Eye - 17 April 2015

From memorials to markers

Past Quakers remembered

Blewbury in Oxfordshire might be better known today for its Norman church, but a local Friend wants people to know that there was once a Meeting house there, too, and has turned his enthusiasm into stone.

Blewbury Meeting House was built in or around 1680, rebuilt in 1713, and destroyed or sold in 1804/5. Quaker Meetings were held from about 1668 to 1760, and names and events recorded at Newbury and Reading Quarterly Meetings. Friends were buried at Quakers Croft, at the edge of Blewbury.

Oliver Ashford, a long-time Blewbury resident and former clerk of Geneva Meeting, felt that there should be some permanent record of the burial ground, the Meeting house and the people who worshipped there. He has arranged for a memorial stone to be placed near to the site. The inscription on the stone simply records the fact that Quakers met nearby. It has been placed at the edge of a field, so that walkers can see it as they pass from Blewbury to Hagbourne on the path from the village hall.

Oliver – who celebrates his hundredth birthday soon – has, with Wallingford Friends, arranged a brief gathering at the stone on Saturday 16 May. Blewbury residents have been invited to the event.

Japanese children given Quaker classic

One hundred copies of Peace is a Process, the 1993 Swarthmore Lecture written by Sydney Bailey, have been given to young people in Japanese schools.

In 1993 a Japanese Friend was present at Friends House in London when Sydney Bailey presented the Lecture. Japan Yearly Meeting wished to make the Lecture more widely available to young people and a Friend, Kei Koida, took the Lecture to Japan and competed a translation in 2014.

Kyoko Uemura, a Friend who recently visited Golders Green Meeting, told the Friend she was delighted that the key message of the Lecture, and the vision and wisdom of Sydney Bailey, would now reach young school children in Japan. The hundred free copies have been sent to selected schools in Tokyo.

Takao Mendl is the wife of Quaker peace activist and author Wolf Mendl, who worked with Sydney Bailey. She was brought up in Japan and is now resident in England. She told the Friend: ‘Quakers in Japan want young people to learn about how you can keep peace in the world. Peace is a Process is a timeless book.’

Visible to visitors

Wells-next-the-Sea Meeting is preparing for the summer visitors.

The Meeting’s premises committee rolled up its sleeves and a new notice over the gateway (see below) and a larger noticeboard, painted white, have helped to make the Meeting more visible.

Joolz Saunders told Eye: ‘We are delighted to have a more pronounced presence in the busy road which leads out of our town; there is only one narrow pavement on the Meeting house side so consequently people driving past are not aware that the Meeting house is there.’

Friends have further plans for catching the eye: ‘We are planning to have a beautiful plaque on the wall to commemorate Sam Peel, who was largely responsible for making Wells the town it is today. The unveiling will be during Quaker Week.’

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