Eye - 15 December 2017

From being friends together to a limerick lover from Ludlow

Being friends together

A Feast of Faiths in Lougborough saw a Friend take to the stage.

Anthony Gimpel (aka ‘Mama Bear’), of Loughborough Meeting, told Eye that the performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears took place at the annual Feast of Faiths held by Loughborough Council of Faiths: ‘A hundred participants enjoy a quiz or a talk or a game and a delicious meal with the opportunity to chat and get to know each other.’

The pantomime was created on the same day by six actors, a poet and two people backstage. ‘The crew were multi-faith: Gujarati Hindu, Muslim, Church of England, Jewish, Quaker, Brahma Kumaris and no particular faith.’

Anthony said that the daunting challenge ‘worked brilliantly, thanks to the commitment, enthusiasm, and inventiveness of the whole crew…

‘Significant time and effort beforehand was put in to collect costumes, props and ideas for the set and songs for the show. Otherwise, with the basic outline of the story, the actors devised and improvised scenes and characters, with jokes, songs and dance.

‘The show ended with a strong message for our multi-faith community that we can all be friends together.’

Uncanny tales

The playful procession described in Eye (20 October) has shed light on an interesting Quaker author.

Eye received a letter from the niece of the person who had penned a satirical ‘Order of the Procession’ for Yearly Meeting in 1937. She was able to confirm that it sprang from the mind of William Fryer Harvey (1885-1937).

Mary Rowlands (née Crosfield), from York, wrote: ‘I am now in my nineties but can certainly remember reading this when younger and it bears the mark of his gentle humour (as in his other “Quaker” book We Were Seven about his late Victorian Quaker family, published in 1936 using nom de plumes).’

A collection of his ‘superlative, uncanny and enigmatic tales’ was published by Tartarus Press in 2009, entitled The Double Eye.

They describe him as ‘acclaimed in the Times Literary Supplement in 1955 as one of the greatest ghost story writers of the twentieth century…

‘A doctor of medicine by profession, Harvey drew heavily on the new psychiatric lore of the irrational subconscious, creating a lingering uncertainty in the reader’s mind.’

Festive frolics

Leighton Park School, founded by Quakers in 1890, has released a ‘festive video card’ this year, starring members of the school community.

In the video, which can be seen at http://bit.ly/2BENH3u, students aged from eleven to eighteen, teachers, support staff, Old Leightonians and a scientifically-inclined Santa Claus help a parcel tour the school and grounds.

A limerick lover from Ludlow

Roy Payne, of Ludlow Meeting, has been prompted to put pen to paper by the Friend’s special edition on Wales (17 November).

A musical Friend at The Pales
Bought a harp in the January sales.
Friends said, ‘Where will you play?’
He replied, ‘If I may,
At the next general meeting for Wales.’

A sober young Friend from Aberystwyth
Became very hard to exist with.
When Friends said, ‘Please let go
And relax’. He said, ‘No!.
My concerns I am bound to persist with’.

A very young Quaker from Neath
Lost a number of early milk teeth.
A lisp then he bore
Like a stoic, and wore
A badge saying ‘Quakerth for Peath’.

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