Broadening community

Andrew Backhouse writes about a lively regional gathering

How is your community doing? What is your community? Is it just your Local Meeting, or perhaps a neighbouring one too? The old Lancashire and Cheshire General Meeting still organises regional gatherings to broaden our community, deepen our understandings and have fun. I look forward to the next one already.

This autumn East Cheshire Area Meeting hosted the North West Regional Gathering at Wilmslow on
5 November for about 140 people – including twenty-four teenagers at Teenage General Meeting, and children too. They came from Oswestry to Nelson, Bangor to Buxton. I was particularly pleased to see a couple who have been asking me lots of questions about Quakers and peace at Liverpool Meeting House, as it is their chance to meet a lot more Friends.

The gathering was entitled ‘Quaker responses to violence and war: from protest to engagement’ and started with a talk on conscientious objectors in the first world war. The talk was interesting to me, but some of the young people said: ‘What was all that about?’ We had assumed they would know so much history already and linked it to the present day, but they said they had been a bit lost. Then we moved into workshops, including discussions, creative things, a puppet show and singing, and these lifted spirits rather more. Some of us learnt about the government’s ‘Prevent’ agenda – the pros and cons. Others did more on peace education in schools.

After lunch the teenagers escaped into the town whilst John and Diana Lampen inspired others of us with a talk. What simple and yet incredibly challenging things Quakers are still doing today. Back for more workshops – and a plenary with a big difference.

Do you get puppet shows at your Quaker gatherings? We had Mr Punch being persuaded by the politicians to give his shop-ping money to help buy Trident nuclear missiles – and then he and the politicians were sorted out by Mrs Punch!

When was the last world premiere performed at your Meeting? Taylor Giacoma, one of our very talented local Quaker musicians, has written a wonderfully moving piece of music called ‘Cowards’. It is based on six poems from the anthology Worn with Pride – poetry written by local pupils aged thirteen and fourteen. We heard its first performance using local teenagers, including some of our own. When will the Quaker Festival Orchestra and Choir get a chance at this?

As to the anthology, Worn with Pride, the Area Meeting engaged John Lindley, a local poet, to lead workshops in secondary schools. The complete book of these is a testament to the pupils’ enthusiasm and their insights into the difficult concept of the dilemmas and choices in war. The publication is now on sale in the Quaker Centre Bookshop at Friends House, London. What good things an Area Meeting can get up to!

So, another great day to see one another’s faces, to learn, be inspired, and grow.

---

Comments

Please login to add a comment