The spirit of friendship

John Tittley writes about a German-English exchange

International relations is not the first matter that comes to mind when you stand outside the 300-year-old Friends Meeting house in the tiny hamlet of Almeley Wootton in Herefordshire. Yet friendship is growing between this remote Quaker community in the west of England and one in the north German city of Hanover.

In 2013, a letter from the Almeley Wootton Meeting was sent to the editor of Quäker, a German magazine. John Tittley, a member of the Meeting for many years, had expressed a concern that commemorations of the 1914-18 world war would be triumphalist and not reflect the feelings of either British or German Quakers. The letter encouraged the hope that commemorations might take place in the spirit of reconciliation and that links might be created between German and British Friends. Members of Hanover Meeting responded and so a relationship began.

Supported and encouraged by Southern Marches Area Meeting, and bearing a letter of introduction, John Tittley travelled to Hanover in 2014 and so began a series of exchanges.

The Children’s Meeting at Almeley Wootton sent a gift of prayer flags to Hanover, which were displayed at the German Yearly Meeting held at Bad Pyrmont. The Hanover Meeting sent the Almeley Wootton children a handmade puzzle, which continues to provide merriment and much head scratching.

Then, in July 2016, German Friends Claudia Condry, Lutz Caspers and Wilfried Gaum visited Almeley Wootton. Local Friends met them at Birmingham Airport and took them for a short visit to the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham before travelling to Herefordshire. Accommodation and meals were provided by Almeley Wootton Friends and a programme of visits was arranged.

Our German Friends were well received wherever they went and Almeley Wootton Friends look forward to further contact and exchanges and hope this may become a model for other Quaker Meetings in Britain.

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