Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 13th September 2026

Dear Friends,

In ministry recently, a Friend affirmed the depths of faith and commitment to service she’d found from people of diverse faiths. That brought to my mind Dekka Ibrahim Abdi, one of those amazing people I was privileged to meet whilst on the staff of Woodbrooke. She arrived on the opening evening of one term, a black-robed Muslim Kenyan woman. I helped welcome her in. Our cook realised there was no Halal meat for her for lunch the next day. So, not worrying about being a vegetarian, I hastened to the late-night shops of multi-cultural Selly Oak and without difficulty found some. She may never have known, but I hope it helped her feel at ease that weekend.

Dekka came for a course on ‘Responding to Conflict’ in the 1990s. She was a peace builder. She didn’t really need the course; she’d already made peace between warring groups in northern Kenya. Not by calling in the military but by getting people to sit down and listen to each other’s concerns and hopes, insisting that everyone involved was heard and respected. Football tournaments replaced cattle raiding in the end. Though most of those involved were Muslim, she ensured prayers were said by Muslims and Christians at their peace committee meetings.

She came back several times as a resource person for the course. She brought warmth and a loving interest in all those she met. Her death in a road accident in Kenya in 2011 was such a tragedy. At a packed memorial meeting for her in Woodbrooke that I attended, words by her were shared: “A good day is a blessing; a bad day is a learning experience.” For a long time I had on my wall a poster with her smiling face and the quote, “I refuse to be a victim. I am a resource for peace.”

Faced with people like Dekka one can only be thankful for what they bring to our torn world, regardless of the faith in which they are rooted. When Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God,” he affirmed the importance of their role and challenged us to take it on too in whatever situations we find ourselves, as my friend Dekka did.

Chris Lawson

Quakers value diversity. We share this Friend’s message in the hope it will speak to others.
 Pastoral Care and Eldership Team [PaCET]:  Bob Harwood, David Hitchin, Sharon Krummel, Tim Pitt-Payne, Helen Thomas, Jenny Wistreich