A New Forest reunion

Anthony Woolhouse discusses Friends and friendships

In 2013 a group of Friends completed the two-year Equipping for Ministry course at Woodbrooke and, since then, have formed a community that continues to grow.

During the course four years ago Linda Eide, who is a Norwegian Quaker, stated that as there were so few Quakers in Norway it would be good if we could travel as a group to encourage her fellow Norwegian Quakers.

So, our first visit, as a group, was to Bergen in Norway. We met Norwegian Quakers and shared their outdoor activities by climbing up the side of mountains or, as the Norwegians say: foothills. As with our future visits, we shared food, worshipped together and listened to each other in the way that people who know each other in the deepest sense can do.

A year later we met in North Wales, where Catherine James was our Equipping for Ministry host. We walked the local Quaker trail, discovered that a large number of Welsh Quakers emigrated to America, and found the ruined house of a Friend who had walked several times to Yearly Meeting in London. We had a Meeting for Worship in a chapel that started life as a Quaker Meeting house. The first ministry was in Welsh but, happily, a translation in English followed.

A year later we met in Cornwall, where two of our Equipping for Ministry colleagues live: Wendy Franklin and Jude Whitby. We met at the historic Meeting house of Come-to-Good. We saw Wendy’s beautiful terraced garden opposite her house, which she is gradually reclaiming and extending, and enjoyed the proximity of the sea. We decided to meet at Woodbrooke the following year and it was good to be back there.

This year the group came in September to the New Forest, where I was the host. We met in the New Milton Meeting House twice, as we think it important to share concerns and experiences. The Equipping for Ministry group sustains each other, listens carefully to each other and offers help where needed. We joined the Meeting for Worship on Sunday, with the result that the Meeting house was full and extra chairs had to be found. We spent time at my ‘ecohouse’, where my wife Katrina, who is a Christian Scientist, was able to add further spiritual help, advice and religious insights, as well as a formidable vegetarian feast. It was good to share food together.

In the afternoon we visited the New Forest. It rained a lot. However, the atmosphere of the trees was strongly spiritual. We also visited West Solent Solar Cooperative’s solar farm. The sun shone and the solar railway worked all the time we were there. We spent time planning our next reunion and hope that those who were prevented from attending this time will be able to come. We are a Quaker community and we support each other.

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