June 2014 3 Eve Remembering Eve Masterman 4 News from Katie Stone South Sudan 9 Residential Weekend Photos 10 Reflections from Bryony from the UK 11 Silver Wattle Opportunities to learn & grow 12 Book review The People Smuggler The image adopted as the logo for Quakers in Australia represents the Aurora Australis, a natural phenomenon of the southern hemisphere, associated with Antarctica, a fragile and magnificent part of the planet. The Aurora Australis is considered an appropriate logo because of its association with: • pure light, the centrality of the Light for Quakers • beauty, a quality many associate with God or the Spirit within • nature, a permanent reminder of everyone’s responsi- bility to care for the world • the colour blue, used by the UN • the ephemeral and intangible, a reminder that lan- guage is inadequate to describe God, the truth or the Spirit within. Quaker Tasmanian Newsletter Tasmanian Quaker Newsletter Tasmania Regional Meeting The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia DEADLINE: Copy for the June TQN should be received by Ros Haynes ([email protected] or ros.haynes.Tas@gmail. com) by 26th June. To be added to the mailing list, send an email to Jenny Seaton: [email protected]Image: Eve Masterman at home during the week of her 100th birthday Photo by: Elizabeth Field
Transcript
June 2014
3 EveRemembering Eve Masterman
4 News from Katie Stone South Sudan
9 Residential WeekendPhotos
10Reflections from Bryonyfrom the UK
11Silver WattleOpportunities to learn & grow
12Book reviewThe People Smuggler
The image adopted as the logo for Quakers in Australia represents the Aurora Australis, a natural phenomenon of the southern hemisphere, associated with Antarctica, a fragile and magnificent part of the planet. The Aurora Australis is considered an appropriate logo because of its association with:
• pure light, the centrality of the Light for Quakers
• beauty, a quality many associate with God or the Spirit within • nature, a permanent reminder of everyone’s responsi-bility to care for the world • the colour blue, used by the UN • the ephemeral and intangible, a reminder that lan-guage is inadequate to describe God, the truth or the Spirit within.
QuakerTasmanian
Newsletter
Tasmanian Quaker Newsletter Tasmania Regional Meeting The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia
Meeting to celebrate the Grace of God in the life of Frances Parsons
2.30 pm, Saturday 5 July Hobart Meeting House
Meeting for Learning Retreat Sun 21 – Sat. 27 Sept. Santa Teresa Spirituality Centre, Brisbane
Calendar
Visit to Swansea Heritage CentreSwansea Heritage Centre welcomed 12 visiting Quakers and 6 locals to a Meeting for Worship on 10 May. Helen Chuter and Julie Walpole had arranged with the curator of the ‘Quakers on the East Coast’ display to further knowledge of current-day Friends by having a visit.
The Cotton family and Dr George Story settled at Kelvedon in the early 1800s and made their mark on the local area with their non-violent approach to Indigenous relationships. The Cotton Papers – Land of the Sleeping Gods compiled by Jane Cooper, is breaking new ground in our understanding of initial contact between settlers and their ‘hosts’.
Katherine Purnell A model of Dr Story in the exhibition
Launceston Worshipping Group change of times 10 am in Maggie’s Café on 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays.
Also contact phone numbers changed to 6343 4458 and 6334 41499 or 0402048147, with email of [email protected]
House sitting over ChristmasA large Searle-Purnell family reunion needs more space.
If you are leaving your home/pet/garden for the Christmas week and would like to lend us the key please email katepnl@hotmail .com
Notice from Fellowship of HealingAfter our regular Fellowship of Healing meeting on 8th June we will have a share lunch and then reconvene at 1pm for a session of Worship Sharing. All are welcome to join us. For further informa-tion please contact me on 0448 486 540.
Margaret Jacobs
Morning tea roster 8/6 Sally McGushin & Hilary Martin 15/6 Siobhan Harper & Elaine Stratford 22/6 Jo Petrov & Maggi Storr 29/6 Stephanie & Lyndsay Farrall 6/7 Janet Dyment & Claire Perrin 13/7 Robin Mc Lean & Kevin Sheldon20/7 Ruth Raward & Gill Fitzgerald27/7 Anne Galer & Julian Robertson3/8 Jen Newton & Christine Mister10/8 Rosemary Epps & Hilary Dawkins17/8 Mary Beadle & Robert Rands24/8 Ben & Nicole Atkinson31/8 Ros & Raymond HaynesIf you need to change, try and swap with someone else if at all pos-sible. If you are having problems finding a replacement contact me; Gill Fitzgerald ph. 62344752 or gillfitzgerald[a]bigpond.com Thank you.
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Liz Field remembers Eve Masterman
I fIrst heard of Eve Masterman when I was still at school in the 1960s, and my mother joined a women’s public speaking group. There were many of my mother’s generation there, including Dorothy Asten, who like Mum, was to join friends some years later; and when the inevitable ham sandwiches and, no doubt, sausage rolls appeared for lunch, Eve would produce her own vegetarian sandwiches, expressing the view that we are what we eat, and touching her toes to show her fitness. Back then there were very few vegetarians, and no doubt my meat eating mother considered that a little eccentric. Eve of course has outlived my mother and all those other carnivores of a similar age to herself.
But more recently, about twelve years ago, Elizabeth and I went on the Hastings Caves tour. We were the only people on that tour, and the guide was quite friendly and talkative. He told us that he had recently had an elderly woman tell him that when the Caves had been closed to the public in 1929, she and her father and possibly other family members had broken in, by removing the flimsy wooden barrier that had been put there, and explored. I hazarded a guess as to her identity, and of course, it was indeed our Eve! Who else could it have been, seventy odd years after the break-in and still walking in the bush? The guide invited her to join the group he was leading and asked her to retell the story to them, which of course she did.
In her eighties, she joined an Alliance francaise group tour to Paris. I understand that at first the organisers were worried that she might not be able to keep up with the group. I am told that the group actually had more difficulty keeping up with Eve.
My personal contacts with Eve, though not numerous, were always delightful. she was a generous friendly host in her cottage, and the irises growing in my garden in south Hobart were given to me by Eve.
Trees
Eve Masterman was very fond of the poem ‘Trees’ and often recited it in Meeting. Here it is to remind us of Eve’s ministry.
‘Trees’ (1913)By Joyce Kilmer I think that I shall never seeA poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prestAgainst the sweet earth’s flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day,And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in summer wearA nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain;Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me,But only God can make a tree.
A Meeting for Worship to celebrate the Grace of God in Eve’s life was held at the Hobart Meeting House on 31 May.
Eve Masterman
Frances ParsonsOUr frIEnD frances Parsons passed away on 5 June. she received thoughtful and gracious care from the staff at the royal Hobart Hospital. frances had been a member of tasmania regional Meeting for over 40 years and will be greatly missed.
A celebration of the Grace of God in her life will be held on Saturday 5 July at 2.30 pm in the Hobart Meeting House.
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Hobart Friends will remember that in March this year Katie Stone, one of our Young Friends, went to South Sudan as a nurse to help with the terrible medical crisis there, as wounded from the war swell the numbers of local people with severe medical problems. ‘Jill ’ is Dr Jill Seaman who, with Sjoukje de Wit, RN, has worked with the Nuer since 1989 and 1993 respec-tively. They helped establish TB treatment in the West Upper Nile region of Sudan under the auspices of the non-government organization (NGO) Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontiers, or MSF). MSF closed this program when security risks became overwhelming. The Nuer, however, could not escape. TB became one of their most lethal infectious diseases. They begged medical workers to return. Since no NGOs were willing to start treatment in such an unstable war zone, Ms. de Wit and Dr. Seaman with financial and moral support from their friends re-entered the area in July 2000.Here is the first of a two-part account of Katie’s time there.
DEAr frIEnDs and family,Here are the first updates from my trip to Old
fangak, south sudan.13/03/2014 I am writing this from the Catholic
Guest House in nairobi. I arrived the day before yesterday and met Elyze, the paramedic from Colorado who will be flying in with me. It will be her third time in Old fangak and my second.
Yesterday we went to Ol Donyo sabuk national Park to see the fourteen falls. Patrick, a Kenyan well-digger who has worked in Old fangak, arrived in the morning to meet us and we caught a couple buses and then a taxi to the falls. We ended up doing a crazy tour of the falls which began with taking off our shoes and inching along behind the guides who were going in front and using their feet to scrape the slime off rocks along the bottom of the river for us to step on. Once we passed through the deepest part, we jumped from rock to rock all the way across. Then there were views of the falls and we got a boat back across at the bottom.
today, we fly from nairobi to Loki, Kenya, and from there to Juba.. On to the village from there!
15/03/2014 Wow, only two days in the village and it already feels like I’ve been here for a week or more! Where to start?!?
Last time I was here (four years ago) there was a kala azar outbreak (visceral leishmaniasis, spread by parasitic sand fly; you die without treatment). I was mainly doing finger prick tests for KA and malaria, measuring weights and heights, and distributing food. now with the fighting, things are very different. The new in-patient department (14-bed ward) is full of wounded warriors. The old ward has some patients also, and then there are just so many people here who have been displaced because of the war. The ICrC team (red Cross) are with us at the moment doing field surgeries. Mostly opening up and debriding gunshot wounds, a couple amputations, that sort of thing. Everyone is on a hundred antibiotics, it seems!
Elyze and I spent yesterday and today doing big clean ups. It’s hard because there is so much dust and dirt everywhere that it is impossible to keep everything clean all of the time, so you have to settle for having some things clean some of the time. We began with the main hut where we store food, cook and eat. I found some vanilla custard powder that expired three years ago! Then the ward – cleaning out the drug trolley and cupboards and making sense of the drawers – it started as a jumble of everything in every drawer, feeding tubes next to pregnancy tests, on top of IV cannulas, next to antibiotics – now the oral meds are in one section and IV in another and everything is in categories and alphabetical! I think tomorrow the drug round will be much more efficient as we won’t have to spend 10 minutes in between each patient, just searching for meds.
There is a family on the ward at the moment who break my heart. The father was killed in the war recently, the mother gave birth to a premature baby
News from Katie Stone in South Sudan
Katie Stone with friend Dwol in South Sudan
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last week and died in the night before I arrived (I don’t know the whole story, but she was jaundiced and had a bad infection). They left a 10-year-old girl, and an eight-year-old boy to look after this prem baby boy (who I keep forgetting to weigh, but I can’t imagine he is more than 1.5kg). The eight-year-old boy came to clinic today complaining of a headache and tummy upset. too bad you can’t prescribe the thing that he needs most – a mother.
We have a lady who is suffering from chronic heart failure. she has left-sided oedema??? and for some reason, cannot walk for the past 10 days. It is so hard to figure out why! no one can tell us. she just stopped?! The beds in the new ward have a two hand cranks at the foot – one to raise the knees and one to raise the head. Yesterday we moved her there so we could sit her up and told her to wait until Jill could come and examine her – but she was moved back to a dark corner of the old ward before we could get to her. When we asked where she had gone, her neighbour told us that he had sent her out because this is the men’s ward and she was not welcome!!! Imagine! We said nooooo, this ward is for sick people, but you men with your injuries have come and filled it up. she is very sick and needs a bed where she can sit up so that it is easier for her to breathe and we can try to get her well enough to go home. Well, today we moved her back there, and again, she was bullied out of the ward and some of the other patients’ carers moved her out without telling us. It is so frustrating! What to do?
Our days here are so long! Wake up with the sun at 0700hrs, morning rounds begin around 0800, we try to have a lunch break some time before 1400, then afternoon clinic, then I don’t even know what happens, but before you know it, evening rounds and clinic start at 1900, and maybe you’ve had a chance to grab a bucket of water and have a quick wash – or maybe you haven’t – but when evening clinic finishes up around 2200 the water is cold and you will be too exhausted to do it.
now it is 2340 and the crickets, wild dogs, drums and people are singing – and sleep is calling. Goodnight from Old fangak.
16/03/2014 And so today is sunday! sunday is nice because we have morning and evening rounds and only evening clinic. After morning rounds, Elyze and I tackled the big tent, which was a mess of boxes and construction materials. When Jill left last month, the plane that picked her up left more supplies, but the local staff just dumped everything on top of the wood and sheet metal, and then the rats got into
some of the boxes, so it was a huge task to sort and stack and throw out what was chewed! some people were standing outside watching and we told them there were more than welcome to help stack the beams and shift the sheet metal, but they wanted money, and there is no money left. It seems a bit crazy that what we are doing is to benefit the people, and yet, they don’t want to help unless you pay them!
17/03/2014 What a day! Last night after clinic, we went to check on a man called fangak. He had sputum positive tuberculosis and has been very unwell, so the first few days I was here, I made some house calls to give him IV fluids and medications (he really should have been on a bed in the ward, but all the wounded soldiers have filled the beds making no room for the other sick people). In the evening Jill and I went to check his vital signs and he was in a bad way – he needed a blood transfusion, so we type-tested his brother and sister – the brother was a match but refused to donate. They said they would go and find another relative and come back, but of course they didn’t. It is hard for people to understand blood transfusions here, so no matter how much you explain, they think that you will take all their blood and they won’t have enough left and will die. But then! One of the ICrC nurses said she could donate, so Jill took a unit and we went to give it, but then the cannula that he had in stopped working and he was so shut down that we couldn’t get another one in, so we came back and got a hot washcloth to encourage his vein, and a paramedic (Elyze) to find it (along with intra-osseous gear in case we had to put it in his a tibia. Elyze got an IVC in and the blood was dripping in and we left his home at 2358hrs, not staying to take post transfusion vital signs, because even if he did have a reaction, there would not have been anything more we could do. In the morning, we knew that he was alive because the shovel was still
Dr Jill Seaman and patients, Old Fangak
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propped up against our hut. Jill went and saw him and he was okay, but not great. Then one of the local staff went to put a catheter in, then went again to hang another bag of fluids, but at that point, he had died. so sad.
In afternoon clinic today, a three-year-old boy named Gao was carried in by his mother. she said he was having seizures. His temperature was 39.9°C. I went to get a malaria test for him, but he started seizing. We took him into the maternity ward (four beds) where we were able to clear half a bed for him. Then he stopped breathing. Then his heart stopped. Then Jill began compressions. We bag/mask ventilated him (air only as there is no oxygen here). some minutes later, he started to breathe again. We don’t know if he will survive the night.
18/03/2014 He made it! He is responding today. not able to eat/drink though. We will put a nasogastric tube in tomorrow if he still can’t eat.
19/03/2014 This morning before rounds, Gao’s mother came into our compound and asked for milk to give him. We thought maybe she wanted to force feed him, which would be bad of course because he would probably aspirate again – but when we went to see him, he was sitting on her lap with his eyes open and talking to her! Amazing. He is still whimpering and not totally alert (probably still has a bit of cerebral oedema post arrest), but on the whole, much improved!
It has been a very busy day today. sunduk, our clinical officer (think nurse practitioner) was sick yesterday and today, which means that Jill has to do rounds and then see all the patients instead of just the complex cases. tonight, clinic didn’t start until 2130 because right as we were about to start rounds, two boats arrived from Phom with some wounded soldiers. not from fighting, but from being drunken fools and shooting each other accidentally. such a waste! so the ICrC surgical team had finished for the day, but then had to do a laparotomy to find the bullet in this guy’s abdomen. It’s now 2300 and they’re still in the operating room. But at least clinic is finished and we can eat dinner!
I haven’t been writing much about life in the village. The population has doubled in recent months as a result of the war. There are so many internally displaced people (IDPs). There is always a shortage of food here, but especially now with so many more people. What to do?
The temperature here hovers around 110°f/43°C during the day. You have to spit on the thermom-eters to get a more accurate reading, otherwise it says
everyone has a fever. It’s now 86°f/30°C, but it has been quite humid, so still feels really hot! I walked in to the in-patient ward last night and there was a man who had just returned from surgery for debridement of his wounds who had a high temperature – there were four people sitting on his bed waving bits of cardboard in an attempt to cool him down. The definition of a “fan club”, I think ...?
20/03/2014 ... so now I’m writing at 0130. I went to see how the laparotomy was going and ended up staying to help finish up and get the patient back to the ward. It’s funny being in the same line of work, but in a completely different environment.
It was a very long hot day inside the operating theatre today. They were finishing up all the closures (in field surgeries they open up wounds, debride them, dress them, wait several days, then do the closure) – but now we’ve just heard there was a lot of fighting in Malakal today and are expecting more wounded to come by boat tomorrow, so the team will be staying until saturday or maybe longer.
sleep now. PeaceThe people of south sudan are survivors. They
have so little, but their hearts and smiles are so big. They love to dance and they love to sing. They love their families and their country. They have endured so much for so long, and what they really want is peace. The people of south sudan are praying for peace.
I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Jill again. she is a truly remarkable woman.
Thank you for reading! If you’re interested in learning more about the project, feel free to email me ([email protected]), or you can check out the website. I think it is being updated as I write this. It is http://www.sudanmedicalrelief.org
Dr Jill Seaman, TB Clinic, Old Fangak
[More from Katie next issue – Ed.]
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Articles
Report from Amnesty International in Tasmania.
As tasmania rM Amnesty representative, I attended the Branch Annual General Meeting in Hobart on 10th May and as quite a few friends support Amnesty, I thought you might enjoy some of the highlights.
national Director, Claire Malinson, was there and told us about the growth of Amnesty in Australia with over 55,000 individuals now giving regularly, while in tasmania there are now over 20 groups including Mums and bubs meeting in the daytime and a new Eastern shore group as well as the schools network and Utas group.
Claire also mentioned that Australia was now the fourth biggest funding contributor to the Amnesty international headquarters in London and about to overtake the UsA. Other highlights she mentioned include the passing of the Global Arms trade treaty, the campaign on Afghan Women’s rights, Individuals at risk, and a lot of local actions. On the other hand, there has been little progress on the issue of asylum seekers coming to Australia though she had met the Minister and the local Amnesty group in his sydney electorate has also been lobbying him.
Local actions in tasmania have included promoting robin de Crespigny’s book, ‘The People smuggler’ ; a schools network action calling for Un intervention in the Central African republic; and the honk-a-thons in Macquarie street during the rush hour, calling for support for human rights for asylum seekers.
One of our Launceston members also reported on Amnesty’s fundraising group climb of Mount Kilimanjaro last year which she took part in.Peter D Jones
Beyond Nuclear War and Radioactive Peace
The ‘Beyond nuclear War and radioactive Peace’ radio series produced by Adrian Glamorgan and Elizabeth PO’ (WArM) is one of four finalists for the 2014 United nations Association of Australia’s Environment Media Prize. The UnAA Awards will be announced on World Environment Day, 5 June.
Elizabeth and Adrian continue to create the weekly environmental radio program ‘Understorey’ within which they formed and aired the 11-part series about issues arising from the use of Australian uranium at fukushima. The programs may be
streamed from the web on: http://rtfm.com.au or borrowed from our rM library.Understorey
Listen online to the eleven-part special series: ‘Beyond nuclear war and radioactive peace’, attending to the issues surrounding Australian uranium at fukushima (and now extending all over the planet).Annual financial Cycle for tasmanian Quakers
Annual Financial Cycle for Tasmanian Quakers
The time of the year has arrived again when Quaker Committees for tasmania regional Meeting need to give me, as treasurer, an estimated budget for the next 12 months for their area of responsibility. I need your estimate by the end of June please.
These estimates become the starting point for the finance Committee discussions on the Budget for 2014–15.
If your area of responsibility does not need funds can you please inform me of this so that the budgeting process can be an orderly one.
The budget will be drawn up by the finance Committee in July and presented to Meeting for Business in August ready for the start of the new financial year on the 1/9/14.
In friendshipRaymond Haynes
Changes to the Hobart Meeting House Library
There is a proposal from a working party of Premises Committee people plus other interested people to update our library space.
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We are looking to maximise storage by:1. Extending existing bookshelves and possibly
adding cupboard space;2. Digitising the catalogue;3. Adding a computer station in the library;4. Optimising the library space to provide
a comfortable sitting area for reading and discussion;Other suggestions and ideas are most welcome.Lisa file will facilitate a meeting in the Boa
Vista room after Meeting for Worship on 8 June to discuss these and other possible changes.
Please come along and tell us what you want from the library so we can make the library a space to accommodate everyone’s needs.
Changes under way at Launceston Meeting
Launceston Quakers are changing the time and date of their meetings BUt will still be worshipping in Maggie’s Café in the Pilgrim Uniting Church complex in Paterson st.
from June we will meet on 2nd, 4th and 5th sundays at 10 am.
On fifth sundays – beginning on June 29th we will also have a shared meal after meeting. We are inviting friends from other places to share with us – not just those from northern tasmania. We plan to include visitors in our catering – given notice. several of us are also able to offer accommodation if visitors want to make a weekend of it. for further information email [email protected]
All friends, not only those in the north of tasmania, are invited to join us for these occasions. This will also be held in Maggie’s. Incidentally Maggie’s is next door to the sunday school where Quaker J.J. neave spoke to the people of Launceston in May 1897 about his 1892-93 journeys to and in russia to support the minority religious sect, the stundists, from religious persecution.The Inspiration of this we can say
On June 29th , after Meeting and morning tea, Katherine Purnell will share her love for our book of Australian Quaker writings this we can say. Katherine was one of the group who developed and produced this volume for publication in 2003. We will hear about the inspiration and the process as well as sharing some favourite readings before a shared lunch.
On a personal note, we have just read susan Duncan’s Salvation Creek for book group. This is the book about Dorothea Mackellar’s house on Lovett
Bay. As background I borrowed her coffee table book Life on Pittwater. This ties in very well with the original book and has a photo of frog Hollow showing Deb Thompson’s house where we had those lovely women’s group sessions and walks to Dorothea’s lookout. Julie Walpole
Visit of Jenny Turton
This month trM will be welcoming Jenny turton, the resource person who has so energetically taken up the position created by the Yearly Meeting Children and JYfs Committee. she will be in Hobart from Wednesday 11 to sunday 15 June. We are fortunate to have this length of time with her and she is keen to get to know individuals and families while she is here, so please be in touch with stephanie farrall or Pamela Leach if you would like to host her for a meal or a cuppa.
Jenny will spend her first couple of days learning about the friends’ school in the company of nelson file, Maddy Walker, and a few hundred others. she will be sitting in on Gatherings, and looks forward to exploring the school library, as well as that of the Meeting. Lunch on friday 13th June will find Jenny with the Care Committee, and that evening she will share pizza and exchange hopes and ideas with the JYfs. On saturday she will be working with ros Haynes to update the much beloved volume Adventures in the Spirit, that ros and Lyn Dundas first published in 2000. On sunday Jenny will divide her time between the Children’s and JYfs’ programs and then, following morning tea, there will be a shared meal of finger food to which the whole Meeting is invited. Over lunch we will discuss realities and dreams for bringing our young people into the centre of the Meeting, and we will hear from Jenny about her adventures thus far in visiting friends and the exciting resources and possibilities that are emerging among friends around the Yearly Meeting. no doubt we will find much inspiration in this exchange. Children and JYfs will be welcome to stay for that meal and to contribute as they see fit.
Library Matters – from Launceston
We have just subscribed to Pendle Hill Pamphlets for the next two years. We also bought 16 recent pamphlets and the Index of Pendle Hill Pamphlets 1934–2012. We are marking in this index all of the pamphlets that Launceston holds and hope to also add gradually the holdings of Devonport and Hobart Meetings’ Libraries so that Launceston friends
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can see which Pendle Hill Pamphlets they may be able to borrow and also can choose what (if any) other pamphlets to buy. We will be happy for other tasmanian friends to borrow from our collection too.
Our library collection is now being catalogued on The Library Thing. This is a free web-based system which is being used by several Australian Quaker Meetings. The joy of this is that when you are logged in on Library Thing you can see other Meetings’ catalogues – and copy entries. I’ve also started a catalogue of our personal Quaker collection so that friends can check out what I might be willing to lend them. Once you have joined you can then view the public section of other catalogues. This can be helpful in looking for books you might buy! Library Thing is not a formal library system, very much a case of keeping track of your own personal or small collection. People have used ‘tags’ (informal subject headings) on their books like “beach house” or “bedroom bookcase”, as well as the more usual “spir-ituality” or “Pendle Hill Pamphlets”. Library Thing DOEs nOt HAVE a circulation module BUt there’s nothing to stop you adding comments and tags in your own personal library like “loaned to suzy 4/2014” so that you can keep track of such things.
I’d encourage friends to at least look at the website and explore its possibilities for themselves. Just go to www.librarything.com
Residential Weekend at Far South 25–27 April.
Approximately 20 adults, 8 JYfs and two children shared in AVP Processes looking at Discernment in our Daily Lives, along with walks, sailing, games and much time for developing friendships.
for the first time expenses of holding the residential Weekend were entirely covered by the participants and generous donations from three friends.
All photos from Residential Weekend
I WAntED to write to you to let you know some thoughts that I had in meeting on the last sunday we were in Hobart.
I am growing increasingly fond of a way of thinking about friendships and loss which is to do with walking and travelling together. I feel the whole “life is a journey, not a destination” thing has been overdone, but I wouldn’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. I was inspired by a poem by Michael rosen in a collection called “carrying the elephant” which he wrote after his eighteen-year-old son died of meningitis. It has powerful imagery which I have appropriated and use for my rela-tionships and not just for grief.
I see myself walking in a landscape and those in my life walk with me. some are with me a short time, and others I have known since they were born and hope to stay with them until I die. some join in every now and then, and we pick up where we left off when last we parted. sometimes I look across and walk hand in hand with a special one, and sometimes a small hand fits into mine, always a little surprising if I am not expecting it. There are children walking along – in my vision often skipping ahead in front, maybe with a dog or two (although I am not by nature an animal lover). sometimes the going is tough, like the almost vertical sections of Cradle Mountain, where I need a chain to pull me up and courage to push me on. sometimes the ground is very easy and a passing wheelchair/zimmer owner whizzes past, waving as they go. The landscape is often ill-defined but there are moments of stunning beauty and wonder. some times there is laughter but often we are just moving together in companionable silence. sometimes it rains and the water drips up my sleeves, and maybe we are not sure of our direction, but usually the sun shines through, warms our
back, and the chocolate button fairy has raced ahead and drawn the directional arrow just in time.
I found in meeting last week that my brain was taking this idea and running with it. I am a big fan of the Lewis and Clark story and the unbounded optimism with which they approached their adventure to seek out the source of the Mississippi and the fabled north-west passage. My favourite part is where they practically raced up the first of the rocky Mountains from its base, fully expecting to see plains in front of them, if not the Pacific itself. I wonder: Who in the group first realised that, instead of endless meadows to the sea, all that was in front of them was more rocky Mountains? Was it a dawning realisation for all? When did they begin to slow down the pace and go – “ah ... this may need a change of plan lads”? I do often wonder in my life, “am I having a Lewis and Clark moment?” Will this section of the journey be somewhat different to my expectations? And is that necessarily a bad thing?
I have been reflecting on my childhood experiences of holidays in the Lake District, where nottingham Meeting used to spend a week each year. There were all ages present, and a variety of walks each day depending on ability and desire. I suppose I easily fit in the members of Hobart meeting into my own personal journey as I have strong early memories of walking with friends. People came up to us on our last day in Meeting, upset that we were leaving just as they had got to know us. I too feel a loss, especially as Meeting (both the sunday experience and the people within it) has been such an important part of our time in tasmania, but rather than being sad that I am leaving, I feel pleased that we shared such a great part of my travels in life together.
With much love,Bryony
Reflections from Bryony
Bryony Kendall, her husband Paul Hobbs, and their two boys Simon and Peter, spent six months in Hobart, while Bryony was a locum at a practice in Cambridge (Tasmania). During that time the whole family really entered into the life of our Meeting. It is special to have these reflections from Bryony, sent a week after they left on their return journey to the UK.
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Silver Wattle is a Quaker Centre located in a beautiful rural setting near Canberra. It was a sheep farm and homestead and has been adapted to a study centre offering courses, retreats, workshops and conferences.
I had the pleasure of visiting Silver Wattle during Yearly Meeting 2013 and was very impressed with the facilities, the friendliness and commitment of those living there and the peace and tranquillity of the surroundings.
Silver Wattle is run by a dedicated Board and resident co-directors, Trish and David Johnson. They have offered a system of meeting passes which entitle a Regional Meeting to register 2 – 3 participants from their meeting for courses or workshops.
Tasmania Regional Meeting has agreed to support this innovative offer and we are seeking 2 – 3 interested Members or Attenders who would like to attend one of the up-coming courses over the latter part of this year.
The pass covers the registration and accommodation costs and although travel costs are not included – don’t let that stop you considering a course as there may be means to assist you if needed.
There are 7 courses remaining this year:
• Writing Your Life: 31/8 – 6/9/14• Compassionate Communication: 12 – 14/9/14• Early Quaker Writings ‘In the Life’: 14 – 20/9/14• Inward Bound – Buddhist/Quaker Wisdom for Young
People: 5 – 11/10/14• Friends Fellowship of Healing: 17 – 21/10/14 and • Courage to Care: 13 – 16/11/14
I would urge you all to consider this generous opportunity to explore a topic in depth in a supportive, interactive and spiritual environment. Go onto the Silver Wattle website to explore more about the offerings (www.silverwattle.org.au).
If you have are interested in taking up a meeting pass, please contact either myself or Katherine Purnell as soon as possible.
The People Smuggler by Robin de CrespignyIf you thought that people smugglers were just in it for the money you should read this book.
In a quote from the book: “It is unclear why Australians are so strongly unconcerned about asylum seekers arriving by airplane; maybe because there’re no pictures in the paper or on tV. But they are so afraid of the two percent who come by boat that they lock them up like criminals”.
It tells of Ali Al Jenabi, a refugee from saddam Hussein’s brutal regime in Iraq. robin de Crespigny, author and filmmaker, was moved to tell Ali and his family’s story. she considered making a film, but that would have taken too long. she decided to write a book but this still took two years. robin chose to write the book in the first person as if Ali was telling his own story. she spent a lot of time gathering the facts from him especially as there was the added problem of translation, but this is a beautifully written and very moving book.
Ali is still waiting for a visa in Australia.Note: I was privileged to attend a lecture given by the author at St James’ College, Cygnet, in April. The book is in
the Friends’ meeting house library or I have a spare copy.Ruth Raward
Book review
MfWfB Notes for Regional Meeting for Worship for Business 1 June 2014
WE HEArD a reading from Eve Masterman’s copy of No more but my love. Letters of George Fox, Quaker, edited by C.W. shannon, 1980, p.69. Eve had earmarked the following passage as a favourite:
Friends,Dwell in patience and in peace and love and unity
one with another. And be subject in the power and life and wisdom of God, to God and in one another, that in it ye may be as a pleasant field to the Lord God, and as the lilies and the flowers and the buds feeling the pleasant showers, and the streams of life from the living God, whereby the presence and blessing of the Lord God Almighty amongst you all may be felt. G.f. 1659
Clarifying the use of the “Art Wall” in the Boa Vista room, we heard that it was established to serve many purposes such as community sharing, sharing
of artists’ works, Quaker testimonies, children’s work etc. Items will not be advertised for sale but the artist’s spiritual journey and contact information may be shared.
There was discussion about the benches in the Meeting House. The suggestion has been made that the Meeting House would be more flexible in its uses and the seating more comfortable if chairs replaced the benches. On the other hand many see the benches as a heritage item and regard the current mix of chairs and benches as offering a wide choice, especially if the benches had new cushions on them. This issue will be discussed at a future meeting, and meanwhile two bench cushions will be made to assess the comfort of them.
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TASMANIA REGIONAL MEETINGPO Box 388 North Hobart TAS 7002HobartFriends’ Meeting House, 5 Boa Vista Rd, North Hobart Meeting for Worship every Sunday 1000 Children’s Meeting every Sunday 1000 Junior Young Friends 1st and 3rd Sundays 1000 Junior Young Friends 2nd and 4th Sundays (MfW or children’s meeting) JYF contact: pamela.leach[a]hotmail.com Saturday fortnightly – 3 pm at the homes of Friends. Contact: Felicity Rose 6225 0773 for venueHobart Meeting House, Thursday mornings in school term 7.45 – 8.20 am
WORSHIPPING GROUPSDevonportDevonport Community House, 10 Morris
Ave, Devonport, Sunday 4pm, followed by tea. Contact: Sally O’Wheel, 6428 3019.HuonAt Vickie and Victoria’s home, 3452 Huon Highway, Franklin, 3rd Sunday 1030. Contact Ann: 6266 6439.KingboroughAt the homes of Friends Feb. to Nov., 4th Sunday 1030. Contact: Peter Wilde, 03 6229 5017, wildepetbar[a]bigpond.comLauncestonMaggie’s Place, 34 Paterson St, 2nd, 4th and 5th Sundays, 10.00 am. Contact Julie Walpole, 0402 048 147 or Launceston[a]quakers.org.auOrfordOccasional Meetings throughout the year, 1100, shared lunch. Contact Kerstin Reimers:
6224 6585. ScottsdaleDorset Community House, 3 Cameron Street Scottsdale, 2nd and 4th Sundays, 1000. Contact Gretchen Stone, 6352 3560, if you plan to attend.
REGIONAL MEETING1st Sunday of the month at 1130, Friends’ Meeting House, Hobart.
OTHER FRIENDS GATHERINGSFriends’ Fellowship Of Healing 2nd Sunday, 1130, Hobart Friends’ Meeting House. Contact: Margaret Jacobs: 6267 4032. Peace and Justice Committee 3rd Sunday, 1130, Hobart Friends’ Meeting House. Contact: Jennie Herrera: 03 6228 2727.
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