In my youth I came to believe deeply in the existence of God. In part it was my discovery of the transformative power of beauty, especially in creation. Like many teenagers, I had yet to discover the brutality of much of the world and had no sense then of the poet’s description of “Nature, red in tooth and claw.” Instead I was captured by the exquisite glory of the Warwickshire and Worcestershire countryside—a beauty which only yesterday was also the admiration of the rest of our family as we drove them to the West Midlands Safari Park approximately four miles from the first parish church which I served as a newly ordained priest.
Though I have long since come to realize the often brutal reality of human existence, I remain convinced that beauty, truth, integrity and, above all, compassionate action on behalf of others, both individually and corporately, share in a greater reality that derives from God, “that Being than which no greater can be conceived.”