HT: Barclay 19.41
HT: Tell your Quaker story
MB:
At Univ, in early 1990s, moved into a new flat, I had agreed to take
over that running of the EU Green Society.  My flatmate Anna [Levin] agreed a
deal, that she would go to GS mtgs, if I would go to Quaker meeting,
which was Victoria Terrace.
Soon I felt the "secret power" and go "knitted in".
Got to knwo YF, which was a help in what was then a pretty large
Meeting.  Even after Anna moved away, I kept going to Meeting, and
after a year or so BCurr asked if I'd think about becoming a Member.
I've been thinking about it ever since.
While in A'dam, went to MfW there.  Read more, and got more of a sense
of how the Quaker thing worked, than I had a need to have done in a
big Meeting.
Moved to Porty in 2009, joined the very new Meeting, and shifted from
"going to" CEdin, I was "part of" PMM.  That meant [doing more]
I like the "secret power" quote
Did the Becoming Friends course, which among other things meant I read
the "requirements" for becoming a Member for the first time.
"at home and .." spoke to me very deeply.
"accept the fundamental elements.." was new to me.
Grew up in a classic Church of England agnostic family, not until
Quakerism recognised an experience of something "beyond the physical"
At home with "pratical expression of inward conviction"
Struggled with "accept the manner of Quaker corporate worship and..."
Turned to Quaker history, which led to a seeing a flowering of
people's renegotiation of the relationship of people to the Divine,
and that it was what allowed our special 
Which in turn lead to us being here today:  MfCA is as vital a part of
being a Quaker, and that means I'm ready to not just attend LM and AM,
but to attend _as a Member_.
JD: How were your anarchist inclinations at odds with our goverance?
MB: Grind slow, but exceedingly fine.  Quaker business is very
_slow_.  [Lightbulb changing and other jokes]
Ministry, here, now, without any qualification feels very different to
me.
HT: Like
MB: We started with "secret power" and knit..
    I thought I was coming to a gathering of friendly people who were
a bit spiritual, and it takes a while, years, to detect the secret
seeking for spirtual guidance that we shared.  You're not just sitting
with a bunch of like-minded people, rather you may find what someone
else's spiritual path may not be going where yours is.  But that's
actually a very important aspect of Quakerism.
MfW and the QBusMe are a great resolution of the Protestant dilemma,
that there is no barrier between God and us.
Right Ordering does belong as a religious test for being Quaker.
[HT and MB discuss theory of membership]
Environmental Protest Workshop on decision making, democratic process,
anarchist consensus decision process, ceding authority to someone in a
protest in order to make us safe, you take it for all of us and it is
by definition right.  So the same for MCA: you aren't there, you
uphold them for the decision the make.
JD: I agree about the respnsibilty/rights relationship, but you can
    also take initiative [ref joke]
MB: Musselb members are interested in a 3rd weekly meeting, and
although I'd rather that didn't happen, I would uphold them and attend
if they decide to go ahead.  Just because I don't want to organise it
doesn't mean I won't support them if they do.
[A complicated history]
MB: My love of Quakers, ref. Anna and the Green Party story.  There
was a MFA about same-sex marriage, when (before York) a male couple had asked
for a ceremony of commitment, and it was a difficult MFA.  And the SGP
was in some internal difficulties, where when you won a vote on a
problematic issue, if you 'won' the vote, you tried you best to get
rid of the losers, whereas the MCA worked very hard to support _all_
the people there, to respect their pain and acknowledge it, respecting
that of God in the people on the "other side".
We are happy to recommend membership for MB, it's "a full stop on my
process of discernment on whether I should become a Member" and it
fills me with joy to join in the recommendation.