My first Quaker meeting
Looking back I suppose it was a chain of synchronicities that drew me to the Society of Friends. About 10 days before my first meeting (during what must have been the Quaker outreach week, I realised subsequently), I happened, by chance, to tune into a interview with two seasoned Quakers on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 lunchtime show. My interest in the item was stirred having just finished a wonderful book by the Philadelphian Quaker and first-time novelist, Benjamin Lloyd. The Actor’s Way is an epistolary novel, which tells of the unlikely Friend-ship between a retired teacher and her former student- a young, anguished, alcoholic actor. I was so moved by the story I emailed the writer to congratulate him- something I would never usually do.
I’d literally just turned the final page, and already decided I would immediately reread it, when my wife Karen interrupted-
“There’s no porridge left, Mark; I’ve nothing for breakfast tomorrow”.
(Can you see where this is going...?)
I hrrumphed (as is my wont) and somewhat begrudgingly put down my book and dutifully trudged off to the local supermarket. ASDA’s own brand was out of stock that morning and I was obliged to purchase a box of Quaker Oats...
Well, okay; one man’s Jungian synchronicity may be another fellow’s random coincidence- but God’s got a cranky sense of humour if you care to pay close enough attention. And although I’m not what you might call a superstitious soul, it did seem that something/someone was asking me to follow a trail...
I have always believed in God even though I had not attended church since the late 90s. I began meditating on a daily basis about 3 or 4 years ago, following my own spiritual path and, like many artists, often drawing more enrichment and sustenance from my work – which I have always regarded as a spiritual vocation (I am an actor/acting teacher)- than I did through formal worship. Having been educated and brought up in the Roman Catholic tradition, I had, in my late 20s, converted to Anglicanism. But in the following 13 years I had found myself growing increasingly disaffected with conventional Christian services; and, to be brutally honest, more than a little bored with the hackneyed hymns and homilies, tautological creeds and perfunctory responses. And so eventually I assumed as a 40-something man (somewhat arrogantly it might be said) that I had outgrown the need for organised worship. Or maybe it had outgrown me, who can say…?
However, the little I had managed to glean about Quakerism seemed to offer something far more interesting- the opportunity to develop ones’ Inner Light untrammelled by prescribed creeds and ministers’ “personalities” and prejudices.
I was not disappointed.
Looking back at my journal entry for Sunday, October 21st 2007 I describe that first meeting as “a genuine epiphany”. I recollect my “profound sense of joy and fulfilment during the course of the hour-long meeting", a feeling that I had stumbled upon a group of people who offered me “a sublime lesson in patience, gentleness, tolerance and unpretentious wisdom”. I remember someone (and I don’t recall who it was) ministered during the meeting on Christ’s parable of the talents, and speculated on a possible ‘4th servant’ who invested all his talents, but failed.
Do pardon the cliché, but in that moment her words spoke so deeply to my condition I instantly knew I had arrived home.
There was a lunch afterwards and I don’t believe I had ever met such a remarkable bunch of diverse folk gathered together in the same room ever before!
“I’ll definitely go back”, I wrote in my journal.
And now, some eight months later, I haven’t missed a single week! From the very start the Glasgow Meeting has made me feel so welcome. Many of you have found time in your busy lives to come and see me act in productions at the Ramshorn Theatre of King Lear, The Tempest and Tango. It means so much to me that the Society has such respect for the role of the artist. Even more than this I am deeply grateful that the Quakers understand so well that the ego, intellect and status have no ultimate significance in God’s eyes.
It is for these reasons that I recently applied for full membership of the Glasgow Society of Friends.
Thank you.
Looking back I suppose it was a chain of synchronicities that drew me to the Society of Friends. About 10 days before my first meeting (during what must have been the Quaker outreach week, I realised subsequently), I happened, by chance, to tune into a interview with two seasoned Quakers on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 lunchtime show. My interest in the item was stirred having just finished a wonderful book by the Philadelphian Quaker and first-time novelist, Benjamin Lloyd. The Actor’s Way is an epistolary novel, which tells of the unlikely Friend-ship between a retired teacher and her former student- a young, anguished, alcoholic actor. I was so moved by the story I emailed the writer to congratulate him- something I would never usually do.
I’d literally just turned the final page, and already decided I would immediately reread it, when my wife Karen interrupted-
“There’s no porridge left, Mark; I’ve nothing for breakfast tomorrow”.
(Can you see where this is going...?)
I hrrumphed (as is my wont) and somewhat begrudgingly put down my book and dutifully trudged off to the local supermarket. ASDA’s own brand was out of stock that morning and I was obliged to purchase a box of Quaker Oats...
Well, okay; one man’s Jungian synchronicity may be another fellow’s random coincidence- but God’s got a cranky sense of humour if you care to pay close enough attention. And although I’m not what you might call a superstitious soul, it did seem that something/someone was asking me to follow a trail...
I have always believed in God even though I had not attended church since the late 90s. I began meditating on a daily basis about 3 or 4 years ago, following my own spiritual path and, like many artists, often drawing more enrichment and sustenance from my work – which I have always regarded as a spiritual vocation (I am an actor/acting teacher)- than I did through formal worship. Having been educated and brought up in the Roman Catholic tradition, I had, in my late 20s, converted to Anglicanism. But in the following 13 years I had found myself growing increasingly disaffected with conventional Christian services; and, to be brutally honest, more than a little bored with the hackneyed hymns and homilies, tautological creeds and perfunctory responses. And so eventually I assumed as a 40-something man (somewhat arrogantly it might be said) that I had outgrown the need for organised worship. Or maybe it had outgrown me, who can say…?
However, the little I had managed to glean about Quakerism seemed to offer something far more interesting- the opportunity to develop ones’ Inner Light untrammelled by prescribed creeds and ministers’ “personalities” and prejudices.
I was not disappointed.
Looking back at my journal entry for Sunday, October 21st 2007 I describe that first meeting as “a genuine epiphany”. I recollect my “profound sense of joy and fulfilment during the course of the hour-long meeting", a feeling that I had stumbled upon a group of people who offered me “a sublime lesson in patience, gentleness, tolerance and unpretentious wisdom”. I remember someone (and I don’t recall who it was) ministered during the meeting on Christ’s parable of the talents, and speculated on a possible ‘4th servant’ who invested all his talents, but failed.
Do pardon the cliché, but in that moment her words spoke so deeply to my condition I instantly knew I had arrived home.
There was a lunch afterwards and I don’t believe I had ever met such a remarkable bunch of diverse folk gathered together in the same room ever before!
“I’ll definitely go back”, I wrote in my journal.
And now, some eight months later, I haven’t missed a single week! From the very start the Glasgow Meeting has made me feel so welcome. Many of you have found time in your busy lives to come and see me act in productions at the Ramshorn Theatre of King Lear, The Tempest and Tango. It means so much to me that the Society has such respect for the role of the artist. Even more than this I am deeply grateful that the Quakers understand so well that the ego, intellect and status have no ultimate significance in God’s eyes.
It is for these reasons that I recently applied for full membership of the Glasgow Society of Friends.
Thank you.
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