Is this a record? Poppy Elizabeth came to meeting when she was only nine days old. Poppy's dad is our Clerk Karl Gibbs, his partner Helen Southern gave birth to Poppy on 30 March, she was 7lbs 11ozs -- I hope no Europhile is going to ask me what that is in metric!
The Bunhill Fields mug is now available, and well worth the price (£3.50). As well as buying a mug which on one side shows the Meeting House as it was before World War II took its toll, you also receive a printed enclosure giving the history of Quakers in Finsbury and Clerkenwell since 1656; buy now while stocks last.
The garden survey has been completed and our Garden Committee will soon instruct a company called Groundwork about the initial design -- watch this allotment for further updates.
We're going to have a stall at both Clerkenwell Festival (22 July) and St Bartholomew's Fair (26 August). Lisa Bowers Isaacson will lead a historic Quaker walk for any takers on both those dates and Paul Bowers Isaacson hopes to have the latest edition of the pamphlet Quakers in the City hot off the press in time for the Clerkenwell Festival.
Cliff Marrs, one of our attenders is to be a visiting tutor at Woodbrooke. His first course, '2000 Years. A Christian Odyssey' will be held form 20-22 July. He has also started working for the Friends World Committee for Consultation. Carmel Keogh (that's me) another of our attenders, is working for Quaker Life Outreach for 6 months. By the time you read this Karl Gibbs will have taken up his post in the Recording Clerk's Office at Friends House.
We are delighted to have Ruth and Chris Vincenzi, Friends from Bradford, join us now that they have moved to London.
CARMEL KEOGH
Newsletter Correspondent.
Spring Newsletter 2001
Sachararja Thairo (2.57 kg.) was born to Wangari Waweru Wellmer and Andreas Wellmer, a little brother to Njiku Melchior, on 16 January 2001, a month earlier than expected, while his family were on a brief holiday in Frankfurt am Main. We look forward to welcoming this baby boy to Bunhill Fields when he visits London. Wangari sends her greetings. As I write, tomorrow for the first time Meeting for Worship in Goettingen will be held at their home.
We continue to have Daisy Fox at Meeting for Worship. Two other children have also attended and we have formalised our arrangements with a Children's Committee and rota.
At the first in a new cycle of meetings for learning in January we considered the Peace testimony. As the cycle progresses we will look at other aspects of Quaker belief.
Our Garden Committee have had exploratory talks with a specialist organisation to help us further develop our Meeting House garden and the burial ground into community spaces. The project is seen as a good candidate for regeneration money which is planned to be invested in the Finsbury area. This is very exciting. We will keep you informed.
JAMES GRANT
Newsletter Correspondent.
Winter Newsletter 2000
Children again! Daisy (aged 7.5) and her mother, Sarah Fox, have been worshipping with us during the last couple of months and we are pleased to say it looks as if they will continue.
Peter Daniels and I spent some time with Wangari Waweru Wellmer and family in Berlin and former East Germany. The central focus was celebrating baby Njiku's baptism as a Lutheran. Peter was a godfather. As part of the celebrations we held a Meeting for Worship which was attended by the Lutheran pastors, as well as family and friends. We had a lovely time in Germany with Wangari, Andreas and Njiku.
At our most recent PM we were each asked to state our ideal vision for the Meeting House garden. Our Garden Committee is taking the results away to digest. Watch this space!
Paul Bowers Isaacson provided a presence at a New Finsbury New Deal event during September. This is the first of what we hope will be a series of outreach events for Bunhill Fields.
Our current series of Meetings for Learning have come to an end and we are planning more. We are interested in responding to some ministry in meeting for worship challenging us as inviduals to express what we believe as Quakers.
Finally our attender Jenny Allan took part in the Jubilee 2000 action in Prague which involved puppetry on a fantastic scale.
JAMES GRANT
Newsletter Correspondent.
Summer Newsletter 2000
It was wonderful to have Wangari Waweru-Wellmer visit for two weeks, after a break of 18 months, with Andreas and baby Njiku. It was not his first time at a meeting for worship - he has attended at Goettingen - but it seemed important to wlecome him to Bunhill.
In April we were deeply alarmed when Paul Bowers Isaacson had a heart attack. Then relieved when five days later he was sitting up in bed smiling. Quite his old self. He is making a good recovery, though is taking it easy for a while.
We have plans to develop the garden at our meeting house and a hefty work morning got the process well under way. Our library is being catalogued by Peter Daniels. Our meetings for learning have been well attended. So far we have had three.
Bunhill played a significant role again at the Quaker stall at the Stoke Newington Festival. This year the theme was 'Quakers are back in Hackney', because the Monthly Meeting has approved a new Meeting in Stoke Newington. A good number of Bunhill Quakers attended the first meeting for worship on 25 June.
At the end of an experimental period our Co-Clerks have decided to devolve the function to a single Clerk. We are very grateful to James Allen for his contribution. Karl Gibb remains as Clerk. Our attender Charles Hodson has been co-opted onto the Monthly Meeting Outreach Committee. And Eliabeth Duke is preparing diligently for the coming FWCC Triennial.
Finally our website has now had over 500 visitors since it was launched in October. Have a look, if you haven't already!
JAMES GRANT
Newsletter Correspondent.
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Link to earlier newletters.
Letter from Iowa
7 November 1999.
Dear Everyone
It was very good to hear from you recently - we think of you often and it is good to know we are not forgotten. It has been interesting for me to notice how most of the things I fondly remember about London tend to be the rather small things - your Meeting, Emma's small school, our favorite coffee shop - things that by their nature should be reproducable in our small town in Iowa. as the largeness of London doesn't seem absolutely vital to their existence. I hope we conveyed to you all while we were there the specialness of your gathering (as well as our enjoyment of the few of you we got to know a bit better individually.)
Iowa has been kind to us in some ways in our reintegration - it has held off unseasonably on the bitter cold that often comes by now and has been very mild. Many years we have had our first snow by now. Of course, this could just be global warming.
Emma is doing well in her new school here (ironically quite a bit larger than her school in London) and Maisie has begun pre-school 3 mornings a week - she is doing well after resolving some initial trauma around sharing time on the swings. Both girls were butterflys for Halloween and the neighborhood proved to be the Mother Lode as far as treats were concerned - we will not be needing to buy candy until at least next Halloween.
My private psychology practice is slowly getting up to speed and Judith is ready for another couple of grants to relieve her of teaching duties for the next two years - in other words things are fairly normal on the work front.
Emma and Maisie occasionally come out with (to me) random memories of the meeting and on the odd bad day Maisie still protests that she wants to "move back to Engel-land" - so please know that your efforts have left a mark.
Hope to see you all again.
Warmest regards,
Perry and Judith.
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Email from Goettingen
Wangari Waweru and Andreas Wellmer were married in our Meeting House on 5 December 1998. They live with their son Njiku in Goettingen in Germany. In October 1999 they travelled to Kenya and Tanzania to meet Wangari's family.
16 November 1999
Dear Molly
Thanks for your call yesterday. I hope you are well. At the moment I am rarely at home since I am working to get the new flat done. But progress is good. I will have made a nice home for when Wangari and Njiku will arrive in Frankfurt the coming Sunday. We had a wonderful time in Tanzania and Kenya and beside visiting the family, who enjoyed meeting me and Njiku, we saw quite a number of the beautiful places these countries have to offer. We have been to Zanzibar, went on Safari to the Ngorongoro Crater, been to Dar Es Salaam and Nairobi, as well as the Ghitunguri, the place Wangari comes from north of Nairobi. Despite this being a lot Njiku managed without any trouble all the travelling and has had his first bath in the Indian Ocean. He has really grown and has learned to turn being there. When they are back we will start to introduce the first food.
Please give all the best wishes to everybody and hope to speak to you soon.
Andreas.
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NEWS FROM FURTHER AFIELD can be obtained from the independent weekly Quaker newspaper The Friend.