Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
@cosmichope.bsky.social
Husband, Quaker, theologian, Hedge Druid, "Aristotelian Liberal" in @greenparty.org.uk. Woodbrooke Programme Coordinator for Applied Theology and Biblical Studies. Lover of dogs, Guild Socialism, Dutch beer, old musty books, and slow autumn afternoons.
Pinned
'Once the basic needs of food and shelter are met, man’s greatest satisfactions are to be found in love, trust and friendship, in beauty, art and music and in learning, none of which are served by the mythology of growth for its own sake' (The Environment: A Liberal Party Report, 1972) 🔶️
'All will surely realize God. All will be liberated. It may be that some get their meal in the morning, some at noon, and some in the evening; but none will go without food. All, without any exception, will certainly know their real Self' (Ramakrishna) 🕉
November 26, 2025 at 12:00 AM
'All will surely realize God. All will be liberated. It may be that some get their meal in the morning, some at noon, and some in the evening; but none will go without food. All, without any exception, will certainly know their real Self' (Ramakrishna) 🕉
DWP's Access to Work wait times double in 18 months: 'It's like they don't care' - Yahoo News UK share.google/oqeNOuLuhvGD...
DWP's Access to Work wait times double in 18 months: 'It's like they don't care'
Exclusive: Wait times for Access to Work have more than doubled in the last 18 months
share.google
November 25, 2025 at 11:03 PM
DWP's Access to Work wait times double in 18 months: 'It's like they don't care' - Yahoo News UK share.google/oqeNOuLuhvGD...
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
Respect the laws of the state but let your first loyalty be to God’s purposes. If you feel impelled by strong conviction to break the law, search your conscience deeply. Ask your meeting for the prayerful support which will giv... https://advicesandqueries.org/2025/11/25/respect-the-laws-of-the.html
November 25, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Respect the laws of the state but let your first loyalty be to God’s purposes. If you feel impelled by strong conviction to break the law, search your conscience deeply. Ask your meeting for the prayerful support which will giv... https://advicesandqueries.org/2025/11/25/respect-the-laws-of-the.html
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
Ancient rituals.
November 24, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Ancient rituals.
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
Good morning Bluesky! Today we have some more #Trees from the #Mountain up here. Tomorrow I am thinking detail shot. But for today, the road ahead is clear and ready for your ongoing success. You got this day fam🌈🫶. #Photography #Road #Winding #Path #Forest #Fog #Moss #Art #Resist
November 25, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
November 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
According to T.H. Green, the Apostle Paul is the great visionary of #positive #freedom: '[In Christ all] live in freedom, as having the mind of God for an inward principle, not an outward restraint' (JF 196). For Green, New Liberalism sought the same inner freedom of self-mastery. 🌻🔶️
November 25, 2025 at 8:51 PM
'Spinoza filled him with awe, he had never before come in contact with a mind so noble, so unapproachable and austere; it reminded him of that statue by Rodin, L'Age d'Airain, which he passionately admired' (W. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage").
November 25, 2025 at 8:32 PM
'Spinoza filled him with awe, he had never before come in contact with a mind so noble, so unapproachable and austere; it reminded him of that statue by Rodin, L'Age d'Airain, which he passionately admired' (W. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage").
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
November 25, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
It's Spinoza's birthday! If Spinoza had ever fallen in love, perhaps furtively, perhaps far from home, I often imagine him whispering these words from Mary Oliver into the ear of his beloved: 'So every day I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth of the ideas of God, one of which was you'.
November 25, 2025 at 8:07 PM
It's Spinoza's birthday! If Spinoza had ever fallen in love, perhaps furtively, perhaps far from home, I often imagine him whispering these words from Mary Oliver into the ear of his beloved: 'So every day I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth of the ideas of God, one of which was you'.
For T.H. Green, God is the Self of selves, the supreme #consciousness, of which individual consciousness is a fragment. God is manifest in the moral #progress of persons & society. As social conditions are refined, creatures move closer to God (which is identical with the perfect Idea of the Self).
a red background with a glowing star in the center
ALT: a red background with a glowing star in the center
media.tenor.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:50 PM
For T.H. Green, God is the Self of selves, the supreme #consciousness, of which individual consciousness is a fragment. God is manifest in the moral #progress of persons & society. As social conditions are refined, creatures move closer to God (which is identical with the perfect Idea of the Self).
'Our ultimate standard of worth is an ideal of personal worth. All other values are relative to value for, of, or in a person. To speak of...development of a nation or society or mankind, except as relative to some greater worth
of persons, is to use words without meaning' (T.H. Green) 🌻
of persons, is to use words without meaning' (T.H. Green) 🌻
a couple of young men hugging each other under a tree
ALT: a couple of young men hugging each other under a tree
media.tenor.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:32 PM
'Our ultimate standard of worth is an ideal of personal worth. All other values are relative to value for, of, or in a person. To speak of...development of a nation or society or mankind, except as relative to some greater worth
of persons, is to use words without meaning' (T.H. Green) 🌻
of persons, is to use words without meaning' (T.H. Green) 🌻
'In love man has found himself again in another...The more variegated the manifold in which life is alive, the more the places in which it can be reunified; the more the places in which it can sense itself, the deeper does love become' (G.W.F. Hegel) 💗
a couple of men are holding hands while standing next to each other in a room .
ALT: a couple of men are holding hands while standing next to each other in a room .
media.tenor.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:17 PM
'In love man has found himself again in another...The more variegated the manifold in which life is alive, the more the places in which it can be reunified; the more the places in which it can sense itself, the deeper does love become' (G.W.F. Hegel) 💗
The interviewer suggests that it's the Green Party policy to 'tax the successful'. Haven't the successful benefited from publicly maintained roads & streets? Don't they benefit from the legal system? Public R&D? Rubbish collection? Food & medicine standards? Fire & rescue services? Vaccine rollouts?
Ahead of tomorrow's Budget, the Green Party's message couldn't be clearer: cut bills, tax billionaires.
We live in a massively unequal society - it's time to change that. Tax wealth fairly, reduce the strain on ordinary families, and invest in public services.
We live in a massively unequal society - it's time to change that. Tax wealth fairly, reduce the strain on ordinary families, and invest in public services.
November 25, 2025 at 3:55 PM
The interviewer suggests that it's the Green Party policy to 'tax the successful'. Haven't the successful benefited from publicly maintained roads & streets? Don't they benefit from the legal system? Public R&D? Rubbish collection? Food & medicine standards? Fire & rescue services? Vaccine rollouts?
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
www.reuters.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:10 AM
BREAKING: This is huge news, the EU's equivalent of the 🇺🇸Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
🇪🇺Court of Justice just ruled all 🇪🇺countries must recognise same-sex marriages granted in other member states.
This effectively legalises gay marriage across 🇪🇺
This a really compelling, coherent pitch for progressive taxation from @elliechowns.bsky.social. 💚
Ahead of tomorrow's Budget, the Green Party's message couldn't be clearer: cut bills, tax billionaires.
We live in a massively unequal society - it's time to change that. Tax wealth fairly, reduce the strain on ordinary families, and invest in public services.
We live in a massively unequal society - it's time to change that. Tax wealth fairly, reduce the strain on ordinary families, and invest in public services.
November 25, 2025 at 2:28 PM
This a really compelling, coherent pitch for progressive taxation from @elliechowns.bsky.social. 💚
Today is the feast of Catherine of Alexandria. Its a good day to remember the intellectual & spiritual richness of ancient Alexandrian Christianity (the sublime faith of Clement & Origen). But its also a good day to remember Hypatia (who may have provided the nucleus for Catherine's legend).
November 25, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Today is the feast of Catherine of Alexandria. Its a good day to remember the intellectual & spiritual richness of ancient Alexandrian Christianity (the sublime faith of Clement & Origen). But its also a good day to remember Hypatia (who may have provided the nucleus for Catherine's legend).
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
Our energy system is rigged in favour of a handful of private companies and their shareholders.
To tackle the huge levels of fuel poverty in Scotland, we need more energy in the hands of the people, whether that's public, community or individual (micro-renewables like household solar) ownership.
To tackle the huge levels of fuel poverty in Scotland, we need more energy in the hands of the people, whether that's public, community or individual (micro-renewables like household solar) ownership.
October 29, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Our energy system is rigged in favour of a handful of private companies and their shareholders.
To tackle the huge levels of fuel poverty in Scotland, we need more energy in the hands of the people, whether that's public, community or individual (micro-renewables like household solar) ownership.
To tackle the huge levels of fuel poverty in Scotland, we need more energy in the hands of the people, whether that's public, community or individual (micro-renewables like household solar) ownership.
Reposted by Ben Wood /|\✝️🔶️💚☮️
MPs are now considering the remaining stages of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Day 1).
Watch the debate ⬇️
parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...
Watch the debate ⬇️
parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...
November 24, 2025 at 5:55 PM
MPs are now considering the remaining stages of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Day 1).
Watch the debate ⬇️
parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...
Watch the debate ⬇️
parliamentlive.tv/event/index/...
Midst of all the doom and gloom (with the upcoming Budget) some good stuff is happening. I hope this legislation works: I really hope gives people more real power & control over their local areas. I hope it re-capitalises communities that have endured deep social recessions. #CommunityOwnership
Today, MPs will vote on the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill - including the Community Right to Buy.
We wanted to know what the British public thought about this transformative new law.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlFW...
We wanted to know what the British public thought about this transformative new law.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlFW...
How the Public Feels about Brand New Law to Save Community Assets
What if your community got a shot at saving the places you actually use - before they vanish?
We took that question to the public. Here’s what they had to say.
👉 party.coop/join
www.youtube.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Midst of all the doom and gloom (with the upcoming Budget) some good stuff is happening. I hope this legislation works: I really hope gives people more real power & control over their local areas. I hope it re-capitalises communities that have endured deep social recessions. #CommunityOwnership
1/2 I find an ecological perspective helpful here. We can begin this repair work anywhere. Since we're all interdependent, any repair travels along the web, creating new possibilities for people who lie beyond the original action. Wellbeing in one place can be transmitted to another place.
As Humanity, we have gone through a History of repetitive cycles of hatred, resentment, revenge & violence, which have generated deep collective suffering & Transgenerational Trauma. It is time to change in order to learn to manage our anger, heal the pain and build collective Well-being.
November 25, 2025 at 1:18 PM
1/2 I find an ecological perspective helpful here. We can begin this repair work anywhere. Since we're all interdependent, any repair travels along the web, creating new possibilities for people who lie beyond the original action. Wellbeing in one place can be transmitted to another place.
This government has no-longer term strategy It's trying to fill short term "black holes". Labour will continue to fire fight. Why? Because there's no system-thinking. What's going wrong? Where is the economy going? What should our model be? How do we get there? Labour has not done the analysis.
November 25, 2025 at 12:04 PM
This government has no-longer term strategy It's trying to fill short term "black holes". Labour will continue to fire fight. Why? Because there's no system-thinking. What's going wrong? Where is the economy going? What should our model be? How do we get there? Labour has not done the analysis.
This clause is crucial: 'high taxes on very high incomes were necessary to prevent an entrepreneurial economy becoming a rentier economy'. Labour has absolutely no intention of challenging extractive Capitalism. Their unwillingness will guarantee that the cost of living crisis becomes normal.
This vision of the Tory Party no-longer exists. It barely exists in the Labour Party. Where is the case for 'profit for a purpose'? Where is the implacable opposition to inequality in the two old parties? It will be the task of the 'minor parties' in the years ahead to reassemble this perspective.
November 25, 2025 at 11:37 AM
This clause is crucial: 'high taxes on very high incomes were necessary to prevent an entrepreneurial economy becoming a rentier economy'. Labour has absolutely no intention of challenging extractive Capitalism. Their unwillingness will guarantee that the cost of living crisis becomes normal.