Please let me know which of these topics you would like to read more about. Consider inviting me to your quarterly or monthly meeting to learn more about our yearly meeting's continuing connections with Friends in India. My sabbatical from Wilmington Friends School makes it possible for me to visit you more easily during the winter and spring.
RUSULIA CENTRE CIRCLES BACK TO CONFERENCES
Last week's Young Friends Study Cum Work Camp at Friends Rural Centre Rasulia showed resilience at this 45 acre Quaker Centre in Hoshangabad. The energy comes from Nilini Titus' presence as a manager, accountant and friend to five or six loving dogs. The vision comes from Devdas Shrisunder's experience at Pendle Hill in 2010. Together they and the board at Rasulia are recreating the idea of a conference place in central India that might in the future resemble Pendle Hill or Woordbrooke. Come visit Rasulia to discover its impressive renovations and new life.
PRAYER, BIBLE & SONGS DOMINATE QUAKER WORSHIP
Two weeks with Indian Friends worshiping together for the October 24-28th All India Gathering and then the Oct 29-Nov 4th Young Friends Study Cum Work Camp have demonstrated the power of "voice." Praying before and after each session or event and always at the beginning and ending of each day, singing together with clapping, and using biblical scripture for support of every point - all of these practices mesmerized participants.
MID-INDIA YM SEEKS PARITY
Voicing pride as descendants of the founding expatriates from UK who set up Quaker mission work in the 1870's in Hshongabad District in central India, leaders of Mid India Yearly Meeting desire the focused attention of Philadelphia YM's India Friends Working Group. Challenges they face include holding tightly to perceptions that led them to feel overlooked during the past decade.
FRIENDS SCHOOLS IN INDIA FACE DILEMMA
Friends schools have not shifted to English medium as the Catholic schools in India did 30 years ago. Indian Friends send their children to English medium schools, instead of the Friends schools, which are Hindi medium and which currently serve poorer families who cannot pay sufficient fees to keep these schools from disappearing. Teachers among Indian Friends typically teach in English medium schools, not the Friends schools.
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF FRIENDS IN INDIA MEETS ANNUALLY
The five or six members of India's (GCFI) share a common commitment to silent unprogrammed worship. Archana, Baskar, Dilawar, Hari and one or two others meet together once a year in the early Fall for shared worship at FRC Rasulia Centre. Baskar, at 84, spoke with clarity at last week's Young Friends Study Cum Work Camp about the Light and Holy Spirit being at the heart of Quakerism.
FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS SHAPE MONTHLY MEETING PATTERNS
Just as rural monthly meetings in the states often have several leading families over the generations, so too do programmed meetings here in central India. The Samuels - children and grandchildren of 92 year old Samuel Ramla - provide one example in Hoshangabad where they meet for evening "cottage" meetings in their homes probably more often than going to First Day meetings for worship in their 19th century meetinghouse on the other side of town. The Jonathan, Robert, and Lal families in Itarsi, and the Titus families in Bhopal match the Samuel and Daniel families' roles in Hoshangabad MM.
FRIENDS SCHOOLS SEEK AFFILIATION
It might be membership in a Friends Council on Education style umbrella organization, or it could be an endowment-creating funder - either way, there is an almost desperate desire for Indian Friends schools to continue as they are without having made the educational improvements that long-term strategic planning would normally dictate. Hints of changes surface in opposite directions - Itarsi Friends Girls School builds a second floor facility to meet the needs of 304 students whose fees are paid by a Calcutta-based charity, while Sohagpur Girls School (with a boarding component for ten percent of their students) eyes its neighboring Pearson Company affiliated school.
RUSULIA CENTRE CIRCLES BACK TO CONFERENCES
Last week's Young Friends Study Cum Work Camp at Friends Rural Centre Rasulia showed resilience at this 45 acre Quaker Centre in Hoshangabad. The energy comes from Nilini Titus' presence as a manager, accountant and friend to five or six loving dogs. The vision comes from Devdas Shrisunder's experience at Pendle Hill in 2010. Together they and the board at Rasulia are recreating the idea of a conference place in central India that might in the future resemble Pendle Hill or Woordbrooke. Come visit Rasulia to discover its impressive renovations and new life.
PRAYER, BIBLE & SONGS DOMINATE QUAKER WORSHIP
Two weeks with Indian Friends worshiping together for the October 24-28th All India Gathering and then the Oct 29-Nov 4th Young Friends Study Cum Work Camp have demonstrated the power of "voice." Praying before and after each session or event and always at the beginning and ending of each day, singing together with clapping, and using biblical scripture for support of every point - all of these practices mesmerized participants.
MID-INDIA YM SEEKS PARITY
Voicing pride as descendants of the founding expatriates from UK who set up Quaker mission work in the 1870's in Hshongabad District in central India, leaders of Mid India Yearly Meeting desire the focused attention of Philadelphia YM's India Friends Working Group. Challenges they face include holding tightly to perceptions that led them to feel overlooked during the past decade.
FRIENDS SCHOOLS IN INDIA FACE DILEMMA
Friends schools have not shifted to English medium as the Catholic schools in India did 30 years ago. Indian Friends send their children to English medium schools, instead of the Friends schools, which are Hindi medium and which currently serve poorer families who cannot pay sufficient fees to keep these schools from disappearing. Teachers among Indian Friends typically teach in English medium schools, not the Friends schools.
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF FRIENDS IN INDIA MEETS ANNUALLY
The five or six members of India's (GCFI) share a common commitment to silent unprogrammed worship. Archana, Baskar, Dilawar, Hari and one or two others meet together once a year in the early Fall for shared worship at FRC Rasulia Centre. Baskar, at 84, spoke with clarity at last week's Young Friends Study Cum Work Camp about the Light and Holy Spirit being at the heart of Quakerism.
FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS SHAPE MONTHLY MEETING PATTERNS
Just as rural monthly meetings in the states often have several leading families over the generations, so too do programmed meetings here in central India. The Samuels - children and grandchildren of 92 year old Samuel Ramla - provide one example in Hoshangabad where they meet for evening "cottage" meetings in their homes probably more often than going to First Day meetings for worship in their 19th century meetinghouse on the other side of town. The Jonathan, Robert, and Lal families in Itarsi, and the Titus families in Bhopal match the Samuel and Daniel families' roles in Hoshangabad MM.
FRIENDS SCHOOLS SEEK AFFILIATION
It might be membership in a Friends Council on Education style umbrella organization, or it could be an endowment-creating funder - either way, there is an almost desperate desire for Indian Friends schools to continue as they are without having made the educational improvements that long-term strategic planning would normally dictate. Hints of changes surface in opposite directions - Itarsi Friends Girls School builds a second floor facility to meet the needs of 304 students whose fees are paid by a Calcutta-based charity, while Sohagpur Girls School (with a boarding component for ten percent of their students) eyes its neighboring Pearson Company affiliated school.
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