Quaker Meeting at Farnborough Air Show

On Sunday 20th July 2014 twenty six Quakers took part in an open-air meeting for worship close to the pedestrian entrance to the Farnborough Air Show. Most were local but some joined from London, Bristol, Southampton and Hastings.

Passing motorists had a good view of the posters. A succession of loud aircraft flew low overhead, but failed to disturb the gathered meeting.

Farnborough International is best known for its public air show, but its main purpose is the combined arms fair and civil aerospace exhibition. This is a shop window for the world’s arms dealers where military buyers, including some from repressive regimes, come to browse the latest methods of killing.

At the arms fair this year were:

Christina, from the local Quaker meeting in Farnborough, writes:
‘Quakers have always believed that war and the preparation for war is inconsistent with the spirit of Christ. Farnborough Air Show is a show place for military as well as civilian aircraft. It is a fitting place to pray for peace and for an end to our government’s reliance on military ways of solving the world’s problems.
‘As a retired teacher and a grandmother I am deeply concerned that we should make the world safe for the young and that the arms trade is not the way to do it. We must wake up to the realisation that war is not the answer. The world needs water, not weapons’.

This was the first occasion on which a Quaker meeting for worship has been held in conjunction with Farnborough Air Show. We will be back, again and again, until the arms fair is ended.