“Guy is a young man in his early 30s, who is doing very interesting things in his life and career. He’s someone that I really admire, so it was a pleasure to talk to him. He started off as a chorister at Cambridge University where he did a PhD in music, but decided not to become a traditional academic, and instead has carved out a role for himself, as an explorer of the intersection between spirituality, psychology, the arts, nature and religion. He seems particularly interested in how we can engage with our Christian heritage, even if we are not traditional Christians, which I think is a very important question for British culture at the moment.
He’s developed two initiatives in the last few years, which I think are a kind of brilliant example of doing something which doesn’t take a huge amount of effort but has big impact and results. The first is something called the British Pilgrimage Trust, which works to re-open ancient pilgrimage routes around the UK, let people know about them, and that you can walk them. The BPT is about helping people to re-connect to, and re-enchant, the land.
And the second thing he’s worked on is the revival of evensong in the UK, so he launched a website, www.choralevensong.org, where people can find local evensong services near them, and go along and listen to the beautiful music, free of charge.
So, I think what connects both Pilgrimage and Evensong is that these are both Christian practices that you can participate in, and get a transcendent experience from — or a spiritual experience from — even if you don’t believe in the specific dogmas of traditional Christianity. I think that’s very important for our post-religious, skeptical society which is still very hungry for a more spiritual life.
We also talked about his experience of academia, and what you can and can’t say in mainstream academia, and we talked about his other job, singing as one half of musical comedy double act ‘Bounder & Cad’ with Adam Drew.
So: lovely person, fascinating person, and I hope you enjoy the conversation.”
Click here to read the transcript of the full 75-minute interview.
Click for Guy’s short articles, inspired by his PhD:
“Singing is neither good or bad, but thinking makes it so” (a brief summary of Guy’s PhD) AND
”Songs have a home” (how songs are linked to the land)
Guy on his 10-year working relationship with Rupert Sheldrake