23 October 2009 £1.70

the DISCOVER THE CONTEMPORARYFriend QUAKER WAY the Friend INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843

CONTENTS – VOL 167 NO 43 3-5 News 3 prepare to launch new ‘inreach’ materials 4 Friends ‘stand up’ to democratic representatives on poverty issues 5 New film highlights inspiring Quaker work in Rwanda 6 Is applause Quakerly? Robert Ilson 7 Comment John Nurse and Judy Kirby 8-9 Letters 10-11 Cover story: Advices, queries and the database state William Heath 12-13 Arts 12 Cole Sahib: a Quaker educationalist Eleanor Nesbitt 13 The children of Theresienstadt Paul Green 14 Spreading the equality message John Bell Cover image: Street artist Banksy’s ‘One nation 15 Carrying on the spirit of The Retreat under CCTV’. Photo: David Boyle/flickr CC:BY. See Jonathan Pim pages 10-11. Images on this page: Top, a still from ICYIZERE:hope. Image courtesy of Josiah Films. 16 Eye witness: An Englishman in New York See page 5. Middle, the shadow of a CCTV camera Joe Thwaites looms large over a London street. See pages 10- 11. Photo: Metro Centric/flickr CC:BY. Bottom, a 17 Friends & Meetings cell at Theresienstadt concentration camp. Photo: protectorrr/flickr CC:BY. See page 13. The Friend Subscriptions Advertising Website access for paper UK £72 per year by all payment types Advertisement manager: subscribers including annual direct debit; George Penaluna Please register for a free 30 day monthly payment by direct debit online subscription at £6.50; online only £45 per year. www.thefriend.org and then email For details of other rates, Tel/fax: 01535 630230 [email protected] to request contact Penny Dunn on [email protected] ongoing online access as a paper 020 7663 1178 or [email protected] www.thefriend.org/advertise.asp subscriber.

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2 the Friend, 23 October 2009 News Quakers prepare to launch new ‘inreach’ materials Becoming Friends, a specially research came when she talked to been attending for a year or two developed education programme an attender who by chance lived but wanted deeper involvement. for new Friends and enquirers, near an elder and got regular lifts ‘Feedback has been almost entirely has now successfully completed to Sunday meeting with him. ‘She good’, says Ginny, ‘with even trial runs in Meetings across the said that fifteen minutes every those few who were turned off country and is ready to launch Sunday was her opportunity to by the idea of “studying” saying in early 2010. It came about as a ask all the daft questions she never they got an enormous amount joint enterprise between Quaker normally would have asked’, says from the conversations with the Life of Britain Yearly Meeting and Ginny. ‘She said “it was like having companions. One new Friend Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre my own captive elder”, which made said that “instead of just sounding after both had a high level of me realise we needed a way of nosey, it gave me a good excuse to demand for educational materials giving people “permission” to ask do what I wanted to do anyway”, from people who were still very those supposedly daft questions.’ and if anything sums up what new to the Society. So Becoming Friends was Becoming Friends is about, it is ‘It’s about what happens after developed: a set of online and that quote.’ outreach’, says Helen Rowlands printed learning materials in open- Woodbrooke courses for new of Woodbrooke; ‘for people who ended, interlinked units, designed companions are now taking have attended a Meeting and feel a to be used by Friends in pairs of bookings, and the Becoming connection, and then want to know enquirer and ‘companion’ with Friends programme will begin how they can become part of the more experience of the Society, across the country in January. life of the Meeting’. ‘Previously’, who would generally have attended ‘It’s always been hard for people says Quaker Life general secretary a course at Woodbrooke. ‘The to know where to start’, says Richard Summers, ‘new attenders companion is not there to teach,’ Richard, ‘as we don’t have Catholic with questions would be told says Helen Rowlands, ‘but to catechism classes or the specific to talk to someone at their own walk alongside, to discuss and to techniques of Buddhism. This Meeting – but this didn’t guarantee facilitate interactions with others provides that structure, but in a they would find coherent answers when they’re needed’. very Quaker way, very flexible and to their specific questions’. Trials of the materials took open to the individual – giving As such, Woodbrooke and place over five months this year people the opportunity to be Quaker Life together tasked with around fifty people in six authentically themselves as they Ginny Wall with researching and Meetings across Britain Yearly learn.’ responding to new Friends’ needs. Meeting, including both the newest One of the key moments in her of enquirers and those who’d Joe Mugford Union branch backs Friends’ same-sex marriage decision Actor inspires A branch of the Unite trade union has passed a resolution supporting Britain students at school Yearly Meeting’s minute regarding same-sex marriages, and pushing for its Actor and world traveller Charley principles to be enshrined in British law. Secretary Mary O’Brien described Boorman with current Sibford school the LE/524 branch as ‘a large voluntary sector branch which has most of the students. Charley attended the school from national charities and campaigning organisations as its members’. 1980 to 1983 Its resolution says: ‘This branch welcomes the decision of British Quakers and recently to support the principle of celebrating and affirming same sex marriages; revisited it to asks all working for Unite in the field of Equalities to support this initiative; highlight how asks Unite sponsored MPs to seek amendment to current legislation so that his time there partnerships between a woman and a woman, or a man and a man, celebrated had helped in a religious context can be legally processed and recognised in the same way him deal with as opposite sex marriages.’ his dyslexia.

the Friend, 23 October 2009 3 News Friends ‘stand up’ to democratic representatives on poverty issues Friends across the country ‘stood Friends have been joining forces discussion on the spiritual side up’ last weekend as part of the with representatives of groups such of the issue. We talked about the three day Stand Up campaign as Christian Aid and Catholic aid conflict between insistence on coordinated worldwide by the agency CAFOD to lobby MPs and endless growth with the need to Global Call to Action Against candidates; each group has been look towards a more convivial and Poverty (GCAP) movement. As emphasising their own part of the sustainable lifestyle, and how that well as the symbolic act of literally message, for example Christian requires a change of mind as much standing up, repeated in homes, Aid focusing on tax issues and as of habits. Tony was in agreement public spaces, schools and churches Quakers on environmental policy, with us on the need for grassroots around the world, participants but the intention in this alliance new ways of thinking.’ also lobbied their democratic is to show a united front at a vital David Turner of Edinburgh representatives on the subject time. ‘It’s a matter of pushing at Meeting also felt that a useful of global poverty – and, in the an open door in some cases’, said conversation took place when he, case of Quakers, on the need to Sunniva. ‘The idea of 0.7 per cent another Friend and five Christian connect development issues with of GNP [Gross National Product] Aid activists met their Labour a robust approach to combating going to development aid by 2013 candidate Sheila Gilmore for a climate change in the run-up to the is now very current, for example. Christian Aid coffee morning. ‘She Copenhagen summit in December. The Conservatives have promised was very well informed’, he told ‘Stand Up is essentially the that (as Labour have already the Friend, ‘although we did have legacy of the Make Poverty History done), but Labour went one better doubts about how much this was campaign’, explained Sunniva and promised that it would be from her own work or whether Taylor of Quaker Peace & Social enshrined in law, so we have to she had simply been well briefed; Witness (QPSW). ‘In 2005, around make sure that this stays on the however, she made very interesting the Gleneagles [G8] summit, agenda.’ points, about how politicians won’t people took to the streets and the Simon Bond of Maidenhead take action unless their electorate campaign was very high profile, Meeting teamed up with a local is pushing them, and about how a and this is about maintaining the CAFOD supporter to meet their positive message is very important momentum. It has one great factor Liberal Democrat parliamentary because talking too much about in campaigning terms, which is candidate Tony Hill. ‘It was great catastrophe can cause people to that a lot of people in the global that he could see that people give up in despair’. David also south are involved – thousands of from more than one part of the emphasised the need not to think people Stand Up across Africa and community were coming together of Stand Up as just one weekend Southeast Asia over the weekend on this’, said Simon, ‘and Tony also of action. ‘Sheila looks very likely – so this is very much about turned out to be a churchgoer, to succeed [sitting Labour MP] solidarity with them. But in this so we had a very interesting Gavin Strang, who is retiring at country, with an election coming the election’, he explained, ‘so up, it is also politically strategic. we made sure that the channels This year campaigners in the UK of communication would stay took part in “Stand Up and Take open in future. On the global Action: The Great Persuasion”, warming issue we know this is where people involved let their just a beginning. Copenhagen will MPs and prospective parliamentary probably result in a bit of fudge, candidates know that these issues so the real struggle is only going to are of vital importance in their Maidenhead Friends standing intensify.’ voting decisions.’ up against poverty. Joe Mugford

4 the Friend, 23 October 2009 [email protected]

New film highlights inspiring Quaker work in Rwanda Staff at Friends House in London last week And I am still alive…’ previewed ICYIZERE:hope, a moving and provocative The audience is invited in to witness not only the documentary by Patrick Mureithi about a Rwandan grief that is shared across identity lines, but also the Quaker initiative that brings together survivors and nascent stirrings of hope. We watch as participants perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. The film, still take tentative steps toward each other until finally, a work in progress, features a three-day workshop some are close enough to find the human being inside entitled Healing and Rebuilding Our Communities. It the enemy. offers an intimate glimpse into a raw, wrenching and Patrick’s film has been submitted to film festivals ultimately inspiring struggle to come to grips with worldwide including Sundance and Cannes, and he the painful legacy of genocide. Slowly and subtly, a hopes to screen it in as many African countries as friendship is forged between a perpetrator who speaks possible starting in Kenya. Further information is candidly to the camera about the traumatic effects of available via http://josiahfilms.com. killing, and a genocide widow who weeps about her feelings of guilt over her husband’s death: ‘I was with my husband when he got killed. They killed him because of me. When I got discovered in my hiding place, he heard me screaming and came HROC out into the open. He was coming to rescue me. They participants in a ‘trust walk’ captured him… Honestly, my husband, and I and the in a scene killers were all neighbours. This has ruined my peace from the until this very hour. Many nights I see my husband. film. Image I ask myself, “why didn’t I follow him and we die courtesy of together?” Inside, I am as guilty as Peter in the Bible. Josiah Films. Terry Waite welcomes charity to new home in the neighbourhood Staff, supporters, volunteers, could not support a more creative years in response to the needs of trustees and partners of Quaker and better project.’ the ever-changing east London Social Action (QSA) gathered last QSA are not moving far community. The event gave a week to watch Terry Waite open the geographically (only two doors chance for those who attended to east London charity’s new premises away from their previous office) reflect upon the strength of our in Bethnal Green. Waite, who has but this move is a big one for the values of social justice and equality, recently become a Quaker, spoke charity, as it allows them to bring and to look forward to the future. movingly of the problems that together four of their five projects Anna Phillips affect those at the bottom of the under one roof for the first time. Quaker Social Action economic ladder in contemporary The new space, rented from a local Britain. Drawing on his own charitable settlement, will allow experience, he drew parallels QSA to consolidate its presence in between being a hostage and the local community. experiencing social and financial The work that QSA does in exclusion. ‘Once you find yourself east London is born out of a in a difficult financial situation, it conviction that poverty is not can be almost impossible to pull merely material but social; and yourself out of it.’ that ‘every human being can be Waite was full of praise for a builder and a contributor’. The QSA’s work in confronting these five projects, which cover housing, problems. ‘I commend QSA for the financial literacy, furniture re- integrated work that they do which use, employment and community is now made more possible by regeneration, reflect the way that Terry Waite and Judith Moran, director being under one roof’, he said. ‘You QSA has evolved over the past of QSA, outside the new building.

the Friend, 23 October 2009 5 Opinion Is applause Quakerly?

Robert Ilson suggests that clapping isn’t all that bad

A recent Hampstead Meeting I been rebuked; for instance if this two principles: attended finished with a musical Minute were rescinded or at least 1. every gnat can fly wherever it performance by a group of unenforced? likes; children and adults that elicited I suspect most of the enthusiasts 2. no gnat wants to be too far from a ripple of applause, which was were newcomers who will learn any other gnat. publicly reproved after the Meeting Quaker practices by observation I think that works for Quakers, too. by the clerk who read out the and osmosis – if they are not It suggests considerable variation week’s announcements. When I put off attending Meetings by in matters of detail together with asked her why she had done so embarrassment. Consider a commitment to underlying values. she referred me to a minute of the musical analogue. Some people Which values? Perhaps what Hampstead Meeting, headed ‘A at the Proms applaud between theistic traditions call ‘Love of God’ concern about equality’, that said movements. They are new to and ‘Love of Neighbour’ and non- in part: ‘We agree that applause classical music. No one at the theistic traditions call ‘Wisdom’ is completely inappropriate in Festival Hall applauds between and ‘Compassion’. Meeting for Worship, since our movements. They are experienced But what about the Quaker practice is – or should be – to be concert-goers. People introduced concern for equality? Well, all open and responsive and to value to classical music at the Proms will attempts to perform music may the contributions of all equally. We soon discern that such applause well be of equal value as efforts. ask our elders and clerks to explain is no longer the done thing. They However, wisdom suggests that this to individual Friends or to the may even graduate to the Festival some performances are worthier Meeting as a whole.’ Hall, by which time they will have of applause than others. Regular I am concerned about that learnt today’s conventions for attendance at Meeting will suggest minute because: ‘audiencemanship’. If, however, they the circumstances, if any, in which 1. children need praise and love in had been made to seem foolish Quakers feel such applause is order to grow into adults capable by being shushed for their Proms appropriate. Compassion suggests, of loving themselves and others applause, they might have been lost though, that no performances (including their own children); to classical music for ever – and should be booed, and regular 2. the people rebuked for classical music, like Quakers, needs attendance at Meeting will confirm applauding may well not return. all the friends it can get! that Quakers don’t do booing A skilful solution would be to But without explicit rules, how there. schedule after rather than during will we know how to behave? Let I have not provided a pat Meeting those events (such as another, humbler, example suffice. answer to the question ‘Is applause concerts) likely to elicit applause. A swarm of gnats flies irregularly Quakerly?’ But, for me, the But if applause is wrong during but keeps roughly together. My prohibition or public reprobation Meeting, and some people applaud friend Jack Schwartz, professor of applause is not. anyway: What is to be done? How of mathematics at New York about doing nothing? Would University, told me the swarm’s Robert is an attender at Hampstead catastrophe ensue if the applause movement could be accounted for Meeting and an honorary research that greeted the concert had not by the simultaneous application of fellow of University College London.

6 the Friend, 23 October 2009 Comment Inclusion? Or equality?

Sue Jarvis, in her piece on find out how he was. He wrote to entitled to, the kinds of meetings ‘Inclusion’ (16 October) describes take this matter up with elders and that they may be asked to attend, the first and later visits of three overseers and told them about his and how these are run. people ‘with special needs’ to ‘long experience of mental illness’. Maybe the visitors to Doncaster Doncaster Meeting. They came for Apart from one letter – distant and Meeting already know this stuff. a ‘few weeks’. She and they found formal, from what he says – the They may also be aware of, or take that we have nothing clear and ‘silence’ went on for pretty well as part in, open styles of management simple that would tell them what long again. His experience appears where they live. If they are still they want to know about Friends. to have been of otherness that was interested in Quakers, could they What she says is important as it difficult, impossible even, to handle. be asked to join in a project to brings once again to our attention There is a lot of material devise the material that would suit the difficulties that Friends often nowadays that tells people about them? have with people who seem complicated and abstract matters My experience in recent years different. This difference can be in simple, clear and easy to use has been working with others with simply that people are not Friends. form. For example, all social lived experience of mental distress, For example, ‘Opening the Door’, service authorities have policies to develop and deliver recovery, the report of Welsh Friends’ and procedures for safeguarding peer support training and work Spiritual Hospitality Project, vulnerable adults. The visitors programmes. This works best sets out how Friends can present to Doncaster Meeting must be when we tackle things side-by-side, themselves in ways that are opaque, covered by the local arrangements. together, not when one or some of off-putting and disempowering Many local authorities have us set out to do things for others. to newcomers who are made to produced users’ guides to these If Friends are to be welcoming to feel less than equals. Then, Terry policies. These guides, at least the others, we need to learn with them Wisker wrote about his experience ones I’ve seen, set out clearly in how to live as equals in an unequal of ‘a deafening silence’ (15 May). text and pictures the different kinds world. He was away from his Meeting for of abusive behaviour, what people John Nurse many months. No one sought to can do about this, the help they are West Weald Area Meeting Debate: helpful or not?

There’s nothing like a good debate where the faithful can reshape their In watching the debate to clarify positions. The wits are lives’. over theism and non-theism sharpened, the arguments refined When attacked, such movements in the pages of the Friend I and defined, and we finish with a become more extreme. Citing the am reminded of Armstrong’s clearer idea of where we stand. Scopes trial in the American south words. This argument shows no This is democracy’s gift to where a teacher was prosecuted signs of abating, resolving, or us. Or is it? In one of her many for teaching evolution, Armstrong accommodating. Instead of an thoughtful explorations of points out that prior to the trial, exploration of other positions, the religions, Karen Armstrong looks although southern conservatives hardy debaters reiterate their fixed at how fundamentalism starts. In were wary of evolutionary theory, positions – endlessly. The Bible – the Biography, she says few had espoused creationism. Will this long-running it rarely begins as a battle with an ‘Fundamentalists had been willing argument about faith produce external foe, more as an internal to work for social reform with fundamentalists of the variety struggle in which ‘traditionalists people on the left.’ But following described by Armstrong? Is this fight their co-religionists’. their trouncing in the national where our Quaker debate is leading Fundamentalist institutions, she press for their attitudes, they swung us? goes on, respond to modernity by to the far right of the political Should an editor draw a line creating an enclave of pure faith spectrum – ‘where they have under it, or is that undemocratic? – ‘the yeshiva or the Bible college remained ever since’. Judy Kirby

the Friend, 23 October 2009 7 Letters All views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Friend

On theism, non-theism and tolerance I am a Quaker too I read with interest the heated correspondence in I believe in the Quaker testimonies of honesty, simplicity, the Friend over the last few months. Not, funnily equality and peace and the more recent but strong enough, about same-sex marriage, which has been advocacy of measures to protect our environment. surprisingly muted, but between theists and non- I believe that human beings have evolved the concept theists. Some show a surprising lack of tolerance, of God to organise their responses to the difficult given that we are urged ‘When words are strange subjects of sexual relations and death and to express their or disturbing to you, try to sense where they come highest ideals. I believe that European people, and those from and what has nourished the lives of others’ influenced by them, have expressed their ideals best in (Advices and queries 17). One or two (from each words attributed to Jesus in the New Testament. I believe side) even wished that those on the other side would in the Inner Light, which I think of in Shakespeare’s go elsewhere to conduct their strange practices! I words: ‘This above all. To thine own self be true.’ am very amused by all this, speaking as a creation I believe in the Quaker form of worship that I believe spirituality led pantheist – or is that construed to be to be adult and dignified and which has helped me ‘fence-sitter’? greatly over many years. I believe that the world needs I read Godless for God’s sake with great interest. I Quakers and more of them. see that non-theists come in many shades but all ask Please don’t tell me I can’t be a Quaker. a very interesting question: Do we need a God to David Rubinstein lead spiritual lives? Buddhists presumably think not. 6 Portland Street, York YO31 7EH What is interesting about this question is the many other vital and cogent questions it spawns: What do Marriage: literal versus metaphorical you mean by God? What do you mean by spiritual? Margaret Doubell oversimplifies (16 October) the Quakers first called themselves ‘Friends of Truth’. situation. The ‘literal’ meaning of words changes as We know that while we constantly seek truth it is society changes. If you go back to the derivation, never completely found. The important activity is marriage seems to be only the acquisition of a husband. searching and questioning. When we ask if God Acquiring a wife does not seem to come into it! Already exists or is needed we open refreshing new ground. my dictionary gives as fourth meaning ‘intimate union’, We are then open to the task of defining anew what with no suggestion that it refers only to mergers of we mean, what is valuable, what gives our lives banks. meaning. This process of constant renewal echoes the Of course change in peoples’ understanding of a word Creation itself, which we now know is not a one-off takes time, in this case as more people get to know event but a continual process. We are in tune when devoted same-sex couples who seem to have an ‘intimate we contemplate the unthinkable. Here we can find union’. As long as such relationships were kept secret as new leadings and re-present them in startling new far as possible, not so many people knew much about ways. I hope we will continue to welcome all friends, them. Anglicans such as Terry Waite must have been devout Christian and non-theist, be interested in meeting a series of man-and-woman relationships in the them and carefully consider what they have to say. course of their job, which determined their associations Robin Brookes with the word. North Somerset & Wiltshire Area Meeting Elaine Miles Tros-y-Fenai, Lon Las, Menai Bridge LL59 5BW We write to support the views expressed by Edward Hoare (16 October) about non-theism in the Religious Society of Friends. In Advices The Oxford English Dictionary gives 1420 for the first and queries, that profound distillation of Quaker use of the word marriage for a non-human relationship wisdom, God appears thirty-six times. God’s (Letters, 9 and 16 October). It has therefore been used, presence, guidance, love, word, Kingdom, all get not metaphorically, for about 600 years to describe many a mention. So non-theists must find themselves kinds of close unions other than those between men and in dissent on every page. If we join a tennis club, women. It is so used in a recent mail-order catalogue that existing members may reasonably assume that we I have. It still seems to me to be perverse to have it used are interested in playing tennis, so they would be so widely, and for such a long time, for close unions of surprised if we then propose that the tennis courts all kinds of material things, and for Friends to deny it to be dug up and turned into a golf club. human relationships between men and men or women Susan and Roger Sawtell and women. 20 Old School House, Billing Road, Tim Brown Northampton NN1 5RX 33 Windsor Road, Cambridge CB4 3JJ

8 the Friend, 23 October 2009 [email protected]

Inclusion Historical query I am entirely in agreement with the comment I would welcome the help of relatives or descendants of by Sue Jarvis on inclusion (16 October). I have Fred and Rachel Birchall, John and Ada Hirst, or Ernest sometimes thought that our Quaker literature and Muriel Pettifer, who were all members of Doncaster is too wordy even for readers of the Guardian Meeting around 1930. I am researching a set of furniture and it is very important to remember that some produced at that time from walnut trees reputed to have people do have reading difficulties. sheltered George Fox preaching, on his visits to Balby. All There may be a need for literature aimed these families possessed tables or chairs, probably with specifically at the attenders Sue describes. attached plaques recording the story. I would be glad to Speech and language therapists who work obtain photographs and details of any items that survive. with adults with learning difficulties are often Such chairs are also to be found at Friends House London, involved in Total Communication projects and Doncaster Meeting House, and Ackworth and the Mount might be able to help in this area. schools. Please contact me as below. However, in my view nothing replaces spoken Richard Hoare interaction and I think it is very important 25 Moor Oaks Road, Sheffield S10 1BX for our inreach that when new people attend [email protected] Meetings for Worship, they are introduced to Friends who can give them the information they need on a continuing basis. Sceptical of the new Quaker Centre Linda Banks I am afraid I must confess that I am slightly sceptical of Bournemouth Meeting the new Quaker Centre. Let me compare it to the new Beatles remastered series. The Beatles catalogue has been remastered giving the listener more bits and bytes, channels and degrees, better mixes; a truer Beatles sound. But it Inclusion seems this high-fidelity attitude is quite contrary to the Sue Jarvis (16 October) refers to a ‘Gwen’ who original spirit of the music: a new generation selling their ‘has mental health issues’. I make no comment souls to cram round a tiny mono radio set, not daring to on the person she describes or the way in which move for fear of disrupting the signal; or saving for weeks Sue describes her. Sue knows that situation to buy a treasured record to play on a five watt home built and I don’t; she probably has good reason for system; squeezing into hot sweaty venues to a hear a vague using that phrase rather than another. But melody over the screaming. as a Gwen whom uninformed people have Similarly, the Quaker spirit is perhaps best appreciated from time to time tried wrongly to label as against the odds: slipping away from family (Quaker faith ‘having mental health issues’, I naturally have and practice 19.15), defying social persecution (Quaker faith a personal perspective on the topic! And I’ve and practice 19.08), savouring precious pamphlets, sharing even been ‘accused’ (no offence is intended to stories of Friends’ witness, memorising treasured Quaker anyone by my humorous use of the word here) phrases, and of course there is the experience of George of living in a tower block, which just shows Gorman (Quaker faith and practice 2.03). how wrong some people can be without even This said, I hope that the Society is executing the work of trying! Rundells isn’t a tower block. When I had the spirit, and that I am merely tied to romantic tradition. counselling I was told specifically that I was not Chris Stapenhurst mentally ill; the purpose of counselling was to Aberdeen Meeting enable me to find more constructive ways of dealing with the very rational anxieties I’ve had to face during my life. In Friends’ own usage, I The Friend welcomes your views. Please keep suggest that phrases like ‘mental health issues’ letters short and include your full postal are best avoided. Laypeople aren’t qualified address, even when sending emails. Please to make diagnoses or psychiatric judgements. specify whether you wish for your postal or email address or Meeting name to be used with It’s more helpful just to accept that someone your name, otherwise we will print your post is different than to become part of a problem address or email address. Letters are published yourself. Vague and inaccurate statements at the editor’s discretion and may be edited. undermine the individual concerned and have Write to: the Friend, 173 Euston Road, London no part to play in building inclusion. NW1 2BJ or email [email protected] Gwen Jones Remember if you are online that you can also Harlow Meeting comment on all articles at www.thefriend.org

the Friend, 23 October 2009 9 Integrity Advices, queries and the database state William Heath has confidence that Quaker resilience is up to the challenge of the modern state

There must be something about government’s role in the emergence children, pupils, taxpayers, drivers, the Quaker determination to focus of an information society. I spent immigrants, offenders and those on injustice and do something eighteen years trying to research, on welfare. We’ve got the most constructive and compassionate understand, write and speak about extensive CCTV surveillance in about it which accounts for the government IT, but the more I the world. Now we’re proposing to Society’s extraordinary record on understood what was being spent routinely keep a central record of social justice and civil liberties. and how it was being implemented, every email address, web address I am still only now learning the greater grounds for concern I and phone number used, when about the scope and detail of saw. and where. We’re creating a world that history, but every week I Things like IT project failures, in which rules-based systems meet plain-speaking Quakers and more recently extensive determine how we treat each other, with a good-natured and resilient losses of personal data by public who has access to what services and self-confidence who are linked to authorities, are generally seen where the lines of discrimination extraordinary achievements. One as issues of competence. But I should be drawn. might be a former ambulance think the problem lies deeper: Quakers maintain that each driver from the Russo-Finnish in the intention. It’s not that the person is unique, precious, a child war, another a campaigner for computers do not work (although of God. The government uses the accountability of US military there is a long history of failed ‘Every Child Matters’ as a slogan bases. As I write, a local Friend projects). It’s that people are for setting up databases which will is on the receiving end of Israeli naively turning to machines in make intimate details of eleven bombardment as a peace witness in ways that attack our civil liberties million children available to several Israel/Palestine. and avoiding tackling the real, hundred thousand public servants. They are all hardcore pacifists, human problems. But some people felt to be at risk long term environmentalists, We spend £16bn a year of leaks (such as the children of advocates of simple living. And computerising public services, but celebrities and politicians) can have they are generally supportive of we have never been asked what we their records ‘screened’. other faiths and keen to learn from want. The people this is meant to You have to ask: is this the best them. help were never involved in the way to treat each other? One thing that has been process of specifying, designing, Professionally I found myself concerning me for longer than I’ve buying and managing these systems earning a decent living but with been a Quaker is the need to shed by which we are increasingly serious doubts about whether our some light on the whole matter of defined and judged. efforts were going to contribute computerisation of the state, or We have vast central databases of to the sort of world I wanted to

10 the Friend, 23 October 2009 Advices, queries and the database state

‘People are naively turning to machines in ways that attack our civil liberties and avoid tackling the real, human problems.’ Photo: comedy_nose/flickr CC:BY.

live in, or in which we would A Meeting for Worship is a of will that has already worked all participate actively and great place to get clearer in your so well, we can make progress on constructively. My clients – many head about such difficult matters. ending our blind acceptance of the of them more than likeable as The silence is deeper and more arms trade and tendency towards individuals – behaved corporately powerful than one can imagine. war. We can live sustainably and as one expected. They were in it Singing hymns works for some within our means. for the profits, and considerations people, but not for me. Not when The Quaker advice that ‘a of human dignity did not feature. I need to hear something deep simple lifestyle freely chosen Many were primarily military and almost imperceptibly quiet. is a source of strength’ speaks contractors, with a corporate When this sort of stuff is weighing volumes. Indeed the tiny pamphlet culture which reflected that. on your mind, the process of the Advices and queries, which distils There are indications that some Quaker Meeting and the collected 350 years’ worth of insight into organisations appear to have been insights of the Society through the eleven pages of plain talk, cannot involved in the management of centuries, have so far proved very be recommended too highly for prisoners at Abu Ghraib where helpful. what it says about relationship journalists reporting the situation Quakers are exceptionally clear difficulties, drugs and alcohol, were sometimes intimidated, and supportive over matters of global stewardship or interfaith but those organisations appear conscience which might bring relations. to have been able to continue to you into conflict with the state. We’ll still have to solve the sell statistical services to local Their process tests and challenges problem of the database state, of authorities. Government’s IT you in your local Meeting. But if course. But, given what’s been suppliers like a process which it passes the test, they back you solved already, we have to believe exaggerates branded threats in the wholeheartedly, as examples all that with the right frame of mind ‘war on terror’ (or on any one of round the country today will attest. and the right support, it’s going to many other abstract nouns) and The Quaker history of practical be within our power to do it. then sells off-the-shelf ‘solutions’ to progress on human rights, them. And this became the spirit in equality, the slave trade, prison which our identity card schemes, reform and business ethics gives census, phone interception, a wonderful sense of momentum This article is the first chapter number-plate recognition and and perspective as we face up to big of Seven Quakers and Civil DNA recording, health and issues today. It makes me confident Liberties: personal liberty and the children’s records were to be that collectively, with the same sort authoritarian state published by the designed and introduced. of calm clarity and peaceful force Quaker Civil Liberties Network.

the Friend, 23 October 2009 11 review Cole Sahib: Quaker educationist

Cole Sahib: The Story of a Seeing the death of a blackbird over again in meeting creatively Multifaith Journey by Owen that he had shot with an air rifle, the challenges of changing Cole. Sussex Academic Press. and – on film – the effects of circumstances and it is this that ISBN: 9781845193362. £16.95. Australian soldiers setting fire will inspire readers. Owen remains ‘This story has three intertwining to a Japanese bunker, set him a ‘Bradford nonconformist’, strands. One is my deep interest on the path to conscientious whether embracing or in religious education from 1954 objection. When called to register Quakerism (like Paul Oestreicher onwards… until now; the second is for National Service he joined and Terry Waite he embraces both), the multifaith journey that I have the Friends Ambulance Unit. and one whose commitment is travelled since about 1968; and His recollections of his service to respecting and nurturing the the third is my own continuing (with American Mennonites) in cultures and consciences of all. spiritual pilgrimage.’ So writes our Germany, and then in Bradford Owen’s accounts of initiatives and Friend Owen Cole in the preface Royal Infirmary, followed by issues among Black, Sikh, Muslim, to his recently published and helping Hungarians in Hednesford, Hindu, and Jewish communities in eminently readable autobiography. make compelling reading. He Leeds are illuminating. So are his Among teachers of religious records that ‘membership of the observations, such as: ‘Diversity is education and their trainers Owen FAU had been the most worthwhile something to which most religions Cole has for several decades been experience of my life so far’. claim to aspire, but I have found a very familiar and respected But it is his subsequent that those who speak in favour name. This is because of his engagement in Leeds with people of it have most difficulty when it pioneering and influential role in from a range of faith communities, comes to members of one’s own establishing religious education as and his passionate advocacy of tradition or who are akin to it.’ a broadly based study of beliefs and responsible, multi-faith religious Thus, as he points out, Christians values, and especially in making education that will be of keenest can be affirming of Muslims and Sikhism more widely known. His interest to many readers. As Jews, while being disparaging about contribution has been immense, readers we can follow through Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, through his teaching in higher the linkages in his narrative – for and so on. education (Leeds and Chichester), instance Owen’s involvement The Yorkshire Welshman, Owen his work on Agreed Syllabuses, in the Yorkshire Committee for Cole, is a gifted communicator, and via the Shap Working Party Community Relations through with a direct, pithy style. In Cole on World Religions in Education, which he met his dear friend and Sahib readers of the Friend will which he helped to found. future co-author, Piara Singh find many resonances with their Cole Sahib, an autobiography Sambhi. For readers who have own journeys, as well as new dedicated to his grandchildren, not been fortunate enough to perspectives and insights. The starts with glimpses of his have friends from different faith narrative resounds with Owen childhood home and of his communities, Owen’s life story Cole’s hatred of class-based schooldays. He writes with is an encouragement to look for snobbery, with his championing of affectionate respect for the liberal opportunities and to follow them minorities and his faith in God’s of his father, a coal through. love, and it is amply seasoned by miner turned Congregationalist What comes across strikingly humour and a delight in ongoing minister, which remains the basis is the unswerving faithfulness to discovery. for Owen Cole’s own lifelong his background and to his guiding Eleanor Nesbitt values. insights. It is expressed over and Coventry Meeting

12 the Friend, 23 October 2009 arts The children of Theresienstadt

Paul Green finds that artwork by children in a concentration camp encourages him to recognise that of God in all he meets

The combined ghetto and hall and reflected on what befell health issues are rapidly becoming concentration camp at those who had produced such problems to be fixed by rational Theresienstadt (in what is now beautiful things. Varying degrees and technical means through the Czech Republic) housed many of skill were apparent but even the application of ‘packages of prominent Jewish artists, writers, the untutored drawings of the care’, each with its own price tag composers and intellectuals. Its very youngest children seemed carefully worked out. For me, the rich cultural life was exploited by to hold a lost world of promise best way of honouring the memory the Nazis who presented it to the in their bright colours and these of the children of Theresienstadt Red Cross as a model community, were the most poignant of all. In is to focus on the humanity, even producing a propaganda this however, there seemed to be a individuality and suffering of each film in which the inmates were kind of restoration or redemption ‘client’, irrespective of diagnosis, depicted dining in cafes and being of some sort. In those words and and try to understand the totality entertained by street musicians. pictures, the humanity of these of each person’s experience. I have This Potemkin village hid a world dead children was there to be ceased to believe in a transcendent of brutality, suffering and death recognised by the world. God or a life beyond this one behind its carefully constructed The Nazis tried to rob their but I do believe that if God is to facade and, of the 15,000 children Jewish victims of every vestige of remain as a symbol of all that is who passed through its gates, fewer individuality and dignity before good and the summation of our than 100 survived. After the war destroying them but now these highest ideals then we must strive the paintings, drawings and poems youngsters had their names, not to encounter him in the face of all they had produced were found in tattooed numbers, written beneath we meet. two suitcases left behind by the the works they had produced. Paul is a member of Brighouse artist and teacher Friedl Dick- Whenever and wherever their West Yorkshire Area Meeting Brandeis before her transportation pictures are seen and their poems and is a cognitive behavioural to Auschwitz, a fate shared by many are read, one small triumph is psychotherapist in training. of her young charges. made over the barbarism which Two years ago, while on holiday sent them to their deaths. in Malta, I attended an exhibition I often think about those of these works. The sensitively children and the lesson their story drawn birds, flowers and trees has for all of us. It is easy to forget and the poems expressing the the individuality or personhood children’s fears, hopes and dreams of others and I sometimes find bore eloquent testimony to a myself struggling to sustain that world in which they saw meaning recognition as I carry out my and beauty as well as despair and work in the field of mental health. loss. An almost unbearable feeling It is a world in which diagnostic of sadness overwhelmed me as I classifications, treatment models The beds where prisoners slept. wandered around the exhibition and protocols abound. Mental Photo: NikiSublime/flickr CC:BY.

13 the Friend, 23 October 2009 Equality Spreading the equality message John Bell explains how his Meeting started

Some of the participants at Spiceland’s’ discussion. tackling the issue Earlier in the year the Friend carried imprisonment rates and violence, people, harnessing energy for a review of an important new while in contrast, more equal positive change, support for local book The Spirit Level: Why equal societies almost always do better. businesses and cooperatives, credit societies almost always do better. Martin presented the evidence and unions, transition town initiatives, The authors Richard Wilkinson patiently answered our questions. allotments, making eye contact, and Kate Pickett are professional Then following a shared lunch reinforcing trust, self-worth and academics who present their we talked in groups of five or six appreciation. research in a very serious way. Then mulling over the information and But how can we help bring in March there was an offer in the thinking about our responses. about equality of income on Friend from Martin Wilkinson, In our group, we talked the national scale? Some of us Richard’s brother and a much- about how we knew intuitively wanted to send a copy of the respected Quaker, to come and talk that if people were more equal book to MPs and candidates in to Meetings on the research behind economically there would be the coming general election. I, the book and to seek views on the more participation in community myself, have become more aware insights it contained. activities. The rich would benefit of the equality debate. Kate Picket So, as good as his word, Martin because they would be regarded spoke at a fringe meeting of the travelled from his home in London more on their individual merits TUC on 14 September on the at the end of August to speak to than what they owned. There ‘Role of Economic Democracy’. us in our remote Meeting house would be less status competition. The Friend on 4 September carried in the Blackdown Hills in Devon. And the poor would feel more an article by Philip Barron on The advertising was well done and involved as well as being materially the work of the Church Action thirty-five people turned up, half of better off. The value of the research on Poverty, which talks about them with no Quaker affiliations. that Martin presented was that it tackling the pay gap from both To start Martin asked us to form gave us evidence that people feel ends. Compass, a left-wing ‘think- pairs to talk about what equality better about themselves if they can tank’ is advocating a High Pay meant to us. I wondered about it share in the economic benefits and Commission as a counterbalance as a testimony. How it was rooted divisions can be healed. to the Low Pay Commission and in history – the hat culture and Then the groups shared their this idea was discussed at the TUC the thee/thou controversy, which ideas. Most people believed that and mentioned on the BBC Radio 4 are hardly burning subjects today. the current economic downturn Today programme. Caroline Lucas, Then we remembered how the should be seen as an opportunity the Green MEP, has also got the early Quakers promoted gender to argue that economic growth is message. equality and how this seemed not sustainable and that the ideas to lead on towards the current of the book can be expanded into John is a member of Spiceland decision on same-sex marriages. global politics where the richer (Uffculme) Meeting. But, of course, Martin is talking nations can reduce their carbon See http://uk.groups.yahoo. about a different aspect of equality. footprint to allow space for the com/groups/QEN for Richard Essentially the argument is: poorer countries to develop within Wilkinson’s Salter Lecture at Yearly statistics show that greater income the world’s limited resources. Meeting Gathering 2009 and an inequality makes societies more Many of the ideas were based on email discussion group called the dysfunctional in terms of mental things we could do, and indeed are Quaker Equality Network. See health, levels of trust, infant doing, in our local communities www.equalitytrust.org.uk for the mortality, community cohesion, – reconnecting with younger Equality Trust’s website.

14 the Friend, 23 October 2009 Witness Carrying on the spirit of The Retreat Jonathan Pim looks at the impressive new wing of a Friends-run hospital in Dublin

Bloomfield. There were some seventy residents, now increased to 105 with the opening of phase 2. Five of these are Quakers and fifteen are members of the Jewish community. Psychiatric admissions are at present voluntary but there may be involuntary admissions in future. Most of the residents in Bloomfield are paid for by the HSE. A full time activities coordinator and Bloomfield Care Centre and, below, the courtyard. Photos courtesy of occupational therapists continue to involve Jonathan Pim. and stimulate residents and outings are organised from time to time by the Jewish Bloomfield Care Centre, the mental hospital and community and these give variety to the daily life. nursing home owned and managed by Irish Friends, Religious services and interdenominational meetings has recently completed its phase 2 development are arranged by Friends, local clergy and the Jewish at Stocking Lane in the hills south of Dublin. The rabbi. These are an important part of the Bloomfield official opening was performed by Mary Harney, Community ethos. Bloomfield has twenty-four nurses minister of health, and the launch included a short and forty-eight care assistants in addition to staff Meeting for Worship introduced by Alan Pim, clerk covering management, administration and support of Ireland Yearly Meeting. Phase 2 is a magnificent services. complex of seventy-eight beds for patients of which Teaching is an important element at Bloomfield. It twenty-eight have immediately been filled by patients is an affiliated clinical teaching centre for the students from Kylemore Clinic, which has now merged with at Trinity College, Dublin. The placing of students in Bloomfield. The balance of the beds will be filled Bloomfield will commence in September and they will during the course of the year as funding becomes be able to use a direct computer link to the university available at the Health Service Executive (HSE), which computer centre. is the state body responsible for health care. Bloomfield was founded almost 200 years ago, Building works were substantially completed in being modelled March 2009. The building includes a day care centre, on the Retreat occupational therapy and physiotherapy rooms, in York. Irish recreational rooms, enclosed outdoor exercise areas, Friends hope that new garden areas, a teaching/computer room and it will continue underground parking for staff. On the ‘sustainable to flourish and energy’ front, gas is being used to generate electricity meet the needs of and this can be fed back into the national grid as the mentally ill appropriate. Roof rain water is being harvested and for another few saved for non-potable use. Much of the funding of generations to around 17m euros (approximately £14.5m) came from come. the HSE and it is an ‘approved centre’ with the Mental Jonathan is a Health Commission. member of Ireland For most of 2008 there was full occupancy at Yearly Meeting.

the Friend, 23 October 2009 15 Eye witness [email protected]

An Englishman in New York Joe Thwaites sends us his Eye-view

Some of what you hear about Contrary to what you might by how liberal the media is, I am America is true. Things are big. expect after watching excerpts from measuring it against a fictionalised The cars are big. Ridiculously big, Fox News suggesting, among other version of America based on very shiny and a deep black, and things, that the NHS supports exaggerated stereotypes. I had with shaded out windows, of course. terrorism, much of the media prepared myself for tall buildings They are imposing monstrosities. is surprisingly liberal. The New so they lacked impact. I had In most British cities, the number York Times is, on most issues, on expected conservatives, so liberals of pedestrians attempting to cross a par with the Guardian in its surprised me. It may well be that a road can force the flow of traffic editorial line. But it is the TV news the buildings are really tall, and the to stop for them whether it’s their networks that have proved the people and media are actually quite right of way or not. In New York, biggest revelation. No sense of BBC right wing, but when juxtaposed there are plenty of pedestrians too, impartiality here! While that means with my expectations, they don’t but none dares to try their luck. that you do have moronic offerings seem so. The traffic moves at such speeds from some channels, I now see how Secondly, I have never lived in (particularly taxis) that you have short-sighted I was to assume they a big city before, so it is difficult to be sure that there’s a ‘walk’ sign would all be like that. MSNBC in to separate what is specifically alight or that you can see a good particular is remarkably liberal. New York or American from the few blocks down the road that In writing this column, I’ve characteristics that all cities have. nothing’s coming. Mike Bloomberg, realised that my impressions of Some aspects just come with mayor of New York, proposed a America are skewed in several ways. cosmopolitanism. I have to sort out congestion charging system for Firstly, I am judging the what is definitively New York from downtown Manhattan similar to country against well developed what is just ‘big city’. London’s, but it was dropped before preconceptions (perhaps But perhaps most important is to it even got to a vote. This is a place prejudices) about what American note is that this is New York City. where the car rules. culture, people and politics would As everyone keeps reminding me, The buildings are also huge. You be like. This means that when I the rest of America is different. Out expect that with New York though, am surprised by how small an of state visitors are conspicuous don’t you? But what is interesting is impact the skyscrapers have, or by their size, volume and tendency that the sheer number of them has to congregate around tourist actually diminished their impact. attractions. Of course New York Take my office building – it’s twelve has organic whole food stores and stories high, which in most British people tend to be more liberal! East towns and cities would be quite a and West coasters are well known landmark, but in Manhattan it is for their more tolerant, outward one of the smaller buildings. When looking attitudes, partly due to you walk down the street, no-one the simple fact of their geography, (except tourists) looks up at the which gives them greater exposure concrete and glass spires towering to the rest of the world. Other above. To New Yorkers, it’s just an parts of America are different ordinary street. The high rise mass from New York and each other in is a separate world from the street turn. This is hardly surprising in a level below. Looking straight ahead, country more than double the size the only thing that indicates that of the EU – think of the cultural you’re in the depths of a concrete differences between Britain and jungle is the fact that, despite 30°C Spain and Romania. heat, you’re very well shaded from the sun. Much of what you hear about New York skyscrapers. Joe is working for a year at the America, though, is not true. Photo: b0r0da/flickr CC:BY. Quaker UN Office in New York.

16 the Friend, 23 October 2009 Ad pages 23 Oct 19/10/09 21:02 Page 3

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