Eye - 16 December 2016

From the love of chocolate to operatic exuberance

For the love of chocolate

George Cadbury’s great-great-grandson has founded a company that produces organic, fairly traded, chocolate bars in the UK and delivers through the post.

Thirty-one-year-old James Cadbury launched ‘Love Cocoa’ earlier this year, which sources ingredients sustainably and ethically as well as donating ten per cent of its profits to charity.

In an interview with ThisIsMoney.co.uk James spoke of his former career as a city trader and explained: ‘I loved my job but at the same time it was important to me to start my own business and I saw the gap in the market for chocolate subscriptions…

‘I felt drawn to it because of my history, because of my ancestors. I love chocolate and have always eaten it, I have been passionate about it since learning about the Cadbury family through school projects.’

Operatic exuberance

An operatic outing of a fictional libertine and seducer has featured a number of Quakers.

A Friend got in touch with Eye after experiencing ‘an exuberant concert performance’ of Don Giovanni at Ludlow Assembly Rooms on Saturday 3 December.

The production of Wolfgang Mozart’s retelling of the Don Juan legend was by Ludlow Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Payne, and featured ‘some extremely talented young singers’.

‘What local Friends found particularly enjoyable – apart from the glorious music and the promise shown by the singers – was that two of the Orchestra – a flautist and a violinist – were Friends from Ludlow Meeting – and Don Giovanni himself was played by a young London-based Quaker, Jack Holton… A production of Don Giovanni incorporating three Quakers – this has to be a record!’

Hen’s teeth

An Eye reader spotted another, rather more favourable, mention in the letters page of the Church Times on 11 November.

Paul King, a reverend commenting on the review of Sceptical Christianity by Robert Reiss, observed: ‘It is no wonder that thoughtful, educated people in the church are like hen’s teeth. Quakers and Unitarians are able to make headway. They leave more room for people to be theologically and socially progressive.’

Time matters

A thoughtful reflection on a first encounter with Meeting for Worship has appeared on Huffington Post’s website and was published in NRC Handelsblad, the leading newspaper in Amsterdam.

‘Silence after the Storm’ was penned by Pia de Jong, a Dutch novelist and columnist, about visiting a Meeting in the USA – a building she has often passed when walking her dog: ‘We sit down, a group of maybe twenty-five people, mostly older. Outside, I see the wind bending the branches of the trees. Bright red leaves blow against the windows. Inside, though, a fire crackles in the fireplace. The colours in this room, in the low November light, are warm browns and greens…

‘People come as they are. Gray hair is acceptable. Wrinkles are not buried under a layer of makeup, much less washed away. No high heels, just practical footwear…

‘Time matters here. We sit silently for a full hour. I feel the cramps in my back, inhale the sweet aromas of dark resin. My senses are alive…

‘Perhaps this is what people mean by God. A sense of continuity that you can call eternity. The cold wind that every fall again climbs the trees and shakes loose the last leaves. In the spring, new people will be born again and will, inevitably, look for meaning. And always, always love again.’

Quaker quips

‘I’m a typical Friend… different from all the rest!’

(Overheard at a recent discussion group)

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