Letters - 1 May 2020
From feeling the depth to singing skylarks
Feel the depth
I was interested to read Maud Grainger on online worship (27 March). My experience has been somewhat parallel.
First, in March 2019, we were glad to be part of the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) Study Tour, which we were unable to go on, by meeting with them virtually in worship. Recently, I tried Woodbrooke online and was unsure. Meanwhile my Zoom experience with two singing groups was fun, good to see familiar faces, and helped my tech confidence.
Our Local Meeting encourages us to worship at home at the usual hour, but with no online Meeting.
However, an invitation from a Meeting we know well, but quite far away from us, led to us giving online Meeting another try. In Maud’s words, we ‘feel the depth’. We really appreciated the spoken ministry. It was different, but felt like worship.
So, we do recommend that Friends have a go – either with Woodbrooke or any Meeting they know which is online – and see what they think! We think it definitely helped that we knew some of the participants, and had worshipped ‘physically’ with them previously.
Advantages include adult children of the Meeting ‘returning’ online, giving a ‘younger Meeting’, and delighting the parents! Also the inclusion of Friends otherwise permanently isolated by distance, illness, disability and transport difficulties is enabled.
Evelyn Shire and Ken Smith
Charity shops
In this time of crisis, charity shops are doing nothing. My suggestion is that they use their windows to auction interesting lots.
Passersby could see something they fancy and put in a bid on a piece of paper. When the doors finally open, their bid could win them the item to collect.
Maybe a website of the goods in the shop would add to this idea.
Glyn Phillips
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