The Gospel of Folly

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Fools and clowns and storytellers may be the gospel bearers for today's church and society. Patrick Forbes, priest and fool, writer, broadcaster and failing trombonist, explores the connections which bring hope, possibility, love and laughter to a stressed society and a confused church. "There are too many prescriptions for a better world out there, " he says, "and they help only to compound unease and feelings of failure. What may be needed is a space in which deeper questions can be touched and tasted, a sacred but accessible space within which clowns and fools and storytellers can meet and journey together." Merchant Navy radio officer, furniture mover, and installer of diabolical telephone answering machines, Patrick Forbes was ordained priest in 1967, worked as junior curate in darkest Somerset, arrived with the first 20 families in Thamesmead, South London and developed a ministry of mad ideas in that huge, thrilling and flawed housing development. After nine years he moved with Annette and Stephen to be Communications Officer for St Albans Diocese. There he bumped into clowns and foolishness, helped to found The Holy Fools, and became a local radio producer. He worked with Gerald Priestland on Priestland's Progress and The Case against God for BBC Radio 4, contributed epilogues to Anglia Television and Pauses for Thought for Radio 2. He was Broadcasting Officer for the Church of England and then Press Officer for The Mission to Seafarers before retiring ill to Hertfordshire. Recovered from haemochromatosis - too much iron in the blood - he grows grapes, makes bread and wine, helps out in the local parishes, and dreams of epic voyages in a 26-year-old Bermuda sloop moored in Norfolk. For the last six years he has produced five thoughts a week for Premier Christian Radio, and a weekly programme Travellers' Tales.