Anna Bidder quote. Photo: Quaker faith & practice 21.08.
Eye - 05 June 2015
From magpies to memories
Magpies in the moment
These words by Anna Bidder (Quaker faith & practice 21.08) prompted Vivien Whitaker, of Mansfield Meeting, to ask: ‘How often do we think of serving our Meeting as spiritual self-development?’
Vivien then told Eye about recent reflections in her Local Meeting: ‘After Meeting for Worship at Mansfield (26 April) we shared our experiences of being “open to the Light” during the past week.’
A number of Friends spoke of their activities in relation to the new Quaker Heritage Trail in the town – from being interviewed to unveiling the plaque naming those once buried in the Meeting’s old burial ground. Vivien writes: ‘Representing Mansfield Quakers took all of them beyond their “comfort zones” and enhanced their commitment to the Society of Friends and our worshipping community.’
Mansfield Friends have now registered the Meeting house for the Heritage Open Weekend in September and offered to facilitate the Area Meeting residential weekend in 2016 – for the first time in twenty years.
‘Our commitment is for these projects not to be burdens but to be done in a way that helps us to get to know each other in those things which are eternal.
‘We are “magpies” living in the moment, open to being useful and being transformed by our experiences.’
Helping hands
An act of kindness to new families in one Local Meeting moved a Friend to contact Eye.
Two months after giving birth, she writes: ‘Our family’s resources feel a bit stretched, we’ve eaten up the things I had put in the freezer for after the birth and are still adjusting to our new family member.’
She was in for a heartwarming surprise when a member of her Local Meeting arranged to pop round for a cup of tea: ‘She brought with her four carrier bags full of convenience food and treats – chocolate, rice cakes, nut butters, pasta, biscuits, crackers, cereal, bath bubbles – all kinds of things. And a handmade card saying it was “with love from Meeting”.
‘Apparently they aim to do this for the family of any new baby in the Meeting. It’s such a kind and thoughtful gesture and very much appreciated by us.’
Friends remembered
On the sunny spring Saturday of 16 May, forty people – consisting of friends from the village of Blewbury and Friends from Local Meetings – gathered to mark the unveiling of a memorial stone near the site of the former Meeting house in Blewbury, Oxfordshire.
The memorial stone was arranged by Oliver Ashford, a long-time Blewbury resident and former clerk of Geneva Meeting, who felt that there should be a permanent record of the burial ground, Meeting house and Friends who worshipped there between 1668 and 1760 (see Eye 17 April, ‘Past Quakers remembered’).
