T.S. Eliot’s line “humankind cannot bear very much reality” rings true down the centuries.

But we believe that in the blur and astonishment of the 21st century, the pressure to deny, dogmatise, detach and atomise is especially intense and often over-powering. Out on the edge, wait many forms of regressive fundamentalism, offering escape but also chaos.

At such a time, whatever connects person to person, I to Thou, is a vital matter - firm ground where none other exists. To survive, we have to make precious the space between us.

But in this time of extraordinary flux, danger and excitement, new connections and bindings have continually to be found, new ways of making and securing community, and securing the individual within community.

Here is some background material, exploring these thoughts further and offering different ways of explaining the origins, meaning and spirit of Hyphen-21.

The papers on “Context” and “Principles and Purpose” were written in the early days of the charity, but are still pertinent. The “What is Hyphen-21 ?” paper was written in Autumn 2007 and includes a brief history of the charity.

The Fables have been selected from a larger total written at different times over the last fifteen years. The “Fables for Fundamentalists” is quite recent, having been written in Autumn 2006.

The poem-sets were written at much the same time as the charity itself was conceived and in many ways feel part and parcel of its meaning.

Finally, please read the following words spoken by David Jenkins in a speech he gave in 1988. In those days he was still the Bishop of Durham ("the Red Bishop") and was addressing an audience made up of social workers. In those days too, social work was actually rather less confused and uncertain than it is now:

“Social workers are a group of people who are being called upon to live dangerously at many of the pressure points in our present confused, confusing and increasingly divided society. As such you are the objects of, and therefore presumably in your own persons and reflections the subjects of, a great deal of confusion, anxiety and uncertainty. Your position is highly ambivalent and ambiguous and therefore both actually painful now and potentially promising with regard to the future of our society and, indeed, of human beings on this earth.”