South Belfast Quaker Website.

Musings From A Quaker Bonnet No. 23

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:20:59 +0100

Jesus when he took up the little children and said: ’Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven’ was speaking of Jewish children who, according to the Jewish custom, would not have been baptized, and the Quaker position is really summed up in the words: ‘John indeed baptized with water, but thee shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit’(Acts 1:5)

It is the inward change, the inward purification, the spiritual fact and not the outward symbol, that belongs in truth to the Kingdom of God. Neither in the refusal to baptize nor to take the supper, do Friends set forth a negation. They assert on the contrary, the positive truth that the religious life is the inward life of the spirit. But no place or time can limit its action, nor any symbol adequately express it, and that therefore of necessity no priest can claim to intervene between the inward life and its source of power.

To the soul that feeds upon the bread of life the outward conventions of religion are no longer needful. Hid with Christ in God, there is for him but small place for outward rites, for all experience is a holy baptism, a perpetual supper with the Lord, and all life a sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This hidden life, this inward vision, this immediate and intimate union between the soul and God, this, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is the basis of Quaker faith.

We do not make use of the outward rites of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, but we do lay stress on the inward experiences they symbolize. Our testimony is to the reality of this experience without the external act.

IYM John Wilhelm Rowntree
Faith and Practice 1902
3.40

Latest Edition of “Around Europe” Available for Download

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:55:36 +0100

Dear Friend,

We are very pleased to send you issue number 350 (April – May) of Around Europe. We hope you enjoy reading it and look forward to your feedback!

With best wishes from the team at QCEA

JUST CLICK THE IMAGE TO VIEW OR RIGHT CLICK AND CHOOSE DOWNLOAD

as always this and previous periodicals are available on the bottom shelf of the virtual library

Quaker Peace Workers video

Wed, 15 May 2013 06:45:33 +0100

Megan Corrigan, has drawn our attention to the following video - Shared from “Journeys in the Spirit - resources for young people”, Quaker Peace & Social Witness provides one-year opportunities in the UK and overseas with organisations that work for peace at local, national and international levels. In this short film, six Peace workers talk about the work they are doing in London, Geneva and Bujumbura and how Quaker values shape their work

You can also view the video at http://vimeo.com/63574666 if you have difficulty for whatever reason viewing it on this page

Questioning our Society’s investments in Shell

Fri, 10 May 2013 22:51:33 +0100

In January, our Preparative Meeting agreed a minute which asked that the UQM trustees should consider, in the light of our testimonies, the appropriateness of an investment in Royal Dutch Shell. The minute went to January MM, and then on to the trustees.

We have had no response, but I was reminded of our concern by an article in the Irish Times on 1 May which reported that San Francisco City Council has called on its pension fund to divest $583 million (about £M374.5) worth of shares in major oil companies.

This is a bold decision. It adds some weight to Friends’ views that Shell is not an appropriate investment for our times. To add more, the Irish Times article quotes from the British Government’s report on the economics of climate change (the 2006 “Stern Review”) which says, somewhere in its 700 pages: “ … Smart investors can see that investing in companies that rely solely or heavily on constantly replenishing reserves of fossil fuels is becoming a very risky decision.”

The Irish Times article can be read in full at http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/san-francisco-city-council-asks-pension-fund-to-divest-its-oil-shares-1.1378366

HobNobs and a Bus Tour!!

Wed, 8 May 2013 11:51:45 +0100

TWO UPCOMING EVENTS THAT YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO MISS!!

The HOBNOBS are meeting again on THURSDAY 23rd May at Moyallon Centre.

This time we are doing something different and we will be meeting around 11.30 and starting at 12 with a soup and cheese lunch. (PLEASE LET ALANNAH KNOW IF YOU WANT SOUP!!)
There will be a discussion time after lunch when we hope to be joined by Sue Pim, Rita Honeyford and others to look at the idea of setting up a prayer link network or prayer support group in the North. It is hoped that Friends interested in this will be able to brainstorm ideas on the day and also get something up and running fairly quickly afterwards.

All are welcome to come and please let Alannah know if you want lunch as it will be provided that day!! (028 38 830906 or 07890 007671)

Ross Chapman’s Legendary Quaker Bus Trip is BACK!!!

This year the bus trip will take place on THURSDAY 6TH JUNE.
Ross Chapman will again be the tour guide and the bus will travel to Hillsborough and district.
The meeting point will be in LURGAN Meeting House and the bus will leave at 2pm sharp! It is planned to return to Lurgan around 9pm.

Please book your place through Ross Chapman (02830 262912) or Alannah (02838 830906 / 07890 007671).

The cost will be £20 payable to Ross on the day please.

Report From GoodLife Fair

Sat, 4 May 2013 08:22:45 +0100

Twenty Friends rose to the new challenge of manning a stall for 2 days at The Good Life Festival At Oxford Island Lough Neagh.
The tent was set up between 8.00am and 9.00am in fairly windy conditions and the Fair Trade products arrived with Janet very soon afterwards.

All cars had to be off the site by 9.30am, bicycles, tandems, rickshaws horses and carts were allowed to remain on the site during the festival and gave rides and allowed people to try them out.

We decorated the tent with bunting which said Quakers Walk Cheerfully. We had a number of posters including a large poster from Eco Quakers, lawn signs with Quakers in Ireland were successfully stuck in the grass and were not affected by the regular squalls and strong winds on Sunday. We also had posters with details of our Meeting on it and all the other Meetings in Ireland and the BYM green advices & Queries on display.

Activities

We displayed the items we recycle eg stamps, specs, ink cartridges, and tin foil, this was a good way to start a conversation with the public.
We sold £195 worth of Fair Trade Products over the 2 days.
We made 2 types of plant pots, paper folding one engineered by Joan and one made with a wooden tool. Ewen Cameron of Lisburn Meeting made the wooden plant pot makers for us. We were able to give some of the wooden plant pot makers away free each half hour on Sunday afternoon, this meant we got announcements on the tannoy.
Making plant pots from newspaper in the wind is a little fiddly and requires some skill.

We also made paper bricks which drew a lot of attention from the public. Children particularly wanted to have a go. People were interested where to buy a paper brick maker. It’s along time since I bought it, so I can’t really remember where it came from. They burn really well on the fire after 3-4 months drying out.

It was a great support when a few Friends came and joined us for a chat.

There was a great buzz at the Fair, lots of different events, up-cycling, re-found furniture and clothing, jewelry. Lot’s of food, celebrity chefs Jenny Bristow & Dick Strawbridge (who used my leeks to make a lemon & pearl barley leek risotto). Many other exhibitors including a Blacksmith, Coracle builders, birds of prey, stone carving, making living willow structures, music, furniture made out of pallets, mud & straw built houses and much more. Yoga, Pilates, Meditation. Oxford Island ( the name comes from fording the oxen,) was traffic free and very beautiful especially in the sun. We had enough people helping on the stall to allow Friends to wander round and see some of the other attractions and listen to some of the talks on a great variety of topics.

This was learning experience and there are things we could do differently should there be a future occasion.

As Quakers we showed some aspects of our radical, and contemporary response to life in the 21st century and that we try to “let our lives speak”.

https://www.facebook.com/GoodlifefestivalNI

May’s Monthly Readings

Fri, 3 May 2013 19:25:34 +0100

BYM A&Q

8. Worship is our response to an awareness of God. We can worship alone, but when we join with others in expectant waiting we may discover a deeper sense of God’s presence. We seek a gathered stillness in our meetings for worship so that we may feel the power of God’s love drawing us together and leading us.

9.In worship we enter with reverence into communion with God and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Come to meeting for worship with heart and mind prepared. Yield yourself and all your outward concerns to God’s guidance so that you may find ’the evil weakening in you and the good raised up’.

10. Come regularly to meeting for worship even when you are angry, depressed, tired or spiritually cold. In the silence ask for and accept the prayerful support of others joined with you in worship. Try to find a spiritual wholeness which encompasses suffering as well as thankfulness and joy. Prayer, springing from a deep place in the heart, May bring healing and unity as nothing else can. Let meeting for worship nourish your whole life.

IYM General Christian Counsel

8. Come regularly to meeting with heart and mind prepared. In a sensitive waiting upon God, we are led by the Holy Spirit into communion with Him and fellowship with one another.

Queries for Serious Consideration

3. Do you gather together at Meetings for Worship in expectant waiting on God, prepared to share experiences and insights? Are these Meetings occasions, when, by the help of the Holy Spirit you are enabled unitedly to worship God? Are you open to the promptings of the Spirit, and sensitive to one another’s needs, whether your response be in silent worship or through spoken word?

Bye Bye Mrs Fry

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:12:18 +0100

According to the Daily Mirror I picked up this week in a coffee shop I frequent, it would appear that the bank of England has made a decision to replace the image on their £5 note of Quaker philanthropist and social reform activist Elizabeth Fry, with that of ex-prime minister Winston Churchill. Apparently members of the public were polled to see who they thought would be a fitting replacement for Fry, but the final decision lay with the Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King. No new notes featuring Fry have been produced since 2012, and will gradually be phased out to be replaced by Churchill entirely in 2016. The removal of Fry from the £5 note leaves the queen as the only remaining female featured on UK bank notes.

Poetry Corner No. 1

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:43:07 +0100

Occasionally we hope to post quaker themed and penned poetry which we come across in our trawls of the world wide web. The first in the series is a tale of woe faced by a monthly meeting clerk. It’s written by Simon Heywood a member of Shefield Meeting in England.

If you have a poem that is written by a quaker or on a quaker theme, feel free to submit it and we’ll see if we can track down the author to get permission to publish it.