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comparison diana_horne_20100901.xml @ 65:9155383a40fd
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| author | ht |
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| date | Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:37:33 -0400 |
| parents | |
| children | 5e57e799182e |
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| 64:d3dd54de594d | 65:9155383a40fd |
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| 1 <?xml version='1.0'?> | |
| 2 <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="../../lib/xml/doc.xsl" ?> | |
| 3 <!DOCTYPE doc SYSTEM "../../lib/xml/doc.dtd" > | |
| 4 <doc> | |
| 5 <head> | |
| 6 <title>Diana Horne: Report on a meeting</title> | |
| 7 <author>Henry S. Thompson</author> | |
| 8 <author>Mary Woodward</author> | |
| 9 <date> 4 Sep 2010</date> | |
| 10 </head> | |
| 11 <body> | |
| 12 <div> | |
| 13 <title>Diana Horne: Report on a meeting in conjunction with her application | |
| 14 for membership</title> | |
| 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. | |
| 16 After a pleasant supper and some quiet worship, we moved into a conversation | |
| 17 about Diana's experience with Friends and her desire to become a member.</p> | |
| 18 <p>An Anglican by birth (although her father would subsequently spend some | |
| 19 time calling himself a Quaker), church has always had a place in Diana's life, | |
| 20 but as an adult she spent many years looking for one in which she could feel | |
| 21 comfortable. She had been aware of Quakers as a result of their public | |
| 22 witness, but had never met one until coming to a show at Venue 40 in 1995, and | |
| 23 she has been a regular attender since 1997.</p> | |
| 24 <p>She found Quakers and Quaker worship a welcome change from other churches | |
| 25 in the way that she felt that she remained in control, and the way in which | |
| 26 Faith and Practice, particularly Advices and Queries, offered clear and helpful | |
| 27 guidance, without the obscurity and negative emphases she had found in other | |
| 28 churches' use of the Bible.</p> | |
| 29 <p>Recently she has been involved with Jasmine Perinpanayagam's testimonies | |
| 30 study group, where she helped organise the recent meeting with representatives | |
| 31 of the Army. This experience gave her a strong sense of the value of the Peace | |
| 32 Testimony, seeing its common sense and emphasis on equal rights, its lack of | |
| 33 sectarianism, as pointing towards a better way of living for us all in a really | |
| 34 usable way. The Hungarian Uprising of 1956 had made a very strong impact on | |
| 35 her as a child, so finding this kind of helpful response to the violence in the | |
| 36 world has been particularly important to her.</p> | |
| 37 <p>She would probably have moved towards membership sooner, but the demands | |
| 38 of caring for her brother Stuart, and a feeling that she didn't want to join | |
| 39 without him doing so also, intervened until recently.</p> | |
| 40 <p>Another aspect of Friends that is important to her is our | |
| 41 egalitarian stance on Gay and Lesbian rights. She experiences Meeting for | |
| 42 Worship as a valuable shared quiet time, a time to think and benefit from both | |
| 43 the silence and the spoken ministry of the group. She has not yet ministered | |
| 44 herself, but is comfortable with the expectation that she will do so when the | |
| 45 time is right.</p> | |
| 46 <p>She is comfortable with the Christian origins of the Society, without | |
| 47 being uncritical of some aspects of the established Church, in particular its | |
| 48 emphasis on sin and unworthiness. She very much values being part of a more | |
| 49 open, like-minded, group. Quaker guidance towards a good and useful life | |
| 50 represents a much more positive kind of Christianity for her.</p> | |
| 51 <p>She has a lot of experience in various forms of group work from earlier | |
| 52 jobs, and hopes to find ways of bringing that into service to the Meeting. We | |
| 53 agreed that she already feels and demonstrates a key aspect of membership, | |
| 54 which is taking responsibility for the Meeting in a practical way, taking a | |
| 55 share in the running of the place. One way in which she hopes to see the | |
| 56 Meeting grow is in providing more opportunities to talk with Friends about our | |
| 57 insights, experience and concerns, building on the experience of Hearts and | |
| 58 Minds and similar organised study groups.</p> | |
| 59 <p>In conclusion, it is clear to us that Diana is already a Member in all | |
| 60 but name, and we hope Area Meeting can ratify this.</p> | |
| 61 <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> | |
| 62 </div> | |
| 63 </body> | |
| 64 </doc> |