Elements of the completed peace garden. Photo: Cath Hayes.
Eye - 17 June 2016
From a place for peace to a stellar degree
A place for peace
Uttoxeter and Burton Friends marked the opening of a peace garden in May.
Friends have been restoring the Meeting house garden and burial ground in Uttoxeter for the past two years. The peace garden was officially opened by Janet Dean, former MP for Uttoxeter, on 21 May, following International Conscientious Objectors Day.
Attenders Bob and Michelle Taylor led the project, with a team of volunteers, on land left to Friends by Quaker Robert Heath in 1700 for the creation of a Meeting house and burial ground.
Work in the garden has kept wildlife and accessibility in mind as it contains two ponds, vegetables and fruit, lawns and flowerbeds with disabled access. A trail of quotes about peace were prepared for the opening and guided visitors around the revived area.
Janet Dean, who also chairs the local Fairtrade Steering Group, congratulated Bob and Michelle on their work and Uttoxeter Friends for gaining Fairtrade Place of Worship status for their Meeting house.
Principles and dilemmas
A thought provoking play by the Take The Space theatre company moved Janet and David May-Bowles to write to Eye.
On 3 June, a few hours before the news of boxer Muhammad Ali’s death broke, Friends from Mid Thames and Chilterns Area Meetings attended a performance of White Feather Boxer by Siobhán Nicholas at Maidenhead’s Norden Farm Arts Centre.
Janet and David told Eye: ‘The play is based around a fictional Quaker boxer who had been a conscientious objector in world war one. It contained a number of references to Muhammad Ali and his stand on conscientious objection… The other protagonist in the play is a young girl who wants to become a boxer although this was illegal in Britain at that time. The boxer has taught her the techniques and principles of boxing but is then faced with the dilemma of betraying the girl or honouring his Quaker testimony to integrity.’
After a reading of the play in 2015, comments and advice from Friends and boxers were incorporated. A number of references to the stand on conscientious objection taken by various Quakers are included.
Stellar degree
Astronomer and Quaker Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who was involved with the discovery of pulsars in the 1960s, was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree at the 250th Anniversary Commencement of Rutgers University, in New Jersey, on 15 May.
She was in esteemed company as the keynote speaker at the ceremony was president Barack Obama, who received an honorary doctor of law degree. His two children attend Sidwell Friends School in Washington.
Jocelyn is assistant clerk of Quaker Life Central Committee.
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