Eye - 21 April 2017

From a fellow traveller to a Friendly act of kindness

A fellow traveller?

‘Pity that Quakerism didn’t start a bit earlier as we might have had an influential Friend amongst our number…’ mused London Friend Rod Harper in a missive to Eye.

‘In Elizabeth Jenkins’ book on Elizabeth I, she makes a comment about William Cecil, who was chief secretary of state at the time: “Though he had conformed under Mary, he had a personal devotion to the protestant cause and in his private life he much resembled present day Quakers.”’

Sparked by a sign

Signs can appear when least expected, sometimes literally.

One such concise warning caught the notice of Mary Brown, from Stroud Meeting, recently as she passed by the gate of the church next door to Charney Manor, the Quaker-owned conference and retreat centre in Oxfordshire.

It was headed: ‘Metal Thieves’.

Mary told Eye: ‘My mind immediately went back to a group of metal thieves I had once known briefly, when I was a Quaker prison chaplain.

‘They had all been arrested together in a van full of stolen lead. Charming Irish travellers, devout Roman Catholics, they brought their rosaries to our weekly silent Meetings.

‘It is the only time I have been in a Meeting for Worship where some people were praying with rosaries. It added something to the silence. They assured me they never stole from church roofs.’

The sign and stirred memories stoked Mary’s creative fires and inspired her to write…

Metal Thieves’ Magnificat

The notice on the church gate advises us
‘Look out for unusual activity
Around these premises.’

Unusual activity?

Not angels descending from the heavens with their harps.
Not the dead rising up from their tombs, dancing.

No.

Just the dispossessed, anticipating that ancient promise:
‘He hath filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich he hath sent empty away.’

Penn-pals

Quakers from two Meeting houses where William Penn worshipped met to renew their connection last month.

Friends from Jordans Meeting, in Buckinghamshire, spent an away day at Blue Idol Meeting House, near Coolham in Sussex, on 18 March. William Penn helped to set up both Meeting houses and he worshipped in each at different stages of his life.

Friends from Jordans had a talk from the clerk of Blue Idol in the morning and in the afternoon Sue Smithson of Jordans reflected on Penn’s early life in the Jordans area. A short Meeting for Worship followed the talks.

Blue Idol Meeting House is an exquisite sixteenth century barn and farmhouse, and has recently been restored with its distinctive Horsham stone roof. It is set in a peaceful and picturesque garden.

Friends involved described it as ‘a day to remember’.

Without fuss

An Eye reader has spied a Friendly act of kindness in the pages of an autobiography.

A Nun’s Story, by Sister Agatha and Richard Newman, tells of how she once persuaded John Paul Getty to fly a plane load of orphaned Muslim and Christian children refugees out of Sarajevo to safety in Britain, but problems arose over their accommodation.

Then, she said: ‘The Quakers suddenly came on the scene, took stock of the problem, found two houses to put up the Muslim children… Frequently we are not made aware of the good people of this world who just get on with providing the help needed without fuss or seeking any praise – it doesn’t make such good headlines.’ 

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