Eye - 13 January 2012
From ghostly figures to the life of Bright
An Area Meeting yet to come…
The clerk was at the table now And Friends were quiet and still. She counted all the people there The usual faces on each chair (though two of them were ill).
The minutes almost wrote themselves
The business flowed along
With nominations and reports
And correspondence of all sorts
The clerk could do no wrong.
At last came ‘Friends to whom we write’
The clock said five to one.
And Friends began to feel a hunch
That things would finish before lunch
With all the business done.
When suddenly there came a knock
Upon the outer door
The elders turned to see who came
A passing tramp? A children’s game?
Nobody could be sure.
Upon the step a stranger stood
With dark and shaggy locks
And leather breeches to the knee.
They realised this must surely be
The spirit of George Fox.
‘Is this a Meeting gathered here?’
The ghostly spirit cried
‘So tell me Friends, are Quakers strong
In speaking truth and righting wrong
Across this world so wide?’
‘And are my journals greatly read
And quoted every week?
And do you dare to speak out loud
That you are Quakers and are proud
To tell of what you seek?’
The spectre gazed across the room
But answer came there none.
The Friends sat still in silent prayer
While George remarked, with ghostly stare,
‘If so my work is done.’
‘I leave you now for London Town
A journey long and dark,
To find Friends House, and when I’m there,
Float through the door and up the stair
To haunt recording clerk.’
The ghostly figure turned away
And vanished in the rain.
The elders murmured in a group
And, after sandwiches and soup,
The Meeting formed again.
And now they planned with fresh ideas
And visions were unfurled
To make things better if they could
Reminded now that Quakers should
Go out and change the world!
Jane Robinson
John Bright
Our recent edition of the Friend devoted to the life and work of John Bright prompted a lovely response from Alison Bush of Colchester Meeting.
Alison was reminded of a short life of Bright written by her father, Bertram Picard, published in 1920.The book was part of a series for ‘Young Citizens’ and was priced at two shillings and sixpence.
The book is typical of a genre of books written for young people at the time, in the wake of the first world war, that celebrated positive and inspirational lives such as that of John Bright.
Helen P Bright Clark, the daughter of John Bright, wrote in the foreword: ‘I hope this little sketch of my father’s life may have some influence on young people who read it, and lead them to appreciate those principles of right and justice that guided his public life and the courage with which he advocated them.’
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