Eye - 9 December 2022

From A touching encounter to Not just porridge!

A touching encounter

This isn’t just a page for the light-hearted, but for the heart-warming – which is exactly what popped into Eye’s mailbag from John H Hall, of Clacton Meeting.

He tells Eye: ‘In 2009, as part of our project to photograph all Quaker Meeting houses (bit.ly/qmhouse), Jacky and I were in Bradford. I photographed the outside and hearing people inside knocked on the door so I could photograph the Meeting room. A young Muslim woman in a hijab came to the front door and we explained why we were there. She said she was sorry that she could not let us in because theirs was a meeting for Muslim battered wives.

‘As we turned away, she said: “We thank Allah for the Quakers. Nobody else would allow us a room to meet in.”’

Are there encounters that have warmed your heart? Share them with us via eye@thefriend.org.

Getting to know you

You can learn a lot about a person by perusing their bookshelf, and that notion is clearly shared by other Friends after a recent get-together.

Judith Niechcial, of Bromley Meeting, told Eye: ‘Two new attenders at Bromley Meeting who had joined us after the Covid closure started a monthly Arts Group which is bringing us together in a sociable way. At our October meeting we shared books that had significance for us, and a hugely varied and interesting selection emerged. Friends, do explores these; some well-known, some with Quaker connections and some obscure – but all interesting and worthwhile! Happy reading!’

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins

Assembly by Natasha Brown

Chocolate Wars by Deborah Cadbury

Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale

Testimony of Light by Helen Greaves

The Road Less Travelled by Scott Peck

Saddletramp by Jeremy James

Sacred Nature by Karen Armstrong

Harmony by Charles III

Underlands by Ted Nield

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Eye wonders, how are Friends elsewhere getting to know each other?

Not just porridge!

Friends in Guildford chose a cereal-ously creative way to get students chatting to them during Surrey University’s Freshers Fair this year. Eye is sure many Friends, when mentioning they are Quaker for the first time, will have heard ‘what, like the guy on the porridge?’ Well, Carolyn Baynes, of Farnham Meeting, told Eye that Guildford Friends handed out sachets of Quaker Oats, ‘this brought amusement and smiles and interesting conversations’.

Did you know?

There have been over 7,300 editions of the Friend since it was first launched in January 1843… the same year that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was published! Do you have any fun facts to share?

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