We are a vibrant community of like-minded and differently-minded artists encountering one another and the divine through creativity. We champion art and artists of all kinds who explore spirituality through their work. We create spaces for diverse voices and perspectives, fostering authentic connections and meaningful dialogue.
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.
Today the King will toss out a few specially minted coins today as a symbol of charity to fellow man. Of course, he can afford it, and it might be a nice distraction from his troubles. The origins of the word ‘Maundy’ seems to be obscure, but one thought is that it derives from the Middle English and Old French mandé, from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the phrase “Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos” which many of you will of course already have correctly translated (!) into these words from John chapter 13; ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this shall men know you are my disciples.’ The story comes to us that Jesus gathered with his friends for a last meal together. One of them was going to betray him, another would deny him before the night was over. After all the parables and obscure teachings he offered something unequivocal. He distilled his hopes for his friends into this one simple phrase. Then he demonstrated it as well by washing their road stained feet. There are so many other things he could have said–…
Here is one of my (Chris’s) big old pots. I got excited when I made it, then when I glazed and raku fired it, I hated it. It sat in a dark corner for a while then more recently I pulled it out again and decided… that I liked it after all. I wonder if some of you other artists have had the same fluctuating relationship with your work? Perhaps this comes from the usual doubts and insecurities of most creative processes – or the way that it always feels like we are reaching for something just otside of reach. I remembed too the words we inscribed on this pot and perhaps there is a clue here too about encounter. About how it can be useful to encounter something that is ‘other’ rather than familiar, so that we can see things differently. Set me free so I might go to new places, there to meet people who disagree, whose circumstances dictate a shape I might never else encounter. We are grateful for this poem from Jim Kucher today, as we look forward towards the events of the weekend to come. It is suggesting that we look beyond what we are…
There have been so many versions of the redemption story. It is perhaps the classic Holywood story arc on one form or another. The underdog who transcends low expectations to achieve greatness. The jock who realises that the course of true love is with the mousy (yet classically beautiful) bookish outsider. Even the antihero criminal who dies a bloody death because of a persistent honour code… Perhaps this narrative trick is older than Jesus. Just a variation of the Hero Journey. It seems to me that, as this Easter journey unfolds, the story-tellers and poets will be looking at the familiar narrative once more for cracks, for new angles. For a story to retain power, it needs to be encountered afresh. Part of the problem many of us have is that religious stories – even religious hero stories – have a different life, in that one understanding of them tends to be adopted as sacred. The meaning it contains is then concreted in place and there is little room left for interpretation. Fact and myth intermingle to become scripture. Our one job is to believe it, so that redemption can happen in us as if by some heavenly magic trick.…
As you move into this week, we wanted to share with you something from Fringe Dweller, a new book by Jonny Baker and David Cotterill. Here is what Jonny has to say. This blog post is an extract from Fringe Dweller, a book by me (Jonny Baker) and David Cotterill. It is a series of forty reflections, practices and liturgies on Jesus’ encounters with those at the edges or through that lens. Fringe Dwelling King is a reflection based on Matthew 21:1-11 when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt. In a world in which Jesus is being co-opted to nationalist and imperial agendas by those with power this book feels pretty timely. We hope you find it inspiring. The book is available from www.getsidetracked.co Fringe Dwelling King At the Passover the Roman Governor, comes to Jerusalem every year traveling up from the coast. There is often trouble at Passover as it’s a festival about liberation and lot of people are in the city. He enters the city from the West in a military parade with a large group of soldiers and chariots, astride a strong stallion demonstrating the imperial power of Rome which keeps the Pax Romana through fear and control.…
The last day of lent. Holy week unfolds from here. Let us think of it as an open door. Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people walked through the steets of London to protest against the rise of far right politics. Lets think of this as an open door also. What world are we walking out into? Much we can not control, but this is no shield against our own choices. The world at large is beyond us, but we make what is at hand. THe world of where you are and what you are within it is entirely in your hands. This is what lent was always leading us to – the revelation that love is yours to give and yours to recieve. May you do both. Here is a reflection from Tim Watson, inspired by the protests in London yesterday. Today is the day when the whole capital seesWhen the whole capital hearsWhen the whole capital knowsThe whole city is alivePeople from the capitalPeople from every region of the nationPeople from further afield People have gathered togetherAnd they’ve all gathered to…Look back at the way things wereWith sadness and grief and thankfulnessAnd to look forward to a futureTo a…
One more day this lent seasonal journey. Almost there… We live in a place called almost. Perhaps it has always been this way, but our culture invests a lot in creating a permanent sense of the almost. How else do we aspire? How else can we be persuaded to consume more and more? The irony here is that this kind of almost almost never leads to any real change… it just delivers a new kind of disatisfaction. How might our lent journey be different? Perhaps there might be some value in pausing the focus on ‘next’ and spending some time instead on ‘now’. This is not a revolutionary statement because mystics have been encouraging us to do that for a long time. Consider this familiar passage; 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a…
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
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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.
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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.
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