Eye - 11 April 2014
From birthdays to connections
Birthdays in Brighton
Friends in Brighton have just celebrated a remarkable and joyful event – the ninetieth birthdays of three of their members: Joyce Laverpreddy, Pat Norman and Magda Cross (pictured above).
Harvey Gillman, the gifted writer, story teller and Brighton Friend, was delighted to give Eye news of the event:
‘We rejoice with our “mothers in Israel” – early Quakers used this term (based on a Biblical reference to the intrepid and feisty Hebrew prophet, Deborah). It is good to think that our ancient Quaker tradition of inspiring women continues’.
Eye wishes Joyce, Pat and Magda many happy returns.
Music for peace
The sound of music wafting across the Eye page in recent issues has clearly struck a chord with Friends.
Jan Thomas, of Nailsworth Meeting, did a presentation to his local ‘recorded music group’ this week and gave an early sight of it to Eye. It is a fascinating selection of music entitled ‘Music for Peace – in the year of the centenary of the 1914-18 war’.
The selection begins with ‘Lovely War or the War of 14-18’, Flanders (George Brassens) and Swann; ‘Fanfare and Polonaise’ from War and Peace by Prokofiev; ‘The Conscientious Objector’ from Oh What a Lovely War, Alfred Lester; ‘Wear it as long as you can’ from There’s Music in the Air – Quaker Song Book, by Barbara Mays; and ‘Dawn on the Somme’ from Morning Heroes, poem by Robert Nichols, music Sir Arthur Bliss.
The presentation continues with ‘Missa pro defunctis’ from the War Requiem, poem by Wilfrid Owen, music Benjamin Britten; ‘The Green Fields of France’, also known as ‘No Man’s Land’ by The Fureys; ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ sung by Pete Seeger; ‘The Willing Conscript’ by Tom Paxton; ‘Better is Peace from The Armed Man’ by Karl Jenkins; ‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’ by John Greenleaf Whittier, music CHH Parry (Quaker faith & practice 20.3); ‘I Offer You Peace from the Peace Makers’, Mohandas Gandhi, music Karl Jenkins.
The selection concludes with ‘Meditation: Peace is also from the Peace Makers’ – Terry Waite, music Karl Jenkins; and the powerful anti-war ballad ‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’ by Eric Bogle.
Jan says ‘I wouldn’t call it Quakers and Peace but if a Quaker is doing it…’ Eye was mightily impressed with the selection.
Quaker connections in Street
‘Let your lives speak’ is the theme of Quaker Week 2014, to be held from 4 to 12 October, and we were pleased to get a reminder from Kevin Redpath, of Street Meeting in Somerset, that it is never too early to start planning.
Kevin hopes that Friends will consider using the arts this year as a method of outreach. He drew Eye’s attention to a very impressive presentation on the Street Meeting website that shows what was done by local Friends during Quaker Week 2013 and how they did it.
A ‘Quaker Connections’ exhibition of artwork was presented in the Meeting house between 21 September and 6 October 2013 as part of Somerset Art Weeks and was a huge success.
Kevin said that the exhibition, which was organised by the Meeting’s Outreach Committee, attracted more than 1,000 visitors to the Meeting house. He encouraged Friends to see some of the artwork on display, and information on how the exhibition was organised, at http://bit.ly/StreetExhibition.
