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20 November 2015 £1.90 theDISCOVER THE CONTEMPORARYFriend QUAKER WAY Positive money the Friend INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843 COntents VOL 173 NO 47 3 Thought for the Week: The other Are you alert to practices here Ian Kirk-Smith and throughout the world which discriminate against people on 4-5 News the basis of who or what they are 6 A living wage or because of their beliefs? Alan Sealy Bear witness to the humanity of 7 Friends in Wales all people, including those who Martin Morley break society’s conventions or its 8-9 Letters laws. Try to discern new growing points in social and economic life. 10-11 Positive money Seek to understand the causes of Sue Holden injustice, social unrest and fear. 12-13 From the archive: … in a broken world Are you working to bring about Compiled by Janet Scott a just and compassionate society which allows everyone to develop 14 Surrendering to the Light their capacities and fosters the Shanthini Cawson desire to serve? 15 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world Quaker faith & practice 1.02.33 16 Friends & Meetings Cover image: Money. Photo: Tristan Martin / flickr CC See pages 6 and 10-11. The Friend Subscriptions Advertising Editorial UK £82 per year by all payment types Advertisement manager: Editor: including annual direct debit; George Penaluna Ian Kirk-Smith monthly payment by direct debit [email protected] £7; online only £63 per year. Articles, images, correspondence For details of other rates, Tel/fax 01535 630230 should be emailed to contact Penny Dunn on 54a Main Street, Cononley [email protected] 020 7663 1178 or [email protected] Keighley BD20 8LL or sent to the address below. the Friend 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ Tel: 020 7663 1010 Fax: 020 7663 1182 www.thefriend.org Editor: Ian Kirk-Smith [email protected] • Sub-editor: Trish Carn [email protected] • Production and office manager: Elinor Smallman [email protected] • Journalist: Tara Craig [email protected] • Arts correspondent: Rowena Loverance [email protected] • Environment correspondent: Laurie Michaelis [email protected] • Subscriptions officer: Penny Dunn [email protected] Tel: 020 7663 1178 • Advertisement manager: George Penaluna, Ad department, 54a Main Street, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL Tel: 01535 630230 [email protected] • Clerk of the trustees: Nicholas Sims • ISSN: 0016-1268 • The Friend Publications Limited is a registered charity, number 211649 • Printed by Headley Bros Ltd, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH 2 the Friend, 20 November 2015 Thought for the Week The other avid Bleakley’s father worked in the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and once put rivets into the hull of the Titanic. His son followed in his footsteps and did an apprenticeship in the ‘yard’. Their family home was a small terrace house Din working class East Belfast. Then, in his twenties, David Bleakley left the shipyard to study economics at Ruskin College, Oxford. In Oxford he became friends with an academic who was also from East Belfast. C S Lewis, however, lived ‘up the hill’ in the fresher air of a leafy middle-class neighbourhood. Despite their different backgrounds and paths to Oxford, both shared a curiosity for the world, a dry Ulster sense of humour and a faith. David Bleakley went on to become a politician, representing the Northern Ireland Labour Party. He hated sectarianism. It was a cancer in society. However, in the early seventies his tolerant position, advocating a politics of cross-community cooperation, was swept away by parties playing the ‘orange’ or ‘green’ card. Bombs and murders were happening almost daily in Ulster. People were afraid. David Bleakley’s political career stopped, almost overnight, and he became a teacher at Methodist College Belfast. I was one of his first students. Sectarianism, he believed, was based on fear: fear of ‘the other’. In Northern Ireland this meant the fear between Protestants and Catholics. Fear, he taught us, was mostly based on ignorance. People who feared ‘the other’ generally knew very little about them. They were often educated apart, lived apart and grew up apart. In this vacuum of ignorance, fear thrives. Stereotyping thrives. Bigotry thrives. Sectarianism thrives. Racism thrives. Ignorance could only be confronted through understanding and knowledge. If people knew and understood more about each other, then they would not fear ‘the other’ to the same degree. They may disagree on matters of politics and religion, for example, but they would understand each other at a human level. People, when they connect on a human level, usually find some ‘common ground’. Some people sometimes act badly, very badly, but they are not representative of their group. People are basically good. David Bleakley went on a position in the World Council of Churches. He worked tirelessly to promote a better understanding between different denominations within Christianity and between different faith groups. This week is Inter Faith Week. The aim is to promote understanding, cooperation and good relations between organisations and persons of different faiths in Britain. Many Quakers are involved in promoting interfaith work. In the wake of the events in Paris on Friday 13 November, the bombing of the Russian A321 airliner, the massacre at Garissa University in Kenya, the bombing in Beirut, and other dreadful atrocities, it is a time, while condemning evil, to confront ignorance and promote understanding. It is also a time to remember the good in people. Thousands have been queuing patiently to give blood in France this week. Where there is tragedy and suffering, the writer Fred Rogers once said: ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ Ian Kirk-Smith editor, The Friend the Friend, 20 November 2015 3 News Pilgrims set off for Paris Fuel poverty training launched Nearly fifty pilgrims left London on 13 Northfield Ecocentre, a Central England November to walk 200 miles to Paris to witness for Area Meeting project, has announced a new half-day action on climate change. training course on fuel poverty. When they reach Paris, the pilgrims will call on world Community workers will be taught how to help their leaders to agree a fair, ambitious and binding climate clients manage fuel bills. The course will cover issues deal at the United Nations Climate Change Conference such as energy saving, understanding running costs, taking place from 30 November to 11 December. and dealing with condensation and damp. The pilgrims were blessed before they left at a service The sessions will be delivered by Phil Beardmore, an at St Martin-in-the-Fields. Nicholas Holtam, the bishop expert in fuel poverty and energy efficiency. of Salisbury, said: Broadcast postponed ‘We walk in solidarity for climate justice for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. We are all BBC Radio 4 has postponed its Sunday Worship aware of the impact of climate change and we Prisons Week broadcast, recorded at HMP Long Lartin. cannot be the first generation to knowingly turn The broadcast was scheduled for 15 November, but away from our responsibilities to protect the planet.’ postponed following the recent tragic events in Paris. Among the pilgrims who left London was Maud The programme was to feature a contribution from Grainger, Faith in Action tutor at the Woodbrooke a Quaker chaplain. The BBC hopes to broadcast the Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham. programme in the new year. Inter Faith Week 2015 Pendle Hill on network radio ‘LIVing WELL Together’ is one of the key themes Woodbrooke tutor Ben Pink Dandelion will for Inter Faith Week 2015, which takes place from 15 discuss Pendle Hill on a forthcoming edition of BBC to 21 November. Radio 4’s Open Country. The chairs and co-chairs of the organisers, the Inter Ben joins presenter Helen Mark on a visit to the Faith Network, released a statement following the Lancashire hill to discuss George Fox’s 1652 ascent attacks in Paris on 13 November. and his vision of a ‘great people to be gathered’, In the statement, they said of Inter Faith Week 2015: which heralded the start of Quakerism. The Pendle ‘The events that the Week will see are a reminder of the Hill edition of Open Country will be broadcast on 26 reality and the importance of a positive coexistence.’ November. They added: ‘Tackling tough issues is part of this and on the agenda are those such as extremism, freedom White poppy sales increase of expression and responding to social ills such as ONE hundred thousand white poppies were poverty. Inter faith discussion and engagement does sold in 2015, reflecting an upward trend in sales. not just focus on easy issues; it is not just the province Jan Melichar of the Peace Pledge Union, which sells of those who agree. It is a challenging and vital process the poppies, told the Friend that the organisation will that needs, increasingly, to be part of the common discuss later this year whether to increase production discourse of our society.’ for 2016. Young Friends highlight refugee crisis Young FRIENDS from Penrith support the volunteers going there to Arms fair action Meeting will walk from Penrith to help. Campaigners gathered Carlisle to raise money for relief in Young Friends Rosalind Weir, in London on 16 November refugee camps. Sophie Austin and Jamie Hartley said: to show solidary with The twenty-three-mile-long ‘Our walk is only a fraction of the activists who are resisting walk takes place on 22 November. walk undertaken by the refugees, but an arms fair in Wellington, Participants will raise money for the as we travel we hope to reflect on their New Zealand. Carlisle One World Centre which, current plight, and that our hard work They met at the New through an initiative called Calais can make a small difference.’ Zealand High Commission, Action Carlisle, will support refugees The walkers will take The Miller’s in the Haymarket, to stand over the coming winter.