Meeting in the mountains
Tara Craig reports on the FWCC World Plenary in Peru
Pisac, a sprawling village in Peru’s Sacred Valley, is often described as ‘bustling’ and ‘attractive’. Neither does it justice. For eight days in January almost four hundred Friends lived, discerned and talked there, in majestic surroundings, encircled by the Andes.
Quakers attending the 2016 Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Plenary came from thirty-seven countries. They represented a range of Quaker traditions, everything from the silent, unprogrammed worship favoured by Britain Yearly Meeting, among others, to the exuberant programmed worship preferred by African and South American Friends. The Plenary was conducted in Spanish and English, helped by a team of valiant interpreters, but other languages could be heard, too. French was much in evidence, as was Aymara, the native tongue of a number of Peruvian and Bolivian Friends. Hymns were sung in Spanish, English, Swahili and Hindi, prompting heartfelt if not necessarily accurate participation from non-native speakers.
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