Two stargazers at 10.30pm at the campus observatory. They are using Google’s map of the sky to understand what they are seeing. Photo: Betty Raymond
Snapshots from YMG
From stargazing to circle dancing - the Friend found Yearly Meeting Gathering to be a hive of activity
Stargazing
The wonders of the sky at night proved a popular option for some Quakers at Canterbury.
Many Friends, after a tiring day, took the opportunity to relax and simply stargaze with big telescopes at the South East Kent Astronomical Society. Some were even laid-back about their encounters with far off galaxies (see photo).
Turn off that mobile phone!
It appeared to be a Quaker Business Meeting. Or was it? What on earth was happening?
The petulant stamping of feet, the noisy tapping of numbers into a mobile phone, two Friends whispering loudly, the assertive and irritating clicking of fingers and then the anguished cry: ‘Come on, let’s make a decision!’ What was going on?
Set in a large white tent, some Friends were engaged in a friendly and radical role play of how not to hold a Quaker business meeting. With wit and warmth, Rachael Swancott was giving a flavour of the role-playing workshop that Young Friends General Meeting had been taking, and continue to take on request, around Meetings.
‘The aim,’ she explained, ‘behind the irreverent approach is to highlight bad habits in order to demonstrate good ones. It is important to instill an understanding of the Quaker approach to decision making.’
And it is a great idea to do it in a fun way.
Costs
In the welcoming session Friends were reminded that sometimes the ‘greenest’ option has too high an economic cost – hence dispensers of bottled water for the water bottles that we were all reminded to bring – rather than the planned for standpipes.
But what is the cost of courtesy? A ‘little bird’ revealed to staff at the Friend that there had been a complaint from a person at the till in the campus shop. A few Quakers, apparently, had been rude to her – it seems the sandwiches had run out.
Not enough Guardians!
There were reports that some Friends were frustrated to discover that there were too few copies of the Guardian available at the university shop. One person drove almost to Whitstable with no better luck. We wonder when these literate Friends would have found time to read it!
A love story
‘What do Quakers think about life after death?’
Author Geoffrey Durham revealed that this was probably the most-asked question he had to answer from enquirers during his seven years working with Quaker Quest.
In a lively, entertaining and often extremely funny presentation to launch his new book Being a Quaker, Geoffrey explained what he hoped the book would do differently from others on the subject.
‘During my time with Quaker Quest,’ he explained, ‘I noticed the questions I received were changing.’ Times change and questions change. There is always a need for fresh responses to new questions. This helped to guide the way he had approached the book, which is aimed mainly at enquirers.
Geoffrey recalled how someone had once asked him about his relationship to Quakerism. How did he come across it and commit to it? He realised, he explained, that it was really about falling in love and staying in love.
He revealed that his life had been changed some years ago when he encountered Quakerism and said that he now felt ‘centred and alive.’ And he added: ‘So my book is a love story.’
Quakers in a spin
One of the unexpected successes at Yearly Meeting Gathering has been an early morning event that put Quakers into a pre-breakfast spin.
A circle dancing workshop, held at 7.30 in the morning, introduced Friends to traditional dances from Israel, the Balkans and native American culture.
‘There were a handful of people in the room at 7.25,’ said a Friend from Huddersfield Meeting, ‘but fifteen minutes later fifty people were dancing.’
‘It was wonderful. The perfect start to a day. The idea of dancing in circles is a universal one. It is integral to our sense of community. I can’t wait until the next session!’
Veggie or vegan?
The eating preferences of Friends caused some bemusement to the catering manager at the University of Kent.
A message of advice from the catering department at the University of York was clear: ‘Those Quakers. Watch out. We had them in 2009. They are really into veggie burgers.’
This warning was reinforced by a call from the restaurant at Friends House, along the lines of: there will be a lot of vegetarians. We mean… a lot.
The catering in Canterbury has been excellent, except for a slight problem. For a couple of meals there has not been enough vegetarian food!
Reflections from silence
The verbal ministry heard in Meeting for Worship is rarely written down, let alone published. But Quaker Books have revived an old practice – publishing a collection of a Friend’s ministry. Reflections from Silence, launched in Canterbury, contains the ministry of New York Friend Richard Hathaway. It has been collected over thirty years. The most recent entry is from February 2011.
Unusual as it may sound, Richard Summers of Quaker Life enthusiastically pointed out that publishing verbal ministry had once been common practice. He had brought along several eighteenth-century books of this sort. The Quaker Life Network struggled for some time before discerning that producing the book was the right decision. The Network includes Friends from across Britain sharing their views by email.
Richard Hathaway’s ministry was certainly variable, ranging in length from two lines to two pages. A reading at the launch event included a ministry about ‘the two kinds of God who will probably fail you’, delivered in 1992. They are the ‘taskmaster God’ and the ‘Santa Claus’ God.
He concluded, ‘God is neither of these, and both of them, and more’.
Canterbury 2011 Photo Montage
Trish Carn has been hard at work, capturing the feel of YMG in photographs. To see the photo montage in all it’s glory, please download the pdf of this weeks issue.
