Mercurial > hg > rsof
comparison woodbrooke_thoughts.xml @ 139:39e5269bc7ed
trivially updated from 2002
| author | Henry S. Thompson <ht@inf.ed.ac.uk> |
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| date | Sun, 13 Jan 2019 10:32:32 +0000 |
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| 137:8165eac02745 | 139:39e5269bc7ed |
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| 1 <?xml version='1.0'?> | |
| 2 <!DOCTYPE doc SYSTEM "file:///D:/lib/xml/doc.dtd" > | |
| 3 <doc> | |
| 4 <head> | |
| 5 <title>Reflections on Woodbrooke</title> | |
| 6 <author>Henry S. Thompson, Central Edinburgh PM</author> | |
| 7 <date>28 October 2002</date> | |
| 8 </head> | |
| 9 <body> | |
| 10 <div> | |
| 11 <title>Introduction</title> | |
| 12 <p>I've just returned from Woodbrooke, where I was fortunate to spend some time as a 'Friend in Residence'. This involved everything from carrying luggage and shifting | |
| 13 furniture, through locking up at night and opening up in the morning, to | |
| 14 welcoming Friends to Meeting for Worship in the morning and Epilogue at the end | |
| 15 of the day, and a lot else besides. I got to know | |
| 16 several of the management team who have been responsible for moving Woodbrooke | |
| 17 into its new form, in which it is not only a center for meetings and courses | |
| 18 for Friends and a home for visiting Quaker scholars, but also a base for outreach, a venue for conferences, a hostel | |
| 19 for students and even a bed-and-breakfast for tourists. Before the memories | |
| 20 fade, I thought I'd try to set down some of my thoughts and experiences.</p> | |
| 21 </div> | |
| 22 <div> | |
| 23 <title>How Woodbrooke Works</title> | |
| 24 <p>I last visited Woodbrooke over fifteen years ago, for a long weekend | |
| 25 course. At that time it provided both accommodation and teaching for various | |
| 26 full-time Quaker studies courses, as well as welcoming Friends for weekend | |
| 27 courses and meetings. The teaching and admin staff and the long-term resident | |
| 28 students formed a sort of Quaker intentional community, and carried out a | |
| 29 significant amount of the cooking, serving, laundry etc. The atmosphere as | |
| 30 experienced by a visitor was a cross between a university hall of residence and | |
| 31 a sprawling country house full of an extended family and a miscellany | |
| 32 of guests, with the family dividing its time between trying to make the guests | |
| 33 feel welcome, and getting on with running the house and taking care of business.</p> | |
| 34 <p>Today a lot has changed. There are no full-time courses, the resident | |
| 35 students are mostly just studying at Birmingham University and there is a full-time | |
| 36 professional administration and facilities staff, providing excellent food and | |
| 37 a clean and well-run environment. The proportion of Quakers among the staff | |
| 38 and long-term residents is lower, and the | |
| 39 atmosphere is much more of a country house hotel in the conference business.</p> | |
| 40 </div> | |
| 41 <div> | |
| 42 <title>Woodbrooke is Still Special</title> | |
| 43 <p>In his PhD thesis <emph>A Sociological Analysis of the Theology of | |
| 44 Quakers</emph>, Ben Pink Dandelion, who is tutor in Postgraduate Quaker | |
| 45 Studies at Woodbrooke today, discusses the narrowing of 'Quaker-time' | |
| 46 from its historical scope of virtually all of Friends' lives, to the few hours | |
| 47 a week Friends spend at the Meeting house today. The special thing about | |
| 48 Woodbrooke, which it shares with Yearly Meeting, is that within its precincts | |
| 49 Quaker-time is once again expanded to fill the whole day. Friends arriving for | |
| 50 the first time often struggle to express the difference they sense, of an | |
| 51 environment in which not only the pace but also the style of what we've come to | |
| 52 accept as 'normal' life do not hold sway. Here it is still just possible, with | |
| 53 good will, to experience a bit of the inspired optimism of 17th century | |
| 54 Friends, that it would in fact be possible to bring in the Kingdom of God there | |
| 55 and then. I at least find it easier to 'be good' at Woodbrooke -- to live a | |
| 56 saner life, without raising my voice or losing my temper, with my focus more on | |
| 57 others and less on myself.</p> | |
| 58 </div> | |
| 59 <div> | |
| 60 <title>Friends in Residence</title> | |
| 61 <p>Friends in Residence are a crucial component of the Woodbrooke mix. They | |
| 62 are often the first person a visitor meets, and perhaps the only person other | |
| 63 than those involved in their course or meeting that they may interact with | |
| 64 very much. Friends in Residence's <emph>jobs</emph> are prosaic, centering | |
| 65 around providing basic 'hotel services' outside of weekday business hours. | |
| 66 But their <emph>role</emph> is much more fundamental. It is to manifest | |
| 67 Quakerism in action, to be, dare I say it, patterns and examples. Because they | |
| 68 are in residence for weeks or months, they are comfortable and know their way | |
| 69 around, unlike the short-term visitor who usually only gets to that state | |
| 70 just before they leave. This in turn gives them a platform on which to build a | |
| 71 presence which comforts and reassures the visitors, being visibly available for | |
| 72 information or assistance, or just conversation.</p> | |
| 73 <p>Woodbrooke is not a Preparative Meeting, and Friends in Residence are not | |
| 74 its Elders or its Overseers, although their role resembles those a bit. The | |
| 75 focus is on service, with the accompanying need for humility. The opportunity | |
| 76 is there for worship, reading and study, along with conversation, which may | |
| 77 range from spiritual to intellectual to personal, and conversation in | |
| 78 particular is part of | |
| 79 the overall pattern of service, but none of this is what Friends in Residence | |
| 80 are really <emph>there</emph> for. Contemporary Quakerism is above all about | |
| 81 what we <emph>do</emph> as Friends, not what we believe, and the fundamental | |
| 82 job of Friends in Residence, at once very easy and terribly daunting, is to | |
| 83 walk that walk, to visibly <emph>be</emph> Friends, to do as Friends should do, | |
| 84 quietly, without fuss, but unmistakably. I was challenged, and in the end | |
| 85 uplifted, by my effort to fulfil this role.</p> | |
| 86 </div> | |
| 87 <div> | |
| 88 <title>Conclusion</title> | |
| 89 <p>There can be only one conclusion, which I hope is evident by now: Go to | |
| 90 Woodbrooke! Go for a course, go for a visit, go to serve as a Friend in | |
| 91 Residence. You will find your understanding of what it means to be a Friend | |
| 92 deepened, and your ability to witness to our particular vision strengthened.</p> | |
| 93 <p>Information about Woodbrooke courses can be found at <link href="http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/">Woodbrooke's web site (<code>http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/</code>)</link>. For information about volunteering as a Friend in Residence, <span style="background-color: grey">contact <link href="mailto:rachael@woodbrooke.org.uk">Rachael Milling (<code>rachael@woodbrooke.org.uk</code>)</link>, the FiR coordinator</span>[As of 2019, use <link href="https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/about/support-us/friends-in-residence/">the FiR contact page</link> for this purpose].</p> | |
| 94 </div> | |
| 95 </body> | |
| 96 </doc> |