The 'Coat of Peace' Photo: Courtesy of Sheila Shaw.
Eye - 27 September 2024
From Heswall to Brummana, with love; friendly videos to find out more; and shining a light on Friends with Geoffrey Durham
From Heswall to Brummana, with love
Friends from Heswall Meeting have crafted a beautiful ‘coat of peace’ for a Quaker school in Lebanon.
Heswall Friend Na’amat Baz Little told Eye that the Meeting supports Brummana High School (BHS), a Quaker day and boarding school founded in 1873, with an annual appeal in recognition of ‘their effort to maintain the Quaker ethos of the school under extreme conditions’.
‘Following this year’s appeal, it was thought that as well as the usual financial support, perhaps we could show our empathy in a practical way.’
Na’amat is from Lebanon and has lifelong connections with the school, so ‘is very aware of its particular concerns at this difficult and uncertain times’.
Sheila Shaw, also of Heswall Meeting, is a textile artist and offered to create a wall hanging.
Na’amat writes: ‘We looked at various aspects of the life and the surroundings which are an important feature of BHS.’ These include elements of the national flag, such as the Cedar of Lebanon, which ‘represents strength, eternity, happiness, steadiness, sheltering and peace’ – pine trees from the grounds of the school, and elements of the surrounding landscape. ‘We felt these symbolic features should be included in a textile hanging in the shape of a coat, reflecting comfort and security.’
‘On the left of the coat design, we featured the symbolic Cedar of Lebanon Tree with the rising sun spreading its rays behind it. On the right, we featured the scenery as seen from the school with the sentinel [pine] tree in prominent position.
‘This section of the “coat of peace” represents our messages to the school community, each thought delivered by a dove of peace… Our doves deliver the universal Quaker testimonies of Peace, Love, Hope, Kindness, Joy and Trust.’
Eye hopes the students and teachers feel upheld by this heartfelt offering.
Friendly videos to find out more
Eye has come across a young Friend’s YouTube channel, which has a delightful range of videos for Friends and newcomers to explore.
Launched two years ago, Quake It Up has over sixty videos about the testimonies, Quaker history, and theology – including book reviews and interviews.
Ollie Rowe spoke with Eye about what inspired his channel.
He describes his early videos as ‘scripted and more restrained’, but, as his experience has grown, so have his videos: ‘I’m more authentically me now… I can have a bit more fun with it.’
He does it all himself – curation, research, conducting interviews, editing and posting. He shared that balancing ‘silliness and seriousness’ has also been a learning curve. As Eye knows only too well, finding humour in the Quaker world without upsetting people can be a challenge!
But where did it all start? Well, when Ollie has a passion for something he likes to find out everything he can about it – so when he started learning about Quakerism six years ago, he took to YouTube as his first port of call.
Video series like QuakerSpeak have ‘lots of good stuff… but it was confusing’ as many videos are USA-focussed and not necessarily as relevant to a British Quaker newcomer.
Undeterred, he delved into Friends’ history and theology with a passion. ‘I’ve done all this research, know all this stuff… I want to make it easier for other people.’
Quake It Up was born! Publishing videos every two weeks, Ollie also has playlists so you can find his videos on Quaker history, interviews, and book reviews grouped together.
Episodes include: ‘The Influences on Early Quakerism’, ‘The Beginnings of Quakerism’, and ‘That of God in Everyone’. He delves into the slogan for Quaker Week 2023 and 2024 (https://bit.ly/QuakeItUpSimple), and has interviewed Friends like Mark Russ, Ben Wood and Imi Hills.
The more surprising titles? ‘When Silent Meeting goes WRONG’, ‘Are Quakers Vampire Slayers?’ and, if that hasn’t whetted your appetite enough, ‘Quakerism and the Lord of the Rings’ (https://bit.ly/QuakeItUpLOTR).
A firm sci-fi and fantasy fan, Eye couldn’t resist diving in to see Ollie bring faith and fandom together, exploring what Quaker elements can be found in JRR Tolkien’s books and the movie adaptations.
He finds simplicity in the Shire and the hobbits’ lifestyle, observes discernment and group decision-making when the fellowship set off, draws out the Quakerly aspects of Gandalf’s character, finds Quakerly quotes in the text, and explores how the metaphor of battles can apply to the challenges of living the testimonies at a time of great upheaval.
Eye has seen many Quaker threads throughout sci-fi and fantasy. Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote: ‘Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction – its essence – has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all.’
Shining a light on Friends with Geoffrey Durham
If you or someone in your Meeting is looking for a guide for newcomers, Geoffrey Durham is a name you need to know.
Geoffrey has been a Friend since 1994. He was one of the founders of the outreach project ‘Quaker Quest’, and has written several books on Quakerism. He took some time to answer a few questions from Eye, which we hope will intrigue newcomers and seasoned Friends alike!
You have quite an impressive collection of books for Quaker newcomers. What are some of the titles that stand out?
I’ve just counted twenty-eight introductory books on the shelf, and most of them are good. The very best have a unique personality and make friends with the reader. Caroline Stephen’s Quaker Strongholds (1890), quoted three times in Quaker faith & practice, is a standout. So is The Faith of a Quaker by John William Graham (1920). But the one that has pride of place for me is Jim Pym’s Listening to the Light (1999), published three months after I became a member. It doesn’t acknowledge the internet and shows its age a little, but I love it.
Is there one in particular that spoke to you in your earliest days, and if so, why?
I read two wonderful books that helped me into my first Meeting and I find it difficult to choose one over the other. Gerald Priestland’s booklet Coming Home meant the world to me – his humanity and vulnerability shine out from every page. And George Gorman’s The Amazing Fact of Quaker Worship, from its intriguing title to its final paragraph (‘we interpret the experience of love in the still centre of our being’), is simply captivating.
Your book, Being a Quaker: A guide for newcomers, first came out in 2011, and you’ve revised it twice – why the changes?
Every book for newcomers goes out of date in a decade, often sooner.
The first edition of Being a Quaker needed updating inside six months, because it was clear to me that the Canterbury Commitment to sustainability in 2011 just had to be in there. And there’s a host of new information in this third edition that enquirers need to know about: online and hybrid Meetings, the absence of the word ‘overseer’, the loss of Woodbrooke’s building, and much, much more – even personal pronouns have had to change.
What do you wish you’d known about Quakers when you first attended?
I came every week for eighteen months before it dawned on me that anyone, even a newbie, could minister. I just assumed you had to be a member, because no one told me otherwise. And there are other things newcomers need to know that we seem oddly reluctant to tell them. For example, why aren’t we clearer that it’s not a good idea to minister twice in a Meeting? And eldering almost never gets a mention either. This is important stuff that newcomers need to understand.
What is the thing that keeps you coming back to Quakerism?
There’s so much, but in the end it comes back to that Quaker essential: an unmediated relationship with the divine. My life is divided neatly into two distinct parts: before my first Quaker Meeting, and what has happened since. Things are different now.
The third revision of Being a Quaker: A guide for newcomers is available now from Discovering Quakers.
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