Eye - 5 May 2023
From An insight into turbulent times to An invitation to colour
An insight into turbulent times
Eva Deregowska, of Aberdeen Meeting, drew Eye’s attention to an exhibition, running until September at Aberdeen Art Gallery, that explores the life of a seventeenth-century Friend.
She writes: ‘2023 marks the 350th anniversary of the death of Alexander Jaffray. Born in 1614, he was twice provost of Aberdeen and representative of the burgh in the Scottish parliament… He converted to Quakerism [in 1662] at a time of religious persecution and political upheaval.’
The exhibition, ‘The Testament of Alexander Jaffray’, focuses on his last testament, thought to have been transcribed in 1673, and which has never been on public display before.
Phil Astley, who curated the exhibition, told AberdeenLive: ‘It provides a fantastic insight into his faith following his conversion to Quakerism, at a time when being a Quaker inevitably meant persecution. The exhibition places the manuscript alongside other related documents to give an insight to Jaffray’s turbulent life.’
A poetic odyssey
Friends who found their interest in Basil Bunting piqued by Jonathan Wooding’s article (13 January) may want to hear the poet himself reading his work.
A BBC Radio 3 episode of Sunday Feature, entitled ‘Briggflatts – A Northern Poetic Odyssey’, explores the influences on his work and some very uncomfortable contradictions in his life, with archival snippets of the poet himself reading his work.
Basil Bunting’s poem, ‘Briggflatts’, published in 1966, is the focus of the programme. Starting at Brigflatts Meeting House, former MP Rory Stewart travels Cumbria and Northumbria ’in search of clues in Basil Bunting’s life and work to help understand this neglected masterpiece of twentieth-century modernist poetry’.
You can listen here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001fdw1.
Quaker tales
Feeling like a fish out of water can result in some surprising connections!
Beth Allen, from Bromley Meeting, told Eye a story she heard in the late 1960s, when she was a Young Friend appointed to the Committee on Christian Relationships.
‘The 1952 World Council of Churches Conference, held in Lund, Sweden, opened with a big service in the cathedral. All the delegates gathered in the robing room.
‘The recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting… felt a bit left out as he stood in a corner dressed in a lounge suit – he was surrounded by Free Church clergy adjusting their black gowns, Orthodox patriarchs in gorgeous robes, bishops buttoning their purple cassocks, and Lutheran clergy fastening frilly ruffs.
‘Suddenly he noticed another man in a suit; greatly relieved, he burrowed across the room and held out his hand. “Hello, I’m the recording clerk of the Quakers!”
‘The other man shook his hand: “I am Gustav, king of Sweden.”’
An invitation to colour
A space to express yourself, an opportunity for a child in your life to bring some personalised sunshine to the page, or something that helps you to centre down – Eye hopes you can indulge in a drop of colour.
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