Saturday afternoon: we headed out of town for the proposed Quaker Learning Centre at Silver Wattle, on Lake George (though 'lake' is a relative term as there was alarmingly little water in it). This is a Catholic owned little conference centre, with beds for 20 students plus a few for staff, out in the country but, I was assured, only 45 minutes from Canberra Airport and even nearer to the nearest station. By Australian standards this counts as very accessible. The setting is lovely with a view across what should be the lake to a windfarm.

The Centre is hoping to run a number of short courses, a bit Woodbrooke style (Helen Bayes, the driving force behind the centre, has been at Woodbrooke and I met her there some years ago when she was a Friend in Residence). The question is whether Australian Quakers will take the time and spend the money to go in sufficient numbers to make a permanent centre in a particular location viable. It is in a lovely location, and I'm sure it will have a special ambience just like Woodbrooke, but whether there will be enough takers remains to be seen. They have about six months to see if the present trial run will look encouraging enough. I do hope it is: I'd personally love to go out there and work and do a few courses. However, the present ethos is that participants spend part of their time in physical work helping get the place in order, and Friends may not find that too congenial if they've laid out a lot of money to go. Only time will tell.

On Sunday I went to Canberra Meeting, and was amazed to run into Erica Fisher whom I'd last seen over 40 years ago when she and her family lived about 500 yards from me and mine in Gravesend, Kent. We really are a small world! The Meeting was all about how far we were prepared to be committed, and to recognise the cost of discipleship (at least that's what I thought: the Clerk gave a rather different summary, which just shows how the same Ministry can give different things to different people!). After tea, we had a 'This is your Friend' session from a young man, Evan Gallagher, who told us very openly and honestly about his life, his spiritual journey and how it had felt to be gay in the 1990s. I found it a moving and uplifting talk, and was glad to participate in the discussion and compare his journey with my own.

Back home for a late Birthday lunch - yes, today is my 68th birthday! - and then after a welcome nap, an evening Meeting for the South Canberra group, We were nine in all, a lovely and totally silent half hour Meeting which was followed by tea and good conversation. I'd said in introducing myself after the morning Meeting that I'd found Australian Quakers different from the UK, and was asked in what way: my answer was that in Australia they are 'further on', more progressive, than a lot of UK Friends. I've begun to feel this quite a bit: there is less inclination here to hold on to the comfortable and more willingness to go into the unknown, to drop concepts and notions that are no longer serviceable, however much they may have been part of the Quaker tradition.

And so, almost, ends my time in Canberra. It's been quite remarkable, and one of the most memorable birthdays I've ever had. To Sydney tomorrow, and a rest from Quakering for a few days!