Diversity
We celebrate diverse and marginalised voices as we engage with our context and times. We acknowledge privilege and seek to learn from those outside
Safe Space
We aim to create safe places for people to meet, support and encourage one another. This means trying our best to contain difference, whilst working for justice
Creative Hubs
As well as collaborating across disciplines, we are developing ways for artists of the same discipline to support each other.
Recent Blog Posts
- New podcast out- resilience in faith based communities with Josie GwinAfter a couple of months silence, the main Proost podcast feed has another offering, this time with Josie Gwin, whose day job is with a charity working to support recovery and resilience in communities, particuarly after major events and disasters. You can read more about the Resilience Resource here; Josie has crammed a lot of things into her life – fire fighter, equine therapist, Police chaplain – and most recently has been undertaing a Phd at Edinburgh University using the Iona Community as material for a deep dive into how faith spaces might support – or hinder – resilience in members. I really enjoyed this conversation and think that you will too. Josie is a great communicator and has a breadth of knowledge that plugs directly into our hopes for Proost, and how informal, non-hierarchical organisations (particularly in the arts) might have important things to offer as we continue to navigate instability and change. You can listen on Apple, Spotify, or Youtube – just search for Proost Podcast Here is the spotify link
- Proost lent, 2026- contributions please!!!
Lent is almost upon us once again. Like last year, Proost will be marking the lent journey with a daily piece of creativity- a poem, a song, a video, a prayer, a dance, a piece of music, a piece of art. We have a wonderful back catalogue that we will dip into once again, but even more, we love to connect with creatives who might want to take part. We are looking for pieces that help us all make connections between our faith story and the times we are living through. At Proost, we think we need our artists more than ever to challenge us, to disturb those colonial hierarchies and places where we have too often been complicit with powers that are anything but benign. Let this Lent journey be part of a conspiracy towards goodness, for the sake of our human and non human neighbours. If you are considering contributing (and we really hope you do!) then email it to us at hello@proost.community! Please feel free to attach whatever images, audio files, or video you would like to offer and we will do our best to include them. If your files are too big, we’d recommend using WeTransfer! - Proost poetry podcast with Kenneth StevenThe other day I had the great pleasure of making a journey into deep Argyll, over Loch Fyne by ferry (whilst it was still dark) then up to the Isle of Seil, to meet with poet, novelist and artist Kenneth Steven. The pretext of this visit was to record a podcast, but the truth is, it was about time we met! Two blokes, both about the same age, both living in Argyll, both writing poetry inspired by the spirituality of wild places – oh and we have connection to Iona and the Iona community too. How was it that we did not already know each other? Kenneth and his wife Kristina were the perfect hosts- despite an earlier failed attempt to record over the internet which I messed up by getting the time wrong! They live in a beautiful place and I very much enjoyed our chat. We hope you do too! You can listen on Spotify, Apple or Youtube – Here is the spotify link; If you don’t already know Kenneth’s work, here is the blurb from his website. Kenneth Steven is first and always a poet. To survive as a literary author he’s had to become many other things as…
- Advent day 25, a Christmas prayer
Here at the end of this Advent journey, we start a new one, through Christmas and on into the pergrinatio we are called out towards. May you be blessed by friendship and love and may you bless in return. Happy Christmas everyone. We are profoundly grateful to you all. Here is a prayer written and read by our friend Mark Berry God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be God’s people, and God will be with them and be their God.‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” In the dark of night a song rang out high above the earthThe divine reached down and stirred the air with melodyThe Holy sang amongst the fields and housesHarmonies swirling between streets and hedgesThe call has gone out, the journey is done, the dance has begun. God has come to dwell with us,God has come to dwellin us, God has come to make all things new. We are called… - Advent day 23, there shall be music…
Thanks again to Jaclyn for her stunning image. When we think of Angels, why are they always singing? Below is a recording made on a rough old piano, at around 3 AM, when weary mucicians come home after a gig, still wired and slightly high on the buzz of performing, glad of each other and the deep magic we make through weaving sounds into something that is deeply human. There is amazing talent here, but there are notes that do not qute work. It is the very best of us, I think – a little capsule of beauty and deep humanity. If it is true that the deepest, truest and most authentic part of the world is made of God, then I think this might be where music comes from, filtered through everything we put in the way, but still it leaks out. It reeks of the divine. May your carols sing into the darkest nights. (With thanks to Joe, Will, Emily and Sally for the late night gift of beauty.) - Advent day 23, the journey is not over
I heard someone say recently that the journey is often something we should treasure more than the destination. This seems more true of advent than most things – not because I do not wish your Christmas to be full of beauty love (I most certainly do) but because this journey is about finding light, despite the darkness. Finding hope despite all evidence to the contrary. An invitation to faith not as destination but as process. It is all there in the Christmas story. A nation longing for a different kind of Messiah than the one born in a stable. An on-going occupation. A despotic king. A clueless pair of parents who have only the slenderest hold on what they have brought in to being. Homelessness. Refugees fleeing violence. Rich men who promise solutions but merely reveal the vast inequality gap. This year, let’s try to remember that we are not the first generation of Advent travellers to fear the way things are going. The journey is not over though, even if the destination remains so very far away. Let’s keep walking. Thanks to all of you who have walked with Proost this year, may we make more miles together yet.…
What we do
- Community podcasts exploring art and spirituality
- Connecting and supporting creatives
- Artistic collaboration
- Creative workshops and meetups
- Digital spaces for collaboration and connection
- Publishing
Tune Into Our Latest Podcast!
Chris Goan
Community Organiser and Podcast Host
Chris is a half-English, half-Irish man who lives in Scotland. He is the author of several books of poetry and, after a first career in social work and mental health services, now makes a living through making ceramic art. He also writes a long running eclectic blog called this fragile tent. Chris has a long history with Proost as a poet and the editor of a couple of poetry collections. Chris is married to Michaela and has two adult children and now a little grandchild. He also grows vegetables.
Rob Hewlett
Community Organiser and Podcast Host
Rob first came across Proost many years ago through the Labyrinth set. Sometime in 2023, he started making tentative enquiries as to whether Proost had any life left in it, and once he started chatting more earnestly with Chris, things started to develop.
He is married, lives in Jersey and has two grown-up sons. He works in a second-hand shop for a social enterprise providing work and training for people with disabilities and long-term health conditions.
Cameron Preece
Community Organiser and Online Community Facilitator
Cameron is the Admissions and Recruitment Coordinator at Nazarene Theological College and a passionate poet based in Manchester. With a BA and MA in Theology, he has a keen interest in the intersection between poetry and prayer and the Hebrew poetry of the Bible. He loves playing piano, photography, anything to do with organising and tidying, and tinkering with computers. Cameron joined the Proost community after feeling seen by the podcast and has a deep curiosity about how poetry can inform and transform spiritual experience.
Looking for ways to explore creative spirituality?
Proost is a creative community that explores and expresses the divine through art—whether in words, visuals, music, or beyond.
We embrace imagination as a way to encounter the sacred and the good, crafting spaces where faith, justice, and creativity meet.
