Who, when, where, and why – are you?
I am Val Ferguson, born and bred in Scone, Scotland in 1943. I went to a Catholic Convent, but my father died when I was four and my mother couldn’t afford to keep me in the school, and so I joined the local school. After university I went to Ghana to do Voluntary Service Abroad and first encountered Quakers, I stayed for two years and decided I wanted to work in the internal church. I ended up working with the Friends World Committee of Consultation and organised several world meetings.
Do you have a memory that brings you comfort in times of hardship?
Yes. I had a terrible time going to the Catholic school and was horribly bullied. Once I started going to my local village school, I had a perfectly normal and happy life, much to my relief!
How long, if you are, have you been a Quaker (or attender)?
I joined on my return Ghana. I must have become a Quaker around twenty-six, so it must be roughly sixty years.
What brings you joy?
The unexpected. This usually involves other people and the joy they bring. Also, the sea. It was a real challenge not to be able to paddle in the sea during the COVID lockdowns. I have been swimming in the sea with snow on the ground!
Do you have a passage from QF&P that you would like to draw Friends attention to?
The last entry of Advices and Queries and, especially the call from George Fox: ‘be patterns be examples…’
What was the last book that you read?
I am a voracious reader, everything from Agatha Christie to everything new. I have read the entire Strangers and Brothers series.
What would you say to someone coming to MfW for the first time?
Don’t stay for just one meeting. To appreciate, or not appreciate, Friends, I think you need to come a dozen times or so, if that! Coming to understand Friends takes longer than you think.
Can you describe what Quakerism is to you?
It’s a wordless centre of my life. I stray away from it, from time to time. It is always there around me. I don’t always like Quakerism – but I am conscious of a presence around me that has many names. But I am also conscious of periods of drought – I have learnt to sit those dry periods out.
If you could do anything, what would you do?
Talk less and listen more.
Is there anything else you like to say?
I am looking forward to seven or eight of us, who were all at school together, who are all eighty and meeting up in Scotland together this summer. I am hoping we all make it until then!
This Month’s Forty-Three Newsletter Contents
- July 2023
- Travelling in the Ministry
- Monthly Appeal July 2023
- Would You Like to be Interviewed by our Sunflowers?
- Churches Together in Central Oxford
- “What will we Build, You and I Together?”
- Artweeks 2023
- The Anchor Programme
- Living on the Edge – an OxFAP Update
- Oxford Open Doors Outreach Event 9 and 10 September 2023
- Some Background Papers from Local Meeting for Worship for Business on Sunday 3 June 2023
- Quaker Question and Answer – Val Ferguson
- Quakers and the Still, Small Voice
- From Quaker Faith & Practice 22.06
- Meetings for Worship July 2023
Back to July 2023 Newsletter Main Page
Forty-Three Newsletter • Number 531 • July 2023
Oxford Friends Meeting
43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW
Copyright 2023, Oxford Quakers