{"id":155,"date":"2021-04-24T14:24:08","date_gmt":"2021-04-24T14:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/demo-43\/?page_id=155"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:32:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T09:32:03","slug":"guess-whos-coming-to-dinner","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/april-2021\/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Guess Who\u2019s Coming to Dinner?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deb Arrowsmith<\/b><\/p>\n

As I write this we are coming up to Easter \u2013 as you read this it may well be past. As a \u2018birthright\u2019 Anglican, convinced Quaker, I still have a hankering to observe Lent \u2013 or at least have a go! I don\u2019t mean preparing for the gigantic festival of Chocolate that many confectioners would have you believe Easter is. I mean putting yourself in another\u2019s shoes, walking with Jesus to think through the experience of his stumbling journey and imagine carrying that through our lives today. Many of us value seeking a closer influence of the divine in our lives now. Lent is that period of 40 days before Easter replicating Jesus\u2019 wanderings in the wilderness when I, at least, imagine him to be questioning, agonising, fasting, seeking both the way ahead and literally what, on earth, to do. To others it\u2019s about abstinence, reliance, seeking guidance, a different perspective, getting clean, prepared, and so much more. <\/span><\/p>\n

My most successful Lent (if that\u2019s how you would put it) was aged 8 when I gave up sugar in tea. Haven\u2019t touched it since \u2013 result! These days the fashion is not so much to give things up but to take things on. In my time I have tried all sorts in an attempt to internalise the ‘holy’; focus on the spiritual nature of life; breathe in a bit more goodness, compassion, humility hope \u2013 all the values Jesus encouraged us to adopt. Mostly, my efforts fall far short of the anticipated revelatory experience I would be happy to share. <\/span><\/p>\n

This year a Friend suggested Lent was really all about making the presence of God real in our lives. This seemed to me like Quakers seeking that of God in each one of us. Do we really believe that? And, if so, how does that make us feel, behave? In lockdown \u2013 only two people in the house with microscopic bits of God in them \u2013 that presence needed a bit of external reinforcement this Lent. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo by S.L. Granum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So, I thought, let\u2019s invite God around, and if God were coming we’d better lay a place for Him\/Her\/They\/It at our table. And so we did: placemat, napkin, knife, fork, spoon, glass for water, and glass for wine (obviously). Side plate in case we had bread\u2026or olives? All laid out ready. A third chair with a nice cushion\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

Did God come? Well, thankfully, we didn\u2019t get to the spooky level of putting out food and wondering if God preferred spaghetti to linguine but there were <\/i>more conversations with God. A quiet gentle reminder of \u2018the other\u2019. A shifting of perspective. As if, from the corner of your eye, you almost see someone. Know they are near about. That alone stetches our inner world to take in that presence. Makes the creative pause which I believe is <\/b>God with us. In an effort to shed the lockdown pounds chocolate is banned in our house this Easter. God, however, is very much with us to celebrate.<\/p>\n

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Back to April 2021 Newsletter Main Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Forty-Three<\/em> e-Newsletter \u2022 Number 504 \u2022 April 2021
\n<\/strong>Oxford Friends Meeting
\n43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW<\/p>\n

newsletter@oxfordquakers.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deb Arrowsmith As I write this we are coming up to Easter \u2013 as you read this it may well be past. As a \u2018birthright\u2019 Anglican, convinced Quaker, I still have a hankering to observe Lent \u2013 or at least have a go! I don\u2019t mean preparing for the gigantic festival of Chocolate that many … Continue reading Guess Who\u2019s Coming to Dinner?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":139,"menu_order":158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1220,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/155\/revisions\/1220"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}