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Quaker worship the Friend independent quaker Journalism since 1843 CONTENTS VOL 171 NO 39 27 September 2013 © Library Society of the Religious Friends.

3 Thought for the Week: 10-11 Quaker Light or Quaker-lite? The Meeting’s promise Jan Arriens Alan Lygo-Baker 12-13 The story of a Meeting 4 World family of Friends Jill Allum Gretchen Castle 14-15 Founding fathers 5 The maypole dance Rachel Britton Anthony Gimpel 16 Universe as Revelation 6 A Quaker calendar Harvey Gillman Caroline Humphries 18 Truth, integrity or both? 7 The Quaker Dorothy Searle Ian Kirk-Smith 20 The stamp man 8-9 Openings Trish Carn Laurie Andrews 22 Friends & Meetings

Cover image: Morning Meeting. Image above: Detail of Gracechurch Street Meeting, Artist: Ann McNeill. © The artist. 1779. © Library of the Religious Society of Friends.

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2 the Friend, www.thefriend.org Thought for the Week

10-11 Quaker Light or Quaker-lite? Jan Arriens 12-13 The story of a Meeting Jill Allum 14-15 Founding fathers Rachel Britton 16 Universe as Revelation Harvey Gillman Jordans Meeting 2. Artist: Ron Waddams. © The Larren Trust. Larren The © Waddams. Artist: Ron Meeting 2. Jordans 18 Truth, integrity or both? Dorothy Searle 20 The stamp man Trish Carn 22 Friends & Meetings

The Meeting’s promise

There lives a peace in the stillness which quietly moulds the promise of more than self. Far more.

Now I have the momentum to hold the old and the new and reside in that calm until I am restored again.

Alan Lygo-Baker, Sussex West Area Meeting

the Friend, the Quaker way 3 World family of Friends

Gretchen Castle reflects on diversity, unity and belonging © The © The Tapestry Quaker Scheme.

itting with friends over a meal at the 2012 World different stands of American Quakerism. My father Conference in Kenya, I thought, ‘This is one huge was a pastor in , so I grew up family reunion’ – with people jumping up to give among programmed Friends. As an adult I moved Shugs of greeting, introductions and hand shaking, and to the East Coast and transferred my membership the room abuzz with laughter and conversation. Leaning to an unprogrammed Meeting, the only choice in in, listening intently, and heads nodding to indicate Philadelphia . I have cousins who are understanding – it was all part of the lively fellowship, active with evangelical Friends, programmed Friends, a chance to breathe together, to get acquainted and and unprogrammed Friends. reacquainted and to meet that elusive long-lost uncle. When I first became active in the uprogrammed These people are all part of a grand Quaker family. We tradition and admitted to a new acquaintance that I all belong to each other. had grown up as a Quaker pastor’s daughter, he said Family, at its best, gives us a sense of belonging and in all seriousness, ‘Then you are not really a Quaker.’ an appreciation that we are loved. It is, perhaps, our best Unbelieving, I actually stopped breathing. We talked chance at being understood. Whatever we long for in into the wee hours of the morning! our lives, that is what we must give to others. Whatever I have learned to love unprogrammed worship, just as we lack and want, when we do that for others, it comes I love the scripture reading, the hymn singing and the back to us. This spiritual principle seems impossible pastor’s sermon in programmed worship. when we feel depleted but, if we want to be understood, People often ask whether programmed worship isn’t we need to listen deeper in order to understand. If we just like any other Protestant denomination worship. It want to be accepted for who we are, we need to suspend may appear so on first glance, but to the practiced eye judgement. If we want more love in our lives, we need – to one who is part of the Quaker family and looking to love from a selfless place. If we want to be family, we more for commonality than difference – it is easier to need to be accepting and inclusive of our whole family, see the sometimes subtle ways in which the Quaker in spite of how they may differ from us. Within our character is expressed. It is much like hearing or seeing Quaker family, on one level, there are many differences a brother or sister and you immediately recognize the but, on the most important level, we are all children of cadence of speech or a familiar nuanced hand motion. God, all equal in God’s sight. We belong to each other. You know it when you see it. My family of origin mirrors the complexity of the One of our greatest human longings is to feel that family of Friends. At our family reunions conversation we are understood. Being new to British culture, I is rich and constant. Once we establish our parentage want desperately to understand and be understood. and how we are connected, we typically move on to Assuming that I belong to the family of Friends, where discuss our Quaker heritage, our spiritual paths, and the language and understanding of Spirit is comforting our relationship to God. I recognize this might be and rich, I am drawn in. I have little need to test it. I am somewhat unusual. coming home. Wherever I live among Friends, I belong. In the late seventeenth century, to escape religious persecution, my family emigrated to North America. It has now spread all over the USA. My father’s six Gretchen is general secretary of Friends World Committee siblings and the resulting thirty-two cousins reflect the for Consultation (FWCC) in the World Office.

4 the Friend, www.thefriend.org Reflection The maypole dance Photo: Garry Knight / flickr CC. Photo: Garry Knight / flickr

Anthony Gimpel considers the meaning of membership

Dance then, wherever you may be the dance as a metaphor for the Meeting for Worship as I am the Lord of the Dance, said He! well as for the Meeting as a body. The spirit gives energy, And I’ll lead you all, wherever you may be life, and the closer you are and the more frequently you And I’ll lead you all in the Dance, said He! return the more is available. Some, who appear to be far from the centre, may believe they are themselves close magine Meeting as a dance around a maypole. Each because it takes energy to approach the centre, though person in the Meeting is connected by a ribbon to a nobody can ever actually occupy the centre. central pole. Each person revolves around the pole, Many would agree that it doesn’t matter whether you Iweaving in and out, coming closer, moving further are a member or an attender when you come to Meeting away. for Worship. But what if we say that it only looks like The pole contains the whole of Quakerism. Each it doesn’t matter? What if it does matter? How does it person holds on to some of the Way; no one person holds make a difference to the quality of worship whether you on to the whole. Each person holds on and lets go. Some are a member or an attender? hold on tightly and rarely let go; others have a looser Does commitment also play a part in the worship? grasp; some let go more often or for longer periods. At a recent weekend, held at the Woodbrooke Quaker The maypole dance of belonging to a Meeting Study Centre in , on the ‘Meaning of describes how each person chooses their level of Membership Today’ some of us thought it does. The attachment, their commitment. It allows each one to commitment gives a sense of continuity and stability. It adhere to some principles and not to others. It describes inspires and enhances trust between the worshippers. how a person may make a brief contact with the When I commit myself I say I will love you and Meeting and disappear for long periods. In the care for you and desire the best for you. I take the risk of the dance the whole of the Way is upheld. Each one that you may not do the same for me even though of us has an idea of how many people are needed and membership is also a commitment from the Meeting how closely those people need to be connected for the to me. Through this love and care we draw near. With viability of the Meeting. But the perfect Meeting does courage we approach the empty space, the source of not exist where all the people come regularly every energy where none can stand. week, with heart and mind prepared, and where all of And then the miracle happens. We receive. Giving is them participate in the business. easy, receiving needs courage. And what we receive is Imagine now that the ribbon is invisible. Imagine too grace and redemption. that the pole at the centre is empty: that there is nothing – no thing – there: that the centre is simply spirit. See Anthony is a member of Leicester Meeting.

the Friend, the Quaker way 5 Witness © Margaret Glover and the Quaker Arts Network. and the Quaker © Margaret Glover A Quaker calendar

Caroline Humphries describes a innovative artistic project

find Friends never find it difficult to worship, Waddams (1920 – 2010), shows Jesus present in the inside or outside, however noisy the surroundings. midst of a Quaker Meeting for Worship (see page 3). Early Friends were subjected to stones thrown at ‘Itheir Meeting house windows. Centering down for a The calendar also contains other work by contemporary group vigil enables wonderful things to happen and is Quaker artists (see cover) and some historical images always a witness.’ – Margaret Glover. (see page 2).

The picture above shows a peace vigil held outside The title of the calendar is ‘Inspired by Worship’, Christchurch cathedral in New Zealand in 2009 – the has been launched by the newly formed Quaker Arts year before it was destroyed by an earthquake. It is Network. The Network aims to develop a community one of many images of peace drawn and painted by of Friends interested in the arts and was recognised as Margaret Glover, a contemporary Quaker artist and a Listed Informal Group of in campaigner. late 2012. It launched the 2014 calendar to showcase art by contemporary and historical Quaker artists and The drawing is one of several artistic reflections on depictions of Quakerism. the Quaker showcased in a recently published Quaker calendar for 2014. Another, by Ron Caroline is a member of Westminster Meeting.

6 the Friend, www.thefriend.org Witness © The © The Tapestry Quaker Scheme. Detail of Quaker Tapestry panel: E5 Eiizabeth Fry.

The Quaker Tapestry

he Quaker Tapestry in Kendal has been one of Anne Wynn-Wilson, who began the project, designed the most significant and imaginative outreach a stitch for the letters of the tapestry and, though she did projects of the past three decades. The tapestry not know it at the time, was creating a new stitch. Tcontains the defining narratives of Quakerism and The booklet makes excellent use of detailed celebrates all that Friends believe, trust in and are photographs of the stitching. The close-up images of inspired by. It is both a beautifully crafted object and a convey very clearly the meticulous and powerful symbol. It is, also, a hugely successful way of delicate nature of the work. telling stories. The tapestry is housed in Kendal in in the The seventy-seven embroidered panels of the tapestry, heart of ‘1652 country’. However, it has been taken crafted by 4,000 men, women and children, are a regularly to all parts of Britain and Ireland with The celebration of 350 years of and experience. Quaker Tapestry Roadshow, comprising thirty-nine A new forty-page booklet, Quaker Tapestry: An panels, proving to be a great success. introduction, produced by the Quaker Tapestry at Kendal, This new booklet is a beautifully produced introduction gives an illuminating and engaging insight into the to the Quaker Tapestry and well worth acquiring. It will making of the tapestry and where it can be seen today. be particularly useful as a clear introduction to the The origins and development of the project, which tapestry, to its background and themes, and to those began in a Quaker Sunday school in the south of unfamiliar with it. England in 1981, are well told in a clear and engaging way with an excellent use of illustrations. Ian Kirk-Smith is the editor of the Friend. The colour of the original woollen cloth, the book reveals, was based on a local sandstone in Somerset Quaker Tapestry: An introduction. Published by – ‘Quantock’ – where the two weavers who wove the Quaker Tapestry Ltd. 2013 £4.50 Info at: www.quaker- cloth, Talbot Potter and John Lennon, were located. tapestry.co.uk

the Friend, the Quaker way 7 Spirituality Openings

Laurie Andrews writes about a personal spiritual journey

sense of unease, of being a foreigner in the world, and our tongues were loosened and our mouths opened, speaking a different language, persisted into my and we spake with new tongues, as the Lord gave us mid-forties. I felt literally excommunicated – utterance …’ Aunable to communicate, and out of communion. But (Quaker faith & practice 19:20). there were transcendent mystical experiences when I knew intuitively, temporarily anyway, that I belonged Ablaze with zeal, I joined a team of young evangelists here. The first was as a boy when I stood in an autumn who went round the coastal resorts, in ‘brother’ Arthur’s field and the trees, grass and hedgerows seemed ablaze, battered dormobile van, preaching to the seaside crowds exploding with a divine inner energy. I was transfixed, and spoiling their Sunday out! rooted to the spot with awe; there, but not there: ‘The doors of perception were cleansed.’ It seemed of the An evil spirit same order as ’s opening: ‘I was come up in the spirit through the flaming sword into the With my Elim church friends I had a purpose in life and paradise of God… Beyond what words can utter.’ And the feeling of anxious apartness left me. But then I was Wordsworth’s intimation: called up for National Service and, as an alternativist pacifist, volunteered to be a nursing attendant in the There was a time RAF. That did not excuse me from weapons training. I When meadow, grove and stream, was marked three for shooting with a .303 Lee Enfield The earth, and every common sight, rifle. I only managed to hit the ‘outer’ on the target. I To me did seem was marked ‘WO’ with the Bren (light machine gun). Apparelled in celestial light, This meant ‘washout’ – I failed to hit the target at all! The glory and the freshness of a dream. There was not the remotest possibility of me ever being called on to use those weapons and, depending on the Over time the memory faded but that experience in a situation, I might well have thrown them away anyway! Hertfordshire meadow in the 1940s made an indelible Stationed at an RAF hospital and a long way from impression on me. home and church, I eventually backslid, as evangelicals say. I’d swept my house and put it in order, but then Speaking in tongues left it empty so another spirit took up residence (Luke 11:24-26). I discovered alcohol, which, to begin with, As a teenager I became a fervent Pentecostalist and seemed like another ‘holy spirit’. The first time I got worshipped at a corrugated iron tabernacle, like drunk I felt like a space explorer in my head. In The the church described by Jeanette Winterson in her Varieties of Religious Experience William James wrote: autobiographical novel Oranges are not the only fruit. We ‘The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably had ‘tarrying’ Meetings when we waited, expectantly, to due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of be baptised by the Holy Spirit. At one gathering, after human nature… Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, much prayer and fasting, I experienced the ecstasy and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. of speaking in tongues. Early Friends had similar It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man… experiences. Edward Burrough wrote: The drunken consciousness is one bit of the mystic consciousness…’ I drank for that limitless expansion, ‘While waiting upon the Lord in silence, as often we did but the obsession was so cunning and powerful that I for many hours together … we received often the pouring became addicted to alcohol; the elixir became an evil down of the spirit upon us and our hearts were made glad spirit and nearly took my life.

8 the Friend, www.thefriend.org Photo: Paul Bonhomme / flickr CC. / flickr Bonhomme Photo: Paul

Journey of discovery object way but as though my neighbour is myself, in the compassionate strength of mutual vulnerability. I was saved by another spiritual experience. At my At a Woodbrooke course I was rebuked for suggesting lowest ebb, I was forced to surrender to my dreadful to the Jesuit Gerard Hughes that the Ignatian exercises compulsion and seek help. The support group I joined of continual daily examen of conscience seemed like met at a Quaker Meeting House and I was attracted by spiritual navel-gazing. The purpose, he told me sharply, a poster on the noticeboard that said ‘A silent Quaker was to keep the Christian in a state of readiness to be of Meeting for worship can be a quiet process of healing service to others. To be authentic, spiritual experiences and a journey of discovery’. That spoke to my condition, should affirm our resolve to be fit for purpose: ‘They so I plucked up courage one Sunday and went to my were changed men themselves before they went about first Meeting for Worship, another spiritual experience. to change others.’ (Quaker faith & practice 19:48). Those gentle Friends at Hoddesdon Meeting, who accepted me for who I was, and my recovery community, Spiritually uplifted loved me back to health. Seven years later, after I found a new job in Colchester, I once took a friend to a Meeting for Worship and he my wife Jenny and I were trying to sell our house and told me that in the silence his mind expanded and he felt move. There was a recession and the property market spiritually uplifted. Subsequent Meetings, however, left had seized up. I became depressed and exhausted and him feeling flat and dissatisfied. Failing to experience one night sank down by the bed and groaned, ‘I can’t the same high, he stopped going to Meeting. But take any more.’ I crept between the sheets and in the spiritual experience is not about demanding or expecting half-consciousness between waking and sleeping a voice sensational highs as in, for example, the ultimately seemed to say, ‘As long as you keep on loving, you will barren cul-de-sac of chemically induced ecstasy. never be alone.’ It didn’t make sense. How was that going The Anglican Evelyn Underhill, in her book to help us sell our house and move? Yet, I felt strangely Mysticism, wrote that selfless service to others is a calm and reassured and slept like a top. Soon afterwards specific characteristic of Christian mysticism. She we did sell the house. I believe that moment of exhausted quotes Jan van Ruusbroec, the fourteenth century despair, when my will power was overwhelmed by priest, who was ‘quite clear that those who practised defeat, was another spiritual experience. contemplative inwardness and disregarded charity My most recent spiritual experience was a dream I or ethics were, of all people, the most wicked’. Or, had a few months ago. In it I was arraigned before a as it says in Quaker faith & practice 27:40: ‘A true tribunal being examined by an inquisitor whose face I spiritual experience must be accompanied by the visible could not see. He said, ‘You came from nothing and you transformation of the outward life… a commitment will return to nothing, so everything you do in between which must be continually renewed.’ is completely pointless.’ I was not allowed to answer but felt angry and confused. Of course, where I came from Laurie is a member of Maldon Meeting. is a mystery. We are stardust – but why? I do believe this life is the only one we have and that there is no after- This article first appeared in the Mid-Essex Area Meeting life. But I do not accept that, therefore, how I live my newsletter, issue 137, May–June 2013. Laurie’s story has life today is irrelevant. The purpose, surely, is to ‘love been added to the archives of the Religious Experience thy neighbour as thyself’; not in a narcissistic subject to Research Centre, which welcomes similar accounts.

the Friend, the Quaker way 9 Books Quaker Light – or Quaker-lite?

Jan Arriens reviews an important new book on Quakerism today

ex Ambler’s short book, The Quaker Way – a some Friends by our testimonies – whereas the latter rediscovery, contains the text of seven talks given should be about living our lives from a different place. to attenders at his own Meeting into ‘The Quaker We are no longer responding to the truth with an RWay of Doing Things’. The book provides a thoughtful open heart. He goes on from this to say, ‘But we don’t introduction to Quakerism, covering such topics as generally understand the inner life, the illumination finding the truth, looking for God and bearing witness. of our life by the Spirit, or the value of silent waiting, The talks also, however, developed for Rex into a without words’. These are, he feels, things we have to search into the Quaker Way itself. The ‘Way’ is seen in start learning and, indeed, teaching. two senses: the way we do things collectively, and the individual path we follow. Experiment with Light This instantly raises a tension, which runs throughout the book. The Quaker Way, as Rex notes, is different The Experiment with Light that Rex has been sharing and radical, as it is not based on official teaching, but with Friends provides a method for actively subjecting springs from inner conviction. The focus on the ‘doing’ our actions to the Light and the views of other may, however, obscure the need for inner spiritual Friends. Rex presents this more as an invitation than development. Perhaps the central point in the book is a prescription, but, even so, the implication running that we do not always grasp ‘how radical the Quaker through the book that the individual path is neglected vision is, how serious it is about letting go of beliefs and in present-day Quakerism leaves me a little uneasy. words, and trusting to the experience that comes through Why? Is it because I know I don’t measure up – that silence’. Living ‘in the Light’ means seeing ourselves and I feel more comfortable with Quaker-lite than Quaker the outside world as one thing; everything, as Rex says, Light? Or because I deeply value the way Quakerism is included and interconnected. It is this spring from doesn’t intrude into my own spiritual life, but sets the which our action arises – and it needs to be nurtured. stage and holds out an invitation? Probably both – but it’s a fundamental point. The individual path I think my difficulty stems from the fact that, in my experience, Friends do in fact have a well developed Instead, Rex contends, we tend to base our spiritual appreciation of the inner life. I would, for example, lives around Meeting for Worship, to the neglect of question whether, as Rex says, meditation has become the individual path. Our method of making decisions less important for Friends; the opposite may, in fact, be together is a practice that has been well preserved from true. Friends are also conscious of the range of other early times, but when it comes to matters of personal spiritual practices available to us (my Area Meeting, for decision, we are less well assured. The practice of example, will be holding a residential weekend next year meditation has, in his view, largely gone into abeyance; on precisely this topic). Geoffrey Hubbard once wrote we have lost the discipline we once had. Precisely because memorably that ‘we don’t make , we find them’. our authority comes from within, it is important for our In this sense, it could be said that those who ‘sign up’ to inner life to provide the necessary counterweight for Quakerism will necessarily have a private spiritual life us to live faithfully. Rex, though, sees a drift towards to match. Otherwise, Quakerism will not resonate for a reliance on beliefs and values, as now expressed for them.

10 the Friend, www.thefriend.org © The © The Tapestry Quaker Scheme. Detail of Quaker Tapestry panel: C4 Meeting Houses.

Individual spiritual practice concerned with orthodoxy, or at least conformity. The two are, of course, seamless: but are we comfortable with When it comes to individual spiritual practice, we each intrusion into the privacy of the individual? This lack of have our own ways of approaching the unknowable. emphasis on our individual spiritual lives is one reason What works for some does not work for others. why we are a wonderfully guilt-free organisation, and I Meditation can take different forms. As Rex himself profoundly hope that we will remain that way. says, some of us centre down privately by going for Rex cites early Friends, noting with approval their a walk or taking a bath. In my own case, I know that passion and discipline. There is certainly a marvellous meditation simply doesn’t work very well for me. In energy to be found there and maybe we do, indeed, not the early stages, it did, when I realised that what I was lead our lives out of the Light in the same way. But in seeking had been there all along. That realisation was trying to do so, it is as well to be careful. Ultimately, something I could take into everyday life. I may not there can also be something egotistical about seeking do so very well, but that awareness is a key part of my inner illumination (am I doing things right?) that can Quakerism, as I suspect it is for most of us. border on zealotry. Some of the early Friends were, I I am reminded of the maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who expect, pretty hard to take! was once asked how much time he set aside for On top of that, I feel we should not neglect the close meditation. He replied none at all; he went through life parallels with psychotherapy, which at its best is also in a permanent state of meditation. That to me is close concerned with getting in touch with our deeper self in a to our idea of not having any sacraments, as life itself is way that is always benevolent. Rex’s attractive image of a sacramental. ‘committee of selves’ engaged in a process of discernment So, as I see it, there are many techniques for fostering along the lines of a Business Meeting is very similar to the inner life, and there is a hint of ‘should’ about the subpersonalities one finds in, say, psychosynthesis. the book with which I don’t feel quite comfortable. I For me, one of the great strengths of modern liberal am aware of the astonishing range of charitable and Quakerism is that it is so non-prescriptive. Through compassionate activities in which Friends are involved, the shared silence and the example of faith in action in often unsung. Such action doesn’t spring from nowhere, other people’s lives, we are gently but insistently drawn or from a misapprehension of the testimonies as values back to examine our own inner lives. Rex would like us to which we should adhere. We operate out of a sense to do so more actively and has given us much food for of inner conviction, for which we find confirmation thought. through worshipping with other Friends. Jan is member of Southern Marches Area Meeting. The collective and the individual The Quaker Way – a rediscovery by Rex Ambler. In discussing the conflict between the collective and the Christian Alternative Books. ISBN: 978 1 78099 657 8. individual, Rex sees modern Quakerism as being about £11.99 or free with a new subscription to the Friend. the collective, whereas early Quakers were much more See the leaflet at page 20.

the Friend, the Quaker way 11 Quaker life The story of a Meeting

Jill Allum tells the story of Quakerism in Beccles

o you know the history of your Meeting? I have In the garden I dug up pieces of clay pipe and also lived in Beccles for over seventeen years, sixteen found glass photographic negatives. Using the census of them as co-warden with my husband Phil. records, I discovered that one of the first photographers DWe are privileged to have two rooms that can seat forty to come to Beccles cycled up from London and lived in people, a hall capable of accommodating one hundred the Quaker cottage in 1891. and twenty and a walled garden. It is the pride of our In 1890, George Fox, a doctor, and his wife Constance market town of ten thousand and a highly valued part had the vision to start an adult school. They were of the community. helped by Pakefield Friends, who came in wagons. How did it all begin? A nameplate from a coffin on There were already four adult schools in their area. the Meeting room wall says ‘Philip Sewell 1756’ though They were teaching men and women to read and write finding his will in the London Record Office shows that on Sundays, using the Bible, and this was so successful he died in 1759. Puzzle that out. He was a wealthy wool that by 1909 more classrooms were needed and, with merchant, living with Mary, in the building that is now money from Cadbury and Rowntree Funds and the a Lloyds Bank. His three small children had died, as we help of Wisbech Friends, the roof of the Meeting house know from the register of Quaker burials at Ipswich was jacked up and an upstairs built, plus our huge hall. Record Office, listed in the Worlingham burial ground. We have crockery with the ‘Handshake’ sign, spoons So, we sought the tithe map to find it. This burial with FDS or FFDS, books from 1922 and a shield for ground was full and Philip decided to buy a cottage and the bowls competition between the five adult schools. an orchard in the middle of Beccles, for burials and a Beccles was most often the winner! They gave money new Meeting house. Friends had been meeting since to build the new Beccles Hospital in 1924 and the sign 1670 in a rented room. Philip Sewell started a collection is on a plaque in the hospital corridor. and needed £184 in 1744! It is still our Meeting room. Our Quaker story An adult school In 1932 a few Quaker farmers were meeting south of The Meeting was closed by 1814 as there were only Beccles and we have found a minute of theirs. It is our four Friends. They transferred to Tivetshall Meeting most recent deposit into the Norfolk Record Office. near Diss and, by God’s guidance, the John Ashford, an adult school member, cycled to join wisely kept the property, letting it out as an infant school. them. John was planning to marry Kathleen Robson and bring her to live nearby. Kathleen was a birthright Our planet is round Friend from a strong Quaker family, going back to when we try turning our backs Marmaduke Stevenson, who was martyred at Boston. we come face to face John and Kathleen re-started Beccles Meeting in 1933. There had been over a hundred-year gap. Phil writes: (A quote by attender, Ian Sainsbury, ‘I am particularly grateful to the Friends who, for more used in a peace exhibition at Beccles Meeting) than one hundred years, kept faith that Meeting for Worship would start again in the Meeting house.’

12 the Friend, www.thefriend.org Photo: John Hall. Photo: John

We know that Quaker archive material is of three ‘Are there any Quakers here? I’ve come from Australia.’ types from the Friends House Library Committee Well, of course, I jumped up and began a friendship book, Your Meeting’s Records. Type one is the minutes with Nancy Ayton, who was visiting the Gildencroft our clerk makes at Business Meeting and the elders’ Quaker Burial Ground in Norwich to add her father’s and overseers’ minutes. Type two is firsthand journals name to his grave. Johnny Acorn (John Ayton) was a and other writings and the third type tells the story of prominent member of Beccles Meeting in the 1940s. He the Meeting in photos of events and people. Over our kept bees and was known as the ‘Bee Man’. He was very sixteen years as wardens, we collected many of type much loved by Friends. three and used them in our large hall to tell the people of Beccles our Quaker story. Our garden is a walkway The album of stamps from car parks to shops. The many folk who come through pick up a little Quaker ambience and I find When Ian Ashford died and his house was cleared by a myself telling our Quaker story again and again. Pakefield Friend, Richard Crozier, an album of stamps, intricately made by Ian, was found. These have stunned Renewing friendships us. (see story page 20). Amazing Quakers! Quaker Week each year is an ideal opportunity to I love coincidences. John and Kathleen’s son, Ian, said tell our story. People love to see photos of Quaker as we were moving in, ‘Coincidences happen when the weddings, to hear how we do funerals and to learn our Spirit is with you,’ and that has certainly been true. We peace story. One year we had a peace exhibition and all have a photo of a three-year-old at camp in the Ashford hirers, churches and town groups joined in. Polish and field. Someone came to Meeting and said, ‘That’s me!’ German Friends wrote their stories. Children lit night- and renewed a friendship that led her to publish John’s lights and people made their own peace stickers. The diary and correspondence from Berlin, Prague and local Catholic priest visited the exhibition and wrote Vienna in 1938 and 1939 – Travelling Towards War by about it in his column in the local paper saying ‘I was Vanessa Morton. overwhelmed by what I discovered.’ One Thursday morning recently, in the teeming rain, So many wonderful people. So many stories. We can I was under a rose bush pruning it. Cold and wet, I went only be full of gratitude that we have such a story to tell. into the Meeting room to the coffee morning. In came someone in a long black macintosh, equally wet, saying, Jill is a member of Beccles Meeting.

the Friend, the Quaker way 13 Talking point Founding fathers

‘One morning, as I was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over me, and a temptation beset me; but I sat still. And it was said, “All things come by nature”; and the elements and stars came over me so that I was in a manner quite clouded with it. … And as I sat still and let it alone, a living hope arose in me, and a true voice, which said, ‘There is a living God who made all things.’ And, immediately, the cloud and temptation vanished away, and life rose over it all, and my heart was glad, and I praised the living God.

And after some time, I met with some people who had such a notion that there was no God but that all things came by nature. And I had great dispute with them and overturned them and made some of them confess that there was a living God. Then I saw that it was good that I had gone through that exercise.’ (Journal of George Fox, Nickalls edition p25)

Rachel Britton argues that Friends should be more careful in claiming their ‘founding fathers’

hat is ‘truth’, said jesting Pilate – and he had a I think not. A postmodernist uses ‘history’ purely point. Many today would say there is no such as a source of material that can be presented as thing as ‘the truth’ about anything. There is propaganda for spreading a desired attitude. Wjust what someone chooses to say about it. That is a The material can be twisted and distorted as much post-modernist position. as necessary for that purpose, because, allegedly, I am reading The Postmodern History Reader edited whatever form it is cast in was so cast because it suited by Keith Jenkins. Postmodern history is a curious somebody. If a group will keep valuing and referring to phenomenon because its ‘thesis’ is that there is no such a tradition that doesn’t suit me, then tradition can be thing as history, and no thesis about history is justified. reshaped to my liking. So why, thinks the bewildered reader, bother publishing Science could not operate like that. Yes, any received or reading either history or this particular ‘thesis’? scientific ‘truth’ is only partial, and will be subject to further evidence and new theories. But woe be it to the Friends of Truth scientist who deliberately bends the evidence to suit his case. To come to our little group, who were once known as We can, I hope, treat our tradition like that. We won’t Friends of Truth, and one of whose recognised qualities get it right, in the sense of seeing exactly what the early was always their honesty in word and deed, how do we, Quakers felt and understood. But we can do our best how can we, regard truth today? In particular, must all to be fair and follow the evidence, such as it is. We will assertions about Quaker history be allowed to pass, on see different things, as we look with different passions the grounds that any assertion anyone chooses to make and personalities, but so long as we write what we do is as good as any other, and equally far from what really genuinely see, we can learn from each other. Once we was the case? descend into propaganda, we’ve had it.

14 the Friend, www.thefriend.org © The © The Tapestry Quaker Scheme. Detail of Quaker Tapestry panel: D1 George Fox: Lichfield, Pendle Hill.

Propaganda Gerard Winstanley

So, it grieves me to see in Quaker publications pieces Gerard Winstanley may have once met two of that, at least, come very close to propaganda. I think, the ‘Valiant Sixty’ in London, and maybe he was particularly, of pieces by nontheist writers using wildly buried ‘after the manner of Friends’ (he was also a eccentric and unreasonable twists on churchwarden in the Church of England seventeenth century history to show the There was no for several years), but he nowhere figures founding fathers of Quakerism as in their as contributing to Quaker life via letters, camp. A Friend has written, in this vein, single European pamphlets, friendships or ministry. He that Quakers have understood from their movement of has no entry in Quaker faith & practice, founding days that the dichotomy between and never has had, as far as I know. He God and man is meaningless. But Fox, religious radicals gets one mention in the Additional Notes who took his hat off to nobody, took it off section of William Braithwaite’s history to God in prayer (and see the starting quotation). The of the early period of Quakerism, and that is among statement is simply false. other non-Quaker contemporaries. So, the fact that The writer wraps George Fox and up Winstanley was an atheist at one time seems hardly with Winstanley and Spinoza as part of ‘the European relevant to how we regard the early Quaker tradition. movement of religious radicals’, and then gives a David Boulton, similarly, uses Winstanley as a paragraph each to Winstanley and Spinoza, both of Quaker founding father (‘On Rethinking God’, The whom did, at least at times, see man and god, or god and Friends Quarterly, Spring 2008), with the same nature, as the same. The four then turn into ‘the brilliant intention of showing early Quakers as of one mind heretics who were our founders’. Not so. There was no with modern nontheists. single European movement of religious radicals – there If a false statement is printed and circulated often were dozens of disparate radical groups shouting at enough, people believe it. Could we please, dear Friends, each other. There were Ranters, who thought they were stick to the genuine founding fathers? god, and could therefore do just as they liked. They had heated disputes with Quakers precisely because of that. Spinoza had nothing to do with the Quakers, apart Rachel is a member of Southern East Anglia Area from a correspondence with Margaret Fell. Meeting.

the Friend, the Quaker way 15 Books Universe as Revelation

Harvey Gillman is refreshed by a new Quaker book on the sacred and divine

omeone once wrote that Friends are obsessed with faithfulness… lies precisely in our ability to embrace history, which we share, rather than with theology uncertainty, to live in the confidence that there is about which we disagree. This may help in an underlying patterning to existence from which Sattracting the attention of historians, but is not helpful nothing, not even death (the ego’s terror of oblivion) in describing what Quakers have to offer society today. can ever truly separate us.’ It reminded me of Paul of What canst thou say? (typically formulated in our Tarsus’ conviction that nothing can separate us from beloved archaic phraseology) is still the challenge – the love of God (Romans 8: 38-39) but stated in a to which I would add the small word ‘today’. A new language which may well speak to some more than the book by Jo Farrow and Alex Wildwood, Universe as original text. Revelation: an ecomystical theology for Friends, has been What struck me in the book was precisely this some time in gestation but faces this question fully and keen attention given to language, its creativity and its squarely. I really cannot recommend it too much. limitations. There is a demand for reclamation of some It is so refreshing to read a text so full of passion, vital concepts such as grace, glory and sacrament, yet conviction and honesty. It combines reflection on at the same time a recognition that authenticity arises personal experience with a study of recent discoveries from a deepened awareness of personal experience, by cosmologists, mystics, poets and ecologists. Above which needs to find its own language. The authors are all, it dares to speak about the sacred and the divine in not afraid of presenting this dilemma without offering ways that build bridges and communicate revelation facile solutions. Again, the combination of passionate rather than recreating religious ghettoes of exclusivity or commitment and keen intelligence on the part both collapsing mystery into a desiccated secularism that has of Jo and of Alex reflects the book’s thesis that the no time for soul or spirit. It combines new revelation spiritual life is one of holistic creativity. with the need to re-examine ancestral wisdom. If there are two main voices, a whole communion There are two main voices in this book: Jo’s is that of other saints present their own perspectives on what of a woman who, in a number of ways, has always Alex calls our task of ‘being present to Reality itself challenged the orthodoxies of her day: questioning as sacred’. These saints are not just from a Quaker or those who fear the growth of individualism, lamenting Christian background, but from a number of different the golden period of a (perhaps mythical) Quaker past, religious and wisdom traditions. So, we are offered here and pointing out that George Fox himself was one a banquet of thoughts and insights and, though the of the greatest individualists Friends have produced. book is quite short (166 pages of text), it will need time There is a physicality in her writing that I find to digest. It is a fit meal for the enquiring guest at the attractive, a physicality that needs reclaiming from a Quaker table and also for those of us who still believe tradition overburdened by a matter-denying Platonism that Friends can offer a wholesome and stimulating that turns its back on the world. At the same time she repast capable of nurturing the human condition. avoids an unthinking ‘let’s celebrate everything’ naiveté by reflecting on absence and darkness and on the need Harvey is a member of Brighton Meeting. for hard work and discipline in taking responsibility for our spiritual development. Universe as Revelation: an ecomystical theology for Alex also is the prophet. I found his chapter ‘Faith Friends by Jo Farrow and Alex Wildwood. Peter Daniels in Transition’ particularly moving. His ‘The Call to Publisher Services. ISBN: 9780955618376. £9.50.

16 the Friend, www.thefriend.org Outreach issue draft ads 24/9/13 9:18 Page 1

Creating peace in a violent world All are welcome at our annual conference Friday 23rd - Sunday 25th May 2014 Woodbrooke Quaker Centre, Birmingham The Universalist approach to the spiritual life provides paths to peace. For Quakers and others, hope should be focussed here and now, in this world. What kind of practice might this involve us in? In this event we will explore peace from a Universalist perspective, a peace that is grounded in our own lives. We will be guided throughout the conference by David The Quaker Gee, author of Holding Faith - Creating peace in a violent world, available at the Quaker Centre Bookshop. Universalist Group Speakers include: David Gee, Peter Tatchell and Prof. Ljiliana Bogoeva-Sedlar. Information and booking forms in the current Universalist Universalists uphold and magazine, via our website www.qug.org.uk, by email to encourage one another in our [email protected] or by post: Kelvin Beer-Jones, approach to the spiritual life. 10 Buccleuch Close, Dunchurch CV22 6QB. Cost £190 or £180 if booked by 1 January. 50 places.

the Friend, the Quaker Way 17 Opinion Truth, integrity or both?

Dorothy Searle writes about two essential words in Quaker life Photo: Angelo Cesare / flickr CC. Angelo Cesare / flickr Photo:

or many years, Quaker Testimony was normally Integrity, the antithesis of hypocrisy and often expressed in four words: Simplicity, Truth, Equality described as a lack of double standards, is something and Peace. I feel these words were very well which Quakers have always valued. It is an attempt Fchosen. They express ideals that pre-date all forms of to match our behaviour with what we believe. It has human moral code and which have never been under many aspects, a few of which are truth-telling, honesty human control. We can aspire to them and try to live in all forms of dealing with others and the willingness our lives in accordance with them, but we don’t own to risk stating unpopular but carefully-considered them. I find these words a helpful alternative to a creed. views. It had various consequences in the early However, it has become more and more common years, some of which, such as the success of Quaker to modify them, or even replace them, by other businesses that the public trusted, were welcome, but words. Personally, I value ‘Truth’ the most and shall others, like official persecution, were not. confine myself to that. I leave the rest for others to We still claim that integrity is a major principle and consider. Whether ‘Truth’ has a capital ‘T’ or not is one that we try to live up to, but we sometimes seem unimportant to me – Truth is truth – but I do accept to leave integrity behind when dealing with each other. that a lower-case ‘t’ is sometimes used in a context A report in the Friend of Meeting for Sufferings, earlier where it is intended to mean a human expression or this year, quoted one of the speakers, who spoke in a understanding of truth. light-hearted manner, as saying: ‘There are two things To me, ‘Truth’ is ‘That which is’. There is no way we we all recognise. Where two or three Quakers gather can know it in total and no one right way of looking – there will be five or six opinions. And “If I am not at it. It is something that inspires awe and curiosity of involved – then somebody is up to something!”’ the most wonderful kind – a useful metaphor for the I recognise the accuracy of the first statement, Reality that many people call ‘God’. The old title for but am concerned about the second, even if spoken Quakers, ‘Friends of the Truth’, resonates well with me, in humour. If we claim to be well-acquainted with as it suggests that truth was there first and we need to integrity then, surely, that should include recognising be the ones who should make a relationship with it. and trusting the integrity of others. I had come There is no way we can own or draw boundaries across a few examples of this lack of trust among around truth; it comes from ‘beyond’, not from Quakers, but had assumed that what I had seen was humanity. The expressions ‘our truth’ and ‘your truth’ the temporary bad behaviour of individuals, not seem to be meaningless. The usual word added to something so well-known that it merits a joke. But modify (or replace) ‘Truth’ is ‘Integrity’, which to me ‘many a true word is spoken in jest’, so perhaps we is a human response to truth. We choose to make this should take that statement as a wake-up call. While response and, of course, we should, but surely it bears ‘Truth’ and ‘Integrity’ are very different in kind, both the same sort of relationship to truth as such things as are essential parts of Quaker lives. ‘accuracy’, ‘lack of prejudice’ and ‘humility of thought’ – all appropriate responses, but not truth itself. Dorothy is a member of Southampton Meeting.

18 the Friend, www.thefriend.org Outreach issue draft ads 24/9/13 9:18 Page 2

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Looking for a worthwhile Visually activity this Christmas? impaired? Volunteer with Quaker Homeless Action for the Get the audio version of Quaker Christmas Shelter 23–30 December 2013 the Friend and other Union Chapel, Islington Quaker publications from www.talkingfriends.org.uk • Many different skills required, including cooking, cleaning and listening! • The New Volunteers’ training day is Saturday 7th December at or call Alan Johnson Union Chapel (an alternative date may be available). 0121 476 0217 • The Shift Leaders’ training day is Saturday 16th November. • Accommodation for out-of-town volunteers may be provided. • Volunteer ages range from 18 years to 98 years old. QUAKER QUEST • Differing physical abilities required. How to Volunteer Publications for Outreach To take part, please download a Being a Quaker letter, application form and A guide for newcomers declaration form from our website: Ideal for a gift or presentation www.QHA.org.uk ••••• Alternatively, if you need a form What every seeker needs: by post, please call Kate Mellor Twelve Quakers and Truth on 07880 807718 or email or others in s series of nine [email protected] Both available from the Quaker Centre Bookshop: 020 7663 1030 How to make a donation Quaker Homeless Action is funded by Quakers. If you would like to QUAKER CONCERN make a donation to help fund the Quaker Christmas Shelter, or one of our other projects, please send cheques and FOR THE ABOLITION charity vouchers payable to Quaker OF TORTURE Homeless Action to our treasurer: Chris Wallace, QHA Treasurer, OUR VISION: 11 Wilberforce Road, London NW9 6BA Alternatively, you can give online at A World www.LocalGiving.com by searching for Quaker Homeless Action Q-CAT Free of Torture Thank you! www.q-cat.org.uk Registered charity no. 1041921.

the Friend, the Quaker Way 19 Art Stamp Hall. photographs: John The stamp man an Ashford was a Beccles Friend who, eight of these tiny gems. All had been like many Quakers, had an interesting individually designed and meticulously hobby. In his case it was a passion. hand-coloured by Ian. IHe loved stamps. His passion, however, Many different subjects were represented was not to collect them but to design in the stamps – from fish and flowers to and make them. When Ian died, Richard fungi and minerals. Ian also created his Crozier, a Pakefield Friend, cleared his own countries, languages and currency. house. His collection was a labour of love and is, While sorting out Ian’s belongings today, a lovely reminder for Quakers in Richard made a fascinating discovery: a Beccles of their Friend Ian Ashford. beautiful album of handmade stamps. The album contained one hundred and thirty- Trish Carn is sub-editor of the Friend.

20 the Friend, www.thefriend.org Outreach issue draft ads 24/9/13 9:18 Page 3

Please join us More than 3,000 prisoners are currently held on Death Row in the USA, living in harsh and isolated conditions. Letters from penfriends are often their only contact with the outside world in these final years of their lives. Human Writes is an internationally respected humanitarian organisation befriending prisoners on Death Row in the USA through letter writing. In the words of a prisoner "What you bring us is the fact that someone cares, no matter where we are in this world." If you would like to know more about joining our organisation or becoming a penfriend, please send an SAE to Human Writes, 4 Lacey Grove, Wetherby, West Yorks, LS22 6RL, e-mail [email protected] or visit our website at www.humanwrites.org Charney Manor Programme 2014 January 24-26 Power from whence life comes Gerald Hewitson February 7-9 An introduction to ‘Experiment with Light’ Susie Tombs & Barbara Childs March 7-9 Quaker images of childhood Margaret Crompton April 11-13 Quaker Saints and Sinners Gil Skidmore May13-15 Quakers and the Arts & Crafts Movement Roger Homan & Ben Pink Dandelion May 19-23 Experiencing Shakespeare (includes plays at Stratford) John Lampen July 18-20 Writing the Seasons Eleanor Nesbitt July 18-20 Looking in–Looking Out; creative painting and/or drawing Jane McDonald July 21 – 25 Experiencing Oxford (Monday–Friday) Gillian Peaston September 5-7 Finding out about Quakers: an event for enquirers September 12-14 Reality and Radiance: a retreat inspired by the life & witness of Emilia Fogelkou Julia Ryberg October 3-5 A weekend with Jane Austen John Crompton October 14-16 Quakers at the Movies Ben Pink Dandelion November 14-16 “Then folk do long to go on pilgrimage” Harvey Gillman All events £176 (deposit £76) except Experiencing Shakespeare and Experiencing Oxford which are £480 (deposit £240). Bursaries up to 50% available (one per person per year) except for Experiencing Shakespeare and Experiencing Oxford. Charney Manor, Charney Bassett Wantage, Oxfordshire OX12 0EJ www.charneymanor.com For further details of our events, or to enquire about booking the Manor or The Gilletts as venues, contact our manager Gill Peaston on 01235 868206 or email [email protected] Charney Manor is a registered charity, no. 237267

the Friend, the Quaker Way 21 Outreach issue draft ads 24/9/13 9:18 Page 4

Friends&Meetings CHILTERNS QUAKER PROGRAMME NQW BANBURY FRIENDS’ 2ND Deaths The changing nature of Quaker SUSTAINABILITY FORUM Testimony, Wednesday 2 October, Oliver Tickell, Sarah Staunton-Lamb, Marion MORTON 11 September. 7-9.30pm. Ben Pink Dandelion. Listen, Paul Mobbs and Steve Mandel. Wife of Andrew, mother of Maddy, engage, debate this central aspect of the 3 October: 6.30pm Light Buffet; Michael, Christopher and Julie. Member Quaker Way. All welcome, suggested 7.30pm Talks/Discussion. Oxford & of Central Edinburgh Meeting. Aged 78. donation £10. Jordans FMH, HP9 2SN. Cherwell Valley College, Banbury Marion's life was celebrated at Warris- Enquiries 01494 876594. OX16 9QA. Jane Burn 01869 277770. ton Crematorium on 21 September. www.banburyeveshamquakers.org.uk EQUAL MARRIAGE–WHAT NEXT? Rosemarie SHEPHERD 16 September. Quaker Lesbian and Gay Fellowship PLAIN QUAKERS PRESENT Peacefully at home. Widow of John. Gathering, 11am Saturday 12 October, 29 September, 2.30pm, Glebe House Aged 91. Meeting/cremation details Cardiff FMH. Speaker: Juliet Prager, CB21 4QH. Nine Parts a Quaker – email: [email protected] BYM’s Deputy Recording Clerk. £15 Unfinished Business? Thomas Clarkson members, £18 others. All welcome. - the abolition of the slave trade. Trevor WALDMEYER 15 September Register: Paul Campion 020 7987 7259 Tickets tel 01223 845142. (Donation at home in Maidstone. Father of John or Gill Coffin 0121 449 3967 or email £10 Cambridge Central Aid). (deceased), Grace Hunter, Susan Clarke [email protected] and Richard. Aged 101. The funeral QPNWA AFRICA CONSULTATION will be at Maidstone Crematorium at EVENTS AT JESUS LANE FMH, at TinDarin, Rokel, Sierra Leone 2pm Thursday 10 October. CAMBRIDGE CB5 8BA Midweek 2–8 March 2014. Why “Integrity” Meeting for Worship: Wednesday Matters in the Prevention of Conflict. Diary 2 October, 1.15–1.45pm. (Soup/cheese Host: Quaker Peace Network West lunch 12.30). Illustrated talk: A Quaker’s Africa (QPNWA) For information con- Adventures in Bolivia, Thursday tact Abdul Kamara: 01249 321104; TOWARDS A QUAKER BANK What 3 October, 7.45pm. (Quaker Service/ email: [email protected] could a new Quaker bank do for you? Study Tour of Bolivia). What do you want its products to be? 'QUAKER CONNECTIONS' ART Come and influence its evolution. EXHIBITION Now entering its second Quakers & Business Group Day COPIES OF THIS SPECIAL ISSUE glorious week at Street Quaker Meeting Conference, 13 November, Friends are available at £10 for 10 copies (until Oct 6th). Vibrant textiles, ceram- House. Info/booking: www.qandb.org incl. UK postage. Call 020 7663 1178. ics, oils, watercolours, photography and embroidery - plus lovely teas! Details and times: www.quakersatstreet.org.uk

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