Nurturing the Beloved Community

'Jonathan Herbert is the first man to whom I go when I want to discuss the art of building community and so I'm delighted that he has found time to write about it. This is a wise book that draws on insights from Jonathan's current Franciscan home and his Gypsy and traveller friends as well as from many other places. There is a depth to his writings that causes the reader to reflect on half-digested knowledge and emergent wisdom. This is seen in his subject headings 'Boundaries', 'Knowing our own needs' or 'Building trust through encounter'. Reading this book right through distilled in me some emergent ideas and at times I found myself chuckling or crying or just nodding in agreement. I heartily recommend Nurturing the Beloved Community as a development on Jonathan's earlier writings.'

Rev'd Dr Howard Worsley, Principal, Church Urban Fund Academy and Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College Bristol

"This is a beautiful book full of gentle wisdom. It reveals the simple but deep values, which create communities where each can find belonging."

Ruth Worsley, Bishop of Liverpool

"At a time when so many feel isolated and disconnected from others, Jonathan Herbert's book comes as a wise, challenging, heartfelt and inspiring reflection on how to nurture loving community within our personal lives, our varied relationships and within wider society. As a reflection on some of the key issues of our times it could not be more relevant. Often painfully honest, it offers hope for a future lived differently."

Gemma Simmonds, Director, Religious Life Institute

"This is a manual for our times, a road map for communities in which we can navigate, with compassion and integrity, the challenges of climate change, war, and authoritarianism. Its wisdom is woven into storytelling and personal reflection in a wonderfully relatable way, making it a book for everyone."

Melanie Nazareth, Christian Climate Action

"'Nurturing the Beloved Community' is a distillation of years of experience of living and working in community, of growth in stillness and prayer, and of drawing on the wisdom of the monastic tradition through the ages - a rich resource for all who are responding to the call to 'life together' of any kind."

Brother Samuel, Society of St Francis