Linda Granville

Our Mantra was:

Don’t walk in front of me

I may not follow.

Don’t walk behind me

I may not lead.

Walk beside me

and be my friend.

At my leaving party I gave everybody a key ring with a picture of us all on one side and this mantra on the other as a goodbye present.

By LINDA GRANVILLE

JOURNEY INTO ACTIVISM
From Experience through Reflection to Transformation

This is my personal journey from my early years. After the first chapter, this story begins with me living as a long term unemployed single parent with two children with different fathers, never being married. I was definitely on the bottom rung of society. I lived in the highest unemployed town in the UK with the demise of its Iron and Steel, Chemical and Shipbuilding industries, thus experiencing years of poverty and ostracisation. This is the story of how, supported by a strong Christian faith, I deeply analysed and navigated my way through it all, to an absolutely fulfilling life.

In the light of what’s happening in this chaotic world today, I feel moved to tell my story with all its different facets, because my main hope is that the reader will see the human face of the marginalised. Then, hopefully, gain a more compassionate understanding of all those who live on the margins of society. I hope the reader finds clues on how to make connections with people different from them, or to change the top down competitive economic system so all people are justly valued whether they were in paid work or out of paid work.

I invite the reader to pick any chapter and, if it resonates with you, to organise a zoom working group to discuss and explore any particular issue or let it inform the work you are already doing.

I acknowledge that every single one of us has our own unique experience from our own unique perspective waiting to be heard and learned from. This is simply my experience. I’d love to maybe one day hear and learn from yours.

Linda Granville

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Introduction to

Born in 1946 in the north east of England to a working class family she had recurring dreams until she was 19, always accompanied by a loving figure she called “My Friend.” Her father worked in the steel mills and fought with the Labor Unions in a time when women stayed at home and men worked hard to support their family. He died 6 weeks before age 65 which meant her mother only drew ½ a week’s widow’s pension. The only female sibling among three brothers, surviving in a patriarchal world, she grew up and through her strong Christian faith, created an “absolutely fulfilling life.”

Begin READING Chapter One

CHAPTER LIST

1 EARLY EXPERIENCE Adventure Abuse and Redemption
2 MARKET CAPITALISM Consequences and Solutions
3 WORKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE
4 EXPERIENCE OF PREJUDICE: and ways to combat it.
5 WORKING WITH THE HOMELESS
6 FROM VOLUNTEER TO INTERFAITH WORK
7 FROM SPIRITUAL RETREATS TO ACTION
8 WORKING WITH SANCTUARY SEEKERS
9 PASTORAL CYCLE / SEE, JUDGE AND ACT
10 RELIGION HOMOPHOBIA AND FAITH
11 LEARNINGS FROM SOUTH AFRICA
12 AFTER RETIREMENT & CONCLUSION with reflections of my visit to the

West Bank in the Palestinian Territories.

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