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annotate Ballard_2024-06-11.txt @ 639:83931be65f95
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| author | Henry S. Thompson <ht@inf.ed.ac.uk> |
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| date | Sat, 18 Oct 2025 19:39:32 +0100 |
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| 445 | 1 Henry Thompson and Jane Ditchfield met with Mark Ballard in his home |
| 2 on the evening of 11 June 2024 | |
| 3 | |
| 446 | 4 During our opening worship Henry read from Quaker Faith & Practice |
| 5 19.21 (Robert Barclay) "... I felt a secret power ... I became thus | |
| 6 knit and united unto them" | |
| 445 | 7 |
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8 Mark was an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh in the early |
| 445 | 9 1990s. He moved into a new flat, and although he had agreed to take |
| 10 over the running of the University Green Society, he was very nervous | |
| 11 about being in charge of his first meeting. His flatmate Anna Levin | |
| 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. |
| 445 | 14 |
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15 Soon he felt the "secret power" and got "knitted in". He got to know |
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16 the Young Friends group, which was a help in what was then a pretty |
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17 large Meeting. Even after Anna moved away, he kept going to Meeting, |
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18 and after a year or so Bronwen Currie asked if he'd think about |
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19 becoming a Member. He's been thinking about it ever since. |
| 445 | 20 |
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21 He moved to Amsterdam, and went to Meeting for Worship there. He read |
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22 more, and got more of a sense of how the Quaker thing worked, than he |
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23 had any need to have done in a Central Edinburgh on account of its |
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24 large size. |
| 445 | 25 |
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26 He moved to Portobello in 2009 and joined the new Meeting in Mary |
| 445 | 27 Jane and Alastair's home. Soon he realised he had shifted from |
| 28 "going to" Central Edinburgh to being "a part of" Portobello and | |
| 446 | 29 Musselburgh. That meant getting much more involved in helping to |
| 445 | 30 keep the Meeting going. |
| 31 | |
| 32 He likes the "secret power" quote, it reflects his own experience. | |
| 33 Mark grew up in a classic Church of England agnostic family, however | |
| 34 not until he came to Quakerism did he recognise the experience of | |
| 35 something "beyond the physical". | |
| 36 | |
| 37 He participated in the _Becoming Friends_ course, which among other | |
| 38 things meant he read the "requirements" for becoming a Member for the | |
| 39 first time. The sentence therein "Membership is for those who feel at | |
| 40 home and in the right place within the Quaker community" spoke to him | |
| 41 very deeply. | |
| 42 | |
| 43 But that membership meant "that you accept at least the fundamental | |
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44 elements of being a Quaker: ..." was new to him. Although he was at |
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45 home with the "practical expression of inward convictions", he |
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46 struggled with "accept the manner of Quaker corporate worship and the |
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47 ordering of the meeting's business". |
| 445 | 48 |
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49 This prompted him to turn to Quaker history, which led to seeing in |
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50 the flowering of people's renegotiation of their relationship of with |
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51 Divine as what fostered our special structures, Which have lead to us |
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52 to still being here today. |
| 445 | 53 |
| 54 He recognised then that Meeting for Church Affairs is a vital part of | |
| 446 | 55 being a Quaker, and that meant he was now ready to not just attend |
| 56 Local Meeting and Area Meeting, but to attend _as a Member_. | |
| 445 | 57 |
| 58 Mark has a long involvement in anarchist activities, and that may seem | |
| 446 | 59 to be at odds with Quaker governance. He quoted "the wheels of God |
| 445 | 60 grind slow, but exceedingly fine". Quaker business is very _slow_. |
| 61 The call to minister, right here, right now, without any | |
| 62 qualification, feels very different to him. | |
| 63 | |
| 64 Mark has a standup comedy routine that includes a "How many Quakers | |
| 65 does it take to change a lightbulb" joke. | |
| 66 | |
| 446 | 67 He brought us back to the "secret power" and "knitted in" quote, and |
| 68 recalled that at first he thought he was coming to a gathering of | |
| 69 friendly people who were a bit spiritual, and it took a while, years | |
| 70 in fact, to detect the secret seeking for spiritual guidance that we | |
| 71 shared. You're not just sitting with a bunch of like-minded people, | |
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72 rather you may find that someone else's spiritual path may not be |
| 446 | 73 going where yours is. But that's actually a very important aspect of |
| 74 Quakerism for him. So yes, he has come to see that Right Ordering | |
| 75 does belong as a religious test for being Quaker. | |
| 76 | |
| 77 Meeting for Worship and Meeting for Church Affairs are a great | |
| 78 resolution of the Protestant dilemma, that follows from the removal of | |
| 79 the barrier between God and us. | |
| 80 | |
| 81 All three of us shared some thoughts about the meaning of Membership | |
| 82 and where it fits in our Quaker vision of decision making in worship. | |
| 83 | |
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84 Mark's particular contribution to this started by telling us about a |
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85 specific personal experience that he shares regularly when leading an |
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86 Environmental Protest Workshop on decision making. He contrasted it |
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87 with normal democratic process, and the anarchist consensus decision |
| 446 | 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 |
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90 authority to one particular person in the group to make the call to |
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91 bring the action to an end. This amounted to all of them agreeing |
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92 that "to make us safe, you take this decision for all of us and it |
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93 will be, by definition, right: no discussion, we will just end the |
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94 action immediately you say so". |
| 446 | 95 |
| 96 So the same for Meeting for Church Affairs: even if you aren't | |
| 97 there, you uphold them for the decision they made. | |
| 445 | 98 |
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99 Mark described a Quaker case where a decision was probably going to |
| 446 | 100 support a project which he would have preferred not to see happen: |
| 101 "Although I'd rather that didn't happen, I would uphold them and | |
| 102 [participate] if they decide to go ahead. Just because I don't want | |
| 103 to organise it doesn't mean I won't support them if they do". | |
| 104 | |
| 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 |
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107 Affairs in Central Edinburgh which had to decide a response to Derek |
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108 McLean and Mal Cowtan's request for a ceremony of commitment in |
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109 Victoria Terrace. This was quite some time _before_ Yearly Meeting at |
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110 York adopted a clear position on marriage as being "equally available |
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111 to same-sex and opposite-sex couples". It was a difficult Meeting for |
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112 Church Affairs, which did eventually find unity in agreement to hold |
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113 the ceremony. |
| 446 | 114 |
| 115 Now when the Scottish Green Party was in some internal disagreement | |
| 116 about an issue, and it was voted on, then if you 'won' the vote, you | |
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117 tried your best to present a united front by getting _rid_ of the |
| 446 | 118 'losers'. |
| 119 | |
| 120 Whereas that Meeting for Church Affairs worked very hard to support | |
| 121 _all_ the people who were there, _including_ those who were unhappy | |
| 122 with the result, to respect their pain and acknowledge it, respecting | |
| 444 | 123 that of God in the people on the "other side". |
| 446 | 124 |
| 125 We are happy to recommend membership for Mark Ballard. Mark said | |
| 126 "This is a full stop on my process of discernment on whether I should | |
| 127 become a Member" and "it fills me with joy to join in the | |
| 128 recommendation". | |
| 129 | |
| 130 Mark Ballard | |
| 131 Jane Ditchfield | |
| 132 Henry Thompson |