Returning to Meeting House on Sundays

Naomi Iliff’s experience of returning to Reading Meeting:-

“It was lovely to be back in the Meeting House. I have loved Zoom meetings and have been so grateful for the continuation of community in our Meeting that Zoom has enabled. But in the Meeting House the quality of the silence and stillness is very special. The light somehow seems more expectant. It has been lovely to stand in the burial ground again.

But sadly something is still missing. I realised it was the lack of intimacy that is caused by having to communicate over social distancing with masks on. Ministry is not the same muffled behind a mask and even just chatting standing 2 metres apart feels exhausting and as if I am shouting. I have also found the disembodied voices from the people on the Zoom meeting just a bit odd making me jump when they start. I missed seeing the other people on Zoom and chatting in the Breakout rooms. I looked around at the Meeting House and it felt like the song I used to sing when I was little in Sunday school. ‘You in your small corner and I in mine'”.