‘There is a lot of laughter in our “Meetings for Blethering”.’

Island line: Katharine Elwis on a decade of Meeting on Mull

Ten years ago, I wrote an article for the Friend telling the story of how my father and I established a new Local Meeting, in a lighthouse-shaped building, in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull. The ‘Lighthouse’ seemed an apt metaphor. A decade on, Friends might be interested in how we have been getting on.

What a journey it has been. My lovely father, who had been so pleased at the way our meeting was attracting members and attenders, sadly developed dementia. This became so bad that he could no longer order his thoughts well enough to minister, but his serene presence gave us spiritual strength until he died in 2017.

During Dad’s illness, our clerk, with all the energy of a new member, was diligent in organising Meetings for Worship in different parts of the island. They were supported by an experienced Friend from the mainland.

I left to head a school and by the time I returned to Mull there were differing understandings and expectations within the Meeting around roles and structure. We were struggling to find the unique Quaker Way. Some of us were wrestling with finding a balance between ‘Quaker busy-ness’ and ‘Quaker Business’.

Our journey back to the right holding of Meeting has not been plain sailing. But we were reassured by a Friend from Area Meeting that all new enterprises go through four distinct phases of ‘Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing’. We were in the ‘stormy’ phase for quite a few years but this began to change as Area Meeting, like a welcome tug boat, guided us back. We gradually found ourselves able to listen to all voices equally and felt the ‘storm’ begin to subside; we were entering the ‘norming’ phase. We are so grateful for the support.

In 2020, lockdown brought with it two extraordinary blessings: Zoom, and the arrival of an experienced Friend who took over as clerk.

It takes nearly two hours to drive from the north to the south of Mull. Therefore, having real-life meetings where we can all be together is extremely difficult. Hostile weather often leads to the cancellation of ferries, disruption and great anxiety. So when lockdown forced us to start using Zoom for our Meetings for Worship we were absolutely delighted to find that we were able to meet regularly every Sunday in our virtual Meeting house. Through our Zoom meetings we became stronger and more gathered; we have deep spiritual conversations in our afterwords, and there is a lot of laughter in our ‘Meetings for Blethering’.

Our new clerk has brought light and life to our Meeting along with a wealth of experience. We have normalised as a group and are ready to start the next phase of ‘performing’ as we begin meeting in real life once more.

We now have eleven members and fifteen attenders. Dad would be heartened by our numbers and delighted by our Meetings for Worship for Business. The Light shines brightly in our real and virtual worlds.

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