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+Report of a meeting held on 23 May 2022 at the home of Ross Armstrong
+
+Ross Armstrong
+Robin Leibman
+Henry S Thompson
+
+Ross welcomed us to his home, and after a period of worship he shared
+the history of his experience of Friends.  His mother was raised a
+Quaker by _her_ mother, a life-long Member.  His father joined Friends
+after his experience in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II,
+attending Meeting at Leyburn in Yorkshire.
+
+The family had connections with Brummana, where the family spent time
+when he was young when his father was Head there, then lived near
+Jordans when they returned to the UK, where he attended a
+'progressive' school with a Quaker head.
+
+Although his upbringing was in a Christian environment, as a young
+adult Ross was at first not a church-goer.  He was however always
+conscious of a need for a source of guidance in how he should live his
+life, and for a while he looked for help with life decisions from the
+_I Ching_, but that didn't last as responsibilities grew.
+
+During the 1980s Ross became involved in Palestinian issues.  He began
+working as a furniture maker and in the building trades, then
+assistant manager at Hadeel, the Palestian shop on Queen Street.
+
+Ross started observing Ramadan around the time of the 1st Gulf War,
+giving him an active, pervasive engagement with religious practice.
+He began studing Arabic, a life-long project thereafter.  He learned
+the 1st Sura of the Quran, which became the cornerstone of his
+practice.  The nature of this, as a prayer that begins with 'In the
+name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful' [Ross,
+please replace with your preferred translation, this is just the first
+one I found online], is so different from the caricature of Muslims as
+fanatics.
+
+Ross has been coming to Meeting for Worship at Portobello and
+Musselburgh for four or five years.  He's been impressed by the depth
+of some of the Quakers he has met.  He realised recently that he has
+made the transition from a "committed non-Attender" to acknowledging
+he _was_ an Attender.  He has really appreciated the Quaker method of
+decision-making, in contrast to other experiences of committees.
+
+Turning to the question of Membership, Ross recalled that last autumn
+his mother, who was a Trustee of Brummana, asked him to consider
+applying for the Headship.  He applied, and although he was not
+appointed, the experience made him think again about Membership.
+Seeing the achievements, the remarkable work that has been done by
+Quakers, in particular Andrew Clark, a friend of his mother, led him
+to recognition of how awesome can be some people's achievements,
+leaving us a bit ashamed by comparison: how are _we_ working for the
+Kingdom of Heaven.
+
+Ross finished by summarising where this has led him
+  * "Friends of Truth" can be goal and a daunting challenge.
+  * "What I think of God" is not relevant, what matters is what 'he'
+    has to say to me about how to live my life.
+
+And a few other topics we touched on:
+
+Ross's wife is as it were a lay preacher in the Zen temple in
+portobello.  He sees a lot of connections between their practice and
+scriptures and ours.
+
+Ross sometimes gets into trouble for telling the truth.
+
+Meeting for Worship for Business can be an awe-filled experience.
+
+Once as Ross was leaving the Quaker Meeting House in Ramallah, he was
+asked "are Quakers Christians?".  Well, perhaps not as you probably
+mean that:  we have no Christology...
+
+Are the challenges for Ross in becoming a Member: Vietnam, Palestine,
+now Ukraine, and Extinction Rebellion, are difficulties.  Ross worries
+about the apparent need to take sides: being driven by fear is not a
+good starting point for decisions.
+
+As we reached the end of a discussion about the nature of Membership,
+Ross said "I'm ready to be a member of the crew rather than a
+passenger", and Henry and Robin agreed.