Jennifer introducing microcredit to women of Gyetiase, Ashanti region, Ghana, in 2009. Photo: Photo courtesy Jennifer Kavanagh.
Jennifer Kavanagh: faith in action
The Friend talks to Jennifer about her life, her beliefs and her new book on simplicity
How did you become a Quaker? As so often, it was in the wake of trauma – the break-up of my marriage, my daughter’s serious illness. It cracked me open and enabled me to access another dimension. Something was going on, which I had to explore. I went into churches and ran out in distress. Then I remembered seeing a sign outside the Quaker Meeting house in St Martin’s Lane and decided to give it a try. I found peace. I didn’t talk to anybody for a long time. I am a very social being but I didn’t want my social self to trample over the green shoots of something so different. I used to pick up books and read about Quakerism, and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I just didn’t know that religion could be like this. It felt like me. It was permission to be myself. In fact, it was a demand to be myself.
