Being the change

David Mowat reports on a Quaker weekend in Kortenberg

by David Mowat 23rd November 2012

A once-opulent eighteenth century abbey house stands apart from the town, its hall-guarding grandfather clock filling every space with its chimes. Outside it’s been a rain-threatening two days with mush underfoot. Leaves hang dejected. Inside my head the dog-eat-dog world of competing religions enters through a book on Jerusalem’s history, read during my long train journey. It’s a filter to my experience of the Europe and Middle East Section (EMES-FWCC) weekend at Kortenberg, in Belgium, whose theme was ‘Being the change we want to see in the world’.