More about the outdoor Meeting for worship team later…

A very autumnal day brought winds, rolling rey skies and showers though another mini heatwave (heatwave by Brit standards that is) is due in the week ahead.

Meeting was well attended and we welcomed our two Friends from Milton Keynes who also contributed a short harmonica piece during Meeting.

As usual Colin brought a floral display

Another friend read Quaker Faith & Practice 29.01

How can we walk with a smile into the dark? We must learn to put our trust in God and the leadings of the Spirit. How many of us are truly led by the Spirit throughout our daily lives? I have turned to God when I have had a difficult decision to make or when I have sought strength to endure the pain in dark times. But I am only slowly learning to dwell in the place where leadings come from. That is a place of love and joy and peace, even in the midst of pain. The more I dwell in that place, the easier it is to smile, because I am no longer afraid.

If we dwell in the presence of God, we shall be led by the spirit. We do well to remember that being led by the spirit depends not so much upon God, who is always there to lead us, as upon our willingness to be led. We need to be willing to be led into the dark as well as through green pastures and by still waters. We do not need to be afraid of the dark, because God is there. The future of this earth need not be in the hands of the world’s ‘leaders’. The world is in God’s hands if we are led by God. Let us be led by the Spirit. Let us walk with a smile into the dark.

Gordon Matthews, 1987

After Meeting we shared drinks and biscuits.

It’s here that we rally must express our thanks and appreciation to our Milton Keynes Friends who join us when they can. They have magically added  music and more to our small Meeting and of their own accord have formed the so-called ‘Outdoor Meeting for Worship’ where they pick up any litter around the Meeting House. It’s hard not to smile and appreciate their uniqueness and very welcome contribution to the life of the Meeting.

A big heartfelt thank-you to Jean & Lawrence

A summer’s day. Doors open at Meeting including an open door to the wild meadow area out the back. the white noise of wind through the trees, distant voices and sounds of the urban town.

We were well attended today. Welcome faces.

A Friend read from the end of the introduction Quaker Faith & Practice. They said this passage looked at the whole of QF&P really and that they felt it placed an emphasis on the richness of Quaker heritage as well as elsewhere in other traditions and other ways of understanding, It also emphasised that we need to rediscover the truth in every generation and that there is perhaps no final truth. That we are all seekers.

“We are seekers but we are also the holders of a precious heritage of discoveries. We, like every generation, must find the Light and Life again for ourselves. Only what we have valued and truly made our own, not by assertion but by lives of faithful commitment, can we hand on to the future. Even then, we must humbly acknowledge that our vision of the truth will, again and again, be amended.

In the Religious Society of Friends we commit ourselves not to words but to a way”.

Introduction to Quaker faith & Practice

Later during Meeting our Milton Keynes Friend contributed a short musical offering introduced as a “Greeting from Bedford Hospital Quakers”.

After Meeting we had a wonderful shared lunch with as much food sourced ethically, locally and conscientiously.

We also provided items for donation to LAMP a local charity helping young homeless people.