Quaker takes fundraising trip
‘Religion might be in decline, but our churches are an integral part of the English landscape, and for many, a place to get baptised, married and eventually buried.’
A Suffolk Quaker is embarking on a walking and cycling trip, visiting twenty-six churches to raise funds for places of worship in the county.
Robert Ashton, from Leiston Meeting, and a trustee of the Friend, plans to visit twenty-six churches between Aldeburgh and Southwold as part of this year’s ‘Ride & Stride’. Fifty per cent of the money raised will go to Leiston Meeting, where he starts his journey. The rest will go to Suffolk Historic Churches Trust (SHCT). Writing on his Just Giving page, Robert said: ‘Religion might be in decline, but our churches are an integral part of the English landscape, and for many, a place to get baptised, married and eventually buried.’
He told the Friend: ‘I’d often thought of taking part, but, with this being my first September back in Suffolk (after forty years living elsewhere), I took little persuading. Leiston is both my Local Meeting, and the town where I grew up and where my wife’s family farmed for generations. I think I’m one of three Leiston Friends taking part this year.’
Visiting twenty-six places of worship over fifty miles, Robert said he might have been ‘too ambitious’, but will ‘see how it goes’. Notable stopping-off points include ‘Leiston’s parish church, where I was an altar server in my teens; Aldringham church where my wife and I were married forty-one years ago this week; and Blythburgh church, where many of my wife’s family are buried’.
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