Autumn Equinox Letter from Cressida Pryor
September 19, 2025

Dear FOI Friends,

Sadly, I’m writing this letter at a time that feels so precarious in terms of the world’s stability and peace…and where now the seasonal reminder of balance is even more relevant.

There seems to be, with recent shootings in America and ongoing wars in the Middle East and Europe a world out of kilter that resorts to splits and ‘othering’ of those seen as ‘the enemy or the stranger’…there’s a comfort in shoring up our ‘secure base’ with the protection of one’s own righteousness and known opinions…it’s much harder and wiser not to know, to take the tentative step beyond our emotional front door and be curious of the ‘opposition’s position’…

At a conference a while back we were asked to split up to either side of the room according to whether we had some sort of faith in a supernatural ‘more than’/ God, or not…I quickly skipped over to the ‘theist’ side of the room looking at the opposite atheist side with a little judgement, noticing their gender and overall appearance with interest…we were then asked to walk into the middle ground to meet and talk with one of the ‘opposing group’.

Once we talked together we found much common ground, not just in general attitudes but in beliefs about what it meant to be a good person…we did have points of difference of course, but I was surprised at how much we shared. This exercise has stayed with me ever since and reminds me of the importance of that ‘middle ground’ between opposing forces as a fulcrum point of balance through listening and communicating together; not shooting at each other from distant roof tops or dropping bombs from drones.

On Wednesday my church, in the centre of Cheltenham, will have the privilege of hosting part of the town’s Interfaith Peace Gathering…we will be welcoming local representatives from the major world faiths and after a short ceremony will be sharing refreshments and tea…coming together at this time feels so significant and I hope acts as a small microcosm of hope and peace…

A beautiful quote I heard recently from Olivier Clement that seems one to take to heart now is: ‘The gentleness of strong people makes them trees of Peace’

Divine Mother may we be such people rooted in peace…in solid ground and open to the sky so we become the breath of peace for others and ourselves…fully being here in the gift of our life with others…

May we learn to be present with you and with those around us in simple solidarity. So may it be, Amen.