Eye - 07 September 2012
From delightful discoveries to an attender's first time in Meeting
Delightful discovery
Eye’s literary challenge prompted Gerard Benson to write in with word of a warm, sympathetic portrait of a Quaker librarian in James Joyce’s Ulysses.
‘He’s quite a minor character but, like many of Joyce’s minor characters, beautifully drawn. He’s bald with large ears and moves as if he’s dancing. He says at one point: “All sides of life should be represented”. The author adds: “He smiled on all sides equally.” At another point he says of the quaker librarian (never a capital Q) “…he talked with voluble pains of zeal, in duty bound, most fair, most kind, most honest broadbrim”. He’s a truly delightful character.’
Alternatives
This week we have a clutch of possibilities from Sally Mason, Forest of Dean Meeting:
- Creative listening: Quaker game in which new sections of Advices & queries are made by Friends sitting in a circle and ‘chaining’ one word at a time. For example: ‘Consider… prayerfully… ways… in… which… Meeting… House… benches… may… be… put… to… exciting… and… innovative… though… dangerous… and… destructive… uses.’
- Gospel order: Annual request form for handy pocket size copies of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
- Dots and commas committee: Set up in the wake of Lynne Truss’s Eats, Shoots and Leaves to monitor and improve Friends’ use of grammar.
Peace and dedication
Peace is a process, the 1993 Swarthmore Lecture by the late Sydney Bailey, has been translated into Japanese by the dedicated efforts of Kazuko Kagami and Satoshiko Kay Koide, of Japan Yearly Meeting, who write:
‘We hope many Japanese Quakers and people who wish to be pacfists and would like knowing real peace… and how we should work for it today in the world, [will read this book].’
The translation was done by volunteers at the YWCA in Tokyo. The book was then edited and published by the Yearly Meeting publishing committee.
First time in Meeting
Listen to the new attender
quaking near the outer door.
‘Should I leave or should I enter?
Help me Lord, I can’t be sure.
Heard these Quakers sit in silence
maybe for a whole long hour
seeking something from their worship
finding in themselves some power.
Shall I try it out this morning?
can my stillness last so long?
can I learn without a sermon?
can I worship without song?
Heard that Quakers have no vicar
deacon, pastor, priest or nun.
So who checks on what they’re thinking?
who decides how things are run?
Heard they travel down to London
where they meet for suffering.
Are they forced to undergo this?
Sounds a rather dangerous thing!
Someone’s standing in the entrance
“Welcome Friend and do come in.”
Well I’ll see what happens to me
worshipping will soon begin.
Here’s a seat in that dark corner
tucked away beside the wall.
If I take it I can hide there
quietly joining with them all.
Well, the hour’s gone by so quickly
Ministry it spoke to me.
Peace and love and understanding,
followed by a cup of tea.
Maybe here I’ll find an answer
growing stronger day by day
finding faith from deep inside me
seeking for a better way.’
Jane Robinson
