Robin joined the team in 2010 as a part-time Quaker Chaplain. He lives in Leeds with his wife and children. He attends the “Carlton Hill” Quaker Meeting (opposite Mechanical Engineering on Woodhouse Lane) and works in a homeless hostel.

Robin studied Social Policy and Administration at Leeds (1978-81) but his interests as a student were always wider. In 1981, he helped re-establish the Student Christian Movement (SCM) in Leeds and there encountered Quakerism for the first time. He became a member of the Society of Friends in 1992 after attending for two years. Robin is also currently the Quaker Ecumenical Officer on West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council (WYEC).

Robin and Chris are looking forward to working more closely as part of the chaplaincy team, their main focus at present being the Meeting for Worship at Emmanuel on Tuesday (1.05-1.40 p.m. followed by lunch).

Robin is a bit of a singer/songwriter and plays a variety of instruments, some quite weird. His favourite  venues  are Open Mind  at The  Grove Inn, Holbeck  and The Chemic  Tavern in Woodhouse.

Telephone 0113 343 5071

Email r.fishwick@leeds.ac.uk

Summer reflection

by Robin Fishwick, July 2010

I will be starting the holiday doing boat repairs up here while the rest of my family go to Brighton. At such times as this I wonder whether the boat is an asset or a liability. Ironically, I first bought the boat as part of a drive to live more simply and when I first moved on board there was a definite feeling of exhilaration as I shed piles of worldly goods (“cumber” as we Quakers call it). Now I sometimes wonder whether the boat itself is one big bit of cumber.

But how worldly are our goods? There is a strong urge to chuck out whatever doesn’t seem relevant to the spiritual life, but this may be a simplistic view of simplicity. The Puritan streak in Quakerism was very much to get rid of anything that could be seen as ungodly – even the celebration of Christmas Day. Most of us these days would find that wrong, not because of its insistence on godliness but because of its excessively narrow view of what is godly.

Urging me on as I toil with ballast and cabin repairs this summer is the hope that one day the boat will become of use not just to the Fishwicks but to other people wanting to get away for a few days. It might yet become a spiritual treasure.