Building further
Siw Wood reports on the Meeting of Friends in Wales held on 24 June
Soon it will be a quarter of a century since the Meeting of Friends in Wales (MFW) began – and Friends will be celebrating at our Meeting in October, calling to mind the achievements of those years, and working on how to build further. In the sunshine at Brecon, in the Subud Hall beside the canal, there was a cheerful, busy Meeting of Friends from all over Wales.
All the business of reports, appointments, nominations and invitations have to be dealt with, but the MFW is wide and broad in its remit and outlook. The timetable of Wales is unlike that of the rest of the UK: we work to the Urdd Eisteddfod in May, the Royal Welsh Show in July, the National Eisteddfod in August – we have a presence through Cytûn: Churches Together in Wales.
We have also had a Quaker lecturer at the National Eisteddfod two years running. Last year Gethin Evans gave a lecture on ‘John Edward Southall, English Quaker and Adopted Welshman’, which will be given again, but in English this time, at Britain Yearly Meeting Gathering this summer. This year’s lecturer will be Huw Meredydd Owen, an architect and designer. The title is ‘Yr Eiliad, yr Awr, a’r Twll yn y Tô’ (‘The Moment, the Hour and the Hole in the Roof’), which, in part, refers to the new ‘Hole’ in the Large Meeting Room roof at Friends House in London. The lecture is on the Eisteddfod field in Anglesey, on 9 August, with simultaneous interpretation into English.
We were linked, too, with the world outside Wales, through greetings brought from Netherlands Yearly Meeting; through the report from Cytûn of links and friendships with other churches, other faiths and other countries; and with the report on how Welsh Friends helped with the Quaker presence at the Hay-on-Wye book festival.
We have a slot at each meeting for hearing about work done in Wales and this time saw a presentation on the ‘Friends of Monze’ project, which is now a concern of Bridgend Local Meeting. The project was begun by Deana Owen, a retired health worker and member of the Meeting, who was out in Zambia and saw the needs there.
This quiet, ongoing work is bringing life and help to some of the poorest in a region with poor land, a lack of water, drought and very limited educational facilities. The project has already built two schools and a third is going up; they are working on education, health, sustainable food growing and drilling for fresh water. They help provide school equipment, teachers, solar panels, sanitation and agricultural advice. Bridgend is not a large meeting.
Our afternoon speaker was Jessica Metheringham, Britain Yearly Meeting’s parliamentary engagement officer, an interesting choice in the light of recent political events. Her talk was called: ‘Politics: where next? What do we do, and say, and to whom do we say it?’
Often power is spread among many people, and it can be fruitful to find out who is the most appropriate to approach, be it a council member, an Area Meeting or an MP – or to spread one’s efforts among a group of people. We were encouraged to put things in words that would be appreciated by that person, putting of yourself in their shoes and finding common ground, whilst remaining true to yourself. The dilemmas were well illustrated by a values game, where we had to decide how we would respond to different and sometimes difficult practical and moral choices.
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