Deb Arrowsmith

Good old John Keble I say. He says “New every morning is the love our wakening and uprising prove … ” Now given the depressing state of the nation, the world etc., etc., you may find it hard to be grateful just to find you can open your eyes and move – and so, miraculously, another day of possibilities is yours for the taking? You may feel worn down by it all (whatever it is). You may not feel sustained by anyone’s love. But then you are still alive – or I hope you are.

September means a fresh start for many, not least our Meeting and the two new apprentices on the Kickstart programme, Lorren Scrivener and Jarrel Dalton, who we will be welcoming to work alongside us for 6 months. I know members of the Meeting will want to welcome them and give them their support. You’ll see them around. Welcome them, because they will be welcoming on your behalf too! It’s hoped the experience they gain with us covering the variety of tasks it takes to run a small community centre should stand them in good stead as they make their way forward. Open Doors on 11 & 12 September is our big outreach weekend. Lorren and Jarrel will be helping, and we also need your help to show what we are about. PLEASE – yes, I am shouting now – we need you to help!

Our premises at 43 St Giles will be fully opened up again to groups and individuals old and new, and we (thankfully) can get back to playing an active role alongside other charities in trying to make a difference. A fresh start. Unleashing our staff to think and work differently (begun a year ago!) enabled some fresh thinking for the meeting that led to us offering an opportunity to Jarrel and Lorren. The Snapshot Survey of Local meetings, commissioned by our Trustees, offered up some fresh ideas too about becoming more “visible, viable and visionary” as a Quaker community across the Area. Oxford Meeting have certainly shown a willingness to explore these ideas further through working with other Local Meetings and our Area Meeting. All this may come together at the spiritual nurture session on 18 September at Abingdon. Can you be there? We need your input.

I don’t want us to be done with change just yet. Bring it on I mean, and possibly John Keble meant too. Responding to that of God in everyone and everything, however hard to see, should be our game. Across the years that means being imaginative, creative, questioning, but also decisive – prepared to make decisions and stand by them. It might mean turning the other cheek, turning a blind eye or opening our eyes to ordinary miracles, to being mistaken. It’s demanding, often frustrating, painful. Did you think the Quaker way was going to be easy, peaceful, and quiet? Sorry mate – you may be on the wrong path.

I’ve recently realised fully what being a good friend means. Sometimes it’s hard but necessary to stand alongside someone in need whose life could be all the better for our efforts. In fact, whose life could simply be. Time maybe short but it can still be well-spent. Not so much “What canst thou say”, as the phrase is, but “what canst thou do?” Oh, and by the way can you just get on and do it – like now?

So let’s try something cheerful – a ‘Kindness Café’ once a month – why not? Giving away our premises and gardens for a day to a charity like Archway or Refugee Resource so staff and clients can find new friends, a safe place to enjoy and relax, be imaginative and creative with us. We can build new partnerships. Can we make some changes to make our lives simpler, happier, more connected? What else? You must have an idea? Can we have a party? Can we do Film Night again with popcorn? Can we?…

If we are spirit led there will be a spark that sets us off. Can we fan the spark into a flame and then watch the warmth, energy, and light of that flame transform us and others too? The flowery Victorian language of John Keble may be out of fashion, but the sentiment is still valid. He goes on to say:

“If, on our daily course, our mind
be set to hallow all we find,
new treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
as more of heaven in each we see…”

But let’s do it here and now – in case this is all the heaven we have.

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Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 509 • September 2021
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW

newsletter@oxfordquakers.org