Of course Eye does listen to sessions at big Quaker gatherings, but we feel our best role is to gauge the general mood among Friends.

The four-yearly Summer Gathering is a spiritual encounter, helping us to remind ourselves why we became Quakers in the first place. It is a thoughtful time.

Even the 'action' part of the gathering's theme Faith into Action had first to be grounded in this way.

So we were not surprised to be told by our Friend Kurt Strauss the reason he found the Faslane outing so moving. Not because of the biggest Meeting for Worship ever at the site, not because of the Japanese blockade or the water brought by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors from their own 'ground zero' to sprinkle on Friends' hands; no, it was what happened after one Friend fainted.

'Her head just missing a boulder, her specs rescued in the nick of time before she could roll over onto them', he recounted to us. 'Within seconds there appeared water, sugar, a canvas chair, an umbrella to shade her from the sun and the focused thoughts and prayers of the worshipping group.'

Labels: summergathering