Human Library

I must admit that until I posted the poster ideas here the other day, I had more or less forgotten about this blog, as I have so many others which I maintain. I will try to do better. In searching for addresses for meeting houses, I came across this page. I absolutely love this idea... it seems to me that in giving an enquirer the chance to "borrow" a specific Quaker, it might make people a whole lot more comfortable with the idea.

Posting some ideas for posters here:

Hospital this week

I don't expect to be around much ths week, as my son Ali goes into hospital on Tuesday to have his colostomy reversed.

Please hold us in the light as he goes through the week, which is likely to be quite difficult for him. I will try to post regularly once I get back to a routine next week.
x
Fee

Blog and website changes

Originally I set up this blog to be a place to hold the information I was discovering in relation to Uxbridge Meeting's 350th anniversary, because Uxbridge local meeting didn't have an official website. The meeting does now have an official website, and so I have changed this blog to be a personal blog, with information about Uxbridge meeting's history contained in separate blogsites.

New Quaker forum

There is a new forum for Quakers on BYM website, which is at http://www.quakerweb.org.uk/forum. There is not a lot of discussion going on at the moment, mainly because there don't appear to be any links to the forum from the main website, something I have pointed out to the forum peeps.

There are still a few enquirers and seekers asking questions, who would benefit from some experienced Quaker answers.

Freedom not fear

While we were celebrating 350 years of Quakers in Uxbridge, the No2ID group was gathering in Parliament Square to protest about the over surveillance in our society. I thought Friends might be interested in a link to a report of that event, which involved Quakers from Godalming.

The activists at the event constructed a large picture of Gordon Brown from pictures sent in of surveillance cameras etc. Follow the story and see the picture here.

A mayoral visit

Yesterday, Saturday October 11, was the second of our open days in 2008. The meeting house was looking very clear and well ordered, as the nursery equipment etc had been moved out of the meeting house, and the exhibition of the history, and twelve panels from the Quaker tapestry were set up in the large meeting house.

There were displays from the hirers in the small meeting house, and a sale of books in aid of Amnesty International and Quakers.

About 30 visitors were in the room to see the Mayor tour the exhibits. Janet Cottrell, clerk of the meeting, made a speech welcoming the visitors, David Burnell then spoke about 350 years of Quakers in Uxbridge, and there were speeches from the mayor, and the representative from Hillingdon Carers too, who had received a donation from the Quakers.

Among the people who visited the open day were Beryl and Colin Bell, now of Walhamstow meeting.

After the formalities were over, tea and cake was made available and there was time for a chat. As David remarked, we were extremely lucky with the weather as both open days were bright and sunny.