Jordans

[poliphilo]

 Stephanie Meier (not to be confused with the person who wrote Twilight) visited Eastbourne Meeting House earlier in the year and has sent us a copy of her novel about early Quakers as a sort of thankyou for being so welcoming.  It's called Jordans, it's set in the 1680s and it's pleasant, gentle and easy on the brain. I'm reading it as a break from amazing Marcel Proust and his amazingly long sentences.

Jordans is a real place- one of the earliest custom-built Meeting Houses. We've pledged that in the new year we'll go on a visit. It's situated in the Chilterns, just outside Beaconsfield, not so very far away. 

Meier, drawing on published sources (which are copious because the old time Quakers loved to pamphleteer) has her people speak a wonderful lingo heavily dependent on the King James Bible- and in particular the Book of Revelations. They don't say "Jesus", they say "The Lamb".

Comments

[cmcmck]

I know Jordans. Stayed at the youth hostel there many years ago.

[poliphilo]

I gather from their website that they have quite a lot going on....

[paserbyp]

The Lamb - this is a reference to the imagery in the Book of Revelation 5:1–13, ff. Occasionally, the lamb may be depicted bleeding from the area of the heart (Cf. Revelation 5:6), symbolizing Jesus' shedding of his blood to take away the sins of the world (Cf. John 1:29, 1:36).

We see the power of the blood of the lamb in the Passover narrative. During this time the Israelites were instructed to sacrifice a one-year-old spotless lamb and apply its blood to their doorposts. When the angel of death saw the blood of the lamb on their doorposts he would pass over their house and they would escape judgement.

[poliphilo]

That's right