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1 Henry Thompson and Jane Ditchfield met with Mark Ballard in his home
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2 on the evening of 11 June 2024
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3
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4 During our opening worship Henry read from Quaker Faith & Practice
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5 19.21 (Robert Barclay) "... I felt a secret power ... I became thus
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6 knit and united unto them"
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7
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8 Mark was an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, in early
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9 1990s. He moved into a new flat, and although he had agreed to take
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10 over the running of the University Green Society, he was very nervous
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11 about being in charge of his first meeting. His flatmate Anna Levin
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12 (!) agreed a deal, that she would go to Green Society meetings with
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13 him, if he would go to Quaker meeting, which was Victoria Terrace.
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14
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15 Soon he felt the "secret power" and go "knitted in".
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16 He got to know the Young Friends group, which was a help in what was then a pretty large
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17 Meeting. Even after Anna moved away, he kept going to Meeting, and
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18 after a year or so Bronwen Currie asked if he'd think about becoming a Member.
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19 He's been thinking about it ever since.
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20
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21 He moved to Amsterdam, and went to Meeting for Worship there. He read more, and got more of a sense
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22 of how the Quaker thing worked, than he had any need to have done in a
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23 Central Edinburgh on account of its large size.
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24
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25 He moved to Portobello in 2009 and joined the very new Meeting in Mary
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26 Jane and Alastair's home. Soon he realised he had shifted from
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27 "going to" Central Edinburgh to being "a part of" Portobello and
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28 Musselburgh. That meant getting much more involved in helping to
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29 keep the Meeting going.
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30
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31 He likes the "secret power" quote, it reflects his own experience.
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32 Mark grew up in a classic Church of England agnostic family, however
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33 not until he came to Quakerism did he recognise the experience of
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34 something "beyond the physical".
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35
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36 He participated in the _Becoming Friends_ course, which among other
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37 things meant he read the "requirements" for becoming a Member for the
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38 first time. The sentence therein "Membership is for those who feel at
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39 home and in the right place within the Quaker community" spoke to him
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40 very deeply.
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41
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42 But that membership meant "that you accept at least the fundamental
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43 elements of being a Quaker: ..." was new to him.
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44 Although he was at home with the "practical expression of inward convictions",
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45 he struggled with "accept the manner of Quaker corporate worship and
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46 the ordering of the meeting's business".
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47
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48 This prompted him to turn to Quaker history, which led to seeing in the flowering of
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49 people's renegotiation of their relationship of with Divine as what
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50 fostered our special structures, Which have lead to us to still being
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51 here today.
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52
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53 He recognised then that Meeting for Church Affairs is a vital part of
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54 being a Quaker, and that meant he was now ready to not just attend
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55 Local Meeting and Area Meeting, but to attend _as a Member_.
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56
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57 Mark has a long involvement in anarchist activities, and that may seem
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58 to be at odds with Quaker governance. He quoted "the wheels of God
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59 grind slow, but exceedingly fine". Quaker business is very _slow_.
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60 The call to minister, right here, right now, without any
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61 qualification, feels very different to him.
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62
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63 Mark has a standup comedy routine that includes a "How many Quakers
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64 does it take to change a lightbulb" joke.
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65
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66 He brought us back to the "secret power" and "knitted in" quote, and
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67 recalled that at first he thought he was coming to a gathering of
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68 friendly people who were a bit spiritual, and it took a while, years
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69 in fact, to detect the secret seeking for spiritual guidance that we
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70 shared. You're not just sitting with a bunch of like-minded people,
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71 rather you may find what someone else's spiritual path may not be
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72 going where yours is. But that's actually a very important aspect of
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73 Quakerism for him. So yes, he has come to see that Right Ordering
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74 does belong as a religious test for being Quaker.
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75
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76
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77 Meeting for Worship and Meeting for Church Affairs are a great
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78 resolution of the Protestant dilemma, that follows from the removal of
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79 the barrier between God and us.
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80
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81 All three of us shared some thoughts about the meaning of Membership
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82 and where it fits in our Quaker vision of decision making in worship.
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83
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84 Mark's particular contribution to this started by telling us about a specific
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85 personal experience that he shares regularly when leading an
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86 Environmental Protest Workshop on decision making. He contrasted it with
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87 normal democratic process, and the anarchist consensus decision
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88 process. In preparation for a particular collective non-violent
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89 action, it was crucial that all the participants agreed to cede authority to
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90 one particular person in the group to make the call to bring the action to an
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91 end. This amounted to all of them agreeing that "to make us safe, you
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92 take this decision for all of
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93 us and it will be, by definition, right: no discussion, we will just
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94 end the action immediately you say so".
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95
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96 So the same for Meeting for Church Affairs: even if you aren't
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97 there, you uphold them for the decision they made.
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98
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99 Mark described a Quaker case where a decision was probably going
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100 support a project which he would have preferred not to see happen:
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101 "Although I'd rather that didn't happen, I would uphold them and
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102 [participate] if they decide to go ahead. Just because I don't want
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103 to organise it doesn't mean I won't support them if they do".
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104
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105 He offered another example contrasting his love of Quakers and
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106 involvement with the Green Party, recalling the Meeting for Church Affairs in Central
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107 Edinburgh which had to decide a response to Derek McLean and Mal
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108 Cowtan's request for a ceremony of commitment in Victoria Terrace. This
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109 was quite some time _before_ Yearly Meeting at York adopted a clear
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110 position on marriage as being "equally available to same-sex and
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111 opposite-sex couples". It was a difficult Meeting for Church Affairs,
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112 which did eventually find unity in agreement to hold the ceremony.
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113
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114 Now when the Scottish Green Party was in some internal disagreement
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115 about an issue, and it was voted on, then if you 'won' the vote, you
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116 tried your best to present a united front by getting rid of the
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117 'losers'.
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118
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119 Whereas that Meeting for Church Affairs worked very hard to support
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120 _all_ the people who were there, _including_ those who were unhappy
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121 with the result, to respect their pain and acknowledge it, respecting
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122 that of God in the people on the "other side".
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123
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124 We are happy to recommend membership for Mark Ballard. Mark said
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125 "This is a full stop on my process of discernment on whether I should
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126 become a Member" and "it fills me with joy to join in the
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127 recommendation".
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128
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129 Mark Ballard
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130 Jane Ditchfield
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131 Henry Thompson
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