God's fire - part three

(Again some creative writing)

After that first Sunday in York James went from strength to strength. Even though the York Quaker Meeting was unable to back his 'Radical Direct action plan' many of the members of the York Meeting did. Many newcomers convinced 'Naylerlites', as the York Quakers initially, and Quakers nationally began to call them, began to attend. Soon Sunday Quaker Meetings in York grew firstly to over 500 and then over 1,000 people.

James, in typical Quaker fashion, took the phrase 'Naylerite' not as a put down but more as a badge of office to be worn with pride. "If by Naylerite you mean full of God's fire, then I am indeed a Naylerite". This became a slogan on a purple T shirt worn by many of his supporters.

Soon the Naylerites began to picket York Minster proclaiming the time of God's fire, their silence being broken from time to time by sung chants of Alleliah. But they soon moved on to heckling the priests delivering Sunday sermons in the Minister. Very soon the police were called and the first appearances in Court began.

James was careful after that first time and subsequent week in prison not to be arrested. Once the York God's Fire Protests as they were called were well underway he began a walking protest in procession with some of his followers from York to London calling at Cathedrals on the way - these included Selby, Lincoln, Norwich and ended at St Paul's. Always the same the silent protests and then the heckling and then the arrests.

With his knowledge of Quaker History James called his fellow walkers the Valiant Sixty. The Valiant Sixty, who were in fact more than sixty, were a group of early active Quakers preachers mostly from the North of England who spread the Quaker message around Britain and further afield. Many were regularly beaten up and imprisoned. James and his new Valiant Sixty were mostly not assaulted apart from a rather too physical arrest by police in Norwich Cathedral but they did manage to be imprisoned after Court appearances nearby to all the Cathedrals they picketed and heckled at.

Something special was clearly expected to happen at St Paul's. Was it going to be a bigger and more vocal group with more arrests than ever? Would James be once more arrested and tried this time for conspiracy? Would an indefinite prison sentence result under the new Anti Terrorist Laws which some religiously minded MPs were arguing could be applied to him?

In the end it was a case of real fire but was it from God or man?