Letter to press in Quaker Week
We wrote this letter to the press but unfortuately only a very cut down version was printed by the Bury Free Press:
This year, Quaker Week runs from 2 – 11 October. During this time of pandemic, Bury Quakers are obviously unable to offer events to our community as we would wish. But we are still here and we still reach out to you all in love and upholding.
We are maintaining our own community cohesion by using Zoom for shared worship, shared interest groups and for mutual care and support. Our Meetings for Worship take place every Sunday and Wednesday via Zoom and physically in the Meeting House on Tuesdays. At present, our Sunday Meetings combine Zoom worship with a physically present gathering in the Meeting House on a fortnightly basis. If you would like to be part of any of these Meetings, or would like more information, please contact our Warden, on 07746 695589, or email bsequakers@gmail.com
Providing a a venue for community groups, including the opportunities this opens for working with other faiths, is an important part of our ethos and we are now gradually inviting user groups to return to the Meeting House, subject to the stringent and mutually agreed Covid security measures which protect us all.
On the wider stage, Quakers in Britain remain engaged with our national life in accordance with our Testimonies to peace, equality, simplicity and truth and to our commitment to the environment which is inseparable from them. We have set out our priorities in a submission to the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review in six areas: climate change, criminal justice, defence, education, immigration and charities. More information about this and other issues can be found at https://www.quaker.org.uk/.
The pandemic challenges us all to act with care and consideration for others, so we would like to share with you these words from a 17th century Quaker, Isaac Pennington: “Our life is love and peace and tenderness, and bearing with one another, and forgiving one another and not laying accusations one against another, but praying for one another and helping one another up with a tender hand.”
From
Bury St Edmunds Quakers