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1 <?xml version='1.0'?>
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2 <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="../../lib/xml/doc.xsl" ?>
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3 <!DOCTYPE doc SYSTEM "../../lib/xml/doc.dtd" >
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4 <doc>
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5 <head>
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6 <title>Diana Horne: Report on a meeting</title>
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7 <author>Henry S. Thompson</author>
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8 <author>Mary Woodward</author>
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9 <date> 4 Sep 2010</date>
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10 </head>
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11 <body>
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12 <div>
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13 <title>Diana Horne: Report on a meeting in conjunction with her application
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14 for membership</title>
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15 <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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16 After a pleasant supper and some quiet worship, we moved into a conversation
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17 about Diana's experience with Friends and her desire to become a member.</p>
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18 <p>An Anglican by birth (although her father had previously spent some
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19 time calling himself a Quaker), church has always had a place in Diana's life,
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20 but as an adult she spent many years looking for one in which she could feel
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21 comfortable. She had been aware of Quakers as a result of their public
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22 witness, but had never met one until coming to a show at Venue 40 in 1995, and
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23 she has been a regular attender since 1997.</p>
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24 <p>She found Quakers and Quaker worship a welcome change from other churches
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25 in the way that she felt that she remained in control, and the way in which
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26 Faith and Practice, particularly Advices and Queries, offered clear and helpful
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27 guidance, without the obscurity and negative emphases she had found in other
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28 churches' use of the Bible.</p>
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29 <p>Recently she has been involved with Jasmine Perinpanayagam's testimonies
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30 study group, where she helped organise the recent meeting with representatives
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31 of the Army. This experience gave her a strong sense of the value of the Peace
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32 Testimony, seeing its common sense and emphasis on equal rights, its lack of
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33 sectarianism, as pointing towards a better way of living for us all in a really
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34 usable way. The Hungarian Uprising of 1956 had made a very strong impact on
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35 her as a child, so finding this kind of helpful response to the violence in the
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36 world has been particularly important to her.</p>
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37 <p>She would probably have moved towards membership sooner, but the demands
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38 of caring for her brother Stuart, and a feeling that she didn't want to join
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39 without him doing so also, intervened until recently.</p>
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40 <p>Another aspect of Friends that is important to her is our
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41 egalitarian stance on Gay and Lesbian rights. She experiences Meeting for
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42 Worship as a valuable shared quiet time, a time to think and benefit from both
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43 the silence and the spoken ministry of the group. She has not yet ministered
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44 herself, but is comfortable with the expectation that she will do so when the
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45 time is right.</p>
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46 <p>She is comfortable with the Christian origins of the Society, without
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47 being uncritical of some aspects of the established Church, in particular its
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48 emphasis on sin and unworthiness. She very much values being part of a more
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49 open, like-minded, group. Quaker guidance towards a good and useful life
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50 represents a much more positive kind of Christianity for her.</p>
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51 <p>She has a lot of experience in various forms of group work from earlier
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52 jobs, and hopes to find ways of bringing that into service to the Meeting. We
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53 agreed that she already feels and demonstrates a key aspect of membership,
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54 which is taking responsibility for the Meeting in a practical way, taking a
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55 share in the running of the place. One way in which she hopes to see the
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56 Meeting grow is in providing more opportunities to talk with Friends about our
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57 insights, experience and concerns, building on the experience of Hearts and
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58 Minds and similar organised study groups.</p>
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59 <p>In conclusion, it is clear to us that Diana is already a Member in all
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60 but name, and we hope Area Meeting can ratify this.</p>
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61 <p>Diana has read this report and is happy for it to go forward to Area Meeting.</p>
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62 </div>
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63 </body>
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64 </doc>
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