A Quaker Thought For The Day

I’ve all but stopped listening to Radio 4 now. It used to give some structure to my week. Most mornings I would wake up to the 'Today' programme, as I tried to summon the inner strength to drag myself out of bed. But that came to an end when, after many years of patience and perseverance, I just could not take listening to John Humphries any longer. When I was a student, atleast 3 days a week I’d tune in at 9am for 'Start the Week' on Monday, 'In Our Time' on Thursday, and the real highlight for me was 'Home Truths' with John Peel on Saturdays. I remember vividly going to my first hour-long Quaker Meeting on the Sunday after John Peel had died.

But, like I say, I rarely listen to Radio 4 now. Which meant that I missed ‘Thought for the Day’ last Monday morning, which was a short reflection by Clifford Longley on the role Quakers played in the abolition of slavery. But gratefully, our Monthly Meeting clerk sent an e-mail round, with the text of the piece.

You can read the ‘Thought for the Day’ here,
or listen to it here.

I find it absolutely fascinating how non-Quakers choose to describe the Religious Society of Friends, and often find they do it much more eloquently than Quakers themselves. Clifford Longley said this:

"... At the root of their belief system, long before the language of human rights became familiar to the rest of us, is a commitment to equality. They believe Christ can enlighten everyone without distinction, and all who turn to him can experience his presence in their lives. The rest follows - they are not big on doctrine or institutional religion, and they don't evangelise for converts. Nor do they blow their own trumpets or mind who gets the credit for their good works. Which is why someone not of their persuasion, like me, ought from time to time to speak up for them ..."

And I’ll settle for that – what a beautiful and meaningful choice of words.

Singing My Heart's Truth

The View From The Boat House

I suppose in year's to come I'll say that this was my favourite place:

The view from Dylan Thomas' Boathouse, Laugharne, Wales
looking over the estuary at low tide towards Sir John's Hill

Places leave an impression on you even before you have visited them. Sometimes it is as if they don't actually exist, that you are surprised that you can physically encounter them. These could quite easily be pretend places, where bluebirds sing and there's a whiskey spring. Perhaps you'd rather that they didn't exist. I feel exactly the same way about "Quaker Country": places like Pendle Hill, Swarthmoor Hall, Firbank Fell, Brigflatts and Sedbergh, where George Fox visited in 1652. I have spoken to a couple of Young Friends about going on a Pilgrimage there, and we are hoping to organise something, if not this summer, then certainly in 2008. I am both delighted and excited that I'll be visiting Swarthmoor Hall in the middle of March this year as part of a residential weekend with Quaker Life Representative Council (of which I'm Young Friends representative). Anyway, back to Wales. When I first visited Laugharne, the Boathouse where Dylan Thomas lived, his Writing Shed, the path that connected the two, and Dylan's grave, I was amazed that they were infact real places and that "it did really happen". The estuarine landscape was amazing - flat, shifting, in flux, liminal, close and distant. The Boathouse itself occupied the margin that mediated the land and the sea. The view from the Boat House reminded me then, and reminds me again of these lyrics from 'Every Grain Of Sand' by Bob Dylan:

"...I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand..."

A Shower Of All My Days

But yesterday, this poem was at the forefront of my thoughts and feelings: 'Poem In October' by Dylan Thomas, which was written to celebrate his 30th birthday. Here are some extracts from the poem that resound with me:

"And I rose
In rainy autumn
And walked abroad in shower of all my days"

"And I saw in the turning so clearly a child's
Forgotten mornings when he walked with his mother
Through the parables
Of sunlight
And the legends of the green chapels
And the twice told fields of infancy
That his tears burned my cheeks and his heart moved in mine."

"These were the woods the river and the sea
Where a boy
In the listening
Summertime of the dead whispered the truth of his joy
To the trees and the stones and the fish in the tide.
And the mystery
Sang alive
Still in the water and singing birds."

"And there could I marvel my birthday
Away but the weather turned around. And the true
Joy of the long dead child sang burning
In the sun."

"O may my heart's truth
Still be sung
On this high hill in a year's turning."

And yesterday was my 30th birthday.

Another one of my favourite places is The Stiperstones, and yesterday me, my Mum, Dad and brother went for a walk there, on the upland heather ridge.

Nearby, on the side of a hill, lying 1,150 feet above sea level, is the small church at Shelve, and we went there too.

The inside of the church provided a peaceful sanctuary for some welcome moments of stillness. I held in the light all the thousands of people who were marching yesterday in London for peace, and calling for the UK's Trident Nuclear Programme not to be replaced. The beautiful stained glass window in Shelve Church depicts Christ and the disciples at Emmaus. The road to peace appears to be the road less travelled, where reality isn't always what we expect it to be, but I feel we must persevere on our journey along it.


Onwards we went to the small Shropshire town of Bishop's Castle. We popped into Yarborough House for tea, cakes and to browse the secondhand books and records. I came away with a couple of real gems:

A Book: "A Book of Quaker Wisdom"

A CD: "The Lily & The Lamb - chant & polyphony from medieval England" sung by Anonymous 4

and

2 Vinyl Records:
"Tallis at Waltham Abbey" sung by Cantores in Ecclesia, and various Thomas Tallis pieces sung by The Clerkes of Oxenford.

Ace!

Yesterday evening we had a Chinese and then rented a video. The film was one I'd heard a great deal about, and was really eager to see: "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou". Surreally funny, I think it is quite possibly the most wonderful film ever made. I am coming to the view that contained within this film is the meaning of life awaiting to be deciphered. I'll let you know the answer once I've unlocked it.

I had a great day yesterday, and amongst my thoughful gifts were a lovely T-Shirt and Cardigan from Mark, and the selection of white flower seeds that I hope to use at Mark's allotment to make a "peace patch"!

So, being my "thirtieth year to heaven", like Dylan, I dearly hope that my heart's truth will still be sung now, and in a year's turning.

May Peace be with you, and may Light shine on you and guide you on your journey.

Si

That Which Is Eternal

"Friends, meet together and know one another in that which is eternal,
which was before the world was" George Fox, 1657

Quaker Faith & Practice 2.35


"How can we make the meeting a community in which each person is accepted and nurtured, and strangers are welcome? Seek to know one another in the things which are eternal, bear the burden of each other's failings and pray for one another. As we enter with tender sympathy into the joys and sorrows of each other's lives, ready to give help and to receive it, our meeting can be a channel for God's love and forgiveness."

Advices & Queries 18

Sending Up A Prayer Of Thanks

I'd just like to send up a prayer of thanks to those of you who have left comments on my blog, or have sent me e-mails over the last couple of weeks. These are people whom I did not previously know, have never met or been in contact with before, but they freely gave their time to read my offerings here, and they extended the hand of Friendship to me when I really needed it. So I'd like to say: thank you Friends! I'd also like to say a massive thank you, as always, to my few wonderful stalwart regulars - you should know who you are!

I'm aware that this quiet little blog sits on the periphery of both the web and the Quaker blogosphere, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I nearly finished with 'under the green hill' just after Christmas, for various reasons. But now, I'm so glad that I didn't. I feel a sense of reassurance, consolation and healing that what I share here doesn't fall on deaf ears. I will try my best to find renewed strength and courage as I continue on my journey to convincement, and hope to continue to share my thoughts, musings and promptings with you along the way.

Take care and all the best.

Peace & Light,

Si

Young Friends Gather In Leicester

This coming weekend is the Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) and Enquirer's Gathering at the Friends' Meeting House in Leicester. I can't believe that it is one year since I went to my first Young Friends gathering in Nottingham. Now I find myself YFGM representative for Quaker Life Representative Council, and Worcestershire & Shropshire Monthly Meeting, aswell as being on YFGM Nominations Committee - so it's going to be a busy, but rewarding few days! I am particularly looking forward to the challenge of opening myself to the process of discernment that comes with the worship-led process of seeking and finding nominations. It will be a great way to deepen my spiritual experience of Quakerism, and I hope will help provide me with the process that can lead me into discerning how I wish to practically express my faith.

I can't wait to meet up with old Friends, make new Friends and hope that our fellowship will extend beyond the weekend through continued contact and interaction within the community of Young Friends.

Friends are not just going to Leicester to meet up. But, as George Fox said, we are going there to get to know one another in that which is eternal:

"Friends, meet together and know one another in that which is eternal,
which was before the world was" George Fox, 1657

This quoatation is from Quaker Faith & Practice 2.35, but also a fragment of it is woven into Advices & Queries 18:

"How can we make the meeting a community in which each person is accepted and nurtured, and strangers are welcome? Seek to know one another in the things which are eternal, bear the burden of each other's failings and pray for one another. As we enter with tender sympathy into the joys and sorrows of each other's lives, ready to give help and to receive it, our meeting can be a channel for God's love and forgiveness."

The Quaker Faith & Practice quote leaped out at me when it appeared on the front cover of the latest issue of Young Quaker Magazine, and together with Advices & Queries number 18, they speak volumes about what the Religious Society of Friends means to me.

These Friends Speak My Mind

Recently, I have come across so many blog posts where Friends have spoken about exactly the same issues that have been on my mind. Here are a few of them:

A guest post by Emily Maddison, on 'A Visit to Olympic View Friends Church: Observations from a British Unprogrammed Friend'

Liz Opp, from 'The Good Raised Up' on 'Spiritual Intimacy'

The Friendly Funnel on
'Quakers: We Are A Religious, Not Only A Social, Society'

quakerboy, from 'A Poor Wayfaring Stranger' on
'Misunderstanding Quakers...'

Simon St Laurent, from 'Light & Silence' on
'Early Quaker Trinity Questions'
and a set of posts considering "Answering That Of God In Everyone":
'walking cheerfully over the world';
'that of God...confounding the deceit', and
'answering'

Jez, from 'Quaker Street' on
Quakers In The News
Quaker Leaflets
Twelve Quakers and Jesus
and a consideration of Advices & Queries 1 & 2:
Building A Bridge Of Trust and River of Life, Part 2

Check them out!

A Nostalgia For Quakerism

Why Should The Fire Die?

This is not just the title of an album by 'Nickel Creek' (and of late I have been going bonkers over bluegrass music). But I feel "Why Should The Fire Die?" is a question that needs addressing by Quakers, but particularly myself.

Coming Home To Friends

The more I explore Quakerism, and the lives, works and experiences of Early Friends, I have come to realise that I want to try and feel some of the raw and unmediated FIRE that they so obviously encountered. I am currently struggling on my journey to convincement. I don't think I can comfortably and genuinely apply for membership of the Religious Society of Friends, unless I seriously and inventively engage with the Quaker narrative. I feel that if only I could glean a fragment of the Light, a spark from the fire, a glimpse of what Early Friends experienced, it would illuminate and transform my spiritual life, and give truth to the often used phrase amongst Quakers: "coming home to Friends"

My Nostalgia For Quakerism

If I am going to authentically "come home to Friends" and feel the sense of return from my current experiences of spiritual exile, I want to be able to say that, like Early Friends, I am a: "Seeker who has Found". I am nostalgic for Quakerism. I am nostalgic, not in the popular misconceived sense that nostalgia is a yearning for an unattainable golden age, that never actually was, and can't be recovered. Rather, I feel nostalgia as a form of home sickness

Seekers Found

I get the sense that Early Friends had found something very special: they were liberated, empowered and vivified. Francis Howgill (1618 - 1669) conveys this beautifully:

"The Lord of Heaven and earth we found to be near at hand, and as we waited upon him in pure silence, our minds out of all things, his heavenly presence appeared in our assemblies, when there was no language, tongue nor speech from any creature. The Kingdom of Heaven did gather us and catch us all, as in a net, and his heavenly power at one time drew many hundreds to land. We came to know a place to stand in and what to wait in; and the Lord appeared daily to us, to our astonishment, amazement and great admiration, insomuch that we often said one unto another with great joy of heart: 'What is the Kingdom of God come to be with men?'"

They didn't cleave the content and practice of their faith, and they held in tension both their disassociation, and loyalty to, certain aspects of the Christian narrative(s). They spoke about the Light - they named and described it so wonderfully, eloquently and poetically:

“God hath given to every one a measure of grace, which is the light that comes from Christ.

Faith is the gift of God given to his children, who diligently harken to his Word, which is life, and the life is the light of men

Dear Friends, whose minds are turned to the effectual light that comes from Christ, all mind your own measure, and be content in what the Lord hath committed to you.

Be faithful every one in your own measure and in patience wait in the light, for the unlimited Spirit of Christ, your life, to open the seals of the book

Be faithful to the Lord, in walking in obedience to him in the light … and your reward shall be rest and peace in the presence of God in Christ”

William Dewsbury (1621 - 1688)

I feel that behind these choice of words there is a treasure to be revealed: a way of relating and responding to the gift of the Light as inexhaustible and unconditional Love. Within this there is the free gift of Peace.

Early Friends were Seekers who had Found. And as "Publishers of Truth", they communicated what they had found. They were on Fire. I need to try and recapture and rekindle this Fire and not allow this fire to die in me. In the context of my own life, culture, community and language, I want to feel William Dewsbury's "effectual Light", and like Francis Howgill, I want to come to "know a place to stand in, and what to wait in". And I want it to be amongst Friends.

My Spiritual Poverty At Meeting

Whether we choose to use the word(s) God or Spirit or Light to describe our spiritual encounters it doesn’t matter as much as talking about and sharing our experiences. I feel that Quakers are in danger of stumbling at the very first hurdle if we are preoccupied with the politics of semantics. This is not to say that it isn’t important to choose our words carefully and authentically. But once we have genuinely and truthfully found our voice, I feel we need to start sharing our harvest.

I fear this potential stumbling block may act as a convenient excuse for many to avoid sharing our spirituality – that Friends are too afraid to ascribe words to their feelings. This certainly applies to me, and it is where I am stuck at the moment. Although not intentional, this apathy creates an obstacle to our individual and collective spiritual growth that exacerbates the negative qualities of a Quakerism that is dominated by silent worship: reticence, coyness and ambiguity.

Yes, each of us has our own unique spiritual encounters, and way of responding to the promptings of love and truth in our hearts. But this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about it. Quite the opposite – rather I think it increases the urgency for worship sharing. And we should not be fearful of sharing the fruits of our experiences that spring from the practice of turning inwardly in spirit and truth. Surely we are amongst Friends? If we are to do justice to, and faithfully live up to, the name ‘Religious Society of Friends’, then Quakers should strive to create the safe, inclusive and mutually supportive environment of a covenant community to enable this spiritual growth to take place.

This is what I dearly yearn for. I crave for some reassurance, certainty and consolation. Something discovered, found, cherished and then shared by being freely ministered to others. I would gratefully receive it - my heart, mind, ears and arms are open. And in turn, I would gladly share it.

Peace & Light

Si