Eye - 05 April 2013
From the public eye to bliss
The public Eye
Eye’s mailbags have been brimming with anecdotes of Friends off the page and in the world.
- A ‘peacenik’ player
I’m a Quaker and a ‘peacenik’ is the title of a recent Channel 4 interview in which Judi Dench talked to Jon Snow about her beliefs, ageing and her upcoming role in Peter and Alice.
When asked about her faith, Judi spoke about the part Quakerism plays in her life. She said: ‘I think it informs everything I do, but I don’t… [Jon Snow: “flaunt it?”] No. But I couldn’t be without it.’
Although she says she hasn’t been to Meeting for a long time, she added: ‘The wonderful thing about the Quakers is they know that you’ll do it… when you’re not sleeping in on a Sunday!’
Judi will be appearing at the Noel Coward Theatre in Peter and Alice, a play by John Logan. According to the play’s website: ‘When Alice Liddell Hargreaves met Peter Llewelyn Davies at the opening of a Lewis Carroll exhibition in 1932, the original Alice in Wonderland came face to face with the original Peter Pan. In [this play]… this brief encounter lays bare the lives of these two extraordinary characters.’
To see the interview in full, visit: http://bit.ly/JDPeacenik
- Popping up
Seija Tattersall, of Leiston Meeting, recalls: ‘I was at a Thanksgiving Service at the local Anglican church for a Friend (Ian Tait) who was well known in the community… A man behind me said to another: “I heard that Ian was a Quaker.” The other one replied: “I know, they [the Quakers] pop up here and there, you never know where.”’
- Rambling
Anna Seifert, of Godalming Meeting, did some unintended market research whilst walking with her local Ramblers group: ‘A few of us spoke about different faith groups. “And what are you?” I was asked. “I am a Quaker,” I said. A rambler’s spontaneous comment: “Quakers listen”.’
- Skeletal surprises
As Samia Iredale flicked through Woman magazine (11 February) she discovered the story of Catherine McGuigan and some very old Hertfordshire Friends.
Catherine had decided to build a basement for her cottage. One morning she was confronted by half a dozen wide-eyed builders who told her: ‘We’ve found a body’.
One body turned into thirty-two and tests showed them to be over 150 years old. It turned out that the bodies belonged to Quakers who had settled on the site between 1640 and 1745.
‘Not a recognised religion then,’ the magazine stated, ‘the only place they’d been allowed to bury their dead was beneath their homes.’
Thankfully, local Friends offered to lay the bodies to rest in their graveyard.
The key to longevity?
Have Friends found the fountain of youth?
Wendy Fenton from Perth, Western Australia, has been prompted to consider intriguing trends amongst Friends:
‘I can’t help noticing in the death notices in the Friend how many Quakers live well into their nineties.
‘This is true in Australia as well.
‘I wonder if medical researchers are aware of this tendency?
‘It also occurs to me (rather irreverently) that it could be a useful piece of information for outreach!’
Bliss
A member of Ipswich and Diss
Finds living in Woodbridge is bliss!
An elderly female,
She doesn’t use email
And gives Business Meetings the miss!
Anthea Webb
