the22 May 2020 | £2.00 Friend

Going to ground: Dana Littlepage Smith looks for hope in an unlikely place Dear Friends,

It’s now eight weeks since we had to close the office, when our small team moved into separate homes in six different counties. With Friends House unlikely to open soon, this is likely to continue for a while.

It’s been tough at times, but we’ve been glad to be able to produce a copy of the Friend each week – along with Friends Quarterly – keeping to our regular press schedule. We’re grateful to the staff at our printers, Warners Midlands, who have maintained their service throughout the period. Printers are often ignored until something goes wrong, so it’s important that we recognise the continuity Warners has achieved.

We know there have been some issues with irregular deliveries of the magazine. These have nearly always been due to the stresses of the pandemic on the postal system, whose workers are coping magnificently despite reduced staffing and social distancing. Since 27 April there have been no Saturday deliveries, causing further delays to a few subscribers. We are happy to send replacement copies but please wait until your post has arrived on a Tuesday before requesting a replacement copy of the previous Friday’s issue.

We couldn’t have published any of these issues, of course, without your written contributions. These have been varied, relevant and considered – please keep sending them in!

Readers tell us that the Friend is a Quaker lifeline when they are unable to meet for worship in person. We have been sending free copies to those who can’t access us digitally and who can’t afford a print subscription. If you know of anyone in this situation please tell us by emailing [email protected] or leaving a message on 020 7663 1178.

We are enormously grateful to those readers who have sent donations to help us cover the extra costs of this. It has been a vital contribution as we try to weather the financial storm of the pandemic, especially given the drop in advertising revenue. If you are minded to help, your donation would be very welcome. There is now a ‘Donate’ button on our website at www.thefriend.org, or you can send a cheque or charity voucher payable to ‘The Friend Publications’ to our office address – post is being collected weekly.

Thank you for your support, Friends. In turn, let us know how we can support you.

In Friendship, Trustees & staff, the Friend Publications Ltd

Page2.indd 1 18/05/2020 14:11 Dear Friends, the It’s now eight weeks since we had to close the office, when our small INDEPENDENTFriend QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843 team moved into separate homes in six different counties. With Friends 22 May 2020 | Volume 178, No 21 House unlikely to open soon, this is likely to continue for a while. www.thefriend.org It’s been tough at times, but we’ve been glad to be able to produce a copy of the Friend each week – along with Friends Quarterly – keeping to our regular press schedule. We’re grateful to the staff at our printers, Warners Midlands, who have maintained their service throughout the period. Printers are often ignored until something goes wrong, so it’s News 4 important that we recognise the continuity Warners has achieved. Inclusion, income, Israel, and more Rebecca Hardy

We know there have been some issues with irregular deliveries of Letters 6 the magazine. These have nearly always been due to the stresses of the pandemic on the postal system, whose workers are coping Friends in Europe 8 magnificently despite reduced staffing and social distancing. Since 27 FWCC’s EMES Annual Meeting Ann Floyd April there have been no Saturday deliveries, causing further delays Thought for the week 9 to a few subscribers. We are happy to send replacement copies but ‘As the Father sent me…’ Janet Scott please wait until your post has arrived on a Tuesday before requesting a replacement copy of the previous Friday’s issue. Planting a seed 10 Losing my religion at Meeting Jonathan Wooding We couldn’t have published any of these issues, of course, without your written contributions. These have been varied, relevant and Review 12 considered – please keep sending them in! Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Richard Seebohm Ecumenical Quest

Readers tell us that the Friend is a Quaker lifeline when they are unable Review 13 to meet for worship in person. We have been sending free copies MBS: The rise to power of Reg Naulty to those who can’t access us digitally and who can’t afford a print Mohammed Bin Salman subscription. If you know of anyone in this situation please tell us by emailing [email protected] or leaving a message on 020 7663 1178. Going to ground 14 Hope in an unlikely place Dana Littlepage Smith We are enormously grateful to those readers who have sent donations to help us cover the extra costs of this. It has been a vital contribution Q Eye 16 as we try to weather the financial storm of the pandemic, especially A look at the Quaker world Elinor Smallman given the drop in advertising revenue. If you are minded to help, your Poetry 18 donation would be very welcome. There is now a ‘Donate’ button on Silence Like Rain Philip Gross our website at www.thefriend.org, or you can send a cheque or charity voucher payable to ‘The Friend Publications’ to our office address – Friends & Meetings 19 post is being collected weekly.

Thank you for your support, Friends. In turn, let us know how we can support you.

We all need help to be ourselves. In Friendship, Trustees & staff, Jonathan Griffith, 1981 Quaker faith & practice 23.37 the Friend Publications Ltd

Page2.indd 1 18/05/2020 14:11 the anti-slavery, women’s News suffrage and conscientious objection movements [email protected] before 1919 are’. QSS said this leads to a party- political bias, with Liberal MPs quoted but not Labour or Green. ‘Only one in three Barrington Dunbar,

contributors a woman’ Bayard Rustin and Anne The Quaker Socialist Knight, in addition to Spike in applications Society (QSS) has called Alfred Salter and George for hardship grants for a renewal of the Fox. It also proposes The Quaker charity The language used to talk a history chapter that Pollard and Dickson about social responsibility would allow Friends to Trust has said it received in the process of revising acknowledge the roles ‘a definite spike’ in the Quaker faith & practice. of Sojourner Truth, number of Friends The group has sent a Mohandas Gandhi and applying for financial help

statement to the Book Martin Luther King Jr in the first six weeks of the Wikimedia Commons. Photo: Salter. Ada of Discipline Revision among others in shaping Covid-19 pandemic. there are lots of Friends Committee after it found Quaker thought through The Quaker who are really struggling that in the section on their close relationships administrator for the – pensioners and families, social responsibility, with Friends.’ charity Augene Nannng and people in low-paid ‘only one in three named The submission follows told the Friend that the jobs. We want people to contributors to the chapter a period of discernment Trust issued fourteen know that we are still is a woman, and not a which started with QSS’s grants, totalling £17,500 here; we haven’t been single named contributor annual meeting during overall, from the beginning furloughed.’ is a person of colour’. Yearly Meeting 2019. of March to mid-April, Fred Ashmore, clerk of The submission also Tim Gee, from QSS, told compared to zero Kingston Friends Trusts notes that ‘in the first the Friend the group has successful applications (KFT), said that a KFT thirty entries only two received a ‘warm reply’ from early January. charity, the Poors Estate, women are featured at from the committee: ‘We She said: ‘Pretty much also ‘has a few thousands all. Despite this, the most have [also] recognised that all of the applications in of pounds a year of popular three quotes by it may be time to update the last six weeks have income, which is rarely individuals (rather than the Foundations of a True been Covid-related. called on for very much’. groups) are all by women’. Social Order (Quaker Applicants have ranged He said: ‘Trustees It also highlights that some faith & practice 23.16) from Friends running considered the needs passages, for example from which had a number of small businesses to some arising from Covid-19 and William Penn and Michael Socialist Quakers among in the cultural arts and wanted to use the money, Sorensen, use male- its drafters.’ we know these areas which is standing idle at gendered language. The submission to have been badly affected. present, in a productive A statement sent from the Book of Discipline People have asked for a few manner… We can help QSS to the Friend says: Revision Committee, hundred pounds or a very any Quaker body and any ‘QSS has suggested ten which can be read on the specific sum to help make attender in Britain Yearly new passages, by Ada QSS website, also says ends meet, or because Meeting. We haven’t had Salter, Vanessa Julye, that ‘the trade union, a cooker’s broken down any requests so far.’ Esther Mombo, Helen anti-racist and feminist or someone’s become

Steven, the Quaker movements after 1919 unemployed, or limited Women’s Group, are not referred to, but pension funds.’ YFGM lockdown Grants are currently reading group available for a maximum Members of Young WORDS of £1,000, although the Friends General Trust prefers applications Meeting (YFGM) have for a specific sum due to been considering how the limited annual budget ‘hyperlocalism’ can help ‘There is a great need of around £50,000. in the fight against climate ‘There is a great need change in a new online among Friends.’ among Friends,’ Augene reading group set up Nanning added. ‘I’ve been through the lockdown. The Pollard and Dickson Trust doing this for years and The group was set up on hardship grants. people don’t realise that with a particular focus

4 the Friend 22 May 2020 on the New Economy and lockdown,’ Jacob Webb NUMBERS how society can ‘build explains. ‘However, Zoom back better’ following the can also tire people a pandemic. lot too. Perhaps this Jacob Webb, who runs suggests a need to, in the the reading group and is post-Covid-19 world, on the YFGM Pastoral 0 work from home more Committee, told the and develop stronger The number of contributors who are people of colour Friend: ‘We wanted to community within in a section about social responsibility in the current ensure there was the our very immediate Quaker faith & practice. infrastructure in place surroundings, for example throughout the lockdown, our street or estate. This Theresa Villiers, calling countries. ‘Many people’s and beyond, to enable would not only save energy the proposals a ‘shocking livelihoods depend on Young Friends to stay and time, but also our further violation of daily interaction with the connected. We recognised planet. Could a group of international law’. community, as taxi drivers, the need to provide both people get together for It said: ‘I am a Jew market traders and so on, structured and non- a weekly choir or book myself, one who wants and when they can’t go structured sessions. Given club? What is stopping us peace and justice in the out to work, they are at that I personally am organising community at a Middle East for everyone’s increasing risk of hunger,’ really passionate about hyperlocal level?’ benefit, and my heart and she said. transforming the economy The group is now mind cry out “Not in my ‘Hanningtone Muchera, and society, and there was discussing: ‘Big ideas name!”… consider the who visited us in the UK freely available Quaker for a New Economy’; volatile and disruptive in 2018, describes it as reading material on the ‘Looking at a Green New effects such Israeli action “total blackout” in Nairobi topic online, I decided Deal’; ‘Building economic will lead to – at the very slums, fearing that hunger to set a New Economy democracy’; and ‘Making least another intifada will kill more people than reading group.’ votes matter’. with potential ripples the virus will.’ According to Jacob throughout the Middle The letter can be read Webb, a wide range of Friends press MP on E a s t .’ on the FWCC website, people from across the Israel government on the ‘Quakers helping Young Quaker community Quakers have been writing Quakers in Africa Quakers’ page. have attended sessions; to their MPs to urge in ‘difficulty’ John Muhanji, the some of whom have not action against the Israeli Many African Friends director of the Africa previously been involved government’s plan to bring and their neighbours Ministries office of with YFGM activities. The forward legislation to are in ‘considerable and Friends United Meeting, group used the Quaker formally annex significant increasing difficulty’, who visited the UK last New Economy reading parts of occupied Palestine. Quakers have said. autumn, has also written material for the first seven According to the In a joint letter from from the Kenyan city weeks. Topics discussed Quakers in Britain the clerks of the Friends of Kisumu describing include: work in the New Facebook page, the World Committee for ‘terrible floods’ around Economy; sustainable announcement has been Consultation (FWCC) Lake Victoria. energy; and models of condemned internationally Africa Section, Friends He said: ‘The heavy ownership. ‘Our groups and nearly 140 MPs have Church Kenya, and rains we are experiencing have a strong focus on signed an ‘unprecedented’ Friends United Meeting now have caused a very action: we avidly share cross-party letter calling on (Africa Ministries), they high volume of water in articles and resources the prime minister to place said that the Friends’ the rivers in Kenya and the and ways we each can sanctions on Israel if these hospitals in Kenya and flooding is beyond what make a difference, plans are carried out. Burundi are in desperate we have ever experienced both individually and It says: ‘With only weeks need of PPE and other here… Many Quakers and collectively,’ he said. ‘While to go before the 1 July equipment, just as others are spending their Covid-19 has not been a deadline, we are now in hospitals and care homes nights in classrooms with central theme, we have an urgent race to save any in Britain are. no food, and beddings discussed new ways of chance of a lasting peace Ann Floyd, clerk of for use, with children and being a society.’ between Palestine and Quaker World Relations with Covid-19 on the One idea includes Israel, and the two-state Committee (QWRC), rise. It is posing a serious the rise of ‘hyperlocal’ solution.’ said the letter also reports danger.’ communities. Friend Lois Chaber, that humanitarian needs Ann Floyd said that ‘Many people are from Winchmore Hill are considerable and Friends could offer enjoying not having to Meeting, wrote to her escalating, exacerbated support on the FWCC commute during the MP for Chipping Barnet, by lockdowns in many website donate page.

the Friend 22 May 2020 5 The lockdown may cause the

theFriend Letters early death of many isolated 173 Euston Road people, and mental health London, NW1 2BJ problems both for people isolated 020 7663 1010 and those that are fearful and shut www.thefriend.org in with others all the time. I have The Friend welcomes your views, already noted this among friends I to [email protected]. Please Subscriptions have been in contact with. keep letters short. We particularly UK £92 per year by all payment I was born in Madagascar – the welcome contributions from types including annual direct population has increased by over children, written or illustrated. debit; monthly payment by seventy-seven per cent in a few direct debit £7.75; online only Please include your full postal decades and there are those dying £74 per year. Contact Penny address, even when sending of starvation and dehydration Dunn: 020 7663 1178 emails, along with your Meeting because their resources must be [email protected] name or other Quaker affiliation. shared between an ever-increasing In essentials unity, number of people. Wildlife is at Advertising in non-essentials liberty, risk. I saw a TV programme where Contact George Penaluna: in all things charity. a family with ten children hadn’t 01535 630230 enough water between them. [email protected] In Botswana the population has increased by nearly eighteen Editorial Lockdown good or bad? There have been many different per cent in a decade. Villagers Articles, images, correspondence want to kill elephants because should be emailed to specialist suggestions in different countries as to how to deal with they are dangerous. Villagers are [email protected] fighting for decreasing resources or sent to the address above. the coronavirus. Who knows how to get out of lockdown? What I (particularly water and land). mean is, if we don’t get general We also need to ban gas- Editor guzzlers, excessive road-building, Joseph Jones immunity to the virus – by lots of us getting it – then like ‘flu’ it empty housing (unless it is being Journalist will remain a killer for those in renovated) and severely curtail Rebecca Hardy bad health. We will only know flying. This would save lives on Production and office manager in retrospect (if there is honest into the future, not just for ‘five Elinor Smallman assessment of the different minutes’. And why do we suddenly Sub-editor approaches in various countries) feel that we ought to live forever, George Osgerby which has worked best. Until rather than having an emphasis Arts correspondent then, we will not know if general on everyone having lives that are Rowena Loverance lockdown has been good or bad. rewarding? After our government spent Sally Phillips Environment correspondent Hastings Meeting, East Sussex Laurie Michaelis huge amounts on Tamiflu and dished it out to as many people Clerk of trustees as possible, I didn’t know anyone Gathering by Zoom Paul Jeorrett who actually died of the ‘flu’ Thank Heaven for Zoom! The concerned, but I did know a young past few weeks of imposed social ISSN: 0016-1268 person and an old person who isolation would have not been as both had lasting problems from happy without it. I belong to a The Friend Publications Limited the inoculation. (One has died small, close-knit Local Meeting is a registered charity, since, the other is still suffering.) in south Australia. Even before number 211649 If we really want to ‘save lives’, the government restrictions came we have to ban white sugar, white into force we decided to meet by Printed by flour, processed foods and give out Zoom. Several of our members Warners free contraceptives the world over. are in vulnerable groups and not Midlands Plc, We know that most of those all are skilled IT users, so we were The Maltings, dying from the virus are those who all hesitant to embark on this new Manor Lane, have ‘medical problems’. Healthy concept of a virtual Meeting. Bourne, food intake, exercise, having close Our first experimental Meeting Lincolnshire social contacts are all central to was an adventure and we were PE10 9PH good health. delighted to welcome several

6 the Friend 22 May 2020 people who have not been able to We reviewed the evaluation and example of literary excellence, it is attend Meeting regularly because discerned our support for this an important document of its time they live too far away – some are approach, we have been part of and influenced the work of the hundreds of kilometres away. We the group deciding where the next following generation of moralist have now met for over a month cohort of LDWs will go, and we authors, including Thomas Hardy. using Zoom and are finding it have adopted the strategy that However, in this genre nothing amazingly gathered. We start, not guides all Britain Yearly Meeting can rival I Promessi Sposi (The when the Meeting is open but by (BYM) and Woodbrooke support to Betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni, welcoming each person as they Quaker communities. published in 1840-2. Manzoni used connect, and once the greetings are The evaluation of the Vibrancy an account of the seventeenth- done, it has proved easy to centre Project has shown the value of century plague in Lombardy to down. We now hold a midweek having a worker based within come to terms with his personal semi-structured Meeting as well, reach of Meetings to support and grief by exploring the relationship and are hoping to continue this reinvigorate them to sustain their between faith and pestilence. His once the restrictions are lifted. viability as worshipping groups novel is widely regarded not only These Meetings will keep us in and to express their witness in as the most important in the Italian touch with far-flung Friends in a the world. We want to help our language, but the book which way not possible before. meetings and Quaker communities gave the modern language its first Topsy Evans be the best they can be. We literary expression. South Australia and Northern believe that LDWs are the best Clive Ashwin Territory Regional Meeting way we’ve found to do this, and Aylsham Meeting, Norfolk Not remembered? the overwhelming majority of Quakers who’ve experienced local With all the commemorations Additional benefits of the second world war I am development support agree. While In March, members of Craven and reminded of something that they are giving the same kind of Keighley Area Meeting had been concerns me. The memory of a assistance as other staff, the way it’s looking forward to our annual Quaker who worked hard to help delivered – working with meetings weekend at Glenthorne, which we German Jews before and after in one part of Britain, getting to have enjoyed now for twenty years the war, yet makes no appearance know them better than is possible or more. Following the pandemic saying so in our Friends House for staff working across the whole lockdown we received back the fees Library. Does anybody remember Yearly Meeting – means meetings which had been paid in advance. Kathleen Brookhouse – married feel a connection and ‘ownership’ of Some have returned all or part name Schmitz-Hertzberg? LDWs in a way they don’t for some of this money to help to keep Our Friend Kurt Strauss and his other BYM work. Glenthorne afloat for the benefit of family attribute his survival and The Covid-19 pandemic makes Friends and others in future. that of his parents to Kathleen. I this even more important. We don’t The full-page advert in the Friend wonder if there are others alive who have the luxury of time or money (24 April) from Woodbrooke is a have their lives to thank her for. to do everything, so we need to helpful reminder to us all of the During the war Kathleen invest in the things that work best. valuable contribution made to us was employed by North Wales Emma Roberts by such Quaker centres. The advert Committee for Refugees. In May Clerk, QLCC includes the following: ‘We have 1945 she was appointed to work Lizzie Rosewood been heartened by the donations on the Germany desk of the British Assistant clerk, QLCC from both individuals and from Friends Service Council in Friends Quaker Meetings. Support has House. I met her in her home in Widespread renown come from… waiving of course Toronto before her death last year Further to Roger Ellis’ fascinating fees already paid…’ Not mentioned aged 102. Anyone else know of her? account of the early Quaker is the fact that what was initially a Judith Badman ‘enthusiast’ Solomon Eccles (1 payment has now become a gift and Malvern Meeting, Worcestershire May), I should add that Eccles was therefore eligible for Gift Aid. given widespread public renown I so much hope that, wherever Local development workers as a result of being included as possible, Friends are making We want to reassure Friends that the character Solomon Eagle in use of this twenty-five per cent Quaker Life Central Committee William Harrison Ainsworth’s additional benefit for such places as (QLCC) has been fully involved novel Old St Paul’s (1841), set Glenthorne, Woodbrooke and other in the decisions about rolling in the Great Plague of London Quaker and non-Quaker centres. out local development workers 1664-5. Although few would now Michael Yates (LDWs) across the Yearly Meeting. regard Ainsworth’s novel as an Settle Meeting, North Yorkshire

the Friend 22 May 2020 7 hen conducted face-to-face, FWCC’s EMES Annual the Annual Meeting of Friends World Committee for Consultation’s (FWCC’s) Meeting went online Europe and Middle East Section (EMES) blends Ann Floyd reports formal sessions and informal interactions. The formal ones cover business and structured learning, while the informal ones provide for personal connection and new ideas. This Zoom Meeting ‘We were reminded of had a very different balance – informal interaction was Wlimited – but it was a good opportunity to experiment. the wealth of resources The theme was ‘Heeding the prophecy of our sons and daughters, daring to dream dreams and see visions’ (Joel 2: available to us.’ 28), and the focus was sustainability. This had been planned long before the pandemic, but proved very prescient. By the time we met, lockdowns in many countries had raised awareness of the impact of our ‘old normal’ way of life and shown the appeal of what could be a ‘new (and more sustainable) normal’. There was a sense of an opportunity. Like many others, I came with a hunger to play a better part in the Quaker move towards sustainability. The Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) representative for climate change, Lindsey Fielder Cook, shed new light on this for me. QUNO’s work makes a difference to world leaders. But implementation depends on citizenry being ready for change. This is where we can contribute. We can try to be examples of sustainable ways of living. We can engage with whatever opportunities for action come our way, or which we can create. And we can ‘speak out’ literally and by letter. Being informed will help us, and enhance our credibility. We were reminded of the wealth of resources available, and of the work of Quakers around the world. The FWCC website is a key resource: its sustainability timeline indicates key global milestones and there is a database of sustainability case studies. There are links to QUNO’s work, including A Government Official’s Toolkit, and there is another toolkit with which we can plan local events. Earlier this year FWCC asked ‘What are we called to do?’ and plans are in hand for a webinars and conversations. Andrew Lane, of Quaker Council for European Affairs, told us about how staff there anticipate years of political and economic uncertainty. How do Quakers respond? Some of our civil liberties have been curtailed temporarily, with good reason, but restoring them may prove challenging. Our final act was to pay tribute to our executive secretary, Marisa Johnson, retiring after twelve years of outstanding service. The EMES clerk’s concluding minute speaks for me: ‘The success of this meeting was not about the food, the weather or working computers; it was in the open hearts of all who participated. We are aware of the suffering caused by Covid-19, the virus without borders, and we have been privileged to be able to connect online and come together as a community of Friends. In these uncertain times, with ongoing concerns about people, planet, all of God’s creation, let us dare to dream with courage and compassion, allowing ourselves to be swept forward in God’s grace.’ n

Photo courtesy of Ann Floyd. Photo courtesy of Ann is clerk of Quaker World Relations Committee.

8 the Friend 22 May 2020 e are so accustomed to Thought for the week: the dramatic account of the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, with Janet Scott reads from its ‘mighty wind’ and ‘tongues of flame’, that we the Gospel of John often overlook this gentler story in John. Here, on the evening of the resurrection, Jesus himself gives the Spirit to his disciples. For John, as ‘As the Father sent me, so I for Acts, this is in effect the church-founding moment, setting the pattern and the agenda for the community. WIt is a transforming moment. The disciples are fearful, also send you.’ behind locked doors. The presence of the risen Jesus brings them joy and peace. They know the cost. Jesus (John 20:21) shows them his wounds. The resurrection does not cancel the crucifixion, it incorporates it. It is a moment of new creation. Just as in Genesis God breathes the creature of dust into life, so Jesus breathes the Spirit into his followers. The same verb, ενεφυσησεν (enephusesen), is used as in the Septuagint, Greek, version. They are a new humanity. This new community is given both a mission and an authority. The mission is a sending out. John uses two verbs for ‘sending’. Jesus was sent by the Father, αποστελλειν (apostellein), but Jesus sends the disciples using πεμπειν (pempein). Perhaps John does this to suggest that not all have the role of apostles, but that between them the community will fill all Jesus’ roles. Some will be healers, some teachers, some preachers, some will build up communities, some will resist injustice. All will need to be connected by the love for each other that Jesus commanded, and by the indwelling Spirit which he gives them to teach, lead and empower them. With the gift of the Spirit comes the authority to deal with sin. The first half of verse 23 deals with the forgiveness of sins, and uses the same verb for forgiveness (αφιημι, aphiemi, letting go) as is found in the Lord’s prayer. I am grateful to Elaine Miles for pointing out that the second half of the verse is more difficult to translate (24 April). The translators may have been influenced by the nearest parallels in Matthew 16:19 and 18:18 where the language used is of opposites, binding and loosing. These verses are not necessarily about sin, but are more likely about decision making and discernment. John is writing about sin (αμαρτία) but uses the verb κρατειν, which has a range of meanings mostly to do with power, strength or control. Perhaps the best translation here is with the word ‘overcome’: ‘whoever’s sins you let go, they are let go for them, and whoever’s you overcome, they are overcome’. This means that the discernment is not between what is and is not forgivable, but between what can be forgiven easily and what needs harder work. We can see this as a promise that when we deal with, say, war, injustice and poverty, we shall overcome! The sense of the presence of the Spirit in our Meetings is not just for our own enjoyment. It is to send us (even as we stay at home), each in our own way, to live like Christ, with the power to love, to forgive and to overcome. n

The apparition of Jesus to the disciples, Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1311. apparition of Jesus The Janet is from Cambridge Jesus Lane Meeting.

the Friend 22 May 2020 9 Unusual things can happen at Meeting. Jonathan Wooding tells of the one where he lost his religion

‘A seed’s been planted today.’

he upstairs room is narrow with consciously brought with me, reading the final ‘Collects of a low ceiling, a thin crossbeam the Kingdom’ season. Advent is only a week away. painted black giving a sense of ‘Are you new to the Quakers?’ a woman with powerful some antiquity. The walls have spectacles and a native Indian smock had asked me at the been whitewashed, and on the door. I had been peering into the Meeting house through floor is a cream, marble-effect what appeared to be a shop-front window when the door linoleum. There is a small sink was opened to me. at the other end, as if this were ‘I’m new here, but I’ve been to Meetings before, yes,’ I once a bedsit room, and there began awkwardly. is space enough for only some thirty chairs – some The woman looked disappointed and ushered me into with a shaped metal frame, others wooden and rickety. an L-shaped room. Plenty of smiling people chatting here. The chairs form something of a circle around a low There is the requisite collapsible table on which are laid Ttable which supports a single yellow rose in a tall out campaigning leaflets of all sorts. glass, two tumblers and a jar of water, a bright red I raise my eyes from the Kingdom Collects – ‘Give large-print edition of Quaker faith & practice, a book us the will each day to live in life eternal’ – and scan entitled A World Religions Bible, and a copy of the A6 the faces around me. Most have closed their eyes in booklet Advices & queries. Two sash windows, rising meditation, though one or two smile as I catch their eye almost from floor level, look out onto a mews, and I and politely avert their gaze. A woman with scrubbed find myself reluctantly sitting with my back to them, cheeks and a shock of grey hair, her eyes blue above her claustrophobic, remembering ironically the elation high colour, stands and speaks of her attempts at ‘working discerned in D H Lawrence’s character Will when through the silence’ of the Meeting. We must imagine that he enters Lincoln Cathedral in my A-level text, The we are sitting here with those who have gone before us, Rainbow: ‘Then he pushed open the door, and the and with those who will follow. great, pillared gloom was before him, in which his Some minutes later an elderly woman wearing a knitted soul shuddered and rose from her nest. His soul leapt, cardigan and black slacks, sitting over by the top of the soared up into the great church. His body stood still, staircase that leads up to this room, speaks, remaining absorbed by the height. His soul leapt up into the seated, of a book she is reading on the subject of kindness: gloom, into possession, it reeled, it swooned with a ‘When asked what the most important quality was, the great escape, it quivered in the womb, in the hush and Dalai Lama answered, “Kindness”,’ she says impressively, gloom of fecundity, like seed of procreation in ecstasy.’ and I think, inevitably, of William Wordsworth and his I notice some dried mud has detached itself from ‘nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love’. the loosely-laced hiking boots I am wearing, and that My eyes fall upon a depressed-looking man, one of already I have trampled this a little. I focus on my only three men. His long, craggy face is looking down, copy of Celebrating Common Prayer, which I have self- apparently uninspired by the Dalai Lama, his hair wispy

10 the Friend 22 May 2020 Photo: emma valerio / Unsplash. Photo: emma valerio

over encroaching baldness though, surprisingly, tied pomposity and authoritarianism, as I had a secret grasp back in a short ponytail sticking out rather like a teapot of ‘true religion’, which would get me through and, well, handle. He is dressed in layers of green – a collared make churchgoing relevant once again for others. This shirt, a corduroy jacket, and corduroy trousers. would be kindness, no? So, why am I angry? For all I I am not profoundly in the silence of the Meeting, think that the bishop is being disingenuous – a vocation as this man appears to be. I am agitated, in fact, by to a self-supporting role indeed, more like raising the words of a pastoral letter from the local bishop, attendance in the parishes on the cheap, and increasing read recently at a morning confidence in a company that is ailing on the spiritual communion I’d attended. My stock exchange so other people keep their paid jobs ‘In the silence attendance, after some years and palaces – I am effectively a self-seeking pot calling of this Meeting of absence, at this Quaker the self-satisfied kettle black. If no money is on offer Meeting, is down to the I’m really not that interested, apparently, in pastoral I am coming to anger I felt as his message care and evangelism. No, not those particular acts of the realisation unfolded. kindness. Well, the Dalai Lama too is well-provided for, I scuffle my feet again, isn’t he? Easy for him, and the bishop, to talk. that the kindly feeling embarrassed at all I look again at the man opposite, dressed in green. bishop has the dirt I have brought I am fearful of his sombre expression. ‘Afflictions bow inadvertently in. There’s no concealing me down to earth’, wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his the mess. I am making it ‘Dejection: An Ode’: rumbled me.’ worse. I fold my legs, then remember I should be sitting But oh! each visitation in an open position contemplating transcendence. Suspends what nature gave me at my birth, The bishop asked us to ‘call out those who could have My shaping spirit of Imagination. a vocation to be self-supporting Priests, Deacons and The man looks up briefly through the window, then Readers within your local community’. And despite looks back at his outstretched feet. I too look down, all his elaboration about ‘moving on in growth’ and aware that I have been staring, and realise that the witnessing to the gospel, the reason for his calling out soil at my feet is, of course, from the vegetable plot ‘self-supporting’ (unpaid) ministers became clear – there at the bottom of our garden. A seed’s been planted is an ‘unprecedented shortfall’ in the church’s finances. today. Wordsworth replies to Coleridge: ‘O joy! that In the silence of this Meeting I am coming to the in our embers / Is something that doth live.’ Dejection realisation that the kindly bishop has inadvertently dissolves, anger ascends in the silence. To make an end rumbled me. I wanted to be called to the church is to make a beginning. n ministry, a prestigious vocation, believing I could ‘overlook’ all the Church of England’s anachronism, Jonathan is from Totnes Meeting.

the Friend 22 May 2020 11 or many years Dietrich Bonhoeffer was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s general secretary of the Conference of European Churches. Cross-referencing this book with Bonhoeffer’s own Ecumenical Quest Letters and Papers from Prison offers illuminating takes on theology. It even by Keith Clements makes me more comfortable about the divide between theist and nontheist Friends. Bonhoeffer was most at home in the network of ecumenical activists in the 1930s. This paved the way Review by Richard for the World Council of Churches, which emerged Fafter the war. You may recall that James I, in launching Seebohm his translation of the Bible, laid down only one really important condition. This was that the Greek word ekklesia (ἐκκλησία) should be rendered ‘church’ and not ‘community’. This gave authority to the country’s established church and validated the divine right of kings. Luther’s Bible, used by Bonhoeffer, says gemeinde, which indeed means community. Thus he was able to say that an ecumenical committee could have a theology of its own, which was not prescribed by any one of its constituent churches. A question for the churches was: is the Holy Spirit at work and, if so, what is the Spirit actually doing? The resulting ‘theology from below’ made it possible for Bonhoeffer to challenge the nationalism of the established German protestant church. This tried to excuse itself with the concept of ‘orders of creation’, implying that racial differences were part of divine providence. (The orthodox churches have always followed this tradition – with far less opprobrium.) Bonhoeffer was able to support the ‘Confessing Church’ which struggled to keep its head above ideological water amid mounting persecution. Bonhoeffer noted that the Old Testament contained almost no advice on redemption or on preparation for an afterlife. A Messiah was awaited, but he would create a heaven on earth. Keeping the law was thus for the sake of your children and your children’s children. As for Christians, he saw sinfulness not in terms of worldly transgressions or of an inherited Fall, but as a lack of concern for what could be put right in the wider world. And redemption was for us to be stand-ins for Christ – when, as Quakers might put it, God has no hands but ours. Concern for our own salvation wasn’t relevant. Bonhoeffer had no time for ‘death of God’ theology or for the exponents of ‘religionless Christianity’. God couldn’t be wholly ‘other’. But he used the term ‘myth’ for some of the Gospel messages. The parables, for example, have an impact that stands alongside the narrative Gospel. Their characters are as real to us as Hamlet or King Lear. I have a quotation that I wish I could place: ‘The cultural particularity of Jesus is universal paradigmality.’ Then there is peace. Bonhoeffer was adamant that it must be built on truth and justice. The peace movement couldn’t be just an expression of pious sentiments and goodwill. You couldn’t stand back and wait for the reign of Christ in glory. To break out you had to admit to struggle. n

Richard is from Oxford Meeting.

12 the Friend 22 May 2020 he paradox of Saudi Arabia is that MBS: The rise to power it is a close ally of the United States, and that it has a conservative version of Mohammed bin of Islam. In the attack on the twin towers in New York on 9/11, fifteen out of the nineteen hijackers were Salman, by Ben Hubbard Saudis, as was their leader, Osama bin Laden. This book is a portrait of the country’s crown prince and deputy prime minister, Mohammed bin Salman – an Review by Reg Naulty autocrat on the rise. It tells us much about his programme to modernise Saudi Arabia. TSaudi Arabia has a longstanding relationship with a fundamentalist form of Islam, Wahhabism, which has its own political agency – the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Until reforms in 2016, this force of morals police ensured that shops were closed at prayer time, herded people into the mosques for prayer, made women cover up in public, and hounded down the sale of alcohol. But in 2016, in a surprise decree, bin Salman stripped the Commission of its police powers. He also deprived Saudi Arabia’s royal family of much of its political power. Previously, princes ruled by consensus and maintained relatively independent power centres. In order to acquire economic control ‘MbS’, as he is colloqually known, summoned several hundred of the richest men in Saudi Arabia to an urgent conference at the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Once there, their phones and wallets were confiscated, and they were locked in and bullied until they divulged their earnings from corruption. When that was done, they were allowed to leave, though with location-tracking devices attached to their ankles. Internationally, MbS has no feeling for Palestinians and supports Israel, since it opposes Iran-backed Hezbollah. For similar reasons he became involved in the war in Yemen, believing it would be a brief campaign. After five years his forces are still there. He has no time for al-Qaeda, Islamic State, or the Muslim Brotherhood, since they are international organisations and he is a nationalist. Besides, says Ben Hubbard, he does not control them. Like all wars, the violent conflicts in the Middle East are a stain on humanity – from over forty years of war in Afghanistan, to the civil war in Syria, to Yemen (not to mention Western ‘interventions’). People in these countries want peace, as do the millions in refugee camps around their borders. As is often the case, Western countries are complicit. Under the Obama administration, companies in the US sold Saudi Arabia over $65bn dollars worth of arms. According to Oxfam, £6.4bn worth of UK arms have been sold to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners fighting in Yemen since 2015. There are strong factions in Middle Eastern countries which want peace more than we do. Islam is a house of many mansions. Recall president Anwar Sadat of Egypt who, influenced by Sufism, made peace with Israel in 1979. Surely, among the religious leadership, there is a constituency which knows that the deep spiritual drift of their faith is towards unity rather than division. n

Reg is from Canberra Meeting, Australia.

the Friend 22 May 2020 13 Going to ground: Dana Littlepage Smith looks for hope in an unlikely place

‘Waiting may well be the compost in a life of prayer.’

have a friend who has let the word ‘hope’ skins, slickets of wet grass, and the alligator bumps of drift from her lexicon. She has good reason. rotting pineapple? She says hope takes her away from her Of all places, hope may be buried here in the leaf present, which includes pain and loss. mould. It seems seeded in Christ’s words: ‘Unless a My friend is a compassionate and wise kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains woman who has witnessed systemic injustice. only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’ Maybe for today she is choosing not to invest Perhaps we fear hope because of what it might in a chimera which insists there will be a demand? Back to Emily Dickinson who went on: better future. I respect her, along with many Buddhist friends, who seem to avoid the H-word. I’ve heard it in the chillest land – And yet, as I go through these weeks circumscribed by And on the strangest Sea – pandemic, the notion of hope will not leave me. I take it Yet – never – in Extremity, Iwith me to the compost pile. I need to dig. I need to lose It asked a crumb – of me. myself in these locked-down days. Some would disagree, hope asks too much of us. As I sweat, I wonder what to do when I’m short on Hip-deep in last year’s waste, I hold an avocado seed. resilience and long on loss. I dig and I dig, finding leggy After being buried for nine months, it is splitting. It is white roots and shoots, deprived of light, yet sturdily the only way an avocado will ever grow tree-ward: first it alive in their underworld of darkness. I examine these has to be broken. subterranean survivors, mulling over the divide that In today’s heat, I can feel the slow-burn in the black grows between the enfranchised and the poor. Some bin. There’s no altering this process of transmutation. speak of this virus as a trigger event, a crisis which might The time it takes to change is the time it takes. We wait lead us to new opportunity, a more just world. We hope a season. and pray. Far from ignoring the specificity of this life, I pay Emily Dickinson wrote that: attention to each bit: the sticks, straw, the egg cup which ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers – is home for a colossal slug, the loo roll which is turned That perches in the soul – to snail lacework. And sings the tune without the words – I get stuck in. I can taste the salt and decomposition And never stops – at all – on my skin. Dirt moons my fingernails; my feet are earthed and covered in earth. Far from ignoring the ‘The tune without the words’, I hear a truth singing present moment, I attend. there. What if the nub of hope is that we cannot know Attention is what it’s all about. Simone Weil says that where it is leading? What if hope is the chemistry and the only reason for an education is that we learn how to spirit of change that exists even in a heap of dead banana attend. We wait with what is. Waiting may well be the

14 the Friend 22 May 2020 Photo: Edward Howell / iStock.com. Howell Photo: Edward

compost in a life of prayer. see what I want to see? Does hope require new eyes? I wonder, does hope root finally in the loam of letting Later when I unearth a pair of buried scissors that I go? Hope for what hope sees not, to invert Paul’s letter didn’t know we had lost, I don’t recognise them for what to the Romans. In the depth of a crisis, of what feels like they are. utter abandonment, we hear the age-old cry: ‘My God, Is hope the recovery of something lost which we have my God, why have you forsaken me?’ not even realised is gone? This is the terrifying language of change beyond our In Exeter Meeting’s Zoom this morning, Friends control. This may be the holy ground of paradox. The remind me that any human utopia is in itself a kind of humus of ultimate humbling. composting, a place of radical transformation. In Islam Here poets and prophets have suggested we do need to and in Christianity, if paradise was a garden, the thing abandon hope. Dante the pilgrim signposts hell with the we might most need from it is its compost heap: that words ‘All hope abandon ye who enter here’. Maybe our powerhouse of change, the place where hope like a live foreknown, locked-down hope is too paltry a thing to writhe of worms breeds. carry into a world changed beyond recognition. Maybe I ask my isolated parents, at the end of life in we’d still only be hoping for lockdown in their nursing home in the USA, what do ‘This may be what we can imagine, when you hope for? Something with substance. Change. My what’s needed is that which dad says he may not live to see this more equitable the holy ground we have not yet dared to world: a healthcare system that addresses the needs of all of paradox. imagine? – the wildly hopeful vision of life, liberty, the pursuit of The humus Maybe hope grows most happiness for every human being. truly in the ground of our Maybe this pandemic will teach us, as the medical of ultimate dark night, the ultimate anthropologist Paul Farmer says, that the world’s humbling.’ stripping? problems really are our problems. So for today I keep Saint John of the Cross messing around, working the dirt, and relishing the writes that: ‘When evening comes, you will be examined humus, the earth that keeps me blissfully grounded. in love. Learn to love as God desires to be loved and As I finish writing these words my husband, who has abandon your own ways of acting.’ Do I want, when this been hard at the compost heap this last hour, shirt off pandemic is over, to be a little less like I was when it and sweating, ducks his head into the study. We’ve done started? Am I willing to be that seed dropped into the a good job there, each on different days, each in our own unfathomable seethe of the compost? specific way. We, us, together, each hefting our spadeful, Lifting my fork, nearing the end of the day, I catch a believing in what we cannot see. n splash of silver. It’s a baby spoon, I think. Yet as I sieve, it’s gone. Later I find a twist of tinfoil. Did I, do I, only Dana is from Exeter Meeting.

the Friend 22 May 2020 15 Q Eye A lyrical offering There was a young clerk from Carlisle [email protected] Who usually spent quite a while Drafting minutes and greetings To send to her Meetings And still always managed to smile. The Friend in flight Answering God Pages of the Friend On his blog, suffolkvicar, Barbara Miller, Brant Broughton Meeting joined the leaves of a tree Felixstowe-based after a creative Quaker Reverend Andrew I ask forgiveness of any members of my own transformed them into Dotchin offers musings readers if I accidentally congregation who are birds (see below). and meditations. During misrepresent or do happy to be known as Alison Meaton, of Lent this year they took not explain fully the Quanglicans as well as Penzance Meeting, on a Quakerly flavour, meaning of the words.’ members of the Friends shared a photo on as he drew on Advices Each of the ensuing Meeting in Felixstowe.’ Twitter, saying: ‘I’ve & queries in a series thoughtful offerings He shared: ‘It has been made #Peace birds to entitled ‘Answering contain passages to read humbling to have not hang in tree in my front God’, which can be (one from Advices & only my usual audience garden. I knew stashed found at: https://bit.ly/ queries, another from the but also Friends from copies [of the Friend] AnsweringGod scriptures), a reflection, as far afield as the would be useful one In his introduction a prayer, and suggestions USA, Canada and New day. Neighbour is a Gulf he writes: ‘This year I for actions. Zealand comment on war vet and I respect will be writing a daily But what inspired the words and I hope his Union Jack flags reflection on the Advices this exploration of a that some may return to commemorating those & queries used by the Quaker text during them at times outside of who died in war but Society of Friends as a Lent? Andrew told Eye: Lent.’ don’t like jingoistic VE guide for their personal ‘For the last dozen Now that Easter celebrations.’ and common life… I or so years, in an has passed and he has She later told Eye do this hesitantly as I attempt to make my reflected on the project that the pages she used have much admiration own observance of as a whole, Andrew to craft her feathered for their common life Lent a time of growth muses: ‘This year’s words chums all featured and my experience of instead just a time of have been different to articles about the Peace Meeting house worship going without a treat previous ones as I had Testimony. is extremely limited. So or an annoying habit, a definite feel that the I have written a daily Advices chose me not the reflection to help me other way around… It journey toward Easter has been wonderful to and beyond with joy and share the journey with purpose… others and a privilege ‘Advices & queries has to provide the fuel for always seemed to me the prayer and action of to be a gentle way of fellow pilgrims. encouraging the faithful ‘It there was one thing to face the challenge of the Advices have taught the journey intentionally me during this time it and answer the questions is to remember again that God asks of us… to surrender myself to ‘I was a little hesitant the love of God who to begin this work as knows the road ahead the Advices are words much better than I do. that I am happy to Advice 28 cautions us champion but they against “great busyness” are not the words of (a common sin amongst my own Franciscan the professionally Rule. However, I was religious) and allow encouraged by a few Jesus to take the wheel.’

Photo: Alison Meaton. Sharing songs were attending and it The collection of During an online was suggested it could be sixteen songs can gathering last month based around creating a be found at https:// Young Friends General playlist together.’ bit.ly/YFGMplaylist, Meeting (YFGM) created Leilani explained: ‘I and Leilani said: ‘I’ve a spirituality music saw a great opportunity discovered some amazing playlist. for the activity to not tracks I’d never heard YFGM is the national only be bonding but also of before… I hope in community for an opportunity for us sharing the tracks here Quakers aged eighteen to share our experiences that not only anyone to thirty(ish). Friends of our spirituality who was in attendance, usually gather in person with one another and but also anyone curious, for three weekends a year appreciate, as ever, the can check out the songs – in February, May and diversity of spiritual that were chosen.’ October – and are hosted beliefs, experiences by various Meeting and knowledge that Powerful and houses around the we, as Quakers, have to gathered country. Prior to each, share with one another How many Friends have a ‘planning weekend’ and seems to keep us joined in Meeting for takes place to discern the discovering new truths Worship while perched activities and agenda for together. in the branches of a tree? ‘Participants were the event. Mansfield Meeting Photo: Kristan Hopkins. Eye recently spoke to asked to select songs that have been worshipping Leilani Rabemananjara, represented aspects of remotely each Sunday one Friend shared Jo a member of YFGM’s their spirituality… and during the lockdown Farrow’s reflections on outreach committee, what was selected by and local Friend Vivien the healing power of who described how the the end of the session Whitaker wrote to music [Quaker faith lockdown measures spanned from Brian tell Eye about their & practice 21.38]… affected the latest Eno, to folk, to classical experiences: ‘Friends can Another Friend mailed planning weekend, which pieces which were all a choose their location, a Shaker hymn, “Tis the was held 18-19 April: real joy to listen back overlooking the garden Gift to be Simple”… ‘The decision was made to after the weekend is popular and last week Hearing the noise of the to move the planning was over and come to a Friend stopped her geese was a reminder weekend online via new understandings of cycle ride to climb a tree of Mary Oliver’s poem Zoom to allow Friends other Young Friends’ and worship with us. [‘Wild Geese’]… to still come together to spiritualities.’ She said: “It was noisy – ‘We also think of plan the activities and Friends shared geese chasing each other, Friends who are unable agenda for the YFGM what was behind their but nice to be up high to leave their homes as gathering online and still selections, and later looking down on people they are shielding and continue to connect as explored together the from my little safe spot.” include a wellbeing a community.’ The next importance of music: ‘Our Meetings for meditation every week, YFGM gathering, on ‘Many Friends stated Worship have been as for example, “Guided 23-25 May, will be the that music was anything powerful and gathered Meditation To Find first ever held online. from central to quite as if we were in the Peace In Uncertain Leilani attended important to expressing same room. Ministry is Times” [https://bit.ly/ the Zoom event with or exploring their collected and circulated EyeMeditation] which another hat on as spirituality or emotional via email (and post). offers an image of a lake well, that of ‘planning states, to a couple of For example, last week to reflect on.’ weekend newcomer’ – a Friends who felt they role that YFGM has to were indifferent to music above other mediums ensure fresh ideas and From ‘Wild Geese’ contributions are part of to express or explore the planning process. their spirituality. One Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, As part of this role, Friend even explained the world offers itself to your imagination, she told Eye: ‘I was asked that his spirituality calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – if I’d contribute a… felt an intellectual, not over and over announcing your place bonding group activity emotional matter, and so in the family of things. for Young Friends who music felt irrelevant.’ By Mary Oliver

the Friend 22 May 2020 17 Silence, like rain, falling on the Quaker Meeting, on the congregation Poem: Silence of rooks at the edge of the wood, on the sangha where a young monk enters late, at the back, folds his saffron robe in place Like Rain a little too carefully, then even he forgets himself in silence, like rain falling, spreading West, like evening, over fens dark with the bad dreams of prehistory, rain spreading out in fans, flared wings Philip Gross of rufflement across grey sea like the grey of the sky with wind visible; Philip is from Cardiff Meeting. silence falling on deep forest, pine and spruce accepting it like their own in-breath, silence as particular in detail and uncountable as the pine needles; falling evenhandedly on drought and rising flood, tapping windows like our tapping the barometer, the long-range forecast, nagging questions; silence falling on the just and unjust, like a blessing on parched fields, like a thrill of recognition, an astonishment of welcome raising petrichor, the savour of new-wetted earth; elsewhere, equally, a weight of loneliness, shouldered daily; a family curse falling into a pale child’s locked room, the name of the lock, Our Little Secret; storm drains overflowing, a choked gush roiling up; rain on a crowded market, in a drench at the first gunshot, just before the screaming; silence drowned by an absence of sound so loud with power and prohibition that we’re dumbed; sometimes we have to cry out for true silence again; a steady downpour darkening the pavement, muddying the sky; falling at last after centuries of more and more elaborate rain-dances, all found wanting, falling as a gift; silence disguised as music, not the notes, the five, six strands of voices buttressed one against each other in the high vault Thomas Tallis built but the echoing space between them, vast enough that clouds form in the rafters, fine rain falling, silence falling through the shredding veils of sound; rain so clear and minute, if you could live up close enough to see, it’s almost nothing, and never the same drops falling yet a whole world reflected in each, so many that what can our minds say but ‘the same’; silence like rain dissolving riverbanks, distinctions between what is sound and what its opposite; that can crispen our hearing to a shock of definition and can loosen us, to nothing but itself; a silence that’s a speaking that is its own listening, that gradually confides: this is nothing to do with the absence of sound; a silence that dispenses with itself, that shucks off ‘silence’ like its dry husk, the word and the thought of it; that makes us a place in the world; silence fed like rainfall from a cycle too vast and slow to see except in glimpses, say, the cloud-piles building on the sea horizon, heavy with the future, weather, coming. Silence that is our whole habitation, here-ness, how this water-planet n

Photo: SpicyTruffel / iStock.com. Photo: SpicyTruffel breathes and speaks and thinks.

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For details of how to place a notice on this page email [email protected] or call 01535 630230. Friends&Meetings John COOMBS 5 May, peacefully Ethel Mary ROBERTS 28 April at Deaths at home. Widower of Joan, partner The Moorings Care Home. Aunt, David (John) BELL 9 May, of Jenny Pates, father of David and great aunt and sister. Member of at St Margaret’s Care Home, Janet. Member of Stevenage Leiston Meeting, formerly Edgware. Edinburgh. Member of South Meeting. Aged 91. Cremation Aged 89. Funeral held 19 May. Edinburgh Meeting, formerly of 9.30am Friday 22 May. Memorial Enquiries Tony Brown Funeral Glasgow and Milngavie Meetings. Meeting later. Donations: Quaker Service, email: [email protected] Aged 82. A quiet funeral was held Peace & Social Witness. No phone 21 May. Enquiries Sara Davies, tel. calls please. Enquiries: Diary 0131 551 1176. [email protected] QUAKERS & BUSINESS GROUP Barbara BOWMAN 11 May. Ben FARREY (né Miles) 13 May, peacefully at home following a AGM AND GATHERING on Peacefully in Milton House Nursing Saturday 6 June 2020. Presentations Home, Settle. Member of Settle return of cancer. Son of Cressida Miles, grandson of Carol Shaw, both on how Q&B has spent its money Meeting, previously of Scarborough and suggestions on future projects. and Barnet Meetings, and formerly of Ealing Meeting. Husband of Ellie, father of Rose. Aged 38. Enquiries: To be held online. Free tickets from: Friends Service Council, China; www.qandb2020agm.eventbrite.co.uk Wesley Girls High School, Ghana; [email protected] and Quaker Peace & Service Asia Section. Aged 97. Private burial 2pm Deborah FILGATE (née Dresser) Meeting up Friday 29 May. Memorial Meeting 12 May. Mother of Michael and in 2021. Enquiries to John Asher: Anne, grandmother of Michael SINGLE? WANTING TO MEET [email protected] Dresser and of Sam, Nell, Pippa THAT SPECIAL SOMEONE? and Nat. Member of Oxford Use the ‘Meeting up’ column! Meeting. Aged 93. Memorial One entry £36 incl. vat for 35 words, Keep in touch, remember to Meeting later. Donations: 3 entries £72, 6 entries £108. Box put all your family notices in... www.unicef.org.uk/donate reply service included. Send your ...the Friend notice to [email protected]

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