Remembering Neville Sassienie

Neville Sassienie, a passionate environmentalist who founded the Environmental and Social Issues Action Group at the Board of Deputies and acted as a “prophetic voice of environmentalism” for decades amongst communal leaders was amongst the early leaders of Finchley Reform Synagogue and a former chair of The Movement for Reform Judaism. He was instrumental in establishing both Faith for the Climate, a space for faith communities working on climate change, and Eco Synagogue.

In this film he speaks of the influence upon him of trips to Killin, Scotland (organised for the Synagogue by Rabbi Jeffrey Newman) where he met Ilbert Collingwood who introduced him to Subud, a spiritual movement originating in Indonesia. Subud’s spiritual practice is the Latihan, a form of active meditation.