Campanologists Photo: JustABoy/flickr CC
Eye - 11 February 2011
From bells to birthdays
Ring any bells?
Our Friend Michael Nott, intrigued by an Eye item on bell-ringing (29 October 2010), tells us that he started himself about twelve years ago and now rings at Angmering and Findon in West Sussex. ‘It is a useful way,’ he writes, ‘to establish links with other local churches’. Michael wonders whether there are many other Quakers who indulge in campanology.
Norwich Friends offer nothing at all
Friends in Norwich are keen to give their fellow city dwellers a breathing space, Eye notices this week. Their new initiative Still… in the city provides a simple half hour of empty space to help people escape the hustle and bustle of the city centre at the end of the day.
The semi-formal gathering will be a ‘drop-in’ affair aimed at the general public needing to recover from a ‘hectic day at work, or shopping, or looking after children’.
One Friend commented to Eye that some people find that ‘mid-morning worship on a Sunday (10.45am) conflicts with other weekend activities such as sports or gardening, even’. The meeting hopes to enable some of these people to encounter silence more frequently.
Eye agrees with Norwich Friend Deb Arrowsmith who claims that ‘silence is a pretty scarce commodity in modern times, with mobile phones, continuous music, social networking and non-stop demands from others around us.’ What is intriguing is her insistence that they are ‘not offering a religious service but simple peace and quiet’. So, when does a gathering of silent people become a Meeting for Worship?
Jesus the…Quaker?
Would Jesus be A Catholic if he returned to Earth now?
The BBC1 programme The Big Questions posed this challenging question on the 21 February. Judith Treanor tells Eye how the answers from the panel were varied but included one rather interesting one from author Val McDermid. She said: ‘If Jesus had to be affiliated with a religion or any spiritual thing I would probably put him in the camp of the Quakers, which is all about your internal spirit.’
Long lives
Elizabeth Pafford, who celebrated her 100th birthday on 24 January, with her card from the queen. Elizabeth, born in Bentham near Lancaster, has been part of four Meetings during her life: Bentham, Wandsworth, Bridport and Eastbourne.
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