Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 21st August 2022

Dear Friends,

Now that our Resident Friends have moved on and are supporting another Meeting, I have found myself going into the Meeting House more frequently than before. I have met some of those who are glad to use it during the week, for a U3A group, creative movement or teaching English to Ukranians.  I have coincided with a local person wanting to show it to her grandson for a project he is doing and with other members of the Meeting also helping to care for it.

I am glad we call it a Meeting House. A place in which people meet each other, talk over their thoughts, get immersed in creative activities and build up friendships. When we gather in it on Sundays for meeting for worship we hope to meet up not just with each other in friendship but at a deeper level with something beyond ourselves.

Ours is a building that has been used in this way by many former generations of Friends. Like others, I like the significance of that and the room itself with its old wood panelling and benches. But I have worshipped well in many other settings. We all know that a building itself is not a guarantee of profound experience in worship. George Gorman has this wonderful memory of the place in which he started going to Quaker Meetings:

“…It was held in a rather hideous building: the meeting room was dingy. We sat on rickety chairs that creaked at the slightest movement. The whole place gave little hope that those who worshipped there might catch a glimpse of the vision of God. ….However, it was in this unlikely setting that I came to know what I can only describe as the amazing fact of Quaker worship. It was in that uncomfortable room that I discovered the way to the interior side of my life, at the deep centre of which I knew that I was not alone, but was held by a love that passes all understanding….” George Gorman 1973 QFP 2.03

I hope we can all find something of similar value from our times of worship together,

Chris

On behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (Bob Harwood, David Hitchin, Chris Lawson, Tim Pitt-Payne, Theresa Samms, Nancy Wall)