From the Secretary…
Once every 3 years Friends from around India meet for the All India Friends Gathering (AIFG). This year this gathering was held at Friends Rural Centre Rasulia and I had the pleasure of attending. Included in this newsletter is a report prepared and photos of the happy time we spent together.
Before the gathering I was able to visit Vishwas Nath (the printer of this newsletter) and Hari Kura in Delhi, attend Sunday worship at Bhopal Meeting House and share time in the homes of numerous Friends in Bhopal. After the gathering I visited Itarsi Friends Church, had the pleasure of visiting Friends in Itarsi and then participated in a Young Friends camp at Rasulia.
I also visited one of the 3 schools under the care of Friends Schools Governing Board India, Itarsi and you will find a report on that visit in this newsletter.
I am very conscious of the impact that air travel has on the environment and so think carefully before organising visits to groups affiliated with the Asia West Pacific section of FWCC. I am also conscious of the Quaker tradition of travelling in the ministry that was started by George Fox as he walked “cheerfully over the earth”. Visiting Friends in India was such a blessing and a very worthwhile thing to do. I mostly communicate with people by email and so to sit in the Friends churches at Bhopal and Itarsi, and to sit in the Meeting House at Rasulia and look out over the rice fields was a delight. Visiting Friends in their homes and sharing tea and beautiful Indian food led to the kind of rich conversations it is hard to have just by relying on my computer.
I hope by now you have all discovered the wonderful resource that Friends Journal has brought to us over the last 2 years with their Quaker speak videos. The most recent was on travelling in the
ministry and can be found at this link.
The India Gathering was a step in the pilgrimage we are all to the gathering of our world wide family in Peru in January 2016. The FWCC Plenary theme was explored and creative greetings in the
form of footprints were written to send to those who gather in Pisac, Peru.
Please give your prayerful support to those who are travelling to Peru on our behalf in January 2015. It is a big journey to make and decisions made at this meeting will shape our future together. Follow the work of the Peru meeting on the FWCC World Office website.
Ronis Chapman