Friends

I just got back from attending my first ever meeting at a Quaker Meeting House. I had stayed over at my good American friend Rebecca's house, after last night's Thanksgiving dinner, and asked if I could join her at her regular meeting. The Walthamstow Friend's Meeting House is in an old print workshop, so has lovely natural light and plenty of space. We sat for an hour in silence in a plain warm room, around a central table. At the end of the hour, two of the 'elders' shook hands to signal that the meeting was coming to a close. We all greeted each other in the same way, then went out to the kitchen for tea once the notices had been read out. During the meeting, two people had felt moved to stand and speak briefly, (what the Quakers call 'ministry') and what they said was heartfelt and moved me greatly. Rebecca spoke of the sense of all the Friends working together as if raising their hands to hold up the roof that sheltered them. Another older man spoke about society: how Margaret Thatcher had said there was 'no such thing', how David Cameron wants 'a big society', but how that for Quakers, their society was this; paying attention to the light in the heart, as he put it, sitting in silence with each other. He said Quakers traditionally respected other people's beliefs, and took responsibility for their own. No-one questioned me on my beliefs or lack thereof, only asking if I had been before, or went to a different London Meeting regularly.

I was made very welcome and enjoyed the familiar, but lately rare, opportunity to sit in quiet meditation with other people. It was good for my heart. I'll go back in two weeks' time when I visit Rebecca to go to the alternative craft fair at the Morris Museum on 5th December.
http://www.quaker.org.uk/

Afterwards I visited the nearby William Morris Museum and saw some beautiful wooden printing blocks, as well as the original painted designs for some of the rightly famous fabrics and papers he produced. http://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/william-morris

Image at top is 'Lion Rampant', a tile design by the William Morris Company.