Hereford Quakers Newsletter

May 2018

“Art thou a child of Light and hast walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?”

(George Fox, 1652, quoted in QFP 19.07)

Diary

Events are at the Friends Meeting House, 21 King Street, Hereford HR4 9BX unless otherwise stated

Book Club – Thursday 10th May
This month’s book is Holy Spy, by Rory Clements. The book for June’s Book Club (on Thursday 14th June) is Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander.

Sundays 13th May and 27th May
Julian Rutherford writes: At the education meeting held to discuss the possible revision of Quaker Faith & Practice, it became apparent that many of us are unfamiliar with much that it contains. Regret was expressed that we had not taken up the suggestion

to follow the yearly meeting-wide programme for studying it together. We felt, however, it was not too late to do so and it might appeal to quite a number of Friends if we start such a programme now.

We will therefore be following the reading programme in the order set out in the Reading Quaker faith & practice leaflet (a copy has been pinned on the noticeboard and it is also available from qfp.quaker.org.uk/reading ). Meetings to discuss and share reflections on the chapters will be held on the second and fourth Sundays each month from 9.45 to 10.15 starting with Chapter 21: Personal journey, on May 13th.

All Friends are invited to participate and there is no need to commit to attending all sessions.

Education Meeting – Tuesday 15th May
Charlotte Lake will report on her experience of the recent annual Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) conference and Jane Straker will report on the special section of the main conference which focused on the work of Sanctuary Meetings. (See reports below also.)

Mon 21st May

ACTIVESTILLS: PHOTOGRAPHY AS PROTEST IN PALESTINE/ISRAEL

Photography as a form of activism – an illustrated talk by Palestinian photographer Ahmad Al-Bazz. For more information, contact: herefordpsc@gmail.com

Dates for your Diary

Friday 8th June

Hereford Peace Council’s Charities Quiz

7.00 pm, £3 per person, proceeds to the Peace Council and a charity nominated by the winning team. Hereford Quakers are warmly invited to provide a team and/or come as individuals and make up teams on the night. For more information, contact Sheila Milne.

Saturday 9th June

Fellowship Day at The Pales

Tuesday 12th June

Education Meeting – a chance to get to know each other better

Friday 22nd June

Night of the Churches

Saturday 23rd June

A Midsummer Concert at The Pales

Saturday 21st July – Saturday 4th August

Quaker Camp

Contact Mikki Pullen for information.

Saturday 14th July

Area Meeting at Ross

Hay Festival

If you’re visiting Hay Festival (24th May – 3rd June), please say hallo to the Friends who will be ensuring a Quaker presence there.

Quaker Arts Network

If you’re interested in the arts, you might like to look at QAN’s website and Facebook page, and consider signing up to receive the newsletter at quakerartsuk@gmail.com www.quakerarts.net
Quaker Arts Network (Facebook)

Safeguarding

If you have concerns about the safety or welfare of a child or vulnerable adult, please raise it with an overseer or with one of the safeguarding group.

Overseers: Wendy Meaford (convenor), Mary Rhodes, Dominic Walker Safeguarding Group: Libby Hudson (convenor), Susanna Grunsell , Viv Ray, Mary Rhodes and Ruth Stanier

Charlotte Lake writes: The QPSW Conference was held in March at the Hays Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derby, and attended by about 150 people. The weekend programme consisted of a multitude of stimulating events. Clare Wood began the evening by better informing participants of the work done by QPSW in areas such as East African and Israel/Palestine, as well as UK based programmes aimed to address peace such as Peace Education, the Peace Workers Programme and Peace and Disarmament. A parallel meeting of Sanctuary Everywhere ran alongside the QPSW conference. There were many friendly people from around the UK and many young enthusiastic individuals new to the work of QPSW. This mix set the stage for some very inspiring discussions.

The diverse programme across the weekend was delivered well, including many opportunities of choice between workshops, films or socialising, how much or how little an individual wanted to contribute in large group discussions, worship, and even food options.

It’s been several years since I attended a residential event. In current day to day, life is spent with people in the mainstream talking about mainstream issues. I feel listening to the commitment, passion and ideas of other Quakers across the three days, reminded me why I am a Quaker. A coming home feeling for me remains and I am so thankful to have been asked if I wanted to go.

Jane Straker writes: The Sanctuary Everywhere Conference was a first opportunity for a face to face gathering of Friends from our newly formed Sanctuary Meetings network.

There are now about 60 Sanctuary meetings across the UK – the number increases weekly. About half of these were represented and it proved a wonderful opportunity to learn from others concerned with how best to work towards countering the hostile culture that seems to be the official backdrop to the refugee crisis. This is in marked contrast to our national response to the needs of displaced people at the time of the Second World War. On my return home the contrast was underlined for me by the introduction to the meeting held at the Bishop’s Palace to consider the appropriate response from Hereford as we are about to receive our first group of asylum seeking families. We were reminded then that most of the world’s displaced people are finding shelter in the poorest countries. Only a tiny proportion of these people reach Europe and within Europe it is again the poorer countries bordering the Mediterranean that are hosting the bulk of those forced to leave their homes.

Back to Swanwick: Turning the Tide facilitators supported our group with many different activities looking at aspects of the current situation using excellent techniques for involving us in the thinking. One of the best workshops was to help us recognise racial/cultural prejudice in ourselves: something we need to look at before we can counter it elsewhere. We also learnt of up and coming legislation to look out for and how we may help influence the outcome of Parliamentary votes. Tatiana Garavito, who co-ordinates all the Sanctuary Meeting activities from Friends House, was with us throughout so we now have a face to put with a name and an assurance of her willingness to offer support and advice for our local work. Above all else, we were able to meet with others working in other parts of the country and learn from each other. I had very useful conversations about the way Sanctuary Cities are working in other places. A broadly based group in Hereford, including some Friends, is now in process of considering how we best plan to welcome asylum seeking families shortly to be resettled here. We wish to encourage Hereford to become part of the Cities of Sanctuary movement.

More news to follow as these plans develop.

For further information about Quakers, please contact: Clerk: Ruth Stanier – ruth.stanier@smquakers.org.uk

Please submit copy in writing for the next newsletter (June 2018) to the editor, Liz Chave – liz.chave@smquakers.org.uk by 21st May.