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46 </style><title>Diana Horne: Report on a meeting</title></head><body style="font-family: DejaVu Sans, Arial; background: rgb(254,250,246)">
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47 <div style="text-align: center">
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48 <h1>Diana Horne: Report on a meeting</h1>
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49 <div class="byline">Henry S. Thompson</div>
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50 <div class="byline">Mary Woodward</div>
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51 <div class="byline"> 4 Sep 2010</div>
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52 </div>
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53
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54 <div>
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55 <h2>1. Diana Horne: Report on a meeting in conjunction with her application
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56 for membership</h2>
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57 <p>At the request of SE Scotland Area Meeting, Diana, Henry and Mary met over supper at Mary's flat on 1 September 2010.
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58 After a pleasant supper and some quiet worship, we moved into a conversation
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59 about Diana's experience with Friends and her desire to become a member.</p>
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66
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60 <p>An Anglican by birth (although her father had previously spent some
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65
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61 time calling himself a Quaker), church has always had a place in Diana's life,
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62 but as an adult she spent many years looking for one in which she could feel
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63 comfortable. She had been aware of Quakers as a result of their public
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64 witness, but had never met one until coming to a show at Venue 40 in 1995, and
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65 she has been a regular attender since 1997.</p>
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66 <p>She found Quakers and Quaker worship a welcome change from other churches
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67 in the way that she felt that she remained in control, and the way in which
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68 Faith and Practice, particularly Advices and Queries, offered clear and helpful
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69 guidance, without the obscurity and negative emphases she had found in other
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70 churches' use of the Bible.</p>
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71 <p>Recently she has been involved with Jasmine Perinpanayagam's testimonies
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72 study group, where she helped organise the recent meeting with representatives
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73 of the Army. This experience gave her a strong sense of the value of the Peace
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74 Testimony, seeing its common sense and emphasis on equal rights, its lack of
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75 sectarianism, as pointing towards a better way of living for us all in a really
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76 usable way. The Hungarian Uprising of 1956 had made a very strong impact on
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77 her as a child, so finding this kind of helpful response to the violence in the
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78 world has been particularly important to her.</p>
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79 <p>She would probably have moved towards membership sooner, but the demands
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80 of caring for her brother Stuart, and a feeling that she didn't want to join
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81 without him doing so also, intervened until recently.</p>
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82 <p>Another aspect of Friends that is important to her is our
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83 egalitarian stance on Gay and Lesbian rights. She experiences Meeting for
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84 Worship as a valuable shared quiet time, a time to think and benefit from both
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85 the silence and the spoken ministry of the group. She has not yet ministered
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86 herself, but is comfortable with the expectation that she will do so when the
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87 time is right.</p>
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88 <p>She is comfortable with the Christian origins of the Society, without
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89 being uncritical of some aspects of the established Church, in particular its
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90 emphasis on sin and unworthiness. She very much values being part of a more
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91 open, like-minded, group. Quaker guidance towards a good and useful life
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92 represents a much more positive kind of Christianity for her.</p>
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93 <p>She has a lot of experience in various forms of group work from earlier
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94 jobs, and hopes to find ways of bringing that into service to the Meeting. We
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95 agreed that she already feels and demonstrates a key aspect of membership,
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96 which is taking responsibility for the Meeting in a practical way, taking a
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97 share in the running of the place. One way in which she hopes to see the
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98 Meeting grow is in providing more opportunities to talk with Friends about our
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99 insights, experience and concerns, building on the experience of Hearts and
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100 Minds and similar organised study groups.</p>
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101 <p>In conclusion, it is clear to us that Diana is already a Member in all
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102 but name, and we hope Area Meeting can ratify this.</p>
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103 <p>[Not true yet, but hope it will be]: Diana has read this report and is happy for it to go forward to Area Meeting.</p>
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104 </div>
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105
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106 </body></html> |
