Quaker camp celebrates anniversary
'More than 100 people joined the event, with ages running from a few months old to late seventies.'
Luton & Leighton Area Meeting’s annual Quaker Camp celebrated its seventieth anniversary this year on a field in Malvern.
More than 100 people joined the event, with ages running from a few months old to late seventies. With the theme ‘Building Our Strength’, the twelve-day camp included sports and activities, as well as discussions on the 2022 Britain Yearly Meeting minute about making reparations for past Quaker involvement in slavery and colonial exploitation. There was also a vibrant session exploring ‘that of God in all living things’.
Writing in the Epistle, clerks Pete Baker and Danny Hubbard said: ‘From this we realised how impoverished we are by the decline in wild natural spaces and how equally diminished we are by losing our relationship to nature. As we reflected on strength we understood more about its relation to fragility and vulnerability – both in ourselves and in our world. Forests have “mother trees” which nourish their growing offspring and the whole community of trees around them. Likewise we are rooted through our relationships – to family, to community, to nature… How do we restore ourselves, our communities and our world? These tough questions require further discussion, discernment and action.’
The epistle also noted: ‘Living as a happy vibrant community in a beautiful spacious field, we are also aware of our privilege, of those who are struggling or grieving, or no longer with us. We were aware of the fragile world around us and we wonder how we might ameliorate suffering at camp and outside.’
The camp ran between 26 July and 6 August.
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