I met for coffee and cake with my friend Hugh Valentine, in a café in Soho, during the summer, and we found ourselves talking about the idea of ‘feral’ which is something that intrigues us both. Almost before we knew it we had decided to set up a website to explore feral spirituality. It’s now up and running at: http://feralspirituality.uk

Please visit it, as we’d welcome your thoughts, comments and possibly contributions. Do share it with anybody whom you feel might find it interesting or helpful.

We are two friends who have discovered the value of becoming (or moving towards becoming) spiritually feral.  We think that other people are making a similar exploration.   But exploration can be a lonely business, so we hope that the website can offer a safe place where fellow travellers can share encouragement, experience, support and resources. We want this website to be a cooperative venture involving like-minded explorers, so in that spirit, we’re keen to include the comments and contributions of many other people.

We have no idea where all this going. We don’t have a plan but we’re committed to a process. We’ve created this website to explore the idea, and we’d like your help.

What is ‘feral spirituality?

“Spirituality…. has to do with the sense of the divine presence and living in the light of that presence. There are two basic aspects, therefore: knowing and being known by God, on the one hand; and responding, with the whole of life, on the other…. Spirituality has to do with life under God.        

Stephen Barton (The Spirituality of the Gospels)

‘Feral spirituality is concerned with life under God beyond an institutional religious framework.’ It assumes that every human being knows enough of God, because God has revealed something of God’s self to them, to be able to trust their natural intuitive response to God.

There is at least a hint of feral spirituality in everyone.  For some, it becomes stronger than a hint. It may be a calling that they hold comfortably alongside involvement in institutional religion; it may be one they struggle to balance with institutional belonging; it may be one that leads them to leave institutional religion; or it may be one that they have come to without any previous religious involvement.  We are each on a spiritual journey and the part that feral spirituality plays in our lives will grow as we grow.   To do so, and to flourish, it needs nourishment and support.