Peace Garden
Sep. 12th, 2023 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo We had fewer people than usual at the Meeting for Worship on Sunday. Keith suggested that some of the gang were staying away because they didn't want to get caught up in the Vigil for Peace. Yes, well, fair enough. I wasn't altogether sure it was such a good idea myself.
But seven of us attended the Vigil- and for a Meeting that averages a weekly attendance of fourteen or fifteen I don't think that's at all bad.
It was Keith, again, who suggested we ought to hold Vigils for Peace more often.
Keith used to be a a Church Army Captain. I think of him as "the good soldier". He was one of the two or three who kept the Meeting going through the pandemic and the lockdown and he's always punctilious about showing up for Quaker events. He's a lovely man. BTW he's in his 80s
And wears his hair tied back in a ponytail.
In the picture I posted of the Vigil he's the tall guy on the far left.
Anyway I've been thinking- and digging around on the Internet- and- one thing leading to another- I discovered what I'd sort of known but forgotten- that Eastbourne has its very own Peace Garden. It's laid out in the moat of the Martello Tower at the west end of town. It contains the memorial to the 174 Eastbourne civilians who were killed in bombing during WWII. There are benches at intervals all the way round- some of which carry peaceful messages. What better place for us to hold our Vigils if we were to have them?
I scoped it out this morning and took photos.
And then I spoke to our clerk. I told him I'd be willing to go sit in the garden once a week for half an hour or so. Possibly on a Thursday after the shared lunch. If any group should be associated with the Garden and the Civilian Memorial it's the Quakers- who have Peace as one of their core values (or "testimonies" in Quaker jargon) and whose local Meeting house (our Meeting House) was one of the many Eastbourne buildings wrecked by WWII bombs. By a pleasing synchronitity the Tower is known as the Wish Tower (don't know why) and the Meeting House is situated on Wish Rd.
This is the Civilian War memorial
This is an overview of the garden and the tower
And here are a couple of the peaceful messages affixed to the backs of benches....
But seven of us attended the Vigil- and for a Meeting that averages a weekly attendance of fourteen or fifteen I don't think that's at all bad.
It was Keith, again, who suggested we ought to hold Vigils for Peace more often.
Keith used to be a a Church Army Captain. I think of him as "the good soldier". He was one of the two or three who kept the Meeting going through the pandemic and the lockdown and he's always punctilious about showing up for Quaker events. He's a lovely man. BTW he's in his 80s
And wears his hair tied back in a ponytail.
In the picture I posted of the Vigil he's the tall guy on the far left.
Anyway I've been thinking- and digging around on the Internet- and- one thing leading to another- I discovered what I'd sort of known but forgotten- that Eastbourne has its very own Peace Garden. It's laid out in the moat of the Martello Tower at the west end of town. It contains the memorial to the 174 Eastbourne civilians who were killed in bombing during WWII. There are benches at intervals all the way round- some of which carry peaceful messages. What better place for us to hold our Vigils if we were to have them?
I scoped it out this morning and took photos.
And then I spoke to our clerk. I told him I'd be willing to go sit in the garden once a week for half an hour or so. Possibly on a Thursday after the shared lunch. If any group should be associated with the Garden and the Civilian Memorial it's the Quakers- who have Peace as one of their core values (or "testimonies" in Quaker jargon) and whose local Meeting house (our Meeting House) was one of the many Eastbourne buildings wrecked by WWII bombs. By a pleasing synchronitity the Tower is known as the Wish Tower (don't know why) and the Meeting House is situated on Wish Rd.
This is the Civilian War memorial
This is an overview of the garden and the tower
And here are a couple of the peaceful messages affixed to the backs of benches....
