - will make a stand for the environment.

“Throughout the pilgrimage we will appeal for humanity to reflect on how we’re affecting our planet’s four core natural elements of earth, fire, air and water,” Satish elucidates. “Despite all our developments in science and technology in the pursuit of progress, we have critically overlooked the need to protect these elements on which we depend to maintain life. We will pledge to keep these elements uncontaminated and elebrate 50 years of Resurgence magazine. And our anniversary festival will also celebrate the diversity of cultures, colours and faiths, calling for us to transform our divisions into diversity so we can harmoniously share one earth, one humanity and one future.”

Born in India in 1936, Satish Kumar renounced the world when he was nine-years-old, joining the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks. Aged 18, he became a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Gandhi’s vision of a renewed India and a peaceful world into reality. He was 26 when he undertook his legendary peace pilgrimage from India to the USA, delivering ‘peace tea’ to the leaders of the world’s nuclear powers in Moscow, Paris, London and Washington. Traveling to England in 1969, he co-founded The London School of Non Violence, and in 1973 was invited to become editor of Resurgence and bring the values of the Gandhian movement to the West.

Inspired by the ideals of ecological farming, Satish moved Resurgence to rural Wales, ultimately relocating to Devon in 1979, where to this day our magazine is produced from Satish’s home in Hartland. Resurgence has survived, without corporate support, to become the “spiritual and artistic flagship of the green movement”, as the Guardian  described us. Our contributors and supporters have included the Prince of Wales, the Dalai Lama, Paul McCartney, Joanna Lumley, Annie Lennox, broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby and gardener Monty Don.

Turning 50 this year, Resurgence has come of age - having started life as a small fringe journal voicing the radical ideas of Sixties idealists -  from environmental causes, nuclear disarmament and human rights to animal welfare, decentralisation and localism – today these ideas have become widespread global issues.
 
Satish has been the guiding spirit behind a number of other educational ventures, including the pioneering ‘human scale’ Small School in Hartland; Schumacher College, an international centre for ecological and holistic studies (of which he is a Visiting Fellow); and the Bija Vidyapeeth international college for sustainable living in north India. Satish’s autobiography No Destination has sold over 50,000 copies and his many other books include The Buddha and the Terrorist and Soil Soul Society. In 2008, Satish presented his BBC TV Earth Pilgrim documentary, introducing the sights and wildlife of Dartmoor; and this summer, a new documentary series, Being an Earth Pilgrim, chronicles and celebrates his life and work.
 
Following his 80th birthday this week, Satish will step down as Editor-in-Chief of Resurgence & Ecologist and its two websites, yet will continue to work for The Resurgence Trust, the educational charity which publishes the magazine (and its websites), under a new title, Editor Emeritus. He will also continue his role as Manager of the Trust. Greg Neale, Editor of Resurgence & Ecologist for the last two years, will succeed Satish as Editor-in-Chief of The Resurgence Trust’s titles after 9th August.

James Sainsbury, Chairman of The Resurgence Trust, says: “Satish Kumar’s towering achievement in sustaining Resurgence during these last 43 years is already the stuff of legend, and will be widely cherished and recognised for years to come. And it is incredibly heartening that Resurgence has existed in service to the environment and humanity for half a century. It has always punched far above its weight, providing a focus for whole green movement, and being much more than the sum of its parts. The ideas it has long supported and promoted have moved from the extreme fringe to the mainstream.”

BOOK NOW TO SECURE YOUR SEATS AT THE ONE EARTH, ONE HUMANITY ONE FUTURE FESTIVAL!
Event tickets bought individually for each session/event cost £10.00 per booking; speaker sessions cost £10 per person; a £10 discount is available for all bookings of £50 or over. For further information visit the Resurgence website or call 01497 822 629 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri).

More information about Satish Kumar’s R50 pilgrimage to Oxford in September: For details and updates re the pilgrimage and to follow the walk as it happens, visit www.resurgence.org/R50walk; please note that the pilgrimage is fully booked, the 50 walkers have already been recruited; For any queries about the pilgrimage contact Rosalind J.Turner.

More Information about Resurgence: 
Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and its two websites (www.resurgence.org; www.theecologist.org) are published by The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity (no. 1120414) which promotes ecological sustainability, social justice and spiritual values. For details of how to become a member of The Resurgence Trust, and receive six magazines a year, visit our membership page, or contact the Trust: 01208 841824.

Will Gethin is a freelance journalist and Founder of Conscious Frontiers.

Photo credit: Satish was presented with an 80th birthday gift - a 'tree of life' platter made by local potters Frannie and Philip Leach - from the Resurgence team.

One Earth, One Humanity, One Future

Join us to celebrate 50 years of Resurgence at our festival in Oxford where we bring together 50 plus international speakers and performers to galvanise action for a more equitable and sustainable world.

We’re very excited to be celebrating 50 years of Resurgence at our One Earth, One Humanity, One Future festival at Worcester College in Oxford from 22nd-25th September, which will gather leading international environmentalists, social justice and wellbeing activists, politicians, artists, writers and performers, to explore ways to build a more equitable and resilient future.

Likened to a “Hay Festival for the green and social justice movements”, the festival will also bring together leaders from Oxfam, Green Peace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and other pioneering NGOs - as well as Resurgence readers, fans and the public – to share ideas and inspiration for creating a more sustainable future, and to collectively reinforce the Green Renaissance which Resurgence helped to initiate. It’s extremely rare and exciting to have such an eclectic range of global change makers all in one place to share ideas and inspiration for making our planet a more sustainable, healthy and happy place to live in for future generations.

The line up of speakers and performers  gathering to expound the holistic vision for humanity which Resurgence has helped sustain for half a century includes US spirit and science author, Fritjof Capra; Indian activist and campaigner for farmers' rights, soil and seeds, Vandana Shiva; Green MP Caroline Lucas; environmentalist Jonathon Porritt; campaigner and celebrity chef, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; filmmaker Lord Puttnam; former Children’s Laureate, Michael Murpurgo; bestselling US author Dr Bruce Lipton; ‘new economy’ pioneer Helena Norberg-Hodge; land artist Richard Long; mindfulness pioneer Mark Williams; former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams; and US rapper activist Prince Ea – a celebrated voice for the youth generation.  Early booking is advised as events are already selling out.

"The One Earth, One Humanity, One Future festival promises to be an extraordinary occasion,” says Greg Neale, Editor of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine. “It's rare to have so many distinguished figures from the worlds of environment, social justice, spirituality and the arts together over three days in such beautiful surroundings as Worcester College, Oxford.  We are looking forward not only to hearing leading thinkers discuss some of the most pressing topics of our age, but also to celebrating the history of Resurgence, planning the magazine’s future, and sharing ideas and inspiration for building a more resilient world for the next 50 years and beyond.”


Worcester College and its gardens provide a stunning venue and backdrop to this three day feast of dialogue, discussion, talks, stirring performances and celebration. Steeped in centuries of learning, the remarkable college architecture is set amid 26 acres of beautifully landscaped grounds, offering a tranquil haven to discuss and reflect on the ideas and inspiration of the programme.

Other festival highlights include a video message from HRH The Prince of Wales entitled “Quest for Harmony”; US Sacred Economics author Charles Eisenstein’s call for a “Revolution of Love”; leading US environmentalist Bill McKibben’s plea to end our reliance on fossil fuel; Simon Armitage’s “Poems of the Land”; daily performances from the festival’s poet-in-residence, Matt Harvey; a talk by novelist Paula Byrne about the connecting stimulus of Nature poetry; a Resurgence Trust readers session led by Greg Neale; the launch of  Satish Kumar’s new documentary Being an Earth Pilgrim; and a talk by Mark Goldring, CEO of Oxfam GB, calling for solutions to global poverty.

Launched in 1966, sharing the radical ideas of Sixties idealists concerning everything from nuclear disarmament, decentralisation and localism, to environmental causes, human rights and animal welfare, today our once fringe publication Resurgence has become the leading voice for some of the crucial issues of our times.

Rock star activist Paul McCartney says: “Happy 50th anniversary Resurgence!  My family and I have been involved in animal welfare and vegetarianism for many years now and would like to congratulate you for the good work you do for the planet and creatures who live in it.  Best wishes for the future.”

At 50, Resurgence has come of age because the ideals and causes it stands for have become increasingly relevant and mainstream. Edited by Satish Kumar for the last 43 years, the magazine has created a common vision for the once disparate green, social justice and wellbeing movements to work together in service to the Earth and all living beings. Bringing these groups together to celebrate 50 years of Resurgence in Oxford, the festival provides a unifying focus to build a strong movement of ecological sustainability, social equality and spiritual renewal, the three dimensions of a holistic vision.

The One Earth One Humanity One Future festival is being organised by The Resurgence Trust  in partnership with Oxfam, UPLIFT, Network of Wellbeing and the Tedworth Charitable Trust.

Mark Goldring, Chief Executive of Oxfam GB says:  “We are delighted to be partnering with Resurgence & Ecologist to support this exciting One Earth, One Humanity, One Future festival in Oxford, celebrating Resurgence’s 50 years at the forefront of the green movement and exploring ways to bridge a more equitable and sustainable  future.”

BOOK NOW TO SECURE YOUR SEATS!  Event tickets bought individually for each session/event cost £10.00 per booking; speaker sessions cost £10 per person; a £10 discount is available for all bookings of £50 or over. For further information visit: www.resurgence.org/R50event or call 01497 822 629 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri).

More Information about Resurgence
Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and its two websites (www.resurgence.org; www.theecologist.org) are published by The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity (no. 1120414) which promotes ecological sustainability, social justice and spiritual values. For details of how to become a member of The Resurgence Trust, and receive six magazines a year, visit www.resurgence.org/membership;  or contact the Trust: 01208 841824

Salvation Within Paradox

Sara Zaltash reviews FutureNOW – the pioneering Spiritual Ecology conference with Tim Freke, Chloe Goodchild, Joe Hoare, Peter Owen Jones and Satish Kumar.
We met there on a grey Saturday drenched with autumn rains, perhaps 120 of the West Country’s bright-eyed devout; activists and herbalists, healers and meditators, growers and thinkers, each seeking the sound and vision offered by the pioneering pilgrims on the panel. As I looked around and locked eyes with a neighbour over here or smiled at a stranger over there, I knew that I had personally been called by the promise of a community coalescing around a certain truth: “that unless you have some roots in a spiritual practice that holds life sacred and encourages joyful communion with all your fellow beings, facing the enormous challenges ahead becomes nearly impossible.”

Ecology. Economy. Humanity. Spirit. Challenges indeed for a consciousness that is making leaps toward to collective realisation everyday. The Internet, of course, has gifted me the above quotation from Joanna Macy’s contribution to the community-defining collection of essays Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth, edited by contemporary Sufi teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. At futureNOW I asked myself the same question as in present times: if all beings were truly to be given equal internet access, then why would some choose to become more enlightened than others? Perhaps because enlightenment is shrouded in mysticism, in mandala graphics and incense smoke, and social conditioning against such motifs is so strong that even a geezer like Russell Brand has to mind his patchoulis and quantum realities if he’s to get his meaning made. I confess that I am from another community too: I am an artist, an e’er-do-well and erstwhile academic. But that’s alright. Queuing up for morning tea I asked Will from Wiltshire, a university lecturer in environmental literature, whether he knew anyone else at this rock star convention of spiritual ecology leaders. “Not a soul,” he said, “But that’s alright. It’s important to be brave sometimes.”

Brave words indeed flowed from the radical Church of England priest and BBC TV presenter Rev. Peter Owen Jones, from stand-up philosopher and acclaimed author Tim Freke, and from the ultimate guru of this movement, the environmental activist, magazine editor and spiritual guide, Satish Kumar. These men spoke in turn about the need for humanity to relinquish its delusion of dominion over the planet and about accepting the ultimate mystery of existence. Kumar spoke about the loving sacredness of the soil, of society, of sacrifice – the necessary sacrifices of the mother, of the planet and of ourselves. Inspirational speakers, Rev. Jones and Kumar both upheld the twin peaks of land and spirit in their humbly ad libbed sermons, calling for the acknowledgement of the essential present-ness of our future responsibility to “eco”, our home. Bursting with insight, Freke offered paradoxological thinking as a salvation from the impotence that may come from abiding the mystery of all-being.  A proponent of love as a political act, Freke claimed “You Are The One” in a perfect paradox of consciousness consciously recognising itself, of humanity living its own dream.

As an artist-thinker, I enjoy a bit of practical guidance to usher in my cerebral shift. Noting that only in Western cultures does laughter need to be externally provoked, Bristol’s own laughing yogi, Joe Hoare, led us in several easy standing laughter practices. Stellar spiritual vocalist and teacher Chloe Goodchild was full of her own bright chuckles as she gathered us under the wings of her naked voice practice. Leading singing meditations throughout the day, Goodchild opened and closed the proceedings with her adaptation of Rumi’s well-loved verse: ‘Beyond ideas of right and wrong doing there is a field, I’ll meet you there.” Goodchild’s field is a singing field; in that field we met and she shared the seeds of various Eastern spiritual practices that combined with the voice carry our hidden gift for future generations.

Resounding from that day like the oft-rung meditation bell are some provocative unanswered questions from the closing Q&A session: when does mysticism first appear in children? How can we revere the earth? Are species other than humans involved in the evolution of consciousness? Perhaps the answer, as Hoare offered, is that ‘when you know how to listen, everything is your guru’. Rev. Jones spoke about the need to keep talking, to create space for conversations and community to bring about the changes we wish to be. For a novice pilgrim like me, practical guidance to walk in nature, to wash in the dew and to learn to bake my own bread were as comforting as the evolution of consciousness that is enacted by these actions towards personal, spiritual and environmental empowerment. The challenge of living a peaceful, respectful and unified future now is as real as our fields of land, of work and of energy. Let’s meet in that field, in the future, now.

FutureNOW was presented by Conscious Frontiers and took place on Saturday 8th November 2014 at Trinity Centre, Bristol. For more information visit FutureNow

Sara Zaltash is a British-Iranian live artist and performer. www.sarazaltash.com

Future Now

Taking place in the run up to Bristol's year as Green Capital 2015, this groundbreaking spiritual ecology conference calls for Consciousness Revolution.

Satish Kumar will be a keynote speaker for an exciting conference taking place at the Trinity Centre in Bristol on Saturday 8th November called Future NOW, which aims to raise the debate about the future and explore urgent solutions and mindful steps for sustaining the Earth so we can secure sustainable future lives for our children and grandchildren on this planet.

Co-organised by Conscious Frontiers, a leading edge speakers, communications and events agency, and Laughter Yoga expert/author Joe Hoare - Future NOW was inspired by the burgeoning Spiritual Ecology movement which seeks a spiritual response to our current ecological crisis, urging us to reconnect with Mother Earth as a sacred living being to which we all belong, and to recognise Her as the source of all life, not a resource to be plundered.
 
The compelling line up of eco-spiritual presenters for the conference includes Peter Owen Jones, Tim Freke, Chloe Goodchild and Joe Hoare and the day will include interactive breakout sessions exploring and reflecting on the question, “What can I do differently?”

50% of the proceeds from Future NOW will be shared between The Resurgence Trust and other charities and causes of the key note speakers - The Life Cairn Project, The Naked Voice and The Alliance for Lucid Living - all of which further the event’s aim to create a happier and more harmonious future for our planet.

Future NOW is a call to become more mindful, more peaceful, more connected and more loving to ourselves, to each other and to the Earth. It’s an invitation to take an active role in shaping a more sustainable and harmonious future.

Event details:

Date: Saturday 8th November, 10am-5pm 

Venue: Trinity Centre, Trinity Road, Bristol, BS2 0NW
Tickets to Future NOW cost £55 (£65 on the door). For bookings and further information visit:www.futurenow.consciousfrontiers.com

Will Gethin is Director of Conscious Frontiers.