2 November 2012 £1.70 the discover the contemporaryFriend quaker way
A living wage the Friend Independent Quaker Journalism Since 1843
Contents VOL 170 NO 43 3 Thought for the Week: Why I support a Living Wage Sarah Holtam 4-5 News 6 Why economic justice? Mike Norris, Ian West, Douglas Rennie, Graham Taylor and Joel Wallenberg 7 Speaking out Bob Rogers 8-9 Letters Courtesy of the Living Wage Foundation. Wage Courtesy of the Living 10-11 Going deep inside Some members of London Citizens outside John Lewis on Oxford Sam Settle Street, London. Friends have joined other campaigners in calling for fairer treatment of cleaners working for the John Lewis Partnership. 12-13 Susanna’s sisters See page 4. Simon Webb 14 Putting the sparkle back in Area Meeting …Try to discern new growing points in social Judy Kirby and economic life. Seek to understand the 15 Poem: A Meeting of Friends causes of injustice, social unrest and fear. Michelle Letowska Are you working to bring about a just and compassionate society which allows everyone 16 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world to develop their capacities and fosters the 17 Friends & Meetings desire to serve? Advices & queries 33 Cover image: Nearly five million British workers are in ‘working poverty’. The first Living Wage week (4 to 10 November) aims to raise awareness of the issue. Photo: Ofer Deshe / flickr CC. See pages 3 and 4.
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2 the Friend, 2 November 2012 Thought for the Week Why I support a Living Wage
his Sunday sees the start of the first Living Wage this week and a variety of events will be held across Week. The Living Wage campaign highlights fair the UK to celebrate, promote and put the case for pay as an urgent moral and practical necessity more organisations to join the campaign. With multi- Tto eradicate poverty. It identifies that the minimum party backing from politicians and increasing support wage does not afford an adequate quality of life to from both private and public sector, this campaign is people forced to work two or even three jobs in order growing, winning one company at a time. to support their families. The Guardian reported this As Quakers, we aim to treat people fairly and like week that one in five British workers (nearly five million to think of ourselves as good employers. Westminster people) live in working poverty. Meeting is proud to pay our cleaner above the Living The Living Wage is an hourly rate, set independently, Wage; he works isolating, antisocial hours and leaves our every year. It is calculated according to cost of living building sparkling each day. Friends House maintains a and gives the minimum rate required for a worker to radical pay ratio of 4:1, that is – no one earns more than provide their family with the essentials. In London four times the lowest wage. this stands at £8.30 per hour, and £7.20 outside. The As with Quaker faith & practice, the strength of the national minimum wage has just been raised to £6.19. Living Wage lies in its humanity. It’s about real people Anything less than the Living Wage keeps people in through testimonies and life experience. Sir John Bond, working poverty, widens the gap of inequality and leaves the former executive chairman of HSBC, was left people dependant on all manner of additional benefits speechless when his cleaner Abdul Durrant stood at an – more people than ever are relying on handouts from AGM and said, ‘We work in the same office, but we live food banks according to The Trussell Trust. in different worlds.’ Better pay benefits everyone and leads to a more Even John Lewis, one of the UK’s most principled equitable future. Launched in 2001, the campaign has employers, who outsourced services twenty years ago won nearly £100 million in additional wages for 10,000 are now considering bringing some contracted staff low paid workers. Employers from banks to borough back into the partnership. At a recent event about the councils report sizeable benefits that significantly offset John Lewis model of partnership, we heard an account any additional cost. As well as improvements to company of a cleaner feeling ‘like a rat in a palace’, invisibly reputation, studies show increased efficiency, retention, scurrying around at night. Abraham, a Nigerian, productivity and markedly reduced absenteeism. British-trained lawyer who’s lived in Britain for more The campaign is led by Citizens: UK, an alliance than three decades, supervises twenty cleaners in one bringing together local community groups – often store but receives just £6.08 an hour. faith based, as well as educational institutions, ethnic Outsourcing was once seen to be the solution for minorities and trade unions – with the purposes of efficient business, now it risks exploitation. empowering using nonconfrontational means. London At a time of crippling cuts to services, I’m all for West, North West London and Milton Keynes Area Living Wage Week and hope it might be one step closer Meetings are all members of their respective local to ‘the world as it should be’. Citizens groups, and have engaged in a range of social justice campaigns. Julia Unwin of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation will Sarah Holtam announce the Living Wage figure for 2012/13 in York Westminster Meeting.
the Friend, 2 November 2012 3 News Friends support ‘fair deal’ for John Lewis cleaners Quakers from across as partners and struggle on the the ‘John Lewis model’ as it tries to London are working with minimum wage with no benefits. outsource groups of public sector London Citizens to call for fairer ‘The conversation about whether workers into social enterprises. treatment for cleaners who work in cleaners should be brought back Their services are then sold back in. the John Lewis Partnership. into the partnership has been Critics have argued that this Friends met in mid-October re-opened and, in November, the has not been a success and is not at Westminster Meeting House board are discussing it. A brave popular. Research by the Fabian to discuss a plan of action in move by the board next month Society found sixty-four per cent support of the cleaners. They have would confirm John Lewis’s of voters saying ‘services like health highlighted Saturday 17 November position as a leader in responsible and education should not be run as an ‘ideal day for action’. business and be true to the original as businesses. They depend on On Friday 13 July cleaners at the vision of the founder.’ the values and ethos of the public flagship John Lewis store on Oxford Friends at the London Meeting good’, with only seventeen per cent Street went on strike for the Living believe now is the time to raise against and swing voters strongly Wage. This is the first strike in the the profile of this issue. They feel pro-public service. history of John Lewis partnership. ‘as customers and employees – The John Lewis Partnership want Friends at Westminster, in a we want to raise this concern by to know if they get better value statement of concern, wrote: sympathetically pointing out the by outsourcing and underpaying ‘John Lewis is widely praised for inconsistencies and inequalities in cleaners. Studies in the Economic its partnership model and the their treatment of staff on which Journal suggest that the use of benefits it brings to people working their trustworthy reputation is temporary, insecure workers results in the company. Currently, three based. As Quakers we are in an in declining productivity in many thousand cleaners who work every ideal position to do this locally and countries. day in John Lewis, Peter Jones and nationally.’ Living Wage Week takes place Waitrose stores are not counted The government has celebrated between 4 and 10 November. Vote on changes Farewells at Woodbrooke in policing Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham will be without three popular figures this A new website was launched on Friday 26 time next year. October to inform voters about the upcoming Pam Lunn, 2011 Swarthmore lecturer, will be election for Police and Crime Commissioners in all retiring at the end of the year after twenty two years of England and Wales other than London. at Woodbrooke. Pam was for many years involved in The website is: http://www.choosemypcc.org.uk/ It women’s studies, peace and development and justice aims to provide the information voters will need. work. Three years ago she became responsible for the The election will take place on Thursday Good Lives programme. 15 November. The new posts will replace the Ginny Wall, who most recently was tutor for police authorities, which were created to ensure spirituality courses at Woodbrooke – including silent accountability between the police and the retreats and individual guided retreats in Birmingham communities that they serve. and Swarthmoor Hall – will be leaving in mid-October. This new development in criminal justice means In July Lizz Roe said farewell to the Woodbrooke that the PCCs will hire and fire the chief constable, family. Lizz started her life at Woodbrooke working set the budget and determine local priorities, on pre-placement preparation work for Quaker including services for victims and witnesses. Peace & Social Witness workers and ecumenical A concise briefing about PCCs is available accompaniers in Palestine and Israel. She then from Quaker Peace & Social Witness’s Crime, worked as a tutor in practical theology and as Community and Justice Sub-committee at www. senior programme leader responsible for off-site quaker.org.uk/ccjg-briefings programmes.
4 the Friend, 2 November 2012 [email protected] Socially useful banking We need to rediscover the social usefulness Congress; Andy Green, a director of Bully Banks; Mick of banks. This was one of the messages heard at the McAteer, a consumer advocate in financial services and Occupy sponsored talk and discussion entitled Socially Richard Paton, who has participated in Occupy and Useful Banking on Monday 29 October in Friends UK Uncut protests. Lisa Pollack, a reported from the House, London. Financial Times, chaired the discussion. The event, held in the Large Meeting House, was Thom Bonneville, from Muswell Hill Meeting, attended by several hundred people on a dark cold commented: ‘While you could still sense the outrage autumn evening indicating the depth of interest in the over the excesses of the banking industry and the social subject of banks and finance. and economic harm that has resulted, the discussion It was sponsored by Quaker Peace & Social Witness gave me an overall impression that participants on all (QPSW). Helen Drewery, general secretary of QPSW sides are now talking to one another and that there is said: ‘There is an urgent need for an open and inclusive some grounds for hoping for real reform. debate about how to fix our broken banking system. ‘Still, I did feel that Andrew Haldane’s presentation Therefore QPSW is delighted to provide the space for was designed to give just that impression, and it sticks this important Occupy event. Our Quaker faith, and in one’s craw to be told, however reasonably and belief that all people are equal, drives us to help create a sincerely, that having had our say it is now ultimately just and sustainable economic system.’ over to the finance sector to clean up their practices The major speech was given by Andy Haldane, themselves. executive director for financial stability at the Bank of ‘I think he was right when he said that all of us will England. He said that he felt we were on the edge of a have to put our money where our mouth is and support reformation in banking. He felt that Occupy had been those companies that can demonstrate truly ethical and heard and that the banks themselves were now moving useful policies; and Mick McAteer is certainly right in to combat their own problems. saying that we will have to summon the political will He was followed by a panel consisting of Duncan to ensure that truly effective legislative measures are Weldon, a senior economist from the Trades Union adopted. ‘ EU complicit Junior Yearly Meeting 2013 The location and dates of Junior Yearly QPSW has joined with twenty-two other Meeting (JYM) for 2013 have been announced. non-governmental organisations across Europe to The gathering is to be held at the Pioneer Centre near launch a report, entitled Trading Away Peace: Kidderminster from 6 to 10 April. How Europe helps sustain illegal Israeli settlements. Nominations for young people attending JYM should The report, which has a foreword by the former be in by 30 November 2012, although places may still be EU commissioner for external relations, Hans van available after this date. den Broek, highlights inconsistencies in European JYM elder David Bamford said: ‘Junior Yearly Meeting Union policy towards the settlements. On one is a five day residential about having fun, building hand EU high-level statements have repeatedly relationships and making friends. It is planned and made clear that the settlements are illegal and facilitated by a team of young people with the support constitute an obstacle to peace. Yet on the other, of adult volunteers. During the week we will explore our hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of theme “Talking about Quakerism: Is it oat-so simple”. settlement goods are imported by Europe every ‘JYM is formed of many parts. There are sessions year. such as chat rooms, speakers and a Business Meeting Trading Away Peace calls on European along with social activities such as a themed disco and governments to adopt a range of economic a quiz night. JYM will also include daily epilogues and measures designed to stop assisting settlement optional prologues. JYM is only as good as the people expansion. Recommendations include introducing who come and we aim to welcome everyone.’ a ban on the import of settlement goods, the JYM is open to young people aged fifteen to eighteen. exclusion of settlements from bilateral and EU level For more information go to www.quaker.org.uk/junior- cooperation agreements and the introduction of yearly-meeting-2013 measures to prevent financial transactions being Raymond Mgadzah made in support of the settlements.
the Friend, 2 November 2012 5 Opinion Why economic justice?
Some Northumbrian Friends believe we cannot separate our faith from choices that have an economic impact
year ago a conference on ‘Economic Justice apathy and envy on the one hand and greed on the and the Sustainable Global Society’ was held other. at Friends House. Delegates were asked to We may challenge the assumption that the current Atake away a number of questions to be considered by model of capitalism brings global benefits and argue Local and Area Meetings in preparation for a series of that there is a need for a fairer and more sustainable seminars. These questions have prompted discussion alternative. As Quakers we are asked to ‘understand and this response. the causes of injustice, social unrest and fear’ as well as We view every action we take as potentially guided ‘to discern new growing points in social and economic by our faith, and it is our ideal as Friends to allow life’. Our commitment to ‘truth’ must then lead us our faith to influence our actions as often as possible. out of our comfort zones and into the public arena, Since economics is simply a particular arena of where we can promote peace, simplicity and equality. human activity, we see no reason why it should be any In today’s unequal society we should ‘not shrink from different from other types of actions as regards our the time and effort demanded by involvement in local, faith: if the Divine is in all of us, we cannot separate national and international affairs’ if the causes of our faith from choices that have an economic impact inequality, and of the threats to security of food and on people. resources, are to be understood. There are a number of factors that make it difficult It has been suggested that the global majority sees for us to make informed decisions based on a Divinely little need for radical policy shifts to address these inspired sense of right and wrong. Some of these inequalities and that there is no consensus over a are inherent in the economic system and some are, systemic failure of the current financial system. But, in a sense, artificial. In a complex world economy, until we have a consensus, conditions will not exist understanding how economic decisions are made and for the creation of a new settlement that will carry determining how we should react can be difficult. forward, into public policy, the means of reform. Many of the actors, integral in the economic process, There have been many opportunities to promote often seek to disempower us by making situations change but the controlling ‘elites’ have consistently seem even more complex than they really are. They and insidiously manipulated the societal framework give contradictory information and direct us to trust governing our lives. Pressure to legislate on such issues the advice of purported experts. as the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage, and The current economic and political system has an the development of multi-party democracies, have infinite capacity to adapt and has given us many years shown us that changes can be made; but none has of almost continual economic growth. Increasingly, resulted in structural transformations enabling the political attempts are made to use these market forces development of a fairer and more equal society. Whilst to mould society and further the concepts of benefits we may not succeed in our future endeavours, not arising from increasing efficiency and growth. As a trying should not be an option. result, the advantages of post-war cooperation have declined and the loss of social values such as altruism, fairness, work and fulfilment have resulted in a Mike Norris, Ian West, Douglas Rennie, Graham Taylor widening gap between rich and poor. This has bred and Joel Wallenberg are from Northumbria Area Meeting.
6 the Friend, 2 November 2012 Opinion Speaking out
Bob Rogers urges Friends to continue to speak out on the threats facing the planet and offers a spiritual response to the crisis
n his 1978 book, The Seventh Enemy, Ronald Higgins healthy balance between competition and cooperation outlined six major global threats. The ‘seventh in human progress? Do they damage or enhance enemy’ was humanity’s inability to tackle them. sustainability? Excessive greed, ego and power are ITwenty-five years later, there are now at least eighteen coming to be regarded in mental health diagnosis as very serious global and national threats, and they are disorders rooted in addiction, obsessive compulsion accelerating at an alarming rate. and empathy deficit. Our world is broken and at a tipping point. We are Some people will, inevitably, be sceptical and wrecking the balance between people and the planet. dismissive about the nature and extent of the crisis, but This is leading to unprecedented, and, in some cases a majority have an underlying and tentative awareness irreversible, damage. More than a billion people are of the alarming nature of it. Alarm, however, need trapped in dire poverty. Millions of children die from not turn to despair. If the full extent of the crisis is preventable diseases and malnutrition while an elite responsibly communicated, together with constructive minority have excessive wealth, power and ego. alternative solutions, then the majority will be reassured The Spirit Level research confirms the fracture caused to learn more and share in remedies, however small. to society by inequality. Equality requires sustainable, Sustainability is a central issue. One definition of productive economies that recognise the worth of sustainability is: ‘Development that meets the needs of everyone. Religion is part of the crisis with misleading the present without compromising the ability of future belief disenchanting or deflecting many people who are generations to meet their needs’. All policies and actions exploring faith. must therefore serve the interests of children and young Decision makers and the media deal only with single, people. short term, issues that, when coupled with distorted The public must be urgently informed of the news management, obstruct public understanding of comprehensive, not piecemeal, nature of the crisis the whole crisis truth. There is a view that the public together with its complex interactions. The Seventh either cannot cope with, or simply represses, any Enemy’s final chapter ended with the core opinion that a comprehensive expression of the global crisis and that reawakening of the spiritual is an imperative to generate only small portions of information can be assimilated. a delight in the earth for its own sake and care for its These assumptions underpin the lack of public future. This profound truth is embodied in Quakerism. awareness and political inertia at the root of decades In this respect, no religious body is in a better position of crisis inaction. The limited attention given to the to express its values and spirituality and to offer the Royal Society’s important People and Planet report on world a radical and holistic vision. population and consumption is yet another worrying The huge sweep of further comprehensive, example of crisis neglect and oversight. accelerating and interrelated threats to the planet now Modern theories open new approaches to raising dictates the need for significantly increased speaking people’s knowledge and acceptance of the global crisis out and action by Friends. and its remedies. Psychology addresses selfishness and An important part of this change needs to be altruism, asserting that it is a mistake to think that speaking to young people. They need a concise, all human actions are selfish. Evolutionary biology objective and expansive Quaker guide to spirituality. has demonstrated that moral, social, altruistic and The most vital need is for consciousness; light on the cooperative behaviour has been, and is, essential in reality of our situation, global, nation and individual. human development. Searching questions must be asked about modern society’s values and institutions; do they promote a Bob is Pickering & Hull Area Meeting.
the Friend, 2 November 2012 7 Letters All views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Friend
Police and crime commissioners Accordingly, the elders in Bideford Meeting are in On 15 November, in all areas of England and Wales the process of testing a concern, which was brought to apart from London, there will be elections for police Meeting for Business in July this year, initially about and crime commissioners (PCCs). These are new nontheism in the Society of Friends, but which has elected posts, which replace the police authorities, the potential to broaden into the wider issue of the created with the aim of ensuring better accountability spiritual basis of Quakerism and the taking of belief- between the police and the communities they serve. In related labels by Friends. London this role is already part of the mayor’s remit. John Ward This is an important new development in criminal Devon Area Meeting justice. The PCCs will be directly accountable for the performance of the police in their area, and will have Edward Hoare finds the attempt to divide Quakerism a duty to listen and respond to their communities in into ‘theist’ and ‘nontheist’ categories ‘increasingly setting the priorities for policing in the area. They will tiresome’. Who is attempting to divide us? Certainly hire and fire the chief constable, set the budget and not nontheists, for they are not the ones who appear determine local priorities. This will include services to be pushing for prescriptive mission statements and for victims and witnesses. tighter definitions to make our Society more narrowly This initiative has not had a great deal of media exclusive. coverage and, in my recent job at Suzy Lamplugh To honestly recognise differences among Friends – Trust, I met a number of representatives of charities evangelical, Christocentric, universalist, nontheist – is concerned with aspects of criminal justice worried that not to create divisions but to face a simple truth: not all the combination of a new style election, taking place at Friends interpret our common language and traditions an unusual time – on a dark, possibly cold November the same way. Isn’t it those who seem to want to force night – with limited publicity, might mean a very low all Friends into the same theological mould who bring, turnout. This would mean the election of individuals as Edward puts it, ‘potential for trouble’? with considerable power by very few voters. We may all hold dearly to particular Quaker beliefs Criminal justice has been a Quaker concern from and ways of expressing them, but to make them our earliest days. So I ask all Friends to find out who prescriptive and binding on all of us is not the way to their candidates are, attend any public meetings to preserve our precious unity. Let’s expand the Quaker influence local priorities for policing and, above all, to circle to bring others in, not shut out those whose vote on 15 November. Quaker vision is not the same as ours. Linda Craig Edward chides me for Orwellian doublespeak in Westminster Meeting, London writing (13 April) that ‘underneath, there is no real Ed: For further information see page 5. difference between the theist and nontheist groups’. What I actually wrote was that theism and nontheism Look within ‘need not be adversarial viewpoints but may be seen I am grateful for Edward Hoare’s article (19 October). as different ways of seeking, finding and expressing The theist and nontheist categories to which he meaning and purpose’. Britain Yearly Meeting has a alludes are, of course, positions based on ‘notions’ – proud track record in avoiding division and maintaining intellectual constructs – which George Fox contrasted Quaker unity. I am confident that Friends of diverse with the ‘unchangeable truth in the inward parts’. The views will not allow that record to be put at risk. taking up of such belief-related positions by Friends is David Boulton credal. It negates the very basis of Quakerism which Brigflatts Meeting, Cumbria is the dependence on inward experience to reveal a [email protected] truth which is beyond words, and not of the intellect. It is out of this experience that Friends practise If I declined to sign up to a Quaker ‘mission statement’ discernment in their decision making, and from it the would I still be permitted to come to Meeting for Quaker testimonies arise. Worship? I would readily relinquish my membership, Edward Hoare states that, ‘For too long our Yearly but not being with Friends in Worship. Meeting has ignored the yellow warning signals in the Jane Taylor hope that, if we did nothing, the issues would go away.’ Lancaster Meeting, Lancashire I would suggest that this is not, first and foremost, a matter for Yearly Meeting in session, nor for the Energy bill and bananas central organisation of Britain Yearly Meeting. Rather, I am writing in response to Chris Walker’s article on it is only prayer, concern, and Quaker discernment at climate action and the Energy Bill (28 September). the grassroots which will bring about change. In a later edition, one of your correspondents
8 the Friend, 2 November 2012 [email protected]
mentioned Mike Berners-Lee’s book How Bad are Quaker books Bananas? This extremely useful book assesses the Roger Morton’s letter (26 October)rang a bell with me, carbon footprint of ‘everything’, thus allowing one to as I have shelves-full of Quaker books that need new identify priorities for action. homes. After reading it, I trudged to the Post Office On page 192 he lists examples of the cost of saving with the latest batch of non-Quaker books, which I’ve one tonne of carbon. Loft insulation doesn’t cost begun selling through Amazon – with more success anything, in fact it saves you £70 per tonne of carbon and less trouble than I had expected! and £2.80 for every £1 invested. Wind farms just about On the way I suddenly realised, we don’t need a have a positive payback as does slowing down from special Quaker way of selling or exchanging books! seventy to sixty miles per hour on the motorway. Why don’t we sell many Quaker books in the same Various things such as paying farmers to keep way as we sell other books? Oxfam, Amazon, local Amazon forest, family planning in the third world and charity shops? I found Ron Hubbard’s book on upgrading existing loft insulation cost £3 to £5 per Scientology on the shelves of our local Barnado’s shop tonne of carbon saved. last week – why can’t Quaker faith & practice be there In contrast, investing in feed-in tariffs for too? wind turbines costs £250 per tonne saved and for Yes, Roger is right in that some of the more photovoltaic panels costs £360 per tonne. specialist Quaker titles should have special treatment; Building a carbon neutral house compared with I have heard scholarly Friends speak well of Alibris, current building regulations is also very expensive. which apparently sells some interesting Quaker books I wonder if the government has read the book? – but I have been amazed at the specialist biblical and Daphne Wassermann theological titles I have sold through Amazon. I’m Glasgow Meeting, Scotland now going to put many of my Quaker titles up on their website alongside the others. A elephant made of fudge We don’t have to have a special Quaker way of I am disturbed by Dorothy Searle’s assumption that doing ordinary things, any more than we have special mentally ill people ‘make a scene if crossed’ (26 Quaker computer programs or clothes or food. To do October). Some mentally ill people may become our outreach, we have to be in the world alongside distressed if they find themselves unable to cope with other people. a situation. So may some people with physical illness. Beth Allen That is not ‘making a scene’ but becoming distressed. South East London Area Meeting If I had a physical illness or disability I hope that I would be offered consideration. Why is it so much more difficult to try to meet the needs of the mentally ill? When is a Friend not a friend? There are many kinds of mental illness, all are disabling in various ways and can be intensely painful. Most will not lead to the sufferer making a scene unless very severe and the person is really struggling. Negative attitudes makes it clear why so many mentally ill people In essentials unity, do their utmost to hide their suffering rather than risk in non-essentials liberty, of speaking about their condition. We all benefit from kindness - those who are alienated by mental illness in all things charity. especially so. One of the reasons I became a convinced Quaker The Friend welcomes your views. Please keep letters was because as psychiatric patient I had experienced short (about 250 words) and include your full equality and love in action among the patients and saw postal address, even when sending emails. Please that there truly is that of God in everyone. No matter specify whether you wish for your postal or email what our illness or background we accepted each other address or Meeting name to be used with your as we were. name, otherwise we will print your post address or Are we living our testimony to equality with respect email address. Letters are published at the editor’s to people with mental illness, or are we avoiding it discretion and may be edited. Write to: the Friend, because we are fearful? Illness is illness, whatever form 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ or email it may take. [email protected] Isobel Lane Remember if you are online that you can also comment on all articles at www.thefriend.org South London Area Meeting
the Friend, 2 November 2012 9 Feature Going deep inside Photo: Andrew Aitchison. Courtesy of The Prison Phoenix Trust. Phoenix Prison The Courtesy of Aitchison. Andrew Photo: Sam Settle reveals how prisoners find hope and healing in silent meditation and yoga
nmates have, traditionally, favoured bulking up at four bed dorm and there is not much time during the the gym as a strategy for surviving incarceration. So, day for me to find peace and quiet… Life has changed why are yoga and meditation also popular in prison, for the better and I’m now on the path which I’m hoping Iand why are prison managers still choosing to fund will lead me to a better place.’ weekly yoga classes in times of unprecedented cuts to their budgets? Getting back on track
The benefits Since 1988 The Prison Phoenix Trust (PPT) has been in touch with people like Craig and Kelly, prisoners Craig, a prisoner at HMP Perth, was sceptical of the who want support in their spiritual lives, through yoga Tuesday morning yoga and meditation class in his jail. and meditation, working with silence and the breath. ‘My perception of yoga was that it was just for girls. There are currently 145 weekly classes in eighty-seven But some of the guys who go to the class were telling UK and Irish prisons and the PPT also sends free books some of us who go to the gym how good yoga is at and CDs to inmates who request help in starting a daily relaxing you after a workout and that it can also get discipline in their cells. Volunteer letter writers offer you ready for one.’ After giving it a try, his mind was personal support to prisoners who want to stay in touch changed. ‘It was nothing like I thought it was going to after their initial contact. Last year 5,100 books and CDs be. I found it liberating, relaxing, physically stimulating were sent to inmates who wrote for help ‘sorting out and thoroughly enjoyable… I have now been to three their heads’ and ‘getting things back on track.’ classes and I feel a lot more relaxed, and it helps me get Why do inmates take to silence and yoga so a better sleep.’ enthusiastically? The best answer I’ve heard was when From HMPs Perth and Aberdeen, down to Pentonville I was teaching a weekly class at HMP Bullingdon in and Wormwood Scrubs, over to Swansea and across Oxfordshire. Eight men on a drug treatment programme to the prisons of Belfast and Dublin, inmates are had just spent an hour doing yoga postures to strengthen discovering the benefits of yoga and meditation – and stretch their bodies, ten minutes of relaxation, ten either as part of a class or on their own. Kelly, in HMP minutes of breathing exercise and ten minutes of silent Holloway, says, ‘I have been practising meditation and meditation, focusing on the breath. As people began to yoga every morning in my cell around 6am as I’m in a speak again, Jim said, with an amazed and pleasant face,
10 the Friend, 2 November 2012 ‘That was the first time I’ve forgotten I’ve been in prison up the watch and gave it to the owner. It was only a few in my seven months of being locked up. I could hear seconds later that he thought, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ the bird chirping out the window, and people messing Inmates facing dramatic challenges are also helped around in the hallway outside. As I watched my breath, by their daily discipline of finding stillness within all that was still there, but it was all just happening: not themselves. Wayne had come off drugs while in prison, in a prison, and not not in a prison.’ partly through meditation and yoga practice. He was His words, but more importantly perhaps his face and given a chance to test his belief in nonviolence that body language, indicated a tremendous sense of relief. stemmed from his practice when he was moved to a Prisons are uncertain, precarious places. Overcrowding, new wing. He refused the offer of free drugs from the staff shortages, bullying, drugs, lack of control over dealers there. Frustrated in their attempts to get him one’s circumstances, and feelings of guilt, uncertainty hooked again (everyone knows everyone else’s history and anger all conspire to create a vast amount of mental in prison) and to become a paying – or indebted – pressure for inmates – and for prison staff. Yoga and customer, they beat him up badly in his cell. But even meditation help to reduce that tension. Yoga postures as they were kicking and punching him, Wayne felt no are fantastic for releasing tension in the joints and animosity, and kept a place for his attackers in his daily throughout the body, and are done while focussing prayers in the weeks and months that followed. on the breathing, helping attention to stay present. Meditation – sitting still, putting yourself fully in the The power of silence breath, not visualising anything, nor trying to make anything happen – allows the normal activity of the As an attender of a Quaker Meeting and a yoga teacher, mind – thinking, planning, worrying, reliving events – I stay inspired and motivated by these stories of silence to slow down or perhaps even halt: a great relief. playing a pivotal role in spiritual transformation. The effect of yoga and meditation on prisoners is also Something else visible to prison managers. They must, in the face of increasingly scarce funding, find money to pay the yoga We often ask prisoners if there is something more to teachers that the PPT trains for prison work. A large human beings than body and mind. They easily and body of evidence in the form of prisoners’ letters also quickly come up with a variety of answers: soul, spirit, helps to convince prison authorities. mojo, God, black hole, emptiness. Everyone seems to To test this anecdotal evidence, Oxford University have a sense of that ‘something else.’ The great joy is recently ran a randomised control trial with 167 sharing silence when the whole room is concentrating prisoners. The prisoners randomly allocated to a ten- firmly on letting go of thinking and of normal concerns, week yoga and meditation class had improved mood and delving into that part of us that exists before and reduced stress and anxiety afterwards, and were thought and concept. It is also a great joy to not only better able to override impulsiveness, compared to a listen and talk with them afterwards, but to see actual control group of inmates. Also, the yoga group were changes in their behaviour. better able to pay attention, sustain that attention and At the class in Bullingdon, for example, when the men make decisions. arrived for their first class, they split into several separate As prison governors and managers try to meet groups, talking boisterously. No one was hostile, but immense challenges in their prisons, they may welcome there wasn’t any respect or appreciation for the setting, these research results. The implications are that staff the other people or themselves. After that class though, can use these disciplines in their regimes to effectively in addition to being calmer and listening to each other fulfil some of the key aims of the prison service: treating when they spoke, they put the room back in order offenders with dignity and humanity, improving staff/ without being asked. It’s as if by forgetting the self when inmate relationships and reducing violence. focussing on the breath, the sense of responsibility and Mike, from HMP Featherstone, speaks for many identity is expanded to include others. when he says, ‘Since starting yoga and meditation, I have never felt this stress free since I was a child. It’s Changes made me slow down and have more patience. You don’t need Oxford University to tell you that yoga and Prisoners are often pleasantly surprised by this shift. A meditation works. I know it does!’ man imprisoned for theft and pickpocketing, who had Part of me agrees with Mike. Another part of me is been practising meditation for several months, said that delighted that the research echoes what prisoners have while walking down the landing one day the person been saying for years. in front of him dropped his watch without realising it. Without any thought, this former pickpocket picked Sam is director of The Prison Phoenix Trust.
the Friend, 2 November 2012 11 Books Susanna’s sisters
Simon Webb writes about the genesis of his latest book Susanna’s sisters
ne of my first experiences of Quakerism took Unearthing the encounter place in a house full of triangular rooms in Clifton, the charming Georgian part of Bristol. If you are a student, you might be curious to know OThe house was used as a university hall of residence. what will happen to your notes gleaned from lectures, It had triangular rooms because it formed the elbow copies of university essays, BA and MA theses, and PhD between two rows of townhouses that met at an odd dissertations once you have finished higher education. angle. On some floors, the architect had tried to make a rectangular room, but, of course, that meant that he just You will pile them up in a dark corner of a cupboard had to stick two triangular rooms onto the sides of it. in the guest room, then you will forget about them for about fourteen years. When the fitted furniture in The house made one realise how accustomed one gets the guest room starts to come away in your hand, and to square or rectangular rooms. Every time I visited my you grow tired of repairing it with elephant tape, you girlfriend at this house, I found myself bumping into will take everything out to clear the way for new fitted walls like a sleep-walker. My then-girlfriend, who has furniture to be installed. As you do so, you will discover now been my wife for twenty-five years, was studying Pat’s old BA thesis. history at Bristol, and in her last year the department approved her plan to write a BA thesis about women In a room full of bin bags, you will start to read the and the religious sects of seventeenth century England. text, which was superbly typed up by your mother on a manual typewriter manufactured in the old DDR in the Encountering Quaker women early sixties. You will discover that, after all these years, the thesis is still relevant and controversial. Because it is Researching such a thesis, Patricia was bound to come so well written, you will re-type the heart of it into your across the Quakers again and again. And being a rather computer. You will not use optical character recognition bookish couple, we were destined to end up discussing because the text will be a joy to type. this interesting sect over meals in the kitchen of the house of triangular rooms. I should note that at this The Quaker movement offered time Pat was an atheist, and I was in full flight from organised religion, especially the type that tries to women an alternative to Puritan appeal to students. Another of the students in the house happened to be a Quaker, and as she ate her respectability and to wild supermarket economy pasta, lightly sprinkled with pseudo-cheese, she gave us the modern liberal Quaker promiscuity perspective on Margaret Fell, George Fox, Mary Fisher … especially Margaret Fell. from Susanna’s sisters
12 the Friend, 2 November 2012 You will then revise it until it reads like a book rather published in 1646. One of Edwards’ favourite targets than a university thesis. During the revision process, is one ‘Mistress Attaway, a lace-maker’. Attaway left you will manage to forget that the words were written her ‘unsanctified’ husband and took up with William by the ‘love of your life’ by pretending that they were Jenny, who in turn left his wife on the grounds that they actually written by an imaginary Scottish acquaintance disagreed over religion. called ‘Piper’.
You will then add your own sections, rooting the …women found not only strictness ideas in the thesis to scripture and modern Quaker experience. You will end up with a smart new paperback and fervour in the sects, but also called Susanna’s sisters. greater possibilities of active The sisterly link participation in religious matters As the title of the book might suggest, the scriptural link in Susanna’s sisters is not to the Bible proper but from Susanna’s sisters to the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament. These books are home to two contrasting women – Judith, the butcher of Holofernes, and Susanna, a lamb saved from Jenny and Attaway believed that they were immortal, the slaughter. and that she could communicate with an unborn prophet who, when he was born, would prove to be For Susanna’s sisters, Susanna provided a perfect greater than Christ himself. The couple’s hotline to this model for the role of women living in patriarchal future prophet was through ‘a maid, one Ellen’. The pair societies. Accused of adultery (which carried a death planned to travel to Jerusalem, where they would meet sentence at the time) the beautiful young wife of Joacim Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Christ, and where Jenny is saved at the last moment by the prophet Daniel, who would preach, and help to rebuild the city. tricks Susanna’s accusers into revealing that they have, in fact, lied. Another innovative relationship of the time was that of William Franklin, a rope-maker from Hampshire, Like Shakespeare’s Desdemona, the wife of the jealous and a London woman called Mary Gadbury, both of Othello, Susanna is so innocent and obedient that she whom were already married to other people. Franklin can’t even communicate the fact that she has been proclaimed himself to be Christ, and he gave some libelled to her husband. Unfortunately, in Desdemona’s of his followers names such as ‘John the Baptist’, ‘The case, there was no Daniel to defuse the situation. In Destroying Angel’ and ‘The Healing Angel’. both stories, husband and wife behave with a kind of icy honour, but where they score on starchy virtue, they fall But innovation, in relationships as in any other area down on communication. of human endeavour, does not always have to be loud and startling. After the death of Thomas Fell in 1658, The heroine of Susanna’s sisters is undoubtedly Margaret Fell went on to quietly forge something quite Margaret Fell, whose relationship with her husband new with George Fox. Since relationships between Thomas Fell after she teamed up with the early Quakers, people are the building blocks of history, the sober was a model of trust, mutual understanding and level- style of their married love may be one answer to an headedness. Some of the other seventeenth century important question that still hangs over the Quaker relationships described in the book lack one, two or story – how did we manage to survive, having been even all three of these qualities. born during such a troubled time?
New relationships Simon is a member of Northumbria Area Meeting.
In the English seventeenth century hothouse atmosphere Susanna’s sisters: Early Quaker women and the sects of political revolution and religious experimentation, of seventeenth century England by Patricia Brown and some conventional marriages broke down and new Simon Webb, £4.99, ISBN 978-0956925916. types of relationships developed, some along rather bizarre lines. An invaluable (but not entirely reliable) Available from the Quaker Centre Bookshop in Friends source of information on the bizarre behaviour of the House or from the publisher’s own website http://tinyurl. sects of the time is Thomas Edwards’ book Gangreana, com/lpdirect
the Friend, 2 November 2012 13 Report Putting the sparkle back in Area Meeting
On one of the only warm days this summer, Northumbria Friends were trying something new, Judy Kirby reports
t was always the cue for making excuses and leaving possibility of trimming even these Meetings. – the monthly request: ‘Who will be our Area Paul Parker, the recording clerk, came to see us in the Meeting representatives?’ Eventually, we faced up north and showed sympathy for our ideas. ‘When early Ito this reluctance to trek across Northumbria every Friends got on their horses to go to Area Meetings, month to see dwindling numbers of Friends at Business they went to talk about their faith, not the things we Meetings. What was putting us off? talk about today,’ he told us. The Alnwick Meeting’s realist straightened out our So, with some eminent endorsement for our plans, perception of ‘dwindling’. ‘It’s not dwindling,’ he said Alnwick Meeting decided to tempt the visionary Alec ‘Area Meetings have never been popular.’ Davison north for our debut AM. We chose the ancient So this was something else to contemplate. Were art of storytelling: ‘Blooming Quakers – stories still Business Meetings moribund and, if it was true, what flowering today’ to bring alive the narrative of Quaker could we do about it? Could they be revived? What journeying, and how it resonates with our spiritual would a ‘born again’ Area Meeting (AM) look like? experience today. We marshalled our culinary skills We put a plan together and forwarded it to the (is the collective noun for a clique of Quaker cooks a AM clerk. ‘Let’s have a party instead of a Meeting’ we ‘Quisinery’?) and on a bright sunny day we had locally suggested (not quite as boldly as that) and only have sourced sea trout, Hollandaise sauce, salad nicoise, them every three months (although one of our Friends vegetarian quiches and pizzas, egg and potato and protested that quarterly Meetings had only just been rice salads, sherry trifle, summer pudding, clafoutis, done away with). meringues and cream, and homemade cakes galore Our idea was that each Meeting would be hosting (some from our cohosts). one day-long ‘gathering’ every two years, with a cohost We designed the day with Alec’s Kindler exercises Meeting offering additional help. Each AM would tailored to the storytelling theme, and a spiritual explore an aspect of one of the three aims of Britain scavenger hunt around Alnwick gave the young Friends Yearly Meeting (BYM): strengthening our spiritual an intriguing outing. And finally we had a business roots, witnessing to our faith in action, and promoting ‘hour’, for which three quarters of Friends remained. the way of life and influence of Quakers. There would Feedback indicates that our new-style AM was be really good homemade food, interludes of silence at a huge success. More than three times as many different parts of the day and business would come at Friends attended as usually go to AM, including the end when Friends felt gathered. Something worth many newcomers, young people and attenders. travelling for. Something different. And we did our We hope we’ve raised the bar for Area Meetings in homework, checking what Local Meetings were already Northumberland. We sense a growing enthusiasm in doing in line with BYM aims. our region now for experiment and adventure. We no The AM clerk was a man in need of an adventurous longer want a dutiful monthly Meeting shuffling paper idea. To our delight, the proposals were embraced by and hearing a single speaker on a single topic. There the Area (with some trepidation) for a trial run. A are people in our midst with stories to tell of what’s monthly working group was convened to deal with going on in their hearts. We want to hear them. ongoing business matters, only sending necessary items If this speaks to your condition Friends, then get on to AMs. The Meetings would be open to all. This flew your horses and go talk about your faith. in the face of our desire to have less bureaucracy, but we were all in experimental mode by now and saw the Judy is a member of Northumbria Area Meeting.
14 the Friend, 2 November 2012 Poetry
A Meeting of Friends
We sit
together
in Silence
let the quiet sink in
settle into ourselves
slowly
being
becoming
and before long the sound
of the traffic in the distance
from the road that rings this city’s neck
is the sea
scraping pebbles
over
and over
and
over
Michelle Letowska After attending a Meeting in Glasgow.
the Friend, 2 November 2012 15 a look at the Quaker world [email protected]
Cinema by the sea
Within a fortnight he had rounded up an enthusiastic committee of twelve and David and his team got to work on establishing a local film group. Using the Village Screen initiative to get started – and later with the help of grants from Wells Lions, Wells Carnival, O2 It’s Your Community, the Lottery and others – ‘Screen-next-the-Sea’ was born, initially with monthly film showings, which have since become twice monthly. The scheme has been very popular, with one satisfied customer saying: ‘It’s a small cinema with a Eye was delighted to hear third was for the ‘outstanding big heart, and it can only get better that a Friend-founded community contribution’ of David Saunders, – it’s a delightful, intimate, friendly, cinema project scooped a series of Norfolk Friend, founding member enchanting cinema.’ awards at a recent ceremony. and first chairman of ‘Screen-next- David said: ‘…a lovely surprise
Photo: Mark Epstein. Courtesy of British Federation of Film Societies. Photo: Mark Epstein. Courtesy of British Federation ‘Screen-next-the-Sea’ in Wells- the Sea’. but our success as a community next-the-Sea won three certificates In 1997 David saw an example of cinema is really due to brilliant of commendation at last month’s community cinema on the Island teamwork by a group of skillful, BFFS Award Ceremonies. Two of Hoy and put out feelers in his resourceful people, who have now were for the project itself – one local monthly magazine to see if brought the National Theatre and for publicity and marketing and something similar could flourish in Bolshoi Ballet Live via Satellite, to the other for innovation. The Wells-next-the-Sea. Screen-next-the-Sea! What next?’ Quakers with a vengeance
The nuggets of Quaker literary mentions are not they are Quakers with a vengeance’. all sparkling, as Anne Adams reminded Eye this week. Anne highlights how ‘he also speculates on how they She writes that Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, had can refuse to kill humans, but shed “tuns upon tuns of ‘a rather jaundiced idea’ of the Friends of Nantucket leviathan gore”, and thinks that they have come to “the Island, who he describes as ‘the most sanguinary of all sage and sensible conclusion that a man’s religion is sailors and whale hunters. They are fighting Quakers; one thing, and this practical world quite another”.’ Job title of the year A melodious Quakeress Philip Barron, of Sussex East Area Meeting, got Walt Whitman, the American poet, painted a in touch to tickle our funny bones when he noticed: lyrical picture of Quaker women. ‘On the back page of your 19 October issue, I was John and Janie Cottis, of Farringdon Meeting, wrote amused to see Quaker Social Action advertising to Eye after coming across a little gem during a WEA for a “Knees Up Manager” for one of their projects. literature class: I’m sure that the successful applicant will oversee a ‘In section 33 of the “Song of Myself”, a kind of valuable community development project, but that love-song to the world, Whitman writes that he is: “… person’s proposed designation must surely be in the Pleased with the Quakeress as she puts off her bonnet running for a “Job Title of the Year” award?’ and talks melodiously…”’
16 the Friend, 2 November 2012 Ad pages 2 Nov 30/10/12 11:16 Page 3
Friends&Meetings CHILTERNS QUAKER Deaths PROGRAMME - PRISONS WEEK ‘Exploring the potential of prisons – Lilias Jean (Jeana) CREMIEU-ALCAN expectations and experience.’ Forum (née Morland) 25 October, peace- with Tim Newell, Dr Claire Chung, fully. Wife of Bernard, sister of Mary Geoff Hammond. Thursday 22 Nov- Barnes and Pat Morland, mother of ember, 7.30-9.30pm, Jordans FMH, Caterine, Liliane, and Sophie. HP9 2SN. All welcome (donations Member of Street Meeting and for expenses). Details: 01494 Sidcot Old Scholar. Aged 83. 876594; [email protected]
Diary PEACE STORIES TO INSPIRE Copies still available. AND CHALLENGE US TODAY Buy to share with Philip Austin, Co-ordinator of 17TH CENTURY ADDERBURY your Meeting. MEETING HOUSE Hardly changed Northern Friends Peace Board, since 1675. Meeting for Worship speaks at Oswestry Meeting House, 2.30pm, third Sunday monthly. Dress Oak Street. 7.30pm Tuesday warmly in winter. Banbury Friends 6 November. Enquiries: offer warm welcome! OX17 3EU. [email protected] Details/directions: Jane Burn: 01869 “...putting our money 277770. [email protected] QUAKER SOCIALIST SOCIETY in better places.” Judith Mason 01295 720900. Public meeting on Land Value Taxation. Westminster FMH, Britain Yearly Meeting ACTION TO SLOW CLIMATE 52 St. Martins Lane, WC2N 4EA Epistle 2012 CHANGE Come and see Pete Saturday 3 November, 14.00 - 16.30 This issue of Ethical Consumer Postlethwaite’s film, ‘The Age of Committee meeting 11.30 - 13.30 - members and supporters welcome magazine provides a compre- Stupid’ at 2pm Sunday 18 November hensive guide to the most to attend. after Meeting for Worship (10.30am) ethically sound institutions for and a bring and share lunch at current accounts, savings and Romford Meeting. mortgages in the UK. the Friends Let your money speak. Use Notices on this page this guide to put your money in a better place. Single copies Friends & Meetings notices should Quarterly preferably be prepaid. Personal are £4.25 each plus £1.25 entries (births, marriages, deaths, Issue Four 2012 postage. Two or more copies anniversaries, changes of address, post free. Use the form below. etc.): £18 incl. vat. Meeting and OUT NOW! charity notices (changes of clerk, Another great issue! new wardens, alterations to meet- Please send me ...... copies of ing, diary, etc.) £15 zero rated for Chas Raws the Ethical Consumer Bank vat. Max.35 words. 3 Diary or Why a Quaker concern for the on something better issue at Meeting up entries £40 (£33.33 abolition of torture? £4.25 each (add £1.25 postage zero rated); 6 entries £69 (£57.50). Justin Welby on single copies). Cheque Add £1.70 for a copy of the issue Torture strictly forbidden? enclosed payable to with your notice. Cheques payable The spiritual dimension to The Friend. The Friend for £...... Entries are accepted at the editor’s Barry Williamson Name...... discretion in a standard house Firbank Fell, the new community style. A gentle discipline will be and the politics of Jesus Address...... exerted to maintain a simplicity of Sarah Shaw style and wording that excludes Researching Quaker readers ...... terms of endearment and words of tribute. Deadline usually Monday Roland Carn Postcode...... morning. A little lesson in light Please send to: The Friend The Friend, 54a Main Street, Copies £5 each + 50p postage or 54a Main Street, Cononley UK annual subscription £20 Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL. Keighley BD290 8LL. Tel. 01535 630230. from Penny Dunn, The Friend, Email [email protected] 173 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BJ Subject to availability. Exp. 31/12/12
the Friend, 2 November 2012 17 Ad pages 2 Nov 30/10/12 11:16 Page 4
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'Living on the wave's edge...'
“Please be patient, those of you who have found a rock to stand on, with those of us who haven't and with those of us who are not even looking for one. We live on the wave's edge, where sea, sand and sky are all mixed up together... Some of us stay there from choice because it is exciting and it feels like the right place to be.” Quaker Faith and Practice 20.06 (original italics), Philip Rack, 1979.
Join us at the wave's edge for the second annual gathering of the Nontheist Friends Network Friday March 1st to Sunday March 3rd 2013 At Woodbrooke Quaker Centre, Birmingham
Keynote speaker MICHAEL WRIGHT, Quaker Life Network, Nontheist Friends Network, and Media Officer of the Progressive Christianity Network. Plus workshops led by David Boulton, Jean Warren, Miriam Yagud Let your life speak... and others. Open to everyone interested in a lively exploration of nontheism within the Quaker community, asking, What can theist and nontheist Friends learn from each other while celebrating our ...with a legacy unity in diversity? to the Friend 60 places only, £180pp (bursary assistance may be available).
When making your will, Enquiries to [email protected] or please consider leaving a legacy to NFN, Hobsons Farm, Dent, Cumbria LA10 5RF The Friend Publications Registered charity 211649 The Nontheist Friends Network is an informal listed group of 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ Britain Yearly Meeting