MID-THAMES AREA

NEWSLETTER Spring 2015 No. 202

News from Local Meetings:

Wallingford Wokingham Maidenhead Reading East Garston Newbury Henley

My Experience of JYM Charney Adult Gathering 2014 Life After Death? Remembrance Contribution details

Wallingford MH, before projected changes to the courtyard

News from Local Meetings

Wallingford During our Away Day at Aston Tirrold last May,

Wallingford Friends identified the need for a

project that would unite us as a Meeting in

pursuit of a social goal. Further consideration

has led us to feel that, given scarce time and

energy, this should be in the form of a social

witness designed to influence opinion, rather

than a hands-on activity.

The following factors have been taken into

account when considering topics for our

witness:

It should be of broad relevance to society

and clearly linked to core Quaker

values, testimonies and/or work

Friends are engaged in nationally or

internationally.

The statements we make should be simple,

clear and rooted in evidence.

Although inevitably political in nature, our

witness should not be partisan in the

sense of supporting one party, or

ideology, over another. Ideally it should

highlight issues that are being unjustly

neglected by all parties.

It should be addressed to a broad audience,

e.g. not just politicians, and be

designed to appeal to all socially-aware

people.

It was considered vital that the whole Meeting

unites around the project. Everyone therefore

has had the opportunity to contribute to the

process of discernment. Two suggestions have

been received so far.

We have heard from Amanda Griffin of her

activity in relation to the work of the

Oxfordshire Credit Union in extending

their provision of low cost finance.

They are looking for outposts in the

county to do two things: promote the

Credit Union, spread the word, be a

presence in the town; and be a place

where people can go for information,

explanations, help filling in forms etc.

We have heard from Allan Ridgeley of the

Equality Trust, which undertakes work

looking at the root causes of inequality.

There are local groups being set up in

both Reading and Oxford.

Allan Ridgeley

Wallingford MH Courtyard

We are drawing up plans to improve the

courtyard in front of the Meeting House and

are about to invite contractors to submit

estimates for the work.

Our main aim is to improve access, especially

for those who are less steady on their feet and

for wheelchair-users. The present path to the

Meeting House is uneven, there are one or two

steps to negotiate and the cobbles become

slippery after rain. We plan to provide a level,

paved path that also leads to the toilet, which

will be made more wheelchair-friendly, with a

wider doorway.

At the same time we will re-arrange the whole

courtyard in order to provide a better gathering

area in front of the Meeting House. The flower

borders will be pushed back and rejuvenated

by new planting. We wish to retain a ‘cottagey’

feel while refreshing the look and feel of the

area.

Alternative ideas have been sketched out and

the comments and suggestions of Friends have

been taken into account. Trustees have

indicated their approval, in principle, of our

ideas. We hope to have the work completed

during the course of this year.

Peter Braithwaite

Wokingham Since our Quadrennial report, Wokingham

Meeting has grown in size. Our last quarterly

collection was for Quaker Social Action and

raised £206. We have had the Young People's

Meeting Room taken down with a view to

replacing it with a more stable structure and

we are currently looking to replace the chairs in

the Meeting House as they are in a poor state.

Fiona Heston

Maidenhead One of our pleasantest events over the last

few months was to welcome Daisy Bentley-

Dawkes formally into our Meeting, just before

Christmas. At just one year old she is our

youngest attender, and the Meeting was also

attended by her close family and friends.

We have continued to be involved with

interfaith activities. The Bahai community have

recently been running a series of discussion

meetings in the town for people of all faiths

regarding the relationship between religion

and peace, which Alasdair Donaldson has

attended, and he reports that many faiths

were well represented. We also attend the

Maidenhead and Windsor Community Forum

women’s group, and on 23 January two of our

number attended a vigil outside Maidenhead

Town Hall to show the continuing solidarity

which exists amongst all the faiths in the town.

This was organized by two women members of

the interfaith group, one a Muslim and one a

Christian.

We have continued to hold our midweek

Meetings for Worship each month, and have

decided that we would like to make it known

that we wish to continue with this, and would

welcome anyone from the Area Meeting who

would like to come. Each Meeting will be held

on the last Wednesday in the month, at 12

noon at the Friends Meeting House, West

Street. We have about 40 minutes of worship,

followed by informal chat and discussion. It is

good to be able to have time to hear each

other’s news and views, and for people to be

able to come who cannot always manage to

get to Meeting on a Sunday. We bring our own

snack or sandwich to have after the worship.

Our numbers at Meeting remain low, but

several Friends are involved in interesting

activities. One of these is Rajiv Chelani, who is

on the steering committee of Cambridge Eco-

Village Community. This community is based

on three pillars: people care, earth care and

fair share, where mixed age groups and

cultures can thrive, support and co-exist. We

hope to report fully on this in a future

newsletter.

We continue to support and visit those of our

Meeting who are ill, housebound or in hospital.

Lastly I would like to report that the damage to

our copper roof in the autumn, as reported at

Area Meeting, was not great, and not too

expensive to put right.

Angela Feldstein

Reading Meeting continues to be well

supported. Special attention is made to

welcome newcomers - as well as those who

come regularly. Several children attend and

they have their own activities during Meeting

and then come in to the main Meeting towards

the end, so that they can experience the

gathered Meeting. Afterwards they are

encouraged to tell us what they were doing.

The Sunday before Christmas had the usual

singing of carols after Meeting - much

appreciated by all. The once-a-month shared

lunch is well attended and is always preceded

by an interesting talk. It's a good way to get to

know other members of the Meeting and their

particular interests.

There have been some Saturday workshops,

"Becoming Friends". The prayer group for

healing continues to meet on the first Tuesday

of the month at 7.30 pm. Leighton Park School

invites us to attend the half-hour Meeting for

Worship on the first Thursday morning of the

month, 8.25 to 8.55. Despite the fact that there

are very few Quakers at the school, the

Meetings are well gathered and are a valuable

experience to all.

The garden continues to be well cared for as

this gives a good impression not only to us but

also to those attending meetings of other

societies which use our premises during the

week. Lastly, enormous thanks to our Warden,

Liz Smith who deals with many enquiries and

does all the bookings besides keeping the

premises in excellent order.

Liz Longhurst

East Garston

We are wintering well in East Garston. We

have 2 Members and several long Attenders,

so a small but faithful group of us meet every

Sunday.

In recent months we have felt very enriched by

the ministry of new friends. As usual, after

Meeting, we always enjoy informal chat and

shared news over coffee and chocolate biscuits

and frequently it is an extension of the

ministry – recent topics and shared experience

have included non-theism, the film ‘Open

Bethlehem’, Retreats with Franciscans in

Alnwick, and cloud names!

East Garston village is in a beautiful part of the

Lambourn Valley, and most of us enjoy a lovely

drive to Meeting. Our garden is still being

looked after by keen gardeners from the

village community. We have had a very

generous gift from the local Parish magazine

‘Village Views’ which has paid for hedge

cutting and will cover more work in the

garden, and this also frees us to resume

responding to charitable appeals.

We have been invited to include information

on the Society of Friends in welcome packs

given out by the local Church, and the Meeting

House and Children’s Room is regularly used

by local groups such as the Parish Council and

the Over 60s Club, and is hired for children’s

parties.

We would welcome more users or any groups

who might enjoy our beautiful little Meeting

House and garden. We look forward to Area

Meeting at East Garston in April too.

Phoebe Fennell

Newbury In the late summer of last year Newbury

Meeting hosted a well-attended fund-raising

Christian Aid tea party with visitors enjoying

the sunshine in the garden, and we opened

the Meeting House on a Saturday for the

annual ‘Ride and Stride’ event in which

walkers and cyclists are sponsored to visit as

many churches as possible in aid of the

Berkshire Historic Churches Trust.

In December we shared breakfast together

before Meeting for Worship.

As winter set in, the greyness of the skies

matched the struggle of some of our members

dealing with sadness, loss, sickness and

weariness – their own and that of those close

to them. Perhaps the seasons affect us more

than we sometimes realize.

But all things pass, and as the snowdrops look

set to flower again and daffodils emerge from

the dark earth, so we trust that sickness will

be healed, sadness overcome, loss accepted

and weariness transformed into gratitude for

all that is.

Our finances remain healthy, due to the large

number of groups hiring our rooms, and we

have been able to give the Eight Bells for

Mental Health group a grant to cover their

rent (to us) for a year, meaning that they are

effectively using our premises rent-free.

All our hirers seem to value the ambience of

our Meeting House. We had Christmas cards

from two groups saying how the peace,

tranquillity and ‘imbibed spirituality’ of the

building were of benefit to their group

members.

Paul High has been steadily selling the

remainder of John Perkin’s paintings, now £20

per picture. We are going to use the money

raised to repair the stained glass panel from

the back door which was smashed last year by

a member of the Eight Bells group who was

having a bad day. As the panel was designed

by John, we think it is a fitting way to use the

money. The panel will not be returned to the

door but will be mounted in a frame with

integral lighting and hung in the hall.

We continue to hold our ‘Becoming Friends’

discussion group once a month and had a

particularly stimulating and challenging evening

led by Roger Straughan (attender at Newbury

Meeting) on the subject of life after death.

Roger has had a lifelong interest in psychical

research. [See article below]

Members of our Meeting are involved in

community groups including Newbury Christian

Aid, Churches together in Newbury (CTNA) and

the Interfaith Forum. We have a new attender

who is a member of the Newbury Street

Pastors Team, organised by CTNA. He has told

us how teams of volunteers go out on a

Saturday night between 10pm and 3am to

minister to the practical and spiritual needs of

the late-nighters as they emerge from the pubs

and clubs.

As with most Quakers, our members and

attenders contribute as individuals in many

varied ways to the well-being of society

through their voluntary work and through

bringing Quaker values to their paid work. It

can be easy to become overwhelmed by the

pressure of all that needs to be done. We need

to care for ourselves as well as others. Perhaps

a reading of Advices and Queries number 34

should always be followed by a reading of

number 28.

Carolyn Fletcher

Henley Mince Pie Meeting and our contemplation of

the Christmas story prompted a glance back at

the last few months.

Our Outreach as usual was energetic; we

bought the display panels, got posters from the

Bradford Peace Museum and showed work in

Henley library. Then we had a 1914 tea party to

discuss The Accrington Pals with Janice Selkirk

who acted in the play at the Kenton Theatre. In

spite of all our efforts, however, only six extra

people came to tea on Sunday ; we also

welcomed a couple from Maidenhead ! This

makes us wonder whether we have the

cost-benefit analysis right. Do we simply want

to attract more members or is it enough just to

raise our profile in Henley? Of course, our own

community spirit develops at the same time.

Later Hilary Browne came from Yorkshire on

her mission - ministry to let people know of the

desperate plight of Gaza. Her slides and

statistics were especially shocking and we

willingly gave to her charity towards providing

prosthetic limbs.

Interestingly, our previously chosen charity for

December was the Quaker School in Gaza, and

Hilary's talk certainly made it mean more to us.

As we enter 2015 with growing numbers we

shall continue to flourish. Tom Heydeman had

asked us to sign the 38 degrees.org.uk petition

against sending arms to the Middle Eastern war

zone and we can wonder how futile that is until

we see the video, shown at a recent

Woodbrooke course, listing the vast number of

organisations working for change. A Friend at

that course read another encouraging list of all

the changes the 38 degrees organisation had

effected in the past year.

Glenda Hemken

My experience with JYM I would like to thank Mid-Thames Quakers for

arranging for me to attend JYM at Bath

University (2nd to 9th August 2014). This was

the second time that I have attended a

Triennial Quaker Gathering; the last time was

with my family in Canterbury in 2011.

The JYM programme was very busy. A highly

structured timetable was laid out for the whole

week (with most days it was 13 hours a day).

Throughout the week we explored the theme

of “What does it mean to be a Quaker teenager

today?” – “Where are we going?”

We had sessions on the role of transformation,

Quaker testimonies, Quaker action on alcohol

and drugs, environment and seeking economic

justice.

We were involved with the planning and

coming together with all the rest of BYM for the

special “WW1 Commemoration Event” on the

Monday evening. We all thought that the

silence and the lights going out was very

moving.

We had a number of very informative and

sometimes very moving talks by special guest

contributors. We had a lively “question and

answer” session with Ben Pink Dandelion.

It would have been good if we had had more

free time to have had the opportunity to

engage directly with more of the rest of the

BYM programme. It would have been good

if we could have been able to join in with more

of the agenda in the big tent and also

been able to attend the many interesting talks

and workshop sessions in the variety

of tents making up the “Quaker Village”.

Despite this, the experience was very good and

varied. It was obvious that a lot of effort had

been put into creating the JYM programme.

It was good to observe the discernment

process used for the nomination of

teenagers for next year’s JYM.

Friendships were made. I can see why many of

the other teenagers return to similar Quaker

youth events year upon year. It would be good

to see the friends that I made at JYM again,

although in a more freeing environment.

Joe Appleton, Reading Meeting

Adult Gathering at Charney Manor Finding inspiration in our everyday lives

I found the introductions and the Meeting for

Worship at this event very uplifting and

inspiring. The programme, objectives and

timetable were all very clearly laid out. It was

nice to see a wide variety of different people,

and that most Meetings had been represented.

We explored a variety of different

interpretations of inspiration and spiritual

learning. The first exercise that we were asked

to do was about mindfulness, where I was

shocked to be given a raisin and told to focus

on exactly what it was and how it felt, before

putting it in our mouths. I liked this activity as it

reminded me to be more present in my

everyday life and to understand inspiration

when it is there. This topic is something that I

would like to explore more, and I have enquired

about an event Karen is looking to run shortly.

We were asked to think about experiences of

inspiration in childhood which identified a

number of things such as wildlife, community,

music, Jesus and the Bible. I liked that exercise

as it gave me an insight into my childhood, and

the inspirations that I came across. It was good

to reflect on this stage of my life, as I don't get

time to do this in my daily life now.

We then explored what inspires us now and in

the future; we were put into groups and I

enjoyed this very much. It made me think about

my everyday life and what inspires me. I

thought about the books that I read and the

music I listened to. I also thought about what I

could do in the future, reflecting on what others

did and what I could try.

We then undertook a variety of different

options. I found the Tai Chi was very good and

made me be very mindful of my actions and

how I act in everyday life. I found that

thoughtful movements were much better than

rushing movements, which was very interesting

and thought-provoking.

The 'inspiration cafe' in the evening was also

very interesting and a number of people read

books and poems. This gave me an opportunity

to look at what others do for inspiration; a

taster of what inspires them. This was very

uplifting and I took away from it a feeling that

poetry might be a good way of understanding

inspiration as it was something that I had not

done before.

We closed the Adult Gathering with Meeting for

Worship; this had such a different feel as it was

held outside, and I felt there was a deep sense

of God's presence in the Meeting; I experienced

incredible deep silences.

The thing I most enjoyed about the workshops

was exploring inspirations in childhood. This

gave me time to reflect on what inspired me

now. The most important thing I have

understood and taken from this Adult Gathering

has been what I could do differently, namely

reading more widely and reading poetry. I think

it's our responsibility as a society of seekers to

continuously push ourselves to explore our

spiritual leading and learn from other people.

Ashley Newport, Newbury Meeting

LIFE AFTER DEATH. Is Death an End,

a Beginning or a Continuing? (Reflections on a talk given by Roger Straughan)

Roger has had a long interest in psychical

research and has published a book recounting

his own experiences.

Psychical research is the study of the psychic,

which is the experience of possibilities not

defined by or restricted to the five physical

senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.

Why bother about the afterlife? We have a life

to live here and now and what is the point of

worrying about what comes next? This is a valid

perspective. But we are all going to die, so it

may make sense to think about the possibility

of an afterlife from time to time. We all make

preparations before we undertake a long

journey, so why not prepare for the long

journey of death?

However, there is no point in preparing for

something that doesn’t exist. So what evidence

is there for life after death? There is a tendency

to think that researchers into an afterlife are

cranks, but this is not so: many serious

academics and psychologists are looking at the

subject. Their research provides plenty of

evidence for the afterlife, but no proof. We

cannot ever prove that there is an afterlife, but

neither can we prove that there isn’t. We can

weigh the evidence and make a judgement. We

can ask what is beyond reasonable doubt.

All the major religious traditions have some

sort of belief in life after death. You may think

that this is wishful thinking and that these

believers are deluded, but maybe not – there

are a lot of them!!

The evidence includes:

Apparitions – particularly those associated with

hearing or seeing someone who has recently

died. These crisis apparitions occur around the

time of death to close family or friends of the

deceased. According to the research, almost

50% of bereaved spouses admit to having had

an experience of communication with their

dead partner. There may be many more who

don’t want to admit it for fear of being seen as

odd.

Mediumship - communication between the

living and the dead is controversial. But solid,

rigorous research into mediumship has

provided very good evidence of life after

death.

Near Death Experiences – when people

recover from clinical death after resuscitation.

Medical science says that consciousness stops

when the brain dies, but these NDEs occur

after brain death. Personal experience is

always the most convincing evidence.

So – we may survive death, but what then?

Another world? Another level of experience?

For eternity? Or temporarily? Some suggest

that after death we are on a journey of

continuing transformation, learning and

experience. Others believe that individual

consciousness, or individuality, may remain at

first, but that there is a movement towards a

universal consciousness or integrated

consciousness.

Recent research by some scholars (e.g. Rupert

Sheldrake) is beginning to suggest that

consciousness is not held in the brain; that it

has an existence outside the brain. It is

thought that in brain-damaged people or in

people with dementia, consciousness is still

there but simply cannot express itself because

of the physical damage or deterioration of the

brain. It is often noted that there can be

terminal lucidity in people with brain damage;

i.e. they become lucid just before death, as if

as their body dies their consciousness is freed.

Have you had an experience of life after

death? And if so, has it affected the way you

live now? How will you weigh the evidence?

Carolyn Fletcher

Remembrance

Wallingford Meeting

Ruth Crook died 21st January 2011

Reading Meeting George Simiyu died 31st January

2015

NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTIONS

There are three editions of Mid-Thames Area Newsletter each year,

in Spring, Summer and Autumn

Please send your contributions for the Summer 2015 issue by 1st May.

Contributions are welcome on any subject you think Friends would be interested in, including reports of conferences and other activities,

personal reflections and book reviews. Contributions can be sent by email or by post in typed or handwritten form.

Please send contributions to

Jane Mutisya 9 St Leonard’s Court, Wallingford, OX10 9EY

jmutisya@waitrose.com