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Waiting for Godot has a reputation as one of the most influential plays of the twentieth century. I knew little about it, however, so I decided recently to attend a local production. It was well acted but I sat there bemused. The play seemed pointless.
I’ve travelled extensively around our Yearly Meeting over the past year, visiting many small and struggling Meetings. I’ve witnessed the exhausting demands of many Quaker roles, and the anxiety of many Friends about the future of our Religious Society.
As I’ve travelled, I’ve marvelled at the confidence and conviction of our spiritual ancestors, who joined the Quaker movement in extraordinary numbers while this was seriously risky. They clearly had a message worth suffering for. It was a simple message that appealed to many seekers, up and down the country, who had become exhausted and despairing looking for the truth outside themselves. ‘Why gad you abroad?’ they preached. ‘Return, return to Him that is the first Love’, they cried in towns and villages, on hillsides and in steeplehouses (Quaker faith & practice 26.71). Their earth-shaking message was that Christ can be found in every heart, and that once listened to, he will join us together to learn from him: their slogan was, ‘Christ has come to teach his people himself’. As they listened, this Voice of Love and Hope led them to preach by word and deed everywhere they went.
What has the response been from Quakers since you delivered the Swarthmore Lecture?
Really positive. I had a couple of emails sent to me on Saturday that just said ‘wow!’ and I had a really satisfying, interesting and slightly difficult ‘Q and A’ – not in a bad way, but people were sharing issues that the lecture raised. Overall, I’ve been really happy with the response.
Greenbelt is a festival of ‘artistry and activism,’ where ‘the sacred meets the secular’. It has included Quaker worship for at least twelve years. This year the Quaker Arts Network and Loving Earth Project were at the heart of the event.
The festival offers some free tickets to people who cannot afford them. Friends from Brighton Meeting took three refugees who had worked with us. After experiencing the cruelty of Suella Braverman’s asylum system, I wanted them to experience something beautiful of England. We arrived on the field with three tents, one borrowed the evening before which we had little idea how to erect, in winds gusting over forty miles an hour.
and, by a bed of bleeps and signals
sticking oxygen tangled with detergent
the boy, he prays,
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Written by and for Friends on the bench
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