The Story of Gatesbield the Friend Independent Quaker Journalism Since 1843
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9 August 2013 £1.70 the DISCOVER THE CONTEMPORARYFriend QUAKER WAY The story of Gatesbield the Friend INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843 CONTENTS VOL 171 NO 32 Hiroshima Day, 6 August 3 Thought for the Week: It’s up to all of us Niki Todd 4 News 5 Ireland Yearly Meeting 2013 Anne-Marie Woods 6 Ireland Yearly Meeting Epistle 7 Photo montage 8-9 Letters 10-11 Gatesbield Jo Jaffray 12 Healing ministry Hilary Painter 13 The Truth and truthfulness Gerald Drewett 14 The History of Silence G Gordon Steel 15 Travelling in ministry: Photo: Trish Carn. See page 4. Trish Photo: Being a Quaker Thomas Swain Problems with emails to the Friend 16 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world We apologise to anyone who tried to contact the Friend via email recently. From 1 to 4 August email 17 Friends & Meetings services to the office were down due to technical problems at our internet service provider. Cover image: Normal service has now been resumed. However, Stairway at Gatesbield. if you have sent a message to anyone at the Friend Photo: Courtesy of the Gatesbield Quaker and have not had a reply, please resend the email Housing Association. just to be sure that it has reached us. See pages 10-11. The Friend Subscriptions Advertising Editorial UK £76 per year by all payment Advertisement manager: Editor: types including annual direct debit; George Penaluna Ian Kirk-Smith monthly payment by direct debit [email protected] £6.50; online only £48 per year. Articles, images, correspondence For details of other rates, Tel/fax 01535 630230 should be emailed to contact Penny Dunn on 54a Main Street, Cononley [email protected] 020 7663 1178 or [email protected] Keighley BD20 8LL or sent to the address below. the Friend 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ Tel: 020 7663 1010 Fax: 020 7663 1182 www.thefriend.org Editor: Ian Kirk-Smith [email protected] • Sub-editor: Trish Carn [email protected] • Production editor: Elinor Smallman production@ thefriend.org • Arts editor: Rowena Loverance [email protected] • Environment editor: Laurie Michaelis [email protected] • Subscriptions officer: Penny Dunn [email protected] Tel: 020 7663 1178 • Advertisement manager: George Penaluna, Ad department, 54a Main Street, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL Tel: 01535 630230 [email protected] • Clerk of the trustees: Nicholas Sims • ISSN: 0016-1268 The Friend Publications Limited is a registered charity, number 211649 • Printed by Headley Bros Ltd, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH 2 the Friend, 9 August 2013 Thought for the Week It’s up to all of us ‘Thou shalt not kill’ (Exodus 20:13) his is not a rule to be followed when it suits us. ‘This is my commandment, that ye love one another, It is an absolute. We have not got the freedom as I have loved you’ (John 15:12). to choose as and when and with whom we Tapply it. How much clearer does this have to be spelled out? Let each and every one of us start with ourselves. Let us Mankind has found wonderful cures for all manner look at how we lead our lives. Loving does not involve of unspeakable illnesses and yet we cannot seem to cure killing and torture. We do not condone this behaviour the recurring ill of perpetual warfare, which plagues on a personal level. We do not consider it reasonable to our planet. Over the last thirty years, successive UK beat and kill our children. We, as individuals, have not governments have unrelentingly rolled out our nation’s got the right to kill and maim those we disagree with. war machine and sent huge numbers of troops off to It’s about time we, as a nation, took a long hard look at active service all over the world, only to have those ourselves and made a decision whether we are going same young men and women come home, many of to ban the British armaments trade, put people before them as broken souls. profit and make sure we do not go down as one of the most uncivilised, unenlightened eras in history. Starting We have not only inflicted mortal wounds on political small is always enough. Caring counts, but caring is not enemies, we have also wrecked the lives of many of enough without action. those armed forces personnel, both Us and Them, who have committed atrocities of war on their fellow Perhaps the Peace Prayer of saint Francis of Assisi humans. We have sent our troops out across the world, might help us on our individual and collective journeys: into active service, for nothing other than political gain and, indeed, it is questionable whether any gain at all Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. has been made, save that of acquiring for ourselves I’ll exchange hate for love, the reputation of being a country of unenlightened Wrong for pardon, marauding hordes. Where discord, leave concord, Deceit, find truth. Is it right to kill one person in order to save another? I’ll exchange doubt for faith, Who will make such a value judgment? Jesus said, Despair for hope. ‘Resist not evil’ (Matthew 5:39). As a member of the Where there’s darkness, I’ll shine your light, Religious Society of Friends, I have a testimony to Change grief for joy. peace. I am not prepared to make those sorts of value judgments about men’s, women’s and children’s lives I’ll not seek consolation, but console, and do not want others to make them on my behalf. Understand, but not seek understanding, Lord, I’ll not seek to be loved, but to love, We have spent fortunes on armaments that could For it is in giving that one receives, have fed the starving millions of the world. Instead of It’s in forgetting oneself that one finds. arms we could have bought medicine, supplied water It’s through pardoning that one is pardoned, for all those who live with a daily grind of extreme want, Born again in death to Life Eternal. worry and weariness. We call ourselves the ‘developed’ Translation by Niki Todd 2013 world. We have certainly developed. We have developed weapons of unspeakable ferocity that we have used to Niki Todd gain power and resources. Mid Thames Area Meeting the Friend, 9 August 2013 3 News reported by Caroline Humphries Disappointment at Bradley Manning verdict THE decision that whistle-blower Bradley Tatchell Foundation raise concerns that ‘he was Manning could face up to 136 years in prison, after subjected to homophobic abuse while in military being convicted of espionage and theft on 30 July, has detention awaiting trial’. been met with concern by many Quakers. Steve Whiting, programme manager at Quaker The US army private leaked thousands of classified Peace & Social Witness, said: ‘We Quakers stand documents to website Wikileaks to spark a debate on strong for truth and integrity in public affairs. This US foreign policy. case shines a light in a place where there is a serious Many expressed disappointment through the lack of transparency and openness. Unfortunately, the Facebook page of Quaker House of Fayetteville, the person who shines that light is likely to be demonised Quaker peace project in North Carolina that provides and severely punished. support to service members who are questioning ‘If states are to be truly democratic there must be their role in the military. American Friends Service checks, balances and accountability about what is done Committee (AFSC) encouraged Friends to send letters in our name. We need good information of the sort of support to Bradley and to attend the trial. released by Bradley Manning in order to be able to AFSC said: ‘In the current political climate of the hold our governments to account. US, blowing the whistle on egregious acts of violence ‘We recognise that it takes great courage and and secrecy is considered by authorities to be far worse certainty of conviction to take this sort of action. We than such violence and secrecy itself.’ are holding Bradley Manning and those to whom he is Fears for Bradley’s wellbeing continue as the Peter dear in the light.’ Mountmellick hosts Hiroshima Day Quaker Tapestry THE Quaker TapestrY has returned to Ireland for the first time in more than twenty years. The Mountmellick Museum in County Laois is hosting a display of twenty panels from the Tapestry from 27 July to 10 August. The Tapestry will be exhibited alongside the world renowned ‘white-on-white’ Mountmellick embroidery on display in the museum. Mountmellick embroidery is unique as it is the only form of embroidery from the nineteenth century that can claim to be entirely Irish in origin and design. Photo: Trish Carn. Mountmellick has a rich Quaker heritage. Bruce Kent, CND vice president, with Jeremy Corbyn, MP, at the Hiroshima Day commemoration in Tavistock Square. The first Quaker families settled in the area in 1659. Quakers throughout Britain took part in a wide Audio visual presentations will show the range of events on Tuesday to commemorate Hiroshima Day. Quaker influence on the industrial and Taunton Friends hosted a vigil in the town’s market square cultural development of this ancient town, at noon to remember all those who lost their lives when particularly through the famine years. the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. During the famine, a local Friend started Maldon Quaker Meeting House hosted an ecumenical an industrial association and employed Candle Service for Peace in the evening. women to stitch Mountmellick embroidery In London, Friends attended the annual ceremony at the for sale.