Reframing the Something of God: A book of Recuperative Theology by Rupert M Loydell & H. L. Hix: playful, irreverent and searching poems about faith, doubt and the world in between.
Written across the Atlantic, between Cornwall and the Rocky Mountains, the book proposes a laid-back and restorative approach to faith, Recuperative Theology, complete with its own scriptures, creed, catechism, epistles, saints and dictionary. Witty and often unexpectedly moving, these poems borrow the forms of religious devotion to ask what belief might look like for people who are doubtful, distracted and in need of a lie-down. The result is a book that is as much about language and how we make and remake meaning as it is about God.
The collection is introduced by a Foreword from the Highly Elusive Archbishop Makeshift, who commends its ‘documents of recuperative theology’ to readers everywhere.
Please join Editor Sarah for online writing hours and writing workshops via Zoom! NEW SESSIONS FOR AUTUMN 2026
Generative Online Writing Workshops on Tuesdays.
A new block of 10 workshops starts Tuesday September 8th 2026) 6-7pm UK time. £55 for 10 sessions(plus registration provider fee).
Please note dates below – there’s a week off half way through, and two sets of five weeks either side.
Join Editor Sarah online for a weekly hour’s generative writing workshop! Each Tuesday session will have a theme which we will explore in connection to writing and the sacred. We will look at poems, images, extracts from fiction and creative nonfiction (usually a total of 2 or 3 examples per session), and there will be time for writing in response to prompts given by Sarah.
There will be the opportunity to read from your own writing, if wished. No previous experience required, and attendees may be of any religion or none. This is a generative workshop rather than a place for extensive critique, so you should find it supportive, friendly, and, hopefully, creatively inspiring. We have a focus on spirituality and the sacred, but welcome a varied and generous response.
The sessions are not recorded, but the handout of texts and prompts will be emailed to all who have registered after each session.
Provisional themes for the sessions are as follows:
SEPTEMBER 8TH – LIGHTHOUSE
SEPTEMBER 15TH – BEES & HONEY
SEPTEMBER 22ND – TREES
SEPTEMBER 29TH – HARVEST
OCTOBER 6TH – RETREAT
(OCTOBER 13TH– NO WORKSHOP)
OCTOBER 20TH – ECLIPSE
OCTOBER 27TH – SONG
NOVEMBER 3RD – STONE
NOVEMBER 10TH – STORM
NOVEMBER 17TH – FLIGHT
There will be the opportunity to read from your own writing, if wished. No previous experience required, and attendees may be of any religion or none. This is a generative workshop rather than a place for extensive critique, so you should find it supportive, friendly, and, hopefully, creatively inspiring!
If you’d like to know more, see a handout from a previous session, or try out a single workshop, please contact editor Sarah at editor@amethystmagazine.org.
Any questions? Please leave a comment or contact me at editor@amethystmagazine.org
Amethyst Online Workshops and Writing Hours are running again from next week, and I’d be delighted if you would join me! The format is the same as with previous sessions – a themed generative workshop hour on Tuesday evenings, and a companionable writing hour on Thursday evenings.
I’m running the Tuesday Workshops in blocks of 5 this time, and have set one ticket for the whole first block of five. The process should be simpler for you and I’m hoping a block of 5 weeks isn’t too much to commit to. (If you can’t do that, please let me know, and I’ll devise a workaround) And thank you so much to those who have already registered!
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Generative Online Writing Workshops on Tuesdays (restarting May 5th 2026) 6-7pm UK time. £25 (plus registration provider fee) for each block of 5 sessions.
Each session will have a theme with a connection to writing and the sacred. The hour will include consideration of published extracts, discussion, prompts and writing time. Register for Block 1:
Provisional themes are as follows:
Block 1
May 5th – Little Things
May 12th – Psalms
May 19th – Fruit
May 26th – Bread
June 2nd – Hands
(June 9th Break – no workshop)
Block 2: (registration link to come)
June 16th – Voices
June 23rd – Dreams
June 30th – Birds
July 7th – Patterns
July 14th – Grace
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Thursday Writing Hours (Free!)
If you already have work in progress, or simply like the idea of a concentrated hour of writing then please join me on Thursdays for a writing hour:
Online Writing Hours on Thursdays from May 7th, 6-7 pm UK time. Write in companionable and supportive silence with some optional chat at the end. No requirement for you to attend a Tuesday workshop.
Completely free!Register via Eventbrite. (or just email me for the Zoom code). Come to any or all sessions.
Roman goddess of the sewers; considered a cult of Venus.
Toilet goddess, gentle guardian of filth, how long you’ve kept your shy chthonic cult intact, stewarding your wealth of swill and piss.
The ancients knew no man can rule the sewer. That is a woman’s place. That waste land needs a careful hand to stir the lonesome goo
and smooth the way down gently sloping tunnels through the dark, that dark through which we all must come. You love the runnels and all the clay-
brick oozing walls. You love chunky dishwater and laundry scum; you love the bloody drainage after a slaughter; shit, spoor, and all
belong to you, Purifier, forgotten realm’s prudent queen. O lady of the mire, how you have loved your squalid children! You, who
see the wreck of living things, know that nothing can be made clean from afar. It takes hands deep in the muck, scrubbing. You know that love
must go down, in- to the stinking guts of earth, and make even them holy. Midwife to the endless afterbirth of life, come in
with your strange toil. Teach us not to turn away. Teach us to gaze at every cast-off thing, sit down by it, and stay, and not recoil.
J.C. Scharl is a poet and critic from Royal Oak, MI. Her poetry has been featured in some of America’s top poetry journals, including The New Ohio Review and The Hudson Review, as well as internationally on the BBC and in several UK journals. Her criticism has appeared in many magazines and journals. She holds a BA in politics, philosophy, and economics from The King’s College in New York, and an MFA in poetry from Seattle Pacific University. She is the author of the poetry collection Ponds and two verse plays.
