The banner outside the Meeting house. Photo: Courtesy of Marilyn Miles.
Eye - 9 November 2018
From planting peace to finding Friends
Planting peace
Poppies and butterflies have been appearing in front of Nailsworth Meeting in recent weeks.
Local Friend Marilyn Miles told Eye that the children of the Meeting ‘planted’ white poppies in time for the International Day of Peace on 21 September and this week created a poster to reflect the banner that has been mounted next to the Meeting house.
The banner features white butterflies – made by 160 children from three local schools and a Brownie pack – as well as a mixture of poppies.
It was inspired by the words of William Orpen, an official war artist during world war one, after he visited the scene of the battle of the Somme in 1917: ‘I had left it mud, nothing but water, shell-holes and mud – the most gloomy, dreary abomination of desolation the mind could imagine; and now, in the summer of 1917, no words could express the beauty of it. The dreary, dismal mud was baked white and pure – dazzling white. White daisies, red poppies and a blue flower, great masses of them, stretched for miles and miles. The sky a pure dark blue, and the whole air, up to a height of about forty feet, thick with white butterflies: our clothes were covered with butterflies. It was like an enchanted land: but in the place of fairies there were thousands of little white crosses, marked “Unknown British Soldier”, for the most part.’
At home with Friends
On a recent trip to Spain Delia Trenchard and David Fish, of Coventry Meeting, worshipped with Friends in Madrid.
They told Eye about their encounter: ‘Look at the picture and wouldn’t you think that you were in Friends House? The friendly Quakers and the Quaker Social Action poster – Madrid Quaker Meeting House is an apartment on the seventeenth floor… one of 200 homes! There have been Quakers in Madrid for many years. The Meeting was started by Josephina – who sadly died a while ago… she found out about many denominations; she found Quakers; visited England and worshiped lovingly with Brentford and Isleworth Meeting and attended courses at Woodbrooke. She taught Carmen and Angelique, our welcoming Quaker friends… and the heritage was established.’
