Laura Conyngham, Eva Penhallurick and Kate Cramer welcoming students at the University of Exeter. Photo: Courtesy of Laura Conyngham.
Eye - 11 October 2019
From peace, love and tenderness to welcoming smiles
Welcoming smiles
Quakers in Exeter shared cake, smiles and friendly messages with new students at the University of Exeter’s Freshers’ Fair last month (see above).
Laura Conyngham, Eva Penhallurick and Kate Cramer told Eye that freshers asked ‘is this the Baking Society?!’ and were astonished to receive free homemade cake, with a few admitting that they hadn’t had breakfast.
They explained: ‘With it we gave out eighty-five of our 100 handwritten postcards of welcome, informing students about the Mulitfaith Chaplaincy and that they will be welcome at Exeter Meeting. To those who wanted more, we gave a leaflet about Stepping into Silence time on campus on Friday lunchtimes and how to request support for a friend or themselves. But mostly we shared a smile, in the hubbub, with students far from home.’
Peace, love, tenderness
Isaac Penington’s words have inspired two Friends from Mansfield Meeting to commission a new piece of music.
Vivien Whitaker and David Megginson reached out to Fraser Wilson, a rising young composer who recently appeared on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune programme, to create a new choral setting of their favourite quote, from Quaker faith & practice 10.01: ‘Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness; and bearing one with another, and forgiving one another, and not laying accusations one against another; but praying one for another, and helping one another up with a tender hand.’
The completed work has been released on YouTube, performed by ALBION, a choral group: http://bit.ly/ALBIONinvocation.
Vivien told Eye: ‘We discovered 10.01 thirty years ago and are still working on it – it is a life-long challenge. In those days of phones that didn’t move, it was displayed by our phone to help with difficult phone calls. Now we listen to “Invocation” every morning to help us shape our day.’
Equality and the equinox
Ipswich Meeting’s children led a special Meeting for Worship on 22 September.
Local Friend Lydia Vulliamy told Eye: ‘The children had prepared a display in the middle of the room with a picture of the world in the centre and flowers and fruit round it (see below).
‘As we each went in we were given a lighted nightlight on a saucer, and a little leaflet with the following words on it: “Welcome to our Living Planet Meeting for Worship. We have chosen to celebrate this today as it is near the Autumn Equinox. On this day, light and dark fall equally on everything on Earth. We like how this reminds us of equality. The light from the candle shines equally around the jar as well as being a light for the darker evenings as the seasons change.”’
The leaflet also featured the poem ‘The peace of wild things’ by Wendell Berry.
