1112 December 2011

Judith Pembleton, Editor I am delighted that this issue’s Know One Another features Stephen Hodgkin, whose careful, faithful work supports so many of the endeavours of Quakers In Australia including the distribution of The Australian Friend. I have been reliably informed that there is no such position as an Australia Yearly Meeting membership secretary, as [...]

Ivan Himmelhoch, Victoria Regional Meeting It is always profoundly humbling to visit a person in a hospice at the end stage of their life’s journey. Such encounters have also made me reflect very deeply as to why that shrivelled, yellow-skinned human being before me, who has led a life of deep quiet service to so [...]

Brian Harlech-Jones, Canberra Regional Meeting  In mid-July 2011, Marie and I arrived in Billiluna to take over as the new managers of Mindibungu Aboriginal Corporation. ‘Billiluna? Where is that?’ ask most people. It’s in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, about 170 kms by road south-east of Halls Creek on the Tanami Road. Billiluna is [...]

Stephen Hodgkin, Canberra Regional Meeting What are you looking for, Stephen?’ Well, quite a few things make me happy – being with Kay [de Vogel, Stephen’s partner]; helping Australian Quakers and the Australian Capital Territory Greens with their databases and feeling part of those communities; living a quiet life in Canberra and at Tuross Head [...]

  Topsy Evans, South Australia Regional Meeting One day in early 2011, a gentleman came to the Quaker Shop to give us a large suitcase of clothes. He explained that his wife had died over six years ago and it had taken him until then to start to sort out her belongings. He had heard [...]

David Purnell, Canberra Regional Meeting It is 25 years since I first trained as a mediator. Over that time I have done lots more training, and mediated in many hundreds of disputes — involving neighbours, work colleagues, couples, family members, business people, government and community agencies. I have run meetings as a neutral facilitator. I [...]

Judith Pembleton, Queensland Regional Meeting   Many Australian Friends are involved with the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), and many more have heard the name, but may wonder how AVP is linked with Australian Quakers. The Australian website describes AVP as a program of experiential workshops, helping people build more fulfilling and non-violent lives. The [...]

  Sue Doessel, Queensland Regional Meeting The early Quakers found that that it was possible to have direct experience of God, and to use that to guide their lives. I would see this as the primary message of Quakerism. It is possible to live as the early Quakers sought to live, seeking deep communion with [...]

  Glennda Susan Marsh-Letts and Barbara Lumley, New South Wales Regional Meeting   In 2010 the Upper Blue Mountains Worshiping Group began a study program concentrating on ‘The Essential Elements of Quaker Holiness’. The study program was inspired by Carole Dale Spencer’s book Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism; An Historical Analysis of the Theology of [...]

  Shalome Knoll Shalome Knoll writes of her mother, Susan Nelson’s wedding to Gerard Fahey. Susan and Gerry were married under the care of Victoria Regional Meeting. We are seated in a series of concentric circles, like the rings that eddy out from a stone dropped in water, ripples, circular amassing. At the centre is [...]

Susan Clarke, Queensland Regional Meeting I was led to Silver Wattle by so many things. I wanted to go on a retreat to explore in writing my future, my past, my spirituality, I wanted to explore the adult almost fully emerged from a chrysalis in which she’d been hiding, trying to resolve the wounds of [...]

Jackie Perkins, Quaker Service Australia   I have just returned from a monitoring visit to Cambodia where the widespread flooding in that country has caused major problems for the people, especially those living in remote, rural locations. There has been very little media coverage of the situation affecting Cambodia, though more about the floods in [...]

  Brett Trenery, New South Wales regional Meeting   Quakers have special meetings to celebrate import milestones in life. We have memorial and funeral meetings to remember the life of deceased Friends and meetings to celebrate the marriages and commitment ceremonies of Friends. Both important life events are important to note and celebrate. What we [...]

Peter Jones, Tasmania Regional Meeting   Our historic Peace Testimony has traditionally been focused on opposition to war as a means of conflict resolution but in recent years it has been fairly muted as the nature of warfare has changed, and Australian Defence Force (ADF) troops have either been engaged in peacekeeping operations or fighting [...]

Gina Price, West Australia Regional Meeting Registrations are flowing in for Yearly Meeting 2012 to be held overlooking Derbal Yarragan (the Swan River Estuary) in Perth, from January 7 to 14th, 2012. Interest is also growing in the additional Fine Arts Day, which we anticipate will go ahead on January 6th. Members of the Western [...]

  Ian Hughes, John Michaelis, Wies Schuiringa, New South Wales Regional Meeting The development group has worked steadily to lay the groundwork for our Australian Friend to become an online journal. The full proposal for the online journal will be presented at Yearly Meeting in Perth, and there will be a preparatory session. The content [...]

Roger Sawkins, Queensland Regional Meeting   Changing the prison system by Tony Taylor (2011, The Religious Society of, Friends Quakers (Te Haahi Tuuhauwiri) in Aotearoa New Zealand 2011) paperback, 60 pages   This lecture was timely; in the previous week the New Zealand Government’s Finance Minister had described prisons as being a ‘moral and fiscal [...]

Sue Wilson, Queensland Regional Meeting   Clouds clearing, track dry, yet I hear pit-pat drops – trees are still raining.   Earth firm, foot sure, soul slow and smiling as I walk in meditation.   Ants nest in gum tree. Is it turning its head? Oh, koala ears!

By David Evans, South Australia Regional Meeting   One of the most exciting things Is to discover something yourself. Pot of Gold. Hidden Treasure. New idea. Living treasure. Someone special, long forgotten, Came across my path today. Makes me wonder. Could be trouble in the making. What shall I do? Keep it to myself? That [...]

 Margaret Clarke, Canberra Regional Meeting In her book, Practicing Peace a devotional walk through the Quaker tradition, Catherine Whitmire quotes Rufus Jones: Something of God comes into our world with every child that is born. There is here with the newborn child a divine spark, a light within… Catherine’s own thinking takes this notion forward [...]

 Wilma Davidson, Canberra Regional Meeting   This collection took a long time to mature. The seed was the idea of South African Friend and member of Cape Eastern RM, Les Mitchell. He sent requests/invitations through Friends newsletters and journals worldwide, and with his partner Pauline edited and produced this first collection (that I am aware [...]