Silence please.....
- Leela Dutt
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
On the radio last week I heard a church minister who said that a young woman had asked him where in the services that he held she could find a space for silence. He was sorry to have to tell her that there wasn’t anywhere. I was astonished – one of those chucking the butter dish at the radio moments – that no one thought to say that Quakers go in for silent worship. They gather in a deep silence that begins as soon as the first people have entered the room; there is often short spoken ministry during the hour, when someone is moved to speak, but it is always followed by more silence – you don’t jump in straight away to say ‘what utter rubbish!’ or even ‘I’ve always thought that myself!’
I once wrote a collection of short stories about Quakers called KINGFISHER BLUE – we’ve still got copies if you want one (info@attfieldduttbooks.com). Quakers have also come into my novels now and then; an early one was RUBIK’S CUBE, in which local Quakers had to deal with an American air base which began to house cruise missiles – I moved Greenham Common to north Cardiff, as it were. There was a love story in it of course, and it featured a Quaker wedding near the end – again, we still have a few copies.
In my recent novel A DISTANT VOICE IN THE DARKNESS the only brief Quaker Meeting is when Eleanor visits one in Copenhagen, but now that I am writing a sequel to that novel, with the same characters twenty years later, Eleanor has become a Quaker herself and her Meeting House will feature strongly when it attracts some shockingly unwelcome attention – but you’ll have to wait for that!
Meanwhile in my recent short stories, FRESH BEGINNINGS, the last story, Celebration, is about the varied and long life of a woman whose Quaker Meeting celebrates her ninetieth birthday with a barbecue.
So if you are looking for a bit of peace and quiet in a demanding hectic life, why not drop in at your local Quaker Meeting one Sunday morning? No one will ask you what you believe, but they will offer you a cup of tea or coffee, biscuits or even a piece of cake if you’re lucky…
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