Keeping council: Jacinta White, and then Peter C Robinson, attend Quaker Life Representative Council

‘It was memorable and joyful.’

Around fifty Quakers, from thirty-eight Area Meetings, attended the Quaker Life Representative Council in person at Abingdon, staying at Milton Hill House.

We were joined by around fifteen Friends online.

Quaker Life’s purpose is to support Quaker communities to thrive. It was the first Council meeting since the Covid pandemic that had the option to meet face-to-face. I experienced it as extremely joyful, and got the impression other Friends did, too.

Not staying at Woodbrooke for this event, as we had in the past, felt strange. We spoke of this among ourselves but the food was good (including home-baked biscuits at coffee time). The rooms were spacious, the staff were attentive, and the weather was extremely kind.

On Saturday afternoon, Abingdon Friends had organised a guided autumn walk to the nearby village of Steventon, taking in the local sights and countryside. Not a great walker, I decided to see if I could do the two hours. It was memorable and joyful. It is always worth stepping out of one’s comfort zone!
I have begun this article with the informal side of proceedings. This is because being together again was so important to me. As Quakers, we are more than the sum of our parts when we sustain and nurture our communities. This happens when you look around the circle at our Meeting for Worship and know that the Light shines through all of us – when you listen to others and speak of things you do not often find the words to name.

There was positive energy as we explored ‘Corks & Boulders’ with Zelie Gross. Zelie encouraged us to use coloured paper, scissors, glue and pens (out of my comfort zone again) to cut out boulders and write on them, answering some questions. ‘What anchors your Quaker community?’ ‘What anchors you as a Quaker?’ We then got the opportunity to walk around the room and look at the things Friends had written on their boulders. Some boulders included: stillness, mindfulness, attending peace/climate protests, role sharing, sustainability actions, making changes in our Meetings, and shared lunches.

In my home group afterwards we explored this a bit further. It was mentioned that we may need to navigate our ship through the boulders. This ship carries different things on its journey. Our testimonies could be an anchor, but we also needed a lighthouse…

One Friend remarked that corks may seem weaker than boulders, but they float, so you could make a raft. Our facilitator drew a nice poster with a ship and anchor, writing down what it was carrying at a later session. That was when we thought about how we could feedback to our Area Meetings. Feedback can be made visual: a simple poster can start a conversation. Another suggestion was to travel around your Area Meeting visiting Local Meetings with your story about how you experienced the Quaker Life event. This would be an alternative to having a slot on your Area Meeting business agenda. Maybe doing both would reach more Friends?

Tim Gee spoke to us about the worldwide family of Friends. It was set up to connect Quakers in many countries. He mentioned that 2024 marks the 400th anniversary of George Fox’s birth. This is an opportunity to plan events and activities. He brought his guitar and got us all to sing!

We were encouraged to approach our local development workers if we need help. There are now fifteen of them each in different areas. They can give support and advice about anything to do with your Quaker community.

The ‘Our faith in the future’ leaflet from Britain Yearly Meeting is a word picture of what Quakers in Britain would like the Society to look like in future. It is very colourful, and based on contributions from Quakers throughout Britain. It leaves each individual, Meeting or committee free to discern where they are today, and then decide what actions they need to take to move their part of the Yearly Meeting towards this vision.

Our final session was with Susie Tombs, who facilitated an Experiment of Light session. This helped us to ground ourselves before Meeting for Worship. We had had quite a diverse, lively session that morning, so it was good to enter into silence. I had the feeling that some Friends present were at some sort of crossroads.

Jacinta White

An unexpected idea came to my mind during the recent Quaker Life Representatives Council gathering: ‘Perhaps I should buy a horse and ride it around the British Isles’.

This thought didn’t come as an extreme way of attempting to reduce my carbon footprint. Nor do I have a particular interest in things equestrian. No, it was an engaging presentation by Tim Gee that set my mind wandering to horses and travelling. Tim is the general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation, the international organisation of Quakers worldwide. He gave us a fascinating oversight into Quaker life across the globe.

Much of what he told us is based on his own experience of visiting Quaker communities in other countries. He outlined the diversity of expressions of Quaker life and worship, describing differences between conservative, evangelical and liberal Quakers, and also between programmed and unprogrammed Meetings. Singing plays an important part in the worship of many Quaker communities, and a new Quaker songbook is due to be published next year.

It was Tim’s speaking about future plans that opened my mind to the possibility of buying and riding a horse. 2024 marks 400 years since the birth of George Fox. Tim suggested that this would be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate and undertake new initiatives, raising the profile of Quakers. He invited us to consider ways that we might mark this special anniversary, locally, nationally and internationally. One suggestion made was that a person, or group, could travel to all the places that George Fox had visited. ‘Ah’, I thought, ‘perhaps I should buy a horse and ride it around the British Isles.’

Having cast aside my own thoughts, I was aware that the idea of linking communities, and even travel, between those places George Fox visited, is an idea loaded with potential. It could also have an international dimension mindful of George’s wide-ranging travel to other countries…

Peter C Robinson

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