July 2009 Number 187

Living in faith: my spiritual journey in everyday life. Local Meetings Henley Newbury Wallingford Testimony for Stanley and Georgina Jones Maidenhead day on Development and Justice Just a thought Contribution details

LIVING IN FAITH : MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY IN EVERYDAY LIFE [BERKS & OXON REGIONAL MEETING, OXFORD, 28 MARCH 2009] We had three speakers: Swami Ambikananda, a Hindu; Imam Monawar Hussain, a Muslim; and Trevor Dorey of the Church of England. Each told us about her or his religious back-ground and spiritual journey. After half an hour of worship, Swami began. She was brought up in South Africa. Her mother was a staunch Roman Catholic and her father an atheist. She was the 6th child, having 4 brothers and a sister. Anticipating another boy, her mother had expected to commit the child to God starting as an altar boy. Swami was disappointed that this was impossible for a girl – but she became a keen Catholic none-theless. However, in her early teens she could not accept the Roman Catholic idea of limbo for the unbaptised, so severed her ties with the church and decided that her atheistic father had the right idea. She went to University in the 1960s, era of sex, drugs and rock-’n-roll, the latter two attracting her. ‘Acid’ led to a sub-lime experience that nearly killed her as she ‘lost herself but gained all’. She never took drugs again but the experience began her

search to answer the question: ‘What am I?’ She studied Hindu philosophy. Yoga was the path she chose: a lifestyle of non-violence without greed, and of turning vision in-wards. She believes in reincarna-tion and questions how much free will we really have. She said that we continually have to choose between the path of self-gratification and that of grace. We tend to perpetuate our definition of self but we can drop that. We are hard-wired to learn through stories. Swami then told us one illustrating the need to open the door to new light. Answering a question about the state of the world today, Swami said we need to face the threat and work to-gether, not holding on to our differences. She works with an orphanage in Delhi where the bright little children retain hope so she can learn much from them. Monawar began with a period of silence. His family came from Kashmir but he was brought up in the Maidenhead area. At the age of 5, his grandfather took him to his spiritual master, a Sufi, who impressed the boy greatly, the whole of the Sufi’s being glorifying God, a model to be emulated. Islam is not submission to God but being in a state of serving God’s creation. Islam has three dimensions: outward aspects – the covenant, the five daily

prayers and the fasts; the theol-ogy and discipline – who are the prophets and keeping the cove-nant clear, not veiled; and worship as if you see God and being perpetually conscious of him. A world problem is the lack of spirituality of those in power. Violence begets violence and is never a solution. We need space and time in schools for discussion to make the world a better place. He told a story giving high value to the choice of a gift of a withered flower, which was no longer ‘busy’ glorifying God as were the magnificent bouquets. He regards Britain as a blessed place, with every human being recognized as unique, but racism is rising and spiritual people of whatever back-ground must combine and speak up to stop world disaster like a train rushing towards a terrible end. After lunch we heard Trevor Dorey speak. He was a financier in the City until about the age of 50, when an unspecified experience led him to train as a priest. He served three small parishes in Cornwall until he was 70. He, like Swami, has spent time in India and finds it immensely enriching. He emphasized the need to enter into a profound harmony with yourself, your neighbour and God. There were more than 60 people present in the morning. Oxford Friends made us all very

welcome. We enjoyed sharing ideas and feeling strengthened amongst like-minded people. Elizabeth Heydeman. LOCAL MEETINGS Henley The Saga magazine for July has correspondence on the preva-lence of memorial services in recent years. There was no con-troversy at Henley Meeting in having a Memorial Meeting for Alethea Pitt and after our reminis-cences we went out to our garden to plant a cherry tree which was obligingly in bloom for a keen gardener; in fact there was a strong feeling that Alethea was there saying crossly, 'You're all treading on the cowslips.' The sun shone, the food was good and there was much cheer-ful talk supported by the thought of our friend's life well lived. Always anxious to find topics for our third Sunday shared lunch discussions, we were glad to be given A Framework for Action 2009-2014. It is an attractively presented pamphlet and provided much to discuss before our more thoughtful views were woven into a report to suit Friends' House. Malcolm Barnett is looking into our requirements for a new hear-

ing loop and we all agree that the best, if probably the most expen-sive, suggestions are coming from the National Society for the Deaf. We wondered whether to econo-mise by not wiring up the coffee room and then we decided that the coffee room was the most in need of facilities because of back-ground chatter and the discussion groups held there. We'll miss Alethea at the Book Group held three times a year and now in the afternoon from 2.30 to 3.30. New members would be very welcome. Glenda Hemken Newbury

Planting Alethea’s tree at Henley Photo by Paul Kingston

Newbury Meeting has little to report for the last few months but we did have a good social eve-ning on March 14. We felt in need of an evening when we had no special talk, no discussion, no organising, just a ‘get to know each other better’ time. A few members worked extremely hard to provide a three course supper in an almost unrecognisable meeting room. Tables ran down three sides of the room and looked splendid. Some 30 people enjoyed the food and companion-ship and were entertained by a conjuring trick performed by Trevor Dorey. Afterwards we moved to the garden room for coffee and listened to guitar play-ing and folk singing. It is amazing how much talent there is amongst us ! The Eight Bells for Mental Health group continue to use our Meeting House all day every weekday. They have lost all support from local Council services, both practi-cal and financial. They are now trying to run a daily programme on their own. Most days they cook a two course lunch for themselves which is quite popular. Some members of our Meeting give quite a lot of practical help and support. Realising that the Meet-ing House is not suitable for them, Eight Bells is trying to find more appropriate premises but so far has been unsuccessful.

Jackie Penny and Nick Furr are still travelling in their narrow boat through the canals of the Mid-lands and are enjoying it even more than they expected. Jackie did manage to pay us a quick visit in April. We wish them happy travelling this summer. The Book Group continues to meet once a month and has recently read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by R L Stevenson and is now trying to cope with The Seven Storey Mountain, the auto-biography of Thomas Merton, which is quite a tome. Our next important event is the performance by the Quaker Thea-tre Group on Monday 12 October. Please note the change of date from that given in AM minutes. Linda Perkin Wallingford We are very conscious that we haven’t been good correspon-dents for some time but Walling-ford Meeting is still here and in good heart ! Our book group is meeting regu-larly and members have been studying Non Violent Communica-tion by Marshal Rosenberg. Recently two members of the group led a meeting for learning to explain the value they found in the methods described in the book. The next book they are planning

to read is Light to Live By by Rex Ambler. The First Monday group meets monthly to study and discuss ex-tracts from Quaker Faith and Practice and other relevant sources. This is intended to help us to deeper understand and appreciate our Quakerism and to get to know one another as part of our meeting community. These meetings are open to any mem-bers, as and when they can attend, and this means that they don’t have to commit to every meeting. One of the gradual changes we have experienced has been the dwindling of numbers of children attending meeting as our young people have grown up and gone off to university etc. At present we are left with one five year old who attends very occasionally. We are very glad that the Griffin boys are involved with Young Friends activities and so are still in touch with the Society in some ways. We miss input from the children but, until such time as some younger families appear, this is the status quo. We hope that our outreach activities in the Autumn may help, but in our previous experience we have mainly attracted interest in the older population locally. We have continued to welcome new attenders to the meeting, and keep in touch when we can with

Friends who have moved on. One of the matters which con-cerns us at present, as it probably does in all local meetings, is how to involve Friends in business meetings. The same few faithful people continue to attend, but we worry that it is partly because the business does not seem relevant to others that they do not attend. We are endeavouring to encour-age attendance at Woodbrooke and Charney Manor courses by making sure that Friends and attenders know that the meeting can support them financially. Members of our meeting have been and are involved in Local Government. Lynda Atkins as an Oxfordshire County Councillor, and John Griffin a Parish Council-lor. Amanda and John Griffin re-cently visited the European Com-munity in Brussels and were able to talk to the Meeting about the structure of the E.U., in advance of the recent election, which was very helpful in understanding just what we were voting for! We are represented in Wallingford Churches Together and the Minis-ters’ Fellowship, and those of us who live outside Wallingford Town “fly the flag” in our village commu-nities. We contribute articles and news to The Wallingford Maga-zine and The Benson Bulletin regularly and our visibility in the local community is helped by our

tenants of the Wallingford Cottage who manage the hirings of the meeting house by outside groups. We were glad to welcome, last year, a second daughter to Tom and Karen, our tenants – Beatrice, a sister for Ilsa – and it is good to see the cottage used as a family home. Janet Burtt Testimony for Stanley and Georgina [Ena] Jones of Maidenhead Stanley and Georgina Jones died 2 weeks apart in May 2006, aged 91 and 89. Their gifts comple-mented each other. Stanley was born in 1914, one of three children, and grew up in North London, where his family attended the Congregational church. He was interested in Art, and sport, especially boxing and athletics. After leaving grammar school, he worked in a stockbro-ker’s office for ten years. Though he never felt at ease in the world of finance, he learned skills which would later stand him in good stead, for example as a Treasurer. He helped to run youth clubs for under-privileged children in Lon-don at this time, and became a proficient sportsman, winning trophies for both boxing and long-distance running. He was active in the Youth Hostels Association and enjoyed rambling, through which

he met Georgina. He was also in-terested in the peace movement, notably the Peace Pledge Union, founded in 1936. He joined the Religious Society of Friends in 1940 at Watling and Edgware Meeting. He served some months imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs as a Conscientious Objec-tor. Georgina was also from North London. Her father died when she was 5 and she was sent to board-ing school so that her mother could work. Then she went to Par-liament Hill Grammar School, which was a much happier experi-ence for her. Stanley and Geor-gina met in Wembley and lived there after their marriage in 1944 at Watling and Edgware Meeting. Georgina had trained as a teacher at Whitelands Training College by 1939, when she was sent with groups of evacuees to Hertford-shire. They corresponded whilst Stanley was in Wormwood Scrubs. When Stanley was released from prison, he continued his voluntary work with boys’ clubs, and trained to be a Special Needs teacher. He represented Great Britain in the 1948 London Olympic marathon, which he finished, in spite of blis-tering heat and injury. Stanley and Georgina’s daughter Bridget was born in 1949. Soon afterwards they moved to High Wycombe, where Stanley taught

at Hatters Lane School. In 1951 they bought their first house in Cookham, before Nicho-las was born. Soon afterwards Stanley started to work at Holyport Manor Special School, where he remained for the next 25 years, and Ena taught at Holy Trinity School, Cookham, where she stayed for 30 years. Both are fondly remembered by those they taught. Stanley’s patience and enthusi-asm earned him respect from staff and pupils. He was especially proud of those he coached for successes in athletics, and he set a fine example, by continuing to run the six miles to and from school each day. Ena was a well-loved teacher to hundreds of Cookham children, and is still remembered fondly by those she taught. One mother recently spoke of a lasting memory of Ena going to her daughter’s birthday party, helping with all the games, serving the ice creams and everything else. This was something she loved to do also for her own grandchildren – she loved being involved with the children, and never tired of partici-pating in their games. Ena had the ability to turn every-thing into a game, and always in-vented ways of keeping her grandchildren busy, such as ask-ing whether they wanted to make

the bed the ‘lazy’ way or the proper way, to which they would always of course answer ‘the proper way’. Hide and seek was one of her favourites, and even aged 80 she managed to squeeze herself into the most tiny and un-comfortable spaces, including the bottom shelf of the larder. She was also a master of small talk, saying that small talk led on to other things, so she was able to elicit information from even the most reticent. Stanley, an admirer of Milton, Blake and other poets, preferred more serious talk, but gratefully acknowledged Ena’s support for his running. From the time when Stanley’s membership transferred into Reading Monthly Meeting in 1951, both he and Ena were regular in their attendance at Maidenhead Meeting. Soon he was appointed clerk of the meeting, serving from 1957 to 1962. After retirement, he completed an Open University de-gree, became interested in local history, and researched the history of Quakers in Maidenhead, finish-ing this work shortly before he was taken ill with Parkinsons Dis-ease. Stanley and Ena would both arrive early at Meeting on Sundays, a time when tasks such as tidying the garden or meeting room could be accomplished. Stanley would often greet you as doorkeeper. Sometimes this would extend to reaching out to the wider commu-

nity of the town, notably in the ex-hibition about Quakers he organ-ised. He continued to enjoy paint-ing, and produced a large number of watercolours, one of which was given to us for the Meeting House. In 1961, Ena became a Quaker by convincement, and she too served as clerk of the meeting, first in 1968 and then again from 1973 to 1978. Ena was also a dedicated servant of the Monthly Meeting, serving as both overseer and elder at various times over the years. She would travel to evening meetings by train, arriving home in Cookham often late at night. Stanley, it seems, was a nervous driving instructor, and so Ena never learned to drive, having left the car to walk home after one particularly tense occasion. They both enjoyed walking, but the driv-ing was left to Stanley when they would take their grandchildren on all kinds of outings, sponsored walks and adventures, and faith-fully attend all of their concerts and school functions. A Year 10 essay on boxing they helped Julia to write was sent to the House of Lords, where parts of it were quoted in the debate about whether to ban boxing. Stanley and Ena were both gifted in vocal ministry. They were also well known in Cookham, each playing a prominent role in the life of the village, Stanley serving as a Parish Councillor. As Friends, they both let their lives speak, becom-

ing involved with CND, from the inaugural Aldermaston March of Easter 1958. They were stalwarts of the local Labour Party and National Union of Teachers, supported Amnesty International, and represented Maidenhead Quakers at meetings of Churches Together in Maidenhead. They were also faithful in attending meetings to promote interfaith un-derstanding.

As a well-known Cookham per-sonality, Stanley had his portrait painted by Timmy Mallet, who knew him from his involvement with Cookham FM radio station, and spoke movingly at Stanley’s funeral. At their joint Memorial Meeting, for which 80 people packed our Garden Room, their next door neighbour praised them as the ‘neighbours from heaven’. We still appreciate their warmth and genuine interest. Stanley was unfailingly courteous, and Geor-gina had the gift of making you feel special – that when she was speaking to you, you were the only one who mattered at that mo-ment. They loved each other deeply. We miss them.

Prepared by Maidenhead Meeting and forwarded to Britain Yearly Meeting by Mid-Thames AM 14 June 2009.

Development and Justice Day at Maidenhead With the growing impact of the current crisis on the poor of devel-oping countries, it was timely that Maidenhead Meeting hosted a public day event on the issues. The day was introduced by Peter Braithwaite (of Wallingford Meet-ing) who spoke about the realities and successes of Fairtrade and about ethical trading. John Chris-tensen introduced us to the work of the Tax Justice Network and Hamish Preston of the Reading Jubilee Debt Campaign covered debt relief. John Madeley, a Read-ing author who has written several books on development issues, discussed international trade. Over 25 people attended the event and feedback confirmed that the speakers were very high quality. In particular, the issue of tax justice was an eye opener. Among the startling facts is that tax havens have cost the poorest countries of the world $160 billion a year in tax avoidance and that

the flow of capital leaving the de-veloping world is estimated to significantly exceed the amount of aid flowing in the opposite di-rection. The event closed with agreement that we had heard of many un-fairnesses in trade between countries, and were reminded that an unfair world is an unjust world, dreadful for the world’s poorest but also bad for us all and for the planet. We called on Gordon Brown to follow through on his resolution to abolish tax havens. As consumers and stakeholders in businesses, we have the power to demand change to improve the position of developing countries. Companies should become more transpar-ent, and socially and environ-mentally responsible. If you have the opportunity to hear some of these speakers, I very much commend them to you. Simon Bond

Two of the speakers at the Maidenhead day with some of those who came to hear them. Photo by Paul Kingston

Just a Thought

O may the Ship ne’er Spring a leak Nor founder nor become a wreck In boisterous Storms be Sure to cast The Anchor - Hope - to hold it fast Which join’d to Faith the Cable will Preserve it Safe in tempests still. To clear the hold of dread despair Stick to the pump of fervent prayer. Verse on a needlework sampler finished April 8 1824 by Diania and Margaret of Seaton Sluice.

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