Open

[poliphilo]

 We ride down to the Meeting House separately. Ailz goes in the motoriozed wheelchair carrying as much as she reasonably can and I walk  to the main road and catch the bus with my back-pack full of kitchenalia. In the  past she has prepared food at home and has only had to warm it up in the Meeting House kitchen, but today (by which I mean yesterday) she is going to prepare everything on site.

Lunch is the only thing about these Thursdays that is fixed. Otherwise people drop in and out and have conversations and do little jobs. One of the things I've taken on myself is watering the flowerbeds in the courtyard. Another thing is clearing the gunk from the courtyard drains.  It's been said we should be doing more, like watching vids or listening to podcasts. One of our members is very keen on "learning"- which is good. Perhaps he'll organise something. I've nothing to teach and it's a long time since I wanted to sit in a classroom but the Meeting House has several rooms and can be further subdivided with sliding partitions and there's no reason why several different groups shouldn't function simultaneously.

All I really care about is that the building should be open. And of use. And of service. I'd like it to be open every day...

I was last out. I was bringing in the A frame that stands  at the main door with the notice saying Eastbourne Quaker Meeting House is OPEN when a woman came running up, acting desperate, and asked if she could use our toilet. "Sure," I said- and went and sat in a comfortable chair until she was done. This also is "Ministry".

Comments

[cmcmck]

As is letting someone get an hour's sleep at the back during Meeting then giving them a cup of tea and a bite to eat.

[poliphilo]

Surely so...

[heleninwales]

This is the advantage of having a meeting house, though of course you also have the responsibility for its upkeep. As my local meeting rents a room in a local village hall for the once a month face-to-face meeting, we can't do anything like this, but your account does make me wish we could, even if only occasionally.

[poliphilo]

The Meeting House is a real asset- and is used by groups other than the Quakers.

A year ago- after Covid, when attendance was down to single figures- there was talk of getting rid of the building. I'm very glad this tendency was resisted.

[heleninwales]

There hasn't been a proper Meeting House here since the 1880s. When the local meeting was restarted nearly 60 years ago, we met in someone's house. For various reasons I felt that this was not entirely satisfactory and encourage the meeting to move to the village hall, which we did a few years before the pandemic.

Mid Wales Area Meeting only has two meeting houses and only one of those is historic. The other used to belong to the Methodist church in the 1970s when I was a student in Aberystwyth. I don't know when the Quakers took it over.

[poliphilo]

Our Meeting House dates from the late 1930s. I don't know where Quakers met before that. There are a number of historic Meeting Houses in the area. I've seen the one at Herstmonceux- which is a pretty little cottage- 17th or 18th century- with add-ons.

[bleodswean]

When I was a young mother and a La Leche League leader, we were turned away from every imaginable place we inquired about holding our monthly meetings. Until someone thought of The Meeting House. They were happy to have us and even offered a weekly time for a playgroup. I will never forget their open and accepting hearts and the sense of "service" they exuded to LLL and all of our mothers and children!

[poliphilo]

Our Meeting House is hired out to various groups- including a couple of Buddhist ones. We'd certainly welcome LLL.