Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 26th March 2023

Dear Friends,

There are two much-loved images that come up over and over again, both in Quaker writings and in spoken ministry:  the Light, and the Seed.
 
You can find both images at the very start of the Quaker movement, and indeed much earlier, because they both come from the Christian scriptures.  The start of John’s Gospel speaks of a Light that enlightens everyone who comes into the world.  As for the Seed, you could trace it to Jesus’s parable about the sower.  The contemporary Quaker writer Mark Russ has also linked it to Mary’s pregnancy, her experience of the Christ-child growing within her.
 
I love both images, but for me there’s also a third that naturally belongs with them:  the Thread.
 
I’m not sure this is a Christian image in its origin.  You can find it in Greek mythology – Theseus finding his way out of the labyrinth, thanks to Ariadne.  
 
It an image that turns up sometimes in fairy stories, or in poetry.
 
Here’s a favourite example, from the American poet (and Quaker attender) William Stafford.  
 
He wrote this poem very shortly before he died.  It’s called, “The Way It Is”.
 
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

In Friendship

Tim

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