Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 27th July 2025

Dear Friends,

Quakers may have a good approach to exploring what life is about, but they do not have a monopoly.  There is much we can learn from the experience of others. A person I have found inspiring is Vinoba Bhave . A Hindu, he worked closely with Gandhi for many years. He undertook many remarkable activities on behalf of society in general and the poor and landless in particular. He walked around India persuading landowners to simply give land to the landless, with surprising success.

He claims no sudden revelation of God, but describes in his memoirs, Moved by Love, that he always accepted the importance of love and the existence of God, dedicating himself to God when  only 10 years old.  His adult call to a specific mission arose on hearing some news:-

On April 18, 1951 in Pochampalli in Telangana, the Harijans asked for land and were given 100 acres. That night I could not sleep for more than three or four hours – What was this that had happened? I believe in God; I also believe in arithmetic. I began calculating; If one were to ask for land for all the landless of India, it would take 50 million acres to satisfy their needs. Could so much land be had for the asking? Then I had a direct talk with God, just as I might talk face to face with another human being. ‘If you hesitate’, He said, ‘if you fear this task, you must give up your faith in non-violence and stop claiming to be non-violent. Have faith; ask and ask again …..     He who put hunger into the child’s stomach also put milk into the mother’s breasts. He does not leave his work half done.’ This set all my doubts at rest; the very next day I began asking for land.

Bob Harwood

Quakers value diversity. We share this Friend’s message in the hope it will speak to others.

Pastoral Care and Eldership Team: Patricia Cockrell, David Hitchin, Sharon Krummel, Tim Pitt-Payne, Theresa Samms, Emily Slater.