Reflections on Woodbrooke

1. Introduction

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 +furniture, through locking up at night and opening up in the morning, to +welcoming Friends to Meeting for Worship in the morning and Epilogue at the end +of the day, and a lot else besides. I got to know +several of the management team who have been responsible for moving Woodbrooke +into its new form, in which it is not only a center for meetings and courses +for Friends and a home for visiting Quaker scholars, but also a base for outreach, a venue for conferences, a hostel +for students and even a bed-and-breakfast for tourists. Before the memories +fade, I thought I'd try to set down some of my thoughts and experiences.

2. How Woodbrooke Works

I last visited Woodbrooke over fifteen years ago, for a long weekend +course. At that time it provided both accommodation and teaching for various +full-time Quaker studies courses, as well as welcoming Friends for weekend +courses and meetings. The teaching and admin staff and the long-term resident +students formed a sort of Quaker intentional community, and carried out a +significant amount of the cooking, serving, laundry etc. The atmosphere as +experienced by a visitor was a cross between a university hall of residence and +a sprawling country house full of an extended family and a miscellany +of guests, with the family dividing its time between trying to make the guests +feel welcome, and getting on with running the house and taking care of business.

Today a lot has changed. There are no full-time courses, the resident +students are mostly just studying at Birmingham University and there is a full-time +professional administration and facilities staff, providing excellent food and +a clean and well-run environment. The proportion of Quakers among the staff +and long-term residents is lower, and the +atmosphere is much more of a country house hotel in the conference business.

3. Woodbrooke is Still Special

In his PhD thesis A Sociological Analysis of the Theology of +Quakers, Ben Pink Dandelion, who is tutor in Postgraduate Quaker +Studies at Woodbrooke today, discusses the narrowing of 'Quaker-time' +from its historical scope of virtually all of Friends' lives, to the few hours +a week Friends spend at the Meeting house today. The special thing about +Woodbrooke, which it shares with Yearly Meeting, is that within its precincts +Quaker-time is once again expanded to fill the whole day. Friends arriving for +the first time often struggle to express the difference they sense, of an +environment in which not only the pace but also the style of what we've come to +accept as 'normal' life do not hold sway. Here it is still just possible, with +good will, to experience a bit of the inspired optimism of 17th century +Friends, that it would in fact be possible to bring in the Kingdom of God there +and then. I at least find it easier to 'be good' at Woodbrooke -- to live a +saner life, without raising my voice or losing my temper, with my focus more on +others and less on myself.

4. Friends in Residence

Friends in Residence are a crucial component of the Woodbrooke mix. They +are often the first person a visitor meets, and perhaps the only person other +than those involved in their course or meeting that they may interact with +very much. Friends in Residence's jobs are prosaic, centering +around providing basic 'hotel services' outside of weekday business hours. +But their role is much more fundamental. It is to manifest +Quakerism in action, to be, dare I say it, patterns and examples. Because they +are in residence for weeks or months, they are comfortable and know their way +around, unlike the short-term visitor who usually only gets to that state +just before they leave. This in turn gives them a platform on which to build a +presence which comforts and reassures the visitors, being visibly available for +information or assistance, or just conversation.

Woodbrooke is not a Preparative Meeting, and Friends in Residence are not +its Elders or its Overseers, although their role resembles those a bit. The +focus is on service, with the accompanying need for humility. The opportunity +is there for worship, reading and study, along with conversation, which may +range from spiritual to intellectual to personal, and conversation in +particular is part of +the overall pattern of service, but none of this is what Friends in Residence +are really there for. Contemporary Quakerism is above all about +what we do as Friends, not what we believe, and the fundamental +job of Friends in Residence, at once very easy and terribly daunting, is to +walk that walk, to visibly be Friends, to do as Friends should do, +quietly, without fuss, but unmistakably. I was challenged, and in the end +uplifted, by my effort to fulfil this role.

5. Conclusion

There can be only one conclusion, which I hope is evident by now: Go to +Woodbrooke! Go for a course, go for a visit, go to serve as a Friend in +Residence. You will find your understanding of what it means to be a Friend +deepened, and your ability to witness to our particular vision strengthened.

Information about Woodbrooke courses can be found at Woodbrooke's web site (http://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/). For information about volunteering as a Friend in Residence, contact Rachael Milling (rachael@woodbrooke.org.uk), the FiR coordinator[As of 2019, use the FiR contact page for this purpose].