Mandalas constructed at the jamboree Photo: Andrew Cowan
Eye - 23 September 2011
From jamborees to snails
A Quaker Jamboree
Eye was delighted to hear about the first Leicester Area Meeting Jamboree, which took place on Saturday 17 September. The event brought together almost a hundred Friends of all ages from Leicester, Loughborough, Oakham and Rugby Meetings for a day of worship, activities and cups of tea!
The aim of the day was to help Friends from different local Meetings to get to know each other and build bonds within the Area Meeting community – outside of Area Meetings themselves.
The gathering kicked off with Meeting for Worship, followed by a talk by Jez Smith, donor support officer from Friends House, about what living a Quaker life means to him.
An ice-breaker, featuring questions such as ‘are you a nontheist?’ and ‘have you ever been a member of a different church?’, then got the conversational juices well and truly flowing.
Activities throughout the day ranged from family-friendly singing, circle dancing and arts and crafts through to groups experimenting with spiritual journalling, discussing Quaker economics and mercifully rain-free walking meditations.
As they left, Friends spoke of the new people they had met, the stimulating discussions and the familial feeling they experienced in the closing Meeting. Eye hopes this will be the first of many Jamborees for Leicester Area Meeting.
Snails? Eat them!
Snails can be a problem.
Recently, Beth Allen brought to Eye’s attention the dangers of leaving a printed edition of the Swarthmore Lecture in the vicinity of these hungry creatures.
A snail, she said, had decided to embark on a nourishing spiritual journey and ‘tuck in’ to her copy of the lecture – clearly revealing some intelligence and literary ‘good taste’ – but at a cost.
Our Friend Laurence E Ambrose has written to Eye suggesting a practical solution to the problem of hungry snails.
It is quick and simple: eat them!
Laurence writes: ‘I understand that snails are entirely vegetarian and are all edible; you just need to starve them for twenty-four hours before cooking, to empty the gut. F/friends who have had their paperwork eaten can literally get their own back.’
Time and patience would bring the snail to Jerusalem.
Irish proverb
Comments
Please login to add a comment
