--- a/Ballard_2024-06-11.txt	Fri Jun 14 17:01:21 2024 +0100
+++ b/Ballard_2024-06-11.txt	Fri Jun 14 17:01:43 2024 +0100
@@ -5,24 +5,25 @@
 19.21 (Robert Barclay) "... I felt a secret power ... I became thus
 knit and united unto them"
 
-Mark was an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh, in early
+Mark was an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh in the early
 1990s.  He moved into a new flat, and although he had agreed to take
 over the running of the University Green Society, he was very nervous
 about being in charge of his first meeting.  His flatmate Anna Levin
 (!) agreed a deal, that she would go to Green Society meetings with
-him, if he would go to Quaker meeting, which was Victoria Terrace.
+him, if he would go to Quaker Meeting, which was Victoria Terrace.
 
-Soon he felt the "secret power" and go "knitted in".
-He got to know the Young Friends group, which was a help in what was then a pretty large
-Meeting.  Even after Anna moved away, he kept going to Meeting, and
-after a year or so Bronwen Currie asked if he'd think about becoming a Member.
-He's been thinking about it ever since.
+Soon he felt the "secret power" and got "knitted in".  He got to know
+the Young Friends group, which was a help in what was then a pretty
+large Meeting.  Even after Anna moved away, he kept going to Meeting,
+and after a year or so Bronwen Currie asked if he'd think about
+becoming a Member.  He's been thinking about it ever since.
 
-He moved to Amsterdam, and went to Meeting for Worship there.  He read more, and got more of a sense
-of how the Quaker thing worked, than he had any need to have done in a
-Central Edinburgh on account of its large size.
+He moved to Amsterdam, and went to Meeting for Worship there.  He read
+more, and got more of a sense of how the Quaker thing worked, than he
+had any need to have done in a Central Edinburgh on account of its
+large size.
 
-He moved to Portobello in 2009 and joined the very new Meeting in Mary
+He moved to Portobello in 2009 and joined the new Meeting in Mary
 Jane and Alastair's home.  Soon he realised he had shifted from
 "going to" Central Edinburgh to being "a part of" Portobello and
 Musselburgh.  That meant getting much more involved in helping to
@@ -40,15 +41,15 @@
 very deeply.
 
 But that membership meant "that you accept at least the fundamental
-elements of being a Quaker: ..." was new to him.
-Although he was at  home with the "practical expression of inward convictions",
-he struggled with "accept the manner of Quaker corporate worship and
-the ordering of the meeting's business".
+elements of being a Quaker: ..." was new to him.  Although he was at
+home with the "practical expression of inward convictions", he
+struggled with "accept the manner of Quaker corporate worship and the
+ordering of the meeting's business".
 
-This prompted him to turn to Quaker history, which led to seeing in the flowering of
-people's renegotiation of their relationship of with Divine as what
-fostered our special structures, Which have lead to us to still being
-here today.
+This prompted him to turn to Quaker history, which led to seeing in
+the flowering of people's renegotiation of their relationship of with
+Divine as what fostered our special structures, Which have lead to us
+to still being here today.
 
 He recognised then that Meeting for Church Affairs is a vital part of
 being a Quaker, and that meant he was now ready to not just attend
@@ -68,12 +69,11 @@
 friendly people who were a bit spiritual, and it took a while, years
 in fact, to detect the secret seeking for spiritual 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
+rather you may find that someone else's spiritual path may not be
 going where yours is.  But that's actually a very important aspect of
 Quakerism for him.  So yes, he has come to see that Right Ordering
 does belong as a religious test for being Quaker.
 
-
 Meeting for Worship and Meeting for Church Affairs are a great
 resolution of the Protestant dilemma, that follows from the removal of
 the barrier between God and us.
@@ -81,39 +81,40 @@
 All three of us shared some thoughts about the meaning of Membership
 and where it fits in our Quaker vision of decision making in worship.
 
-Mark's particular contribution to this started by telling us about a specific
-personal experience that he shares regularly when leading an
-Environmental Protest Workshop on decision making.  He contrasted it with
-normal democratic process, and the anarchist consensus decision
+Mark's particular contribution to this started by telling us about a
+specific personal experience that he shares regularly when leading an
+Environmental Protest Workshop on decision making.  He contrasted it
+with normal democratic process, and the anarchist consensus decision
 process.  In preparation for a particular collective non-violent
-action, it was crucial that all the participants agreed to cede authority to
-one particular person in the group to make the call to bring the action to an
-end.  This amounted to all of them agreeing that "to make us safe, you
-take this decision for all of
-us and it will be, by definition, right: no discussion, we will just
-end the action immediately you say so".
+action, it was crucial that all the participants agreed to cede
+authority to one particular person in the group to make the call to
+bring the action to an end.  This amounted to all of them agreeing
+that "to make us safe, you take this decision for all of us and it
+will be, by definition, right: no discussion, we will just end the
+action immediately you say so".
 
 So the same for Meeting for Church Affairs: even if you aren't
 there, you uphold them for the decision they made.
 
-Mark described a Quaker case where a decision was probably going
+Mark described a Quaker case where a decision was probably going to
 support a project which he would have preferred not to see happen:
 "Although I'd rather that didn't happen, I would uphold them and
 [participate] 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".
 
 He offered another example contrasting his love of Quakers and
-involvement with the Green Party, recalling the Meeting for Church Affairs in Central
-Edinburgh which had to decide a response to  Derek McLean and Mal
-Cowtan's request for a ceremony of commitment in Victoria Terrace. This
-was quite some time _before_ Yearly Meeting at York adopted a clear
-position on marriage as being "equally available to same-sex and
-opposite-sex couples".  It was a difficult Meeting for Church Affairs,
-which did eventually find unity in agreement to hold the ceremony.
+involvement with the Green Party, recalling the Meeting for Church
+Affairs in Central Edinburgh which had to decide a response to Derek
+McLean and Mal Cowtan's request for a ceremony of commitment in
+Victoria Terrace. This was quite some time _before_ Yearly Meeting at
+York adopted a clear position on marriage as being "equally available
+to same-sex and opposite-sex couples".  It was a difficult Meeting for
+Church Affairs, which did eventually find unity in agreement to hold
+the ceremony.
 
 Now when the Scottish Green Party was in some internal disagreement
 about an issue, and it was voted on, then if you 'won' the vote, you
-tried your best to present a united front by getting rid of the
+tried your best to present a united front by getting _rid_ of the
 'losers'.
 
 Whereas that Meeting for Church Affairs worked very hard to support