Storey, John Andrew

The Rev. John Andrew Storey was a British Unitarian minister who authored thirty-two hymns for the 1985 British Unitarian collection Hymns for Living.

He was born on 24th March 1935 at Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, in the Isle of Ely. Home for his whole childhood and youth there was a modest two-up two-down terrace house, now demolished, in Church Street. Whittlesey lies between the two cathedral cities of Ely and Peterborough, nearer the latter, in the unique British Fenlands characterised by their extreme flatness and huge skies, and with a history of sturdy yeomen dissenters.

John Andrew Storey was not primarily a writer who happened to write about spiritual matters. Rather, he was a deeply spiritual man who yearned and strove to communicate. Whenever one reads his works, their great clarity and compelling sincerity is apparent. They also reveal a picture of a remarkably fulfilled, constructive, and unified life, one based on conscience and a series of forthright choices. His life was indeed a shared "Adventure of the Spirit".

From "The Common Quest: Selected writings of John Andrew Storey"

"It is apparent that, over a period of roughly twelve years during his college years and early ministries, John Storey underwent a period of intense questioning and seeking. By the time that he began to publish, around his mid thirties, his views and interests - and they were many, as we shall see - were already shaped into a well constructed edifice. ...

"His written material includes not only some forty-odd hymns but also seventy-seven articles, comprising essays, poems, reviews and prayers, contributed to The Inquirer over a time span from 1969 to 1997, together with a comparable quantity of material in other miscellaneous publications. Also available are some unpublished manuscripts, including a long review of Zen Buddhism and other essays, texts of sermons and addresses, and a book of aphorisms ....

...

"... The Buddhist approach to religion epitomises that of John Storey. John's sympathy with Buddhism has ensured that the four excerpts from Introduction to Buddhist Teaching presented here read extremely well, and provide a very fine and lucid introduction to the subject. All one can say to anyone seriously wishing to consider following the path that John has trod is that the material of this chapter deserves the very closest study and thought."