We’re delighted to share the first of our “Getting to Know,” series from a Friend who is not a QiL roleholder. This series was designed to help us feel closer – and that includes our whole London community.
Name: Daniel Clarke Flynn
Roles: co-editor of the Westminster Meeting monthly e-magazine The Parrot, committee member of the Quaker Universalist Group, associate tutor leading international Life Reflections workshops in Europe and Britain in person and online for Woodbrooke Learning and other Quaker groups, facilitator of the Thursday evening international Woodbrooke Worship/EMES Meeting for Worship, and member of the Britain Yearly Meeting Pastoral Care team. Since coming into membership abroad in March 2015, I have written over fifty articles and book reviews that have been published in The Friend, Friends Quarterly, Among Friends, The Universalist, and Western Friend. I am a former trustee, Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs and former convenor, Yearly Meeting Nominations Group 2025-2026.
Local Meeting: Westminster
Aside from Quakers, how do you like to spend your time? Learning more about who I am, why I am here, and what my calling is this day.
What parts of your service are you looking forward to? Being fully present and of service to others with my life experience, and learning from theirs as they might wish to share it.
What would you like people to know about you? I am the grandson of four 19th Century immigrants to the United States, two from Ireland and two from Germany, a 1939 native of San Francisco, California, citizen of Ireland, and resident of Belgium since January 2001. I earned a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. in 1975, pursued a career in international corporate Human Resources before taking early retirement in 1997 to serve as a Cambridge Certified English language trainer for adults for two decades in the U.S. and Europe. I continue to do volunteer service for MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières – Doctors Without Borders) and two other international associations seeking to make our world better for all based on spiritual/moral principles/values. I do translations into English from French, German, Italian, and Spanish. My wife and I mentor and support the African Great Lakes Region Consortium of eleven African started and run local charities in Burundi and South Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. https://www.copgla.org/
What is your favorite quote from QF&P? §1.01 “Our diversity invites us both to speak what we know to be true in our lives and to learn from others. Friends are encouraged to listen to each other in humility and understanding, trusting in the Spirit that goes beyond our human effort and comprehension.” Britain Yearly Meeting Quaker Faith & Practice, 5th Edition
Book recommendations:
English: Dr. Pim van Lommel (1943 – ____) https://pimvanlommel.nl/en/
Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience © 2007
French: Oscar Lalo (1965 – ____), Dictionnaire amoureux de la méditation. © Éditions Plon, © Éditions Récamier, des départements de Place des Éditeurs, 2026. ISBN: 978-2-259-30654-6 https://www.oscarlalo.com/plon
German: Willigis Jäger (1925 – 2020) Jenseits von Gott © 2012 Wege der Mystik, Holzkirchen. ISBN: 978-3-9810310-6-5 https://benediktushof.shop/de/jenseits-gott
Italian: Vito Mancuso (1962 – ____), La via della Bellezza © 2018 Garazanti S.r.l., Milano. ISBN: 978-88-11-67571-6 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42407175-la-via-della-bellezza
Spanish: Consuelo Martin (1940 – 2023), Vivir en Espíritu y en Verdad © 2017 https://www.edicionesobelisco.com/10282-martin-consuelo
