"Never too old to learn"
Having celebrated her 100th birthday, Ruth is the oldest member of our meeting, and is clear living proof that you are never too old or too young to learn new technology.
She enthusiastically embraced the computer age - an early adopter of the iPad, she keeps in touch with friends and family via Facebook, and joins in with our online meetings on Zoom.
Ruth has led a rich and fascinating life across the globe, from Sri Lanka to South Africa. A keen artist, she has exhibited widely, and is a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Ruth first encountered Quakers at the University of Johannesburg in her twenties, and is now a much valued member of our local meeting here in Jersey.
Elizabeth Fry's Visit to Jersey
Social reformer and philanthropist Elizabeth Fry came to Jersey twice - once in 1833 and again three years later in 1836, along with visits to Guernsey, Sark and Herm.
In those days, Quaker Meetings on the island were held in a cottage at First Tower.
After speaking out against the poor conditions in which prisoners in Jersey were being held, a new prison was later built on her recommendations.
"A man of strong and earnest convictions"
There have been Quakers in Jersey since the 1660s, and the Religious Society of Friends has been established and formally recognised as a religious group in Jersey since 1742.
One notable Jersey Quaker from the 1800s was John Asplet, a plasterer by trade. He met Elizabeth Fry, who gave him a Bible inscribed inside 'from his Friends', and was visited at different periods during his life by at least 36 well-known English Quakers of the period, who also wrote in his treasured Bible. He appears, from the account of his life, to have been "known, beloved and respected by all classes from the highest to the lowest"; which goes on to say:
"Brother Asplet was a man of strong and earnest convictions. You know that the 'Friends' are non-combatants. It follows that he refused to perform militia service, and for this carrying out his conscientious convictions, he was subjected to, and admirably bore, a most cruel and ruinous persecution. He was dragged before the Court; he was fined heavily; the Sheriffs seized and sold his possessions, he was imprisoned with ruffians and felons, and finally he was banished from the Island. He bore all this with as much modesty as resignation and courage. He did not parade his wrongs or exhibit himself as a hero or martyr ... not one word of anger did he ever utter against those who had so cruelly and so wantonly persecuted him."
"Actively working for peace and reconciliation"
A few months before the end of WWII, a young Jerseyman who had been studying law in England, Clifford du Feu, joined the Friends Ambulance Unit and spent two years, December 1944 until 1946 helping to alleviate the suffering during the last months of the war and its aftermath on the continent and in Germany itself. When he returned to the island he helped to restore the Meeting House ready for a new beginning of Quakerism in Jersey.
Gwen Gardner who was a long-standing member, came to Jersey from England to teach at the Ladies College. She joined The Quaker Refugee Relief Service in 1954 which helped to rehabilitate and find employment for those displaced persons still suffering from the ravages of a bitter war and nearly as bitter a peace in Germany and Austria. Quakers were at the forefront of reconciliation between the victors and the vanquished with no distinction made between either side.