I’ve been a Quaker since about 1971, the same year as I ‘went up’ to the Open University which started that year. My O.U. degree is best summarised as ‘Socio-technical Systems’.
I also start T.M. (Transcendental Meditation) about the same time. Meditation helped me greatly with all my pressures, the above, plus a demanding job as a programmer, plus an active family life.
Next to work and family, Quakerism has been my main interest and I have been very active in it, serving on committees etc. at all levels from local and Special Interest Groups through to FWCC (Friends World Committee for Consultation).
In recent years I have been unhappy as a Quaker due to the large number of Friends who it seems deny the very basis or essential of Quakerism – divine guidance (QF&P Ch 11). Or of Advice 1, which exhorts us to trust that good things are the leadings of God. I have written frequently about this in The Friend and my Area Meeting Newsletter. But my “banging on about God” made me so unpopular with my local meeting I had to leave them, and eventually joined another L.M. – Bristol Central, where I am about to be appointed as Clerk. (I’ve been told I am not suitable as an Elder in my AM – despite having served as such frequently in previous Area/Monthly Meetings.)
However the AM has appointed me as the Correspondent to the QCCIR (Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations). I hope to follow my predecessor’s example, expanding the role to include much local liaison especially with the Interfaith movement.
My Credo Blog 