Thought for the Week: Area Meetings: an experiment
Jaki and Warwick Hunt describe an experiment at Area Meeting
‘Was that your first time at Area Meeting?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘and possibly the last!’ It was a joke, of course. But with our Area Meetings typically attracting only fifteen to twenty people, a fifth of local Friends, maybe it is one that resonates with others. Why should this be the case and what can we do about it?
Northamptonshire’s Area Meetings are one of the few opportunities for our county’s Quaker community to get together. The focus of the meeting is, of course, on ‘business’, but the preceding shared lunch and friendly conversation ensure that the occasion has a warm and welcoming feel, where we can spend time getting to know each other. Advices & queries 18 encourages us to ‘seek to know one another in the things which are eternal’ – but how can we do this effectively if four-fifths of our local faith community are missing from these collective gatherings?
Geography is part of our problem. Northamptonshire is a long and thin county, with Local Meetings located in four towns spaced along its fifty-mile spine. Our Area Meetings have historically been held ten times a year, hosted in rotation by the Local Meetings. Journeys of more than an hour by car, or two hours by bus, can be required to get there. You’ve got to be keen – and have access to transport – to make the effort! But do we really need so many business-related sessions? Last year we asked ourselves if – and how – we could perhaps change the format of these gatherings to bring more of us together.
As an experiment, we decided to replace three of our Area Meetings with purely social occasions. For our first gathering in February, Kettering Local Meeting invited Mark Steinhardt, a storyteller who is active in Bedford Quakers, to share his latest work with us after Sunday Meeting for Worship.
Called A Lapful of Windfalls, it tells the story of Helen Waddell – who is little known now, but between the wars was a bestselling author and respected academic. Using poetry, letters, storytelling, lecture, conventional narrative and extracts from books, Mark Steinhardt recounted her remarkable life to a captivated audience in two forty-five minute instalments. It was a wonderful performance. Helen Waddell’s life story touches on several contemporary concerns, and those who experienced Mark Steinhardt’s performance at Kettering found it rewarding, moving and enjoyable. As one Friend put it: ‘A Lapful of Windfalls is a beautiful and beautifully told story, at once extraordinary and familiar. I listened spellbound and it stayed with me long after the performance finished.’
So, our experiment’s first trial was a resounding success, with over thirty Friends – including several attenders who were at an area-wide gathering for the first time and others rarely seen at Area Meetings – enjoying the event. What’s more, Quakers from all corners of the county rolled up their sleeves to help set up the Meeting house, and contributed generously to the shared lunch at half time. The place was abuzz with conversation, we learned more about each other, and our sense of being part of a wider faith community was reinforced. Have we hit on a winning formula? Time will tell, but as another Friend commented: ‘That will be a hard act to follow!’
Further information: www.marksteinhardt.co.uk
You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.