John Papworth
click on the image below to read Rev John Papworth's Purton Prayer
St Mary's Church, Purton, Wiltshire where John Papworth officiates under licence from the Bishop of Bristol
(from a water colour by Connie Lindqvist)
Born London 1921. Reared in an orphanage. Baker, journalist, economist - London University graduate, ecologist, futurist & priest. Was under licence to officiate from the Bishop of London until his remarks about the non-sinfulness of shoplifting in giant stores attracted global media attention and caused him to be sacked from his non-stipendary post. (He was concerned with the way the giants were destroying local community life and argued Jesus taught we should love our neighbours - he had said nothing about loving Marks & Spencers).
Sixties imprisonment along with Bertrand Russell for ban the bomb action, and in Albany jail Georgia for civil rights activities. Has travelled extensively in all continents, where his lecture tours promoting radical alternatives to current institutional approaches, as well as his Shakespeare renderings, have drawn capacity audiences. His French-born wife Marcelle, died in 1995 and his three student-age children, Pierre, John-David & Marie live in London.
With the help of Fritz Schumacher & Sir Herbert Read founded and edited Resurgence; Founder of The Fourth World (The world of small nations, small communities & the inalienable sovereignty of the human spirit); Parliamentary Labour candidate 1955; for nine years Personal Assistant to the then President of Zambia, Dr Kenneth Kaunda; Editorial Consultant to Greenpeace; Associate Editor The Ecologist; President The Academic Inn; Founder Village Industry Service (Zambia); Founder & Editor Fourth World Review a bi-monthly with an international circulation now at its centenary issue.
Films
Starred in the 1996 BBC film No Man Is An Island
Subject of another film Turbulent PriestBooks
The Economics of Humanism
New Politics
Small Is Powerful
Shut Up & Listen
A Pair of Cranks (editor)Manuscipts
Why The London School of Economics Should Be Shut Down
Travel Notebooks (unpublished)
Autobiography (incomplete)
In 1998 John Papworth moved from St John's Wood in North London to an old farmhouse at:
The Close, 26 The High Street, Purton, Wiltshire, SN5 9AE England
Tel: 01793 77 22 14; Fax; 01793 77 25 21
| see more |
see more |
return to top page