We are delighted to have set up a branch of The Compassion Salon at Cuddesdon, in conjunction with the Salon founder and Director, Dr Marti Balaam.
At Friends and former Members Day in May 2026, writer and singer Julia Hollander joined us and spoke about the power of singing for our connectedness to ourselves and to one another. Julia had been the first ever woman to direct the English National Opera; a socially demanding task. When her daughter, Immie, was born, a doctor told Julia that she would never be able to have a relationship with Immie, because Immie’s brain had been so damaged at birth. Julia discovered that Immie responded to the sound and rhythm of Julia singing to her. Julia has gone on to research and reflect upon the power of singing, neurologically, socially and spiritually. She also spoke to me about the gentle, unassuming, life-saving power of Christian community, working through people who appeared in her life at critical junctures to support her and her family.
This conversation with Julia was a window onto the Cuddesdon Compassion Salon, which we officially launched on 15 June 2026, with Professor Barbara Becnel, a criminologist and racial justice activist, as our guest speaker. The Compassion Salon is an initiative created in Edinburgh, by Dr Marti Balaam of the Edinburgh Medical School. I have supported it from its inception, and often hosted the guest speakers. Marti and I are delighted to have launched a branch of the Salon at Cuddesdon. The Edinburgh Salon meets in a pub, and while going online and global during Covid, the pub-like community is part of its ethos, so at Cuddesdon we meet in the Common Room and get drinks from the bar!
Barbara told us about her work with Stanley Tookie Williams, founder of the Crips gang in LA, with whom she came to write nine books for young people to deter them from drugs, guns and gang violence. For this work, Williams and Becnel were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Barbara co-produced the film Redemption about Williams’ life, and the film was shown at Cannes and nominated for a Golden Globe. She has a vision for an equitable world, towards which we will work with her form Cuddesdon. She held up an important mirror to us, that Cuddesdon can provide a safe harbour for people to witness to and address injustice. ‘The Cuddesdon vibe’, she says needs to ‘get out to the whole world, everywhere and all the time’.
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