‘They are very resilient and I have been able to reduce drastically my use of pre-packed green-groceries…' Photo: Jo Fisher
Eye - 26 February 2021
From a welcoming aura to a cover filled with many colours
A welcoming aura
An off-the-cuff comment lingering in a footnote caught the eye of Stuart Yates, of Bournemouth Coastal Area Meeting.
Behave, written by neurobiologist and primatologist Robert Sapolsky, explores the biology behind why we do the things we do.
Following a section in which he writes about religious sensitivities, what is sacred, and how people respond to sanctity being violated, Stuart was amused by the following footnote: ‘If I were to find myself in the middle of a religious service and suddenly suffer from hideously loud, malodorous flatulence, I’d sure hope I was hanging out with Quakers rather than, say, a bunch of the boys from the Taliban…’
NAM, MAM and SAM
The stresses of structures and some steps to simplification have been shared in a video produced by a group of Friends in Wales.
‘An Everyday Tale of the Acronyms’, narrated by Diana Morrison-Smith, tells of the journey Welsh Friends are on in the style of a fairytale.
NAM, MAM and SAM, along with BAM, MOF, BYM and RC, tell the story of the challenges Friends face, their journey so far, and their vision for the path ahead as they discern what simplification might mean to them.
The video (which can be seen at http://bit.ly/AcronymsTales) was created by the Moving Forward group to ‘celebrate moving towards our four Area Meetings working to simplify our structures and strengthen our Quaker life and witness’.
Personal & profound
Music, images, and sharing have been bringing one Meeting closer together online.
Vivien Whitaker, co-clerk of Mansfield Meeting, told Eye that Friends have been experimenting with different types of online study groups and discussions.
‘Our winter study group “Sharing Favourite Music” got (some of) us dancing (http://bit.ly/MansfieldDance) and moved (some of) us to tears (http://bit.ly/MansfieldTears); the combination of both images and sounds on YouTube feeling very powerful.’
Other experiments have resulted in greater intimacy among Friends, for example, the Meeting’s fifth Sunday Shared Eldership and Oversight discussion, held after Meeting for Worship, had a focus on equality in communication.
Vivien told Eye: ‘We requested questions in advance and put them anonymously in a hat and drew them out one by one. Perhaps it was the closeness of Zoom, and/or being centred from Meeting for Worship that enabled our sharing to be personal and profound.
‘One Friend commented: “I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed our session on equality in communication. Hats off to our Friends for their preparation and arrangements. Judging by the universal participation of all Friends attending, it was popular and informative. I find it so liberating to be able to ask the most naïve of questions without fear of admonishment or ridicule, and yet receive such succinct and easily understood answers. I look forward to our next gathering.”’
A cover filled with many colours
Jo Fisher, of St Neots Meeting, shared with Eye how they put the potato starch wrapper of the Friend to use each week – to contain their haul of fresh fruit and veg!
Jo writes: ‘They are very resilient and I have been able to reduce drastically my use of pre-packed green-groceries… [and I] have been gradually giving them away when I can.’
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