Eye - 15 February 2019
From looking inside to lyrical light
‘Look Inside’
Meeting for Worship has inspired Cath Minchin, of Ipswich Meeting, to create a free verse reflecting on stepping aside and looking inside:
At times we feel overjoyed with work, family, health and faith.
At other times we feel overwhelmed in work, family, poor health and faith.
But step aside and look inside to those around who support in words, a look, prayers, hugs and song.
Meeting, sun through the windows, birdsong and a circle of faith, life, being together. Everything that is needed for the week ahead, be it challenging or amazing.
Deeper human values
A Friend’s thoughtful tones have recently been gracing the airwaves, giving a Quaker angle on current affairs.
Lynden Easterbrook, from Forres Meeting, told Eye: ‘An Aberdeen Friend is spreading the Quaker message by doing a two-minute Thought for the Day slot on BBC Radio Scotland.
‘Every couple of months, Nigel Dower from Aberdeen Meeting picks a current news item and draws out Quaker values from it. His subjects over the last year have included early seventeenth century art, military exercises in Russia and the possibility of colonising Mars.’
With Nigel Dower’s next broadcasts scheduled for 21 February and 23 May, Eye was intrigued to learn more.
‘In each broadcast he looks at the deeper human values involved and tells a little about Quaker spirituality and practice… Last July he focused on the Thai schoolchildren trapped in a cave, and the human spirit that had been awakened in response. He then drew our attention to all the children in the world who are suffering because of war or poverty, reflecting that they are too often ignored – the problem seems too vast, too far away. He encouraged listeners to view them as equally deserving of our help, and to see “that of God” in everyone.’
A ‘domestic limerick’
This faith-based limerick struck a chord with one Eye reader:
There was once a faith healer from Deal
Who said: ‘Although pain is unreal,
When I sit on a pin
And it punctures my skin,
I dislike what I fancy I feel.’
Paul Honigmann, of Beaconsfield, was inspired by this to offer ‘a more domestic’ rhyme:
Nontheists are not trouble-makers;
We don’t see ourselves as forsakers,
For though we insist
That God does not exist,
On Sundays we worship with Quakers.
A notable oak
Peter Schweiger, from Buckinghamshire, reached out to fill Eye in on ‘the labour of love by Quakers towards the Youth Hostel Association’ at Jordans.
He writes: ‘A derelict field next to the hostel has recently been cleared and planted as an orchard using money left in a legacy to Chilterns Area Meeting. It is multifunctional because not only will it bear fruit, but there are sites for camping and some is a nature reserve.
‘At the far end of the field is a notable oak [above]. The oak tree has a girth of very nearly five metres (sixteen feet)… it is about eighteen metres (sixty feet) tall. There is a large branch that sweeps down to the ground and makes a natural seat. The oak is over 200 years old, and absorbing plenty of CO2. The oak is used as a feature to encourage people into the field by planting an avenue of cherry trees from the gateway up to it.’
Light
A Friend’s twelve-year-old granddaughter penned a poem with Quakerly overtones:
Light banishes the darkness
Illuminates despair
Gives hope in times of need
Heals pain and fear
Taking us forward.
