Eye - 10 November 2023

From Oaty outreach to Inventive insertions

Oaty outreach

Eye’s exploration of ‘The porridge peculiarity’ (22 September) prompted one trusty reader to pay extra attention to a certain cereal producer’s advertising.

Meg Hill, of Preston Patrick Meeting, writes: ‘Following the piece in Eye about Quaker Oats I was amused to see an advert on television whose punchline was “Feed the Fire Inside”.

‘Intrigued, I looked up some more of their statements about their product and found “Fill your life with goodness that inspires great days” and “At Quaker, our fire inside is driven by a desire to set the foundations for a better future”. Perhaps we should ask them to do more outreach for us?’

Positivity in print

Christine McNeill, of Lisburn Monthly Meeting, has shone the spotlight on a recent mention of Quakers in Country Life magazine.

On 4 October ‘Town Mouse’ penned a piece about a trip to Cornwall, during which they attend a Quaker marriage.

They wrote: ‘The wedding itself was a Quaker ceremony – held in silence with members of the congregation speaking as the spirit moved them – and proved exceptionally moving. Everyone witnessed the wedding certificate with babies making their thumbprint in place of a signature. There were Cornish pasties on the pier to follow and then a magical boat trip to the wedding breakfast across a completely calm sea.’

Christine told Eye: ‘To capitalise on this piece of favourable publicity, I submitted a letter to the editor. It was rather too wordy. However, trimmed by the editor, it was chosen and printed as Star Letter of the week, 18 October, winning a bottle of champagne. As a teetotaller, I won’t have qualms about cleaning the sink with the Pol Roger.’

In her star letter, Christine shared how her and her husband’s Quaker wedding went down with one relative in particular: ‘In our romantic naivety, we assumed my husband’s formidable aunt would be thrilled to be at our wedding. How we chuckle as we recall her scathing comment – she brands our simple Quaker ceremony “a poor sort of a do”!’

In her original letter, which Christine kindly shared with Eye, she also shared the special place their wedding certificate holds in their hearts: ‘Ours has provided us with a clear record of all who were present in support on our wedding day. My husband and I have established a tradition, fondly kept on each wedding anniversary, of perusing all the signatures.’

Inventive insertions

Eye’s friend Anon-a-mouse has been peeping out to spot ingenious uses of the Friend’s outreach issue.

Nose a-twitching, they told Eye of some creative adaptations: ‘[Friends have] printed an A4 sheet landscape, two columns and then cut it landscape, and threaded a piece through between the staples. This produced a small sheet between the front cover and the contents page, and between the back page and the back cover.

‘The front one has all the basic information of where the Meeting house is and when the Friends worship. The back one says: “We hope you’ve enjoyed reading this magazine.”

‘They are stuffing sixty copies ready for a three-week Quaker Week! Unless they have a time machine I don’t know how they can stretch a week to three times its length. Quaker ingenuity never ceases to amaze me!’

It warms the cockles of Eye’s heart to hear Friends making such use of the outreach issue, as the team pours so much care and effort into making it.

If you have any events coming up and this has inspired you, there are still a few copies available to snaffle! Just give Imogen a call at 0207 663 1178; they cost just £11 for twenty copies!

Seeking sunshine

With inescapably-grim news and the nights drawing in it can be more challenging than ever to find twinkle, but we all need glimmers of light, Friends. What has made you smile this week?

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