Heaven in the Ordinary

27/04/20 09:24

You can listen to the BBC Radio 4 broadcast at the link below

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08gwfb9

Writer and priest Malcolm Doney finds surprising delights when taking a closer look at things we often take for granted.

According to Malcolm the familiar can too easily be ignored and subsequently disregarded. He warns that we are in danger of treating our surroundings like a 'blandscape'. For Malcolm there are valuable lessons to be learnt by immersing oneself in the local. This might all sound a bit parochial, but there's another way of looking at it. Malcom explains that if we celebrate the familiar, if we move our attention from the general to the specific, it can open up a whole universe.

Familiarity and routine can be associated with drudgery, but Malcolm draws upon the example of the Christian monastic tradition's Liturgy of the Hours, in which each day is divided into sessions of prayer from Matins and Lauds, to Vespers and Compline. These services provide structure, focus and rhythm they're, landmarks which anchor and support the spiritual development of the believer.

The programme features poems from Seamus Heaney and Norman MacCaig and extracts from authors Xavier de Maistre and Linda Sonna. Music featured includes Bach's Sheep May Safely Graze and Breathless by the jazz trumpeter Matthew Halsall.

Presenter: Malcolm Doney
Producer: Jonathan O'Sullivan
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.

Upcycled Bags In Aid of Quaker Service

18/04/20 00:17 Filed in: Quaker Service

[UPDATE] Please note that all bags have now sold out and are on their way to their new homes

Hi Friends,
Please find below some photos & description of bags Bronwen made to sell at IYM in aid of Quaker Service.

She made these bags, mainly from donated, jeans, ties, & shirts from Quaker Service.
All are lined, the denim ones are large, fully lined and with several pockets inside & on the outside. Ideal for attending a conference or to take books, files, iPad, laptop, lunch etc on a day out. Sturdy bags

The smaller ones are more like handbags.
Contact her by email, bsmhaire@aol.com

if anyone is interested to purchase. suggested donation £15.

She had planned to sell them at the QS stall at IYM. All proceeds to Quaker Service,
The photos may not do them full justice.

Musings From A Quaker Bonnet

12/04/20 15:04 Filed in: Musings From A Quaker Bonnet

“Almost everything about the resurrection of Jesus is beyond me. I don’t understand it. Like the women at the end of Mark’s gospel, I am amazed and more than a little afraid. But the bit of the resurrection that I do understand is the removal of the stone. The women come as darkness gives way to daylight to discover that the stone has been moved for them. What Christianity teaches us is that in spite of ourselves, our fears, our failures, our insufficiencies, our woundedness, the stone has been moved for us. What stone remains for you? Will you allow God to move it? You probably can’t move it yourself. The crucial question is like the one John’s Jesus put to the paralytic “Do you want it to be moved?”

Here we are, the recipients of a message from a heavenly messenger. He tells us not to be afraid. He tells us that the risen Jesus goes before us - is not in our known past, but in the uncertainty and insecurity of our unknown future. There we will see him as he promised. And so we, too, leave the Garden or Resurrection. To do what?”

“The Spiritual Landscape of Mark” by Bonnie Thurston

April's Monthly Readings

01/04/20 22:55 Filed in: Advices & Queries

In vocal ministry, the sharing of spiritual experience and insights can be a way through which fresh understanding is conveyed to others. Receive the ministry in a loving spirit, avoiding hurtful criticism.

Ireland Yearly Meeting
General Christian Counsel

Do not assume that vocal ministry is never to be your part. Faithfulness and sincerity in speaking, even very briefly, may open the way to fuller ministry from others. When prompted to speak, wait patiently to know that the leading and time are right, but do not let a sense of your own unworthiness hold you back. Pray that your ministry may arise from deep experience, and trust that words will be given to you. Try to speak audibly and distinctly, and with sensitivity to the needs of others. Beware of speaking predictably or too often, and of making additions towards the end of the meeting when it is well left alone.

BYM - Advices and Queries

SOUTH BELFAST QUAKERS

Quakers (or the Religious Society of Friends as they are also known), have held Meetings for Worship in Ireland since 1654. After a previous failed attempt to establish a lasting Belfast Meeting around 1665, the first permanent Belfast Quaker Meeting was established in 1799, and in 1810 it moved to Brewery Lane, now known as Frederick Street. It wasn’t until 1956 that a second Meeting was approved for Friends who lived in Belfast, this time based in the south of the city. South Belfast Meeting House is an active Meeting with approximately 45 adult members and attenders who worship together each Sunday. Children & Young People also play a large part in our meeting, and we have on average 22, 1-18 year olds joining us for the last 10 mins of our worship, after their own activities.

Meeting for Worship takes place at 10.45am each Sunday at our meeting house ( see address and directions on the contact page )

Alternatively you can join us on Zoom with the following details:

Meeting iD: 4613195026
Pass: 143412

South Belfast Meeting is part of the larger Ireland Yearly Meeting (see details of Quakers in Ireland below)