the22 February 2019 Friend | £2.00

‘These people were willing to risk all for the Truth.’ Ivan Hutnik on what galvanised early 22 Feb 18/2/19 17:21 Page 1

New year... New look... New subscription! Join us every week For just £1.73 a week you can receive your own copy of the Friend delivered right to your door. Simply send a cheque for £88 (£120 outside the UK) payable to ‘The Friend’ with your name and address. If you prefer to pay by card call 020 7663 1178, or to pay by direct debit (UK only, £7.40 a month or £88 a year) email [email protected] to request a direct debit form. Thank you! Email: [email protected] Call: 020 7663 1178 Write: Penny Dunn, The Friend, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ Online: www.thefriend.org/subscribe the IndependentFriend Quaker Journalism Since 1843 22 February 2019 | Volume 177, No 8 www.thefriend.org

News 4 Friends holding on in Zimbabwe, and more Rebecca Hardy

Letters 6

‘These people were willing 8 to risk all for the Truth’ Ivan Hutnik Early Quakers expected the world to be transformed

‘Tent villages are moved every few days.’ 10 The situation for people seeking Anne M Jones refuge in France

Thought for the week 13 clap its hands and sing Rachel Britton

It Keeps Me Seeking: The invitation 14 from science, philosophy and religion Reg Naulty A review

Poetry 16 Birds Peter Daniels

Friends & Meetings 17

Quakerism should not claim to be a religion of certainty, but a religion of uncertainty; it is this which gives us our special affinity to the world of science. For what we apprehend of truth is limited and partial, and experience may set it all in a new light; if we too easily satisfy our urge for security by claiming that we have found certainty, we shall no longer be sensitive to new experiences of truth. For who seeks that which [they believe] that [they have] found?

Charles F Carter, 1971

Quaker faith & practice 26.39 News [email protected]

Friends in Zimbabwe journeys into Bulawayo tell of violence in centre. Surviving… is on troubled times a knife edge.’ Friends in Zimbabwe have Hundreds of activists reported that they have and opposition officials been greatly affected by went into hiding after Photo courtesy of Jackie Carpenter. the violence arising from a brutal government fuel increases last month. crackdown following in Cornwall upheld a climate emergency. Several people were the riots. There have Cornwall Council in We took it to Cornwall killed during protests been reports of arrests, its decision to declare a Council and gave it out in the cities of Harare beatings, rapes and ‘climate emergency’ on at the debate to everyone. and Bulawayo after the abductions committed by 22 January. Falmouth There were about seventy government more than police and the military. Quakers welcomed the to eighty people in the doubled the price of fuel Fourteen Friends motion ‘Urgency on gallery and a lovely overnight. attended Bulawayo Climate Change’, which positive atmosphere.’ Lee Taylor, to Meeting on 3 February was brought by Liberal Sue James, cabinet Friends of Hlekweni, and shared stories about Democrat councillor portfolio holder for a UK-based charity, frightening experiences, Dominic Fairman. the environment and told the Friend: ‘Most as well as discussing The motion called on public protection, said: Friends in Bulawayo the distribution of the the council to prepare ‘Climate change is already live in the townships Southern Africa Yearly a report within six here and having effects or rural settlements, so Meeting food support and months detailing how in Cornwall, like the getting to Meeting takes what Quakers have been Cornwall can reduce unprecedented rainfall considerable time and doing to keep faithful. carbon emissions to limit causing flooding in money: walking often The attenders also global warming to 1.5°C Coverack in July 2017 several kilometres, then welcomed the launch through energy efficiency, and the significant late taking kombis (taxis). of peace clubs in five low-carbon fuels and snow last year.’ Fares have increased secondary schools. investment in renewable Approximately twenty severalfold – well beyond energy. councils, including the means of most. Cornwall Quakers Labour councillor Jayne Manchester, Oxford, Friends report that their welcome ‘climate Kirkham put forward an Bristol and Kirklees, have local shops were looted emergency’ decision amendment to declare a also recently declared and trashed, meaning As part of their ‘climate emergency’ and ‘climate emergencies’, that getting food supplies longstanding commitment called on Westminster often supported by the requires expensive to sustainability Quakers to provide the powers action of Friends and in a and resources necessary bid to put pressure on the to achieve the target for government. words Cornwall to become carbon neutral by 2030. Protestors celebrate Jackie Carpenter, from as Birmingham arms Bude Meeting, told the fair moves site The violations are Friend that there were Friends in Malvern are around ten Quakers in the celebrating the news that systematic…The gallery to hear the motion the Defence Procurement, being debated and passed. Research, Technology and She said: ‘On Saturday, Exportability (DPRTE) targets… became prior to the debate for arms fair arranged for 28 the motion, at Area March has been ‘chased’ indiscriminate Meeting we discussed from the National sustainability and one Exhibition Centre in From a recent report by the person crafted a minute Birmingham. saying that we, Quakers Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. The decision to of Cornwall, supported change the fair’s location

4 the Friend 22 February 2019 follows a vibrant local Anthony Cole during numbers campaign against the Meeting for Worship event, which included a (MfW) on 27 January, large demonstration. One which resulted in another Friend from the mostly Friend calling for a special Quaker group Malvern Business Meeting to Individuals for Peace, set 1,000 consider the matter. up by Melanie Jameson, According to Anthony The number, at least, of people who have from Worcestershire and Cole, in a paper he been detained by the Zimbabwean government. Shropshire Area Meeting, wrote for that Business was among fifty people Meeting, there were attending a training day several ministries during ground floor announced subject of an exhibition run by Campaign Against the 27 January MfW they were changing at the London School of Arms Trade (CAAT) on 2 that expressed ‘deep- location. Economics (LSE). February to generate ideas seated concern about She said: ‘The main ‘Giving Peace a Chance: for protesting against the consequences of the reason we had to move from the League of the arms fair. The new EU referendum decision was because of the Nations to Greenham location, Farnborough and about the resulting inaccessibility of the Common’ explores how International Exhibition political deadlock’. Meeting room on the world peace was sought and Conference Centre He wrote: ‘Among first floor. We moved in the twentieth century, in Hampshire, has close those present, these to a nearby office but with pieces taken from military connections. matters have aroused the office space became the collections of LSE Melanie Jameson told strong feelings… of being unavailable, so now the Library and the Women’s the Friend: ‘Just as [the] coerced and intimidated Meeting is in a steeple Library. event was chased out into accepting outcomes house in Dundee.’ The exhibition, which of Cardiff, it has been which appear to them She continued: ‘I’m is on until 17 April at the possible to “move it on” to be undesirable and excited that we are going LSE Library, showcases from Birmingham. This unpredictable, feelings back home. We’ve been the work of international seems a good tactic, which of unfairness, feelings on a long Spirit-led path organisations such as the must have a cost both of frustration and of of discernment. We hope League of Nations and the financially and in terms in disenfranchisement.’ to return by the end of Women’s International inconvenience for those But when Friends the year. It will cost about League of Peace and promoting these “fairs”. If gathered at the special £150,000 to renovate, Freedom, as well as items we can’t shut them down Business Meeting to which includes installing related to peace activists altogether, at least we can take the concern further, a lift. I am convening a such as Pat Arrowsmith, keep them on the run.’ they could not reach small group of fundraisers co-founder of the According to CAAT, the unity. Anthony Cole told to raise our shortfall of Campaign for Nuclear purpose of the DPRTE the Friend: ‘We found £50,000 in the next year.’ Disarmament. is to connect small it difficult to reach a The 150-year-old There is also material manufacturers with some specifically Quaker Meeting house is in the from the Greenham of the world’s largest arms response to the situation centre of Dundee. Common Women’s Peace companies and the UK that wasn’t politically Camp, which was set up military. partisan. However, we Exhibition on peace in the 1980s to protest CAAT claims that continue to struggle with activism at LSE against the siting of cruise major arms dealers such this matter and intend to The history of the missiles at the air force as BAE Systems use these return to it soon.’ peace movement is the base in Berkshire. events to identify new business partners. Dundee Meeting to go ‘back home’ Hitchin Meeting to Dundee Meeting has consider Brexit angst decided to return to its Hitchin Quakers held five-storey Meeting house a special Meeting for after a two and a half year Worship for Business this process of discernment. month to consider ways Pamala McDougall, to heal the divisions in clerk of Dundee Meeting, society caused by Brexit. told the Friend that the The Meeting on 3 decision was prompted February followed when the property ministry by local Friend solicitors renting the Photo courtesy of the LSE Library.

the Friend 22 February 2019 5 what we have in common is more the Friend Letters important than what is different 173 Euston Road and sometimes it’s about wanting London, NW1 2BJ to share more blessings. 020 7663 1010 At the end of our ‘Equipping www.thefriend.org for Ministry’ course recently The Friend welcomes your views, we shared blessings with each to [email protected]. Please Subscriptions other. It was a rich and powerful keep letters short. We particularly UK £88 per year by all payment experience – something we all welcome contributions from types including annual direct need more of rather than less? debit; monthly payment by children, written or illustrated. Maureen Rowcliffe-Quarry direct debit £7.40; online only Please include your full postal Gloucestershire Area Meeting £71 per year. Contact Penny address, even when sending Dunn: 020 7663 1178 emails, along with your Meeting An inspiring rebuke [email protected] name or other Quaker affiliation. Judy Clinton’s ‘Thought for the In essentials unity, Week’ (1 February) resonated Advertising in non-essentials liberty, powerfully with me. I too am Contact George Penaluna: in all things charity. struggling to come to terms 01535 630230 with a new, unwelcome identity [email protected] after a lifetime of being an industrious and energetic achiever Editorial Blessings and responses and a contributor to various Articles, images, correspondence I read with interest the article (25 organisations, causes and to my should be emailed to January) and letter (8 February) lecturing/researching profession. [email protected] regarding blessings in church, and In the last few years, an or sent to the address above. the strength Antonia Swinson and accumulation of chronic medical Barbara Pensom found through problems, and consequent needs Editor remaining seated. This has given to minister to these to avoid Joseph Jones me much to ponder on. Raised a worse scenarios, has sapped Journalist Baptist, I opted out before adult inner and outer strength(s), Rebecca Hardy baptism and so never received consumed excessive daily time Production and office manager communion. It was a relief to and energy and rendered me Elinor Smallman find Quakers where I didn’t have unable to do many things I care Sub-editor to worry about it. ‘All of life is about for myself and for others. George Osgerby sacramental’ sits well with me. I feel frustrated, guilty, much Arts correspondent However, I’m a reluctant label- diminished, and even worthless Rowena Loverance holder and do find much spiritual and despairing at times. nurture and learning in other Advices & queries 28 – Environment correspondent traditions – for example, visits to ‘relinquish duties without Laurie Michaelis the Taizé community, Greenbelt undue pride or guilt’ – speaks Clerk of trustees festival and occasional church to me about more than just Paul Jeorrett services. What I do when it comes Quaker contributions. (I’ve only to time for communion/a blessing been Quaker for about twelve ISSN: 0016-1268 tends to be to respond to how I years.) Recently, ministry in feel led – sometimes it’s to stay Meeting from a new attender The Friend Publications Limited seated, sometimes go up for a who has suffered much (and is is a registered charity, blessing, or sometimes share the still suffering), insisting – with number 211649 bread and wine. ‘true grit’ – that he greets each I know deeply that all of life day feeling ‘life is a joy’, was an Printed by is sacramental, can this not also inspiring rebuke to me. Warners include communion? Sometimes Acceptance of the limited, Midlands Plc, sharing this with other people changed self is one of the hardest The Maltings, helps me re-attune to that so I of all psychological challenges; it’s Manor Lane, can be more present to my cup ongoing and not easily achieved. Bourne, of fennel tea when I get home. Quaker Meetings and fellowship Lincolnshire Sometimes it’s about being part as well as love from family, are PE10 9PH of a wider community where major factors keeping me to this

6 the Friend 22 February 2019 late-stage task – as I hope they important source of nourishment As for this being a ‘token gesture’, are and will be for other Friends in countries like Brazil, which given the chorus of disapproval it in similar positions. Judy is right. are largely covered in forest. It is seems token gestures do have an Being open and honest with also readily digestible, and so a effect. ourselves and others about our vital constituent of packs used by Stevie Krayer struggle, when appropriate, is vital charities such as Oxfam to save the Abergavenny Meeting, to making progress. lives of starving babies. Monmouthshire Lois Chaber Is our delight in our western Winchmore Hill Meeting, London food fads of such importance that Eco Church we should exploit soya-producing In April 2018 Heswall Meeting End of life issues countries in this way? received a bronze award as an A I have three times watched and Elaine Miles Rocha Eco Church. This certificate waited while a loved one died. It Jordans Meeting, Buckinghamshire is displayed in the Meeting house was a difficult experience and at to remind us of our commitment. times I wished that the process Occupation and justice We heard of Eco Church from could be hastened to end the The effects of the illegal military a local environmental activist suffering. However, I also had a occupation of the Palestinian and, with the approval of the profound sense that somehow, in Territories receive little coverage, Local Meeting, registered with A all of these situations, the time of but almost every day there Rocha and completed the online death was right. are killings and woundings of questionnaire. The questionnaire Other countries have adopted a unarmed Palestinian civilians. is in five sections: ‘Worship and policy of assisted death. We cannot As a Jew, it gives me no joy Teaching’, ‘Buildings’, ‘Land’, know what effect this has had or to acknowledge the abuse, ‘Community and Global’, and is having on individuals and their humiliations and threats ‘Lifestyle’. It is designed for families. We cannot know whether perpetrated by other Jews in Israel, mainstream churches, rather someone with a terminal illness but I cannot shut my eyes. I hope than a Quaker Meeting, but the has felt under pressure to end their Quakers will continue to stand up questions are so wide ranging we life and spare loved ones from through nonviolent means for an found them to be useful. watching them die. end to the occupation, undeterred A group of four members of It’s not necessarily coercion that by worries about how we are seen our Meeting were involved in concerns me most, but the more by others. completing the questionnaire subtle message that may make It is sad that our policies and we meet together from time an individual feel that somehow have caused ill feeling in some to time to consider what further they are a burden to society and Jewish communities, but I fear action we might take. therefore would be better dead. I that many Jews would prefer Since completing the know that in my own family my everyone to be totally uncritical questionnaire we have fully mother may have felt she should of Israel (motivated by a sense of double-glazed the Meeting house. take this course, not because she identification that I understand We are now using recycled toilet wanted to but for the sake of others. very well). Quakers seek to be paper and environmentally On a personal note, I believe that partisans of love and justice and friendly cleaning products. Our my life is in ’s hands and that equality, rather than of a particular warden has encouraged one of our I have to trust Him with the end side in a conflict. users to use the Meeting’s crockery of it just as I have with the living Quaker support for Palestinians rather than disposable cups and of it. Perhaps our focus should be is not based on some naive notion we have improved our recycling on improving end of life care (or that we are aiding the ‘goodies’ system. any care), so that suffering is at a against the ‘baddies’. No one has Amongst other things we minimum. I’m not a brave person clean hands, and no side is better are considering is to provide a and may change my mind on this off for being at war. Whatever we cycle rack, to carefully monitor subject,but for now this is what the do to help bring the occupation to Meeting’s energy use and to Light is showing me. an end is also done for the sake of encourage Friends to undertake a Anne Macarthur Israeli Jews. personal carbon footprint. West Scotland Area Meeting Contrary to what has been We might achieve a silver award claimed, Quakers are not singling in the next year or so. Of course, Soya beans out Israel/Palestine to the exclusion we would like this – but the most We should be ashamed at the of other conflicts. Quakers have important thing is the process, huge increase in our importation been active in relation to many which we feel is a good one. of soya beans. Soya is rich in oil other conflicts, but we can’t be Alan Vernon and protein and consequently an active everywhere. Wirral and Chester Area Meeting

the Friend 22 February 2019 7 Early Quakers expected the world to be transformed. Ivan Hutnik looks at what galvanised them.

‘These people were willing to risk all for the Tr ut h .’

ould we be comfortable in the company of early Quakers? They worshipped in silence, as we do, and it is clear that, although their testimony was not codified in this manner until relatively recently, their lives spoke to truth, equality, simplicity and peace. They challenged hypocrisy, spoke straightforwardly, did not doff their hats, did not pay tithes or swear oaths, and Wbelieved all were equal before God. Unlike almost every other religious group of the time, women were not only allowed to speak but played a leading role in spreading their message and organising their activities – was the lynchpin of early Quakerism and twelve out of the ‘Valiant Sixty’ were women. Although this did not result in equality, it was a definite step towards it. None of this disturbs our modern sensibilities. And yet, as we know, the first of the ‘Friends of Truth’ or ‘Children of the Light’, as they then variously called themselves, were regularly beaten, fined, jailed, had their property confiscated and were even tortured. According to some estimates, as many as 500 died in, or shortly after being in, prison. In line with their testimony to peace, they did not retaliate, although they often took direct action and challenged the authorities at every turn, making better use of the then-modern printing press and printed pamphlets than any other contemporaneous group.

6 the Friend 22 February 2019 Indeed, so extensive are the writings of early Quakers It is important also to remember that, in this pre- that historians would know much less about the mid- Enlightenment world, neither had politics been split from seventeenth century without them. religion. Indeed, religious conflict was one important Although their conflict with the established church ingredient (among several) in the potent political mix and the government of the day is well known, it is easy to that led to the civil wars. Charles I had come into conflict underestimate just how extensive that repression became. with parliament by attempting to claim ‘divine right’ to A number of Quaker Meetings were completely denuded rule. That he later refused to recognise the authority of of members, one famously being kept going solely by the parliament was the match that lit the fire. presence and organisation of its children because all the Just three years prior to ’s vision on Pendle adults had been imprisoned. Yet, for some reason, Quaker Hill, Charles had been beheaded. It is hard for us to conviction and enthusiasm proved contagious. By the end imagine today just how momentous an event this was at of the 1660s, a little less than two decades from George the time. For many, regicide, which is what the beheading Fox’s vision at Pendle Hill, it is estimated that there were was, was not only an illegal political action but also as many as 50,000 Quakers, the equivalent to one per cent religious heresy and spiritual apostasy. Charles’ execution of the population at the time. These were people who, led to massive unease among the British population, despite the hazards involved, were willing to risk all for an anxiety that would continue long after the official the Truth. end of the civil wars. It was this disquiet that produced the abundance of conspiracy theories and Catholic and The centrality of early Quaker experience Jacobean plots that continued throughout the second half What was it that galvanised the early Quakers and where of the seventeenth century and into the eighteenth, long did their conviction come from? We know that George after the Restoration. Fox and other Friends were guided by the Light in their worship and in their leadings, and by the Bible in their Living as if the Kingdom of God had come reading (it was said that George Fox could have recalled This political chaos and disquiet forms the context the entire Bible from memory). They saw the Light as for George Fox’s seeking and his displeasure at the the presence of Christ within. ‘Christ has come to teach protestations of the ‘professors’ – the priests and other his people himself.’ This conviction was critical to their preachers who proclaimed an intolerant and unloving testimony. faith that he did not recognise from his understanding Quaker journals of the time describe the experience of the Christ. They professed knowledge but, like many of being convicted by the Light in how far short they fell before them, did not live it. of the Kingdom of God. In contrast to the Calvinism George Fox and the other early Quakers saw that of the day, however, this did not lead to a sense of the Kingdom of God was being realised through their guilt, but to a change of direction and renewal – to expression of ‘primitive Christianity’. They believed this transformation. ‘Convincement’ was the first step on would be the result of being guided by the Light. George the Quaker journey towards ‘perfection’. One might Fox’s reading of the Bible confirmed for him their direct interpret this today as the seeking of complete integrity, connection to the early church of Paul, James and John. where there is no discontinuity between outward action They were the inheritors of the Truth and this power and inner conviction. was manifest in all they said and did, just as for the early As important for early Quakers was their regular followers of Jesus. George Fox expected to prophesy, see experience of the presence of God in their Meetings. visions, and heal the sick. The Quaker Way was to live out On many occasions George Fox describes in his journal the beatitudes, to emulate Christ, to manifest the reshaping how the ‘Lord’s power was over all’. This experience of the world order through the nonviolent ‘Lamb’s War’. produced a collective transformation that not only bound In short, the early Quakers believed they would see the the Meeting together but also galvanised it into action. transformation of the world as the Kingdom of God. There was no discontinuity as far as they were concerned George Fox’s world is in many ways alien to us today, between personal and collective experience, or between however sympathetic we might be to his testimony. For this experience and individual or collective action. They us, there can be no going back to his pre-Enlightenment expected the world to be transformed, just as they had worldview – just as, although we might admire Isaac been. Newton’s physics, most have little sympathy for his alchemy. While George Fox’s vision is breathtaking, it Life prior to the Enlightenment leaves us with a question: what is it, in today’s context, We should not forget when looking at the experiences of we can learn from him and the other early Quakers in early Quakerism that we are talking of the seventeenth seeking to transform our own world? My hope is that this century, not the eighteenth or later. England at this time is a question that concerns many Quakers now. n was very definitely still pre-Enlightenment. Born some two decades after George Fox, Isaac Newton wrote of Ivan is from Surrey and Hampshire Borders Area Meeting. alchemy and dabbled in occult practice. Science had not yet been divided from religion. Many leading ‘scientists’ Tracey Martin and Ivan Hutnik will be facilitating a of the day were also ‘divines’. Logic and reason were day workshop on ‘Transforming the World’ at Woodbrooke, companions to speculation and mysticism. 15-17 March 2019.

the Friend 22 February 2019 9 Although other stories take the headlines, the situation for people seeking refuge in France continues unchanged. Anne M Jones reports on another visit.

‘Tent villages are moved every few days, which prevents children from attending school.’

ose pink Calais sunrise. hostile glances. Soon after midnight a gentle young man Farewell hugs from friends walked in and entertained us as his even gentler dog licked Volunteer happiness. anyone who approached. He rescues abandoned dogs and I composed this haiku as I treats them like children, with kindness and patience, until departed Calais, feeling a surge of they become docile. He loves the English and the way they good feeling that scared me in its are here helping les migrants. inappropriateness. The backdrop In Paris I linked up with ‘Utopia56’, which looks after was the daily human struggle for new arrivals who are on the streets. The difference here refugees’ survival, which remains is that many of them have been successful in obtaining unchanged here. The warehouse continues to hand the right to remain. But they have nowhere to live, for an out 10,000 meals a week, plus piles of firewood. We in indefinite future. Tent villages huddle in uncertain points the sewing corner repair numerous items of essential in the streets, moved every few days, which prevents Rclothes and sleeping bags. There is a safe, familiar glow the children attending any school. With papers, though, of warm conviviality between volunteers, contrasting someone who has migrated here can obtain a travel pass with the bleak environment outside, but our work is within the city, and access to free medical care unsustainable. At night, Utopia56 takes families to places of warm Meanwhile, daily reports are made of growing shelter, sometimes a private home that has registered to numbers of desperate refugees being picked up offer accommodation for one night. This sounds well while attempting to cross the Channel in dangerous organised, except that the places are often not finalised conditions, doubtless tricked into parting with large until after 9pm. sums of money to traffickers. On my first night I showed up at the ‘Rosa Parks’ We spent New Year’s Eve dancing in a cheery bar with area where I waited, and waited, while the temperature some very drunken French people – some very friendly, dropped to four degrees. Children ran around chasing while others turned their backs to us, offering only one another, and friendly volunteers chatted – mostly

10 the Friend 22 February 2019 ordinary Parisians who give up a night each week to told me ‘he reads it all the time, it is our only book, we do this work. I talked to a young accountant who told had three but lost the others somewhere.’ me that Emmanuel Macron, the president, is growing Anna asked me my name again and again, amused more unpopular by the day, shifting taxes and reducing that each of our names is so similar. Hudda cuddled to public expenditure such that public services like hospitals her mother, falling asleep in time to the rocking of the are increasingly under strain. In the recent gilets jaune train. Mohamed, the father, explained to me about the (yellow vest) protests the police went on strike and were bandage on his wrist, and his limp – an accident in the immediately offered a pay rise, which, I was told, is an course of some work he had been fortunate to obtain, example of a leader who wishes to hold onto power by and then lose due to the accident. Compensation? A force if necessary. concept that Mohammed, the interpreter, told me goes By 9.15pm we were ready to set off. There was an unacknowledged too often. interpreter, Mohammed, and a family of five: mother When we arrived at our stop, the next challenge Nadja, husband Mohamed, and their children Mohamed was to find the address, since my Google map was (aged eight), Anna (seven), and Hudda (six). Nadja uncooperative. After asking passersby, and a further is expecting another child in three months. She is fifteen minute walk, we found it, a municipal care home grateful for the medical care she has received, though where the concierge greeted us grumpily as he ushered in it has occasionally meant being discharged back onto the very relieved family. the streets in the early hours of the morning. With the Interpreter Mohammed and I walked back to the children determinedly pulling all the family possessions Métro, running like kids down the long white-tiled in small wheeled cases, we proceeded down a dark tunnels because midnight was approaching. He insisted incline to the tramway. After three stops we switched to on breaking his own journey and accompanying me all the Métro line that snakes all over Paris to Censier in the way to the door of my hostel near the Gare du Nord. the south. Little Mohamed beside me took out his book, I might have called it ‘seedy’ until I reflected upon what Aladdin in French, and concentrated avidly on it. Nadja judgements are implied in the word ‘seedy’. In reality u

the Friend 22 February 2019 11 this is a place where men with unhappy expressions, When we finally arrived back, Mareck burst out mostly with migrant backgrounds, hang out looking laughing at the hostel’s gaudiness, a shroud of cigarette around for a warm corner to sleep, or waiting for smoke and loud rock music pounding into the street. On someone to buy the cigarettes that they offer furtively. the third night, temperatures dropped to two degrees. The following night I found my way to the rendezvous At the rendezvous there were no tents and a barrier easily, having worked out the transport. There, from the around the area. There was no sign of Nadja and her family tent, was Nadja, waving at me to come over and family. A young mother was arguing with the organiser, sit. ‘Last night was wonderful, soft beds, a warm bath, pleading to be allocated a hotel. Another mother looked nice meal, and we didn’t have to rush out in the morning,’ harassed as the baby she was she told me smiling broadly. Anna’s face emerged from pushing back and forth in the tent and she grinned at me, then Hudda appeared ‘Despite his buggy would not stop and smiled shyly. Eight-year-old Mohamed was behind the obvious crying. I offered to push them re-reading Aladdin. I asked if he would like me him up and down for her to read it to them, seeing myself in the role of all those privations they and she called her daughter children’s TV presenters who had so delighted my are destined to over to translate. The girl children at the same ages. Mohamed nodded eagerly, and be strong and is Marie, aged six, and she there, among the soft clean duvets inside the tent, I read followed me as I walked up and dramatised Abu and Jafar and Aladdin and Jasmine resilient people.’ and down, attempting to as best I could. They all listened, engrossed, and Nadja soothe the baby, who was joined in laughing at the fun. Their father Mohamed about a year old. He was inconsolable and the mother stayed elsewhere because he was feeling very low that came up saying she would see if he was hungry. She sat day. Then it was the family’s turn to be dispatched, so I on a small concrete seat to breastfeed, while Marie sat on offered to go with them again, together with Mareck, a a seat behind. I noticed Marie falling asleep, so I stood forty-something serious Frenchman. This night involved beside her to prevent her waking with a sudden start if two long bus journeys, the first across the northern sleep overcame her balance. The baby quietened, Marie periphery of Paris, to Porte d’Asnières, then a change of went deeply into sleep against my arm, and we waited. A bus to Levallois. At the change, Mareck took us a long young man appeared, evidently the father, and hovered way down the boulevard to the bus stop, the children for a moment, then wandered back to where he had following with gathering slowness, then jumping on been standing with other men. The temperature dropped the waiting bus with huge sighs. Mareck fortunately lower. Two other families were dispatched. The father checked the destination. ‘You need the other side of the returned and called Marie over to help him and the road,’ he was told. So back we all trudged, Nadja joking mother to place the sleeping baby back in his buggy. He at Mareck’s incompetence, and the children stoically looked peaceful by now, well wrapped in three blankets. dragging the cases. Mareck explained to me that he had The family was told there would be still more waiting and only ever done this work once, and did not know the are sent off to the nearby burger bar. Another volunteer north west corner of the suburbs. Finally we arrived. appears. It is past 9pm. I am not needed tonight. This time the haven was the home of a young man This snapshot of the lives of a few refugees is repeated, who greeted the family with great warmth, and asked, give or take some details, for many thousands of refugees, with intense kindness: all over the world. Refugee numbers are expected to ‘Have you eaten?’ The increase in coming years but, say Alexander Betts ‘Children ran children, pale and tired, and Paul Collier in their book Refuge: transforming around chasing shook their heads. ‘I will a broken refugee system, such systems as do exist are cook a meal for you,’ he ‘broken’. These writers expose the negligent response one another, responded, adding, with from international powers, and suggest some alternative and friendly a nod towards the nearby ways of considering constructive alternatives. For one volunteers mop and bucket, ‘Sorry, thing: ‘…most likely, the person who is now a refugee I haven’t quite finished previously had a home and a means of earning a living, chatted.’ cleaning’. It was clear he and was part of a community. If we are able to do so, we had carefully prepared the should aim to restore those basic features of normal life.’ room, with couches and airbeds ready. At present, we volunteers in the UK have to continue Mareck accompanied me back, telling me he works for to meet basic needs for food and warmth while keeping a Parisian consumers’ association. He has two children, the wider issues on the radar of the politicians. n aged seven and eight, and we compared notes on our own experiences of trudging around streets with tired Anne is from Friends House Meeting, in London. children, any time, least of all late at night. We agreed that the grumbles and resistance would have made the Refuge: transforming a broken refugee system is available task infinitely more difficult. Yet these children were now from Penguin. calmly accepting this life of nightly change. Despite the obvious privations they are destined to be strong and For more information and one way to help visit: resilient people. www.care4calais.org/#coats4calais.

12 the Friend 22 February 2019 love WB Yeats’ poem about spiritual life in old age, from which my title is taken. David, my Thought for the week: husband, and I, are having our noses stuck into old age – he is almost blind, which for a life- Soul clap its hands long painter in oils is a great deprivation; and I take five minutes to remember why I came and sing downstairs, and can never remember the names of people I know well until after they have gone. Another great learning curve, finding how to move through a day Ias an old person, without self-pity, and with a flood of understanding for my parents and for all who were old Rachel Britton before us. An aged man is but a paltry thing, A tattered coat upon a stick – unless Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing For every tatter in its mortal dress.

(From ‘Sailing to Byzantium’)

When I look back on my early years in a Quaker Meeting, nearly sixty years ago now, and think forward through different Meetings, there were always a few serene and compassionate elders to hold up our troubled hearts and make the worship tell. How wonderful if our losses in the physical realm could only serve to show more strongly the inner being becoming increasingly transparent to the glorious liberty of the Children of God – so that the pain and dislocation of death itself could open out into joy and peace for ourselves and those around us. It does take considerable energy, though, to clap your hands and sing – unless this is your normal state. Effort does not help, it hinders. The trouble is, the singing comes from the state one is in, not the state from the singing! Joy seems like a gift, not like something that can be earned by strenuous struggle. Yet giving time to the tattered garments of our bodies and minds, giving them rest and peace, can open the ‘Giving time door to joy. A Quaker Meeting has to the tattered always been a good setting garments of our for this. But David and I haven’t been able to get bodies, giving there very often, for several them rest and years now. George Fox also has peace, can open phrase, which really speaks the door to joy.’ to me, about how to open the door to joy – he says: ‘Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God… from whence life comes’. Sometimes I sit up in bed and allow these words to resonate in me and, all of a sudden, the door opens, there is a great sense of calm and relaxation, and the colours of sky and roof outside our window are beauty and meaning, ‘from whence life comes’. n

Rachel is from Colchester Meeting. Photo: rawpixel / Unsplash. Photo: rawpixel

the Friend 22 February 2019 13 It Keeps Me Seeking: The invitation from science, philosophy and religion, by Andrew Briggs, Hans Halvorson, and Andrew Steane

Review by Reg Naulty

ndrew Briggs is a physicist, currently working in nanomaterials at the University of Oxford. Andrew Steane is also a physics professor at Oxford. Hans Halvorson is a professor at Princeton. The latter’s doctoral thesis was about the foundations of quantum physics, and he spent a year in the Experimental Tests of Quantum Reality prject at Oxford. At 360 pages, these scholars have written a book that is not small (and it is bigger than it looks, as the print is small and the page margins are narrow). But it is worth close attention as it aims to take a fresh look at how science contributes to the bigger picture of human flourishing. AFaith and science are often presumed to be in conflict. As Hans Halvorson writes: ‘There have been those who treat science as achieving a very high level of certainty, and religion as this kind of mushy, subjective believe-what-you-want-to attitude.’ He adds that this combination of views is common in the US. It is in Australia, too, and probably in the West at large. Moreover, one reads that in the Muslim world the most respected professions are medicine, science and technology. If that is so, the attitudes which Hans Halvorson deplores may soon become entrenched there. Do the authors make significant inroads against these attitudes? Well, not exactly. They did not set out to write a work of apologetics. Rather, they intended to present ‘a picture’ of their position. Even so, a major theme of the book is that scientific reasonableness is not the only kind of reasonableness. One is surprised to find a forty- page demolition of the teleological argument (that is, the argument from the orderliness of the world to a designer). But before getting into that, it is noteworthy that the authors seem to assume some version of the ontological argument: ‘The phrase “If God doesn’t exist” is meaningless or a contradiction’, and ‘anything so paltry that its very existence could be questionable is not God and should not be named as God.’ Generally, though, the authors do not pursue an ontological argument. They put great store by the Bible. They take the Old Testament name for God (‘He Who Is’) for granted, from which it follows for them that anyone who questions God’s existence is at least muddled. Now to the teleological argument. Let us say that the pieces of evidence used in this argument are the systematic interconnections in nature as expressed in equations. The authors put this point very well: ‘The natural world has profound mathematical harmony built into it at a deep level.’ But one of the things wrong with the teleological argument, according to Hans Halvorson, is that it is a God-of-the-gaps argument. But which gap is being filled here? Presumably, the inability of nature itself to explain how the deep mathematical harmony got there. On the other hand, if it always had been there, it would be enough to make us suspect that some prior Great Mind had built nature that way.

14 the Friend 22 February 2019 Hans Halvorson would still be unimpressed. The process of inferring to God is entirely misplaced, he argues. God is a person. We get to know God as we get to know people. That, of course, has been argued before, notably by another Oxford professor, HH Price, in his book Essays In The Philosophy of Religion. There, in a chapter called ‘Latent Spiritual Capacities’, he explained, with due attention to the epistemological niceties, how a process of prayer can lead to an experience of God. ‘A major theme That is not what these authors have in mind. of the book is They insist, over and over that scientific again, that we come to know God only through reasonableness our knowledge of Jesus, is not the and that includes doing only kind of what he said. That has to carry a lot of weight in the reasonableness.’ book. What goes on in a person’s life which discloses God to them through Jesus? The following passage is about as much as there is: ‘The absolute Father has met with Peter’s [the disciple’s] open thoughtfulness and responded as one person to another. It is in this kind of encounter that God makes his Presence known to us. It is an exchange of perfect respect… as wise as what wisdom we have got, and as deep as we have so far b e c om e .’ Does anything mystical occur in this process? Apparently not. The words ‘mystical’ and ‘mysticism’ are not in the index. ‘Transcendent experience’ gets a mention, but its meaning is not explained. Mysticism might have helped. The authors emphasise how uncertainty is prevalent in science. For example, it This seems to undermine their polemic against is part of quantum physics, which is, nevertheless, miracles, since a breaking in might occur again. very valuable. They point out that the same is true in On a different point, the authors maintain that there religion, and warn us of the dangers of certainty in is no separate entity called a soul: ‘Contemporary religion. One wonders what the authors would say about neuroscience provides an increasingly large amount of the mysticism of Blaise Pascal, who, like them, was a evidence that the human mind is inseparable from the scientist and a deeply religious man. In his description body.’ of his mystical experience, he wrote: ‘FIRE. God of What, then, is it that makes us human? After not a Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. Not of the great deal of argument, the authors affirm that it is the philosophers and the learned. Certitude. Joy. Certitude. fact that we are responsible. This implies that we are Emotion. Sight. Joy.’ As well as certitude, what would accountable to others, including God. When does the the authors say about ‘sight’? accounting take place? It doesn’t seem to have happened What do they say about miracles? Can we expect to Joseph Stalin in his earthly life. Did it happen in a them? Not at all. The authors mount a thirty-six page later one? The authors mention resurrection, but it is polemic against miracles. What of Jesus’ miracles? not clear whether that is just Jesus’, or ours, too. If it is They are different. In him, we encounter ‘a uniquely ours, given that there is no soul, is a perfect replica of us significant person’. Did he really change water into resurrected in the life after this? If it is, would it be just wine? ‘After exploring further, one may come to the to reward or punish it for what it never did, but what conclusion that this was a judiciously chosen moment in someone else did? which Jesus decided to teach an important lesson, and This is an ambitious book and should elicit many many gallons became wine.’ responses. What of the miracles in the Old Testament? The authors assure us that there were not many of them. Did Reg is from Canberra Regional Meeting in Australia. they in fact happen? It appears so: ‘Such events are not a breakdown of a given law, but a breaking in of a It Keeps Me Seeking is available now from Oxford higher law.’ University Press.

the Friend 22 February 2019 15 Birds

Peter Daniels

And the springtime, after the long winter. The birds are giving off information, each tweeting like a whistle on a stick. We have them in the gardens inside us.

Some birds have fed us, or we’ve watched them watching us like hawks, turning to clichés. Their little match our little souls, babbling and shrieking with us since before Jericho.

Older than us and our signs for things, they serve as our messengers. This coot jerks across the lake carrying a twig longer than itself. The dove comes back to Noah across a stained glass window.

The hen blackbird with her earth-brown coat knows who we are. Her husband, more obvious, is smartly dressed in charcoal and a mustard beak: we’ve named him. We only live next door.

Peter is from Stoke Newington Meeting. Photo: Paulo Brandao / Unsplash. Photo: Paulo

16 the Friend 22 February 2019 22 Feb 18/2/19 17:26 Page 7

Friends&Meetings Deaths Memorial Meetings Friends Housing Bursary Trust Michael Charles Cyril BIRD Ken PLANT A Memorial Meeting 30 January at home. Husband of the to celebrate Ken’s life will be held at Registered charity no. 212218 late Yola. Member of Devizes Burford Meeting House, 2pm The Trust is able to pay modest Meeting. Aged 88. Funeral 11.30am Saturday 16 March. All welcome. regular bursaries or one-off Wednesday 27 February at the Further information from Tom: grants to older Friends who need Church of Our Lady of the [email protected] financial assistance to help Immaculate Conception, Southview, them to remain in their own St Joseph Road, Devizes followed by homes or where a contribution cremation at West Wiltshire Changes of address might be made towards care. Crematorium, Devizes Road, For further details contact the Semington, Trowbridge at 1.45pm Jean J M Edwards has moved from assistant clerk: 07957 240625 and afterwards at The Bear Hotel, Blackheath to 11b Bernhard Baron [email protected] Devizes SN10 1HS. Family flowers. Cottage Homes, Eastbourne Road, Donations: Chailey Heritage Polegate BN 26 9HB, where she will Foundation. Enquiries: be known as Judith. Email Diary [email protected] [email protected] Tel. 01323 484291. LEARN TO MEDITATE FOR LENT John ROYLANCE 6 February. With Laurence Freeman OSB. Member of Bull Street Meeting, Changes to meetings Wednesday 6 March 6.30–9pm at Birmingham. Aged 88. Details of The Meditatio Centre, London the Memorial Service to follow. EC1R 1XX. For further details and EARLS COLNE MEETING, Enquiries: booking please call 020 7278 2070 (SEAQM), 4 Burrows Road, Earls [email protected] or email [email protected] Colne, Colchester, Essex CO6 3NQ Meeting for Worship now every MINDFULNESS AND YOGA AT Free copies of the new look Friend Sunday at 10.30am. Clerk: Jenny GLENTHORNE: a Midsummer to share with your Meeting. Email Kay. Tel. 01206 240929. Email: Retreat 20–24 June 2019. Experience [email protected] with your name [email protected] and address, asking for 4, 8 or 12 copies. silence, guided meditation, lakeland walking, gentle yoga, excellent food, NAILSWORTH MEETING time to reconnect. £595 (five days, Friends & Meetings From 3 March, Sunday Meeting for four nights) £50 discount for Worship 10–11am. First Sunday Earlybird bookings. Call Helen Personal entries (births, mar- 30 minutes Worship moving into Stephenson 07548 366601 or go to riages, deaths, anniversaries, Meeting for Worship for Business MindfulnessMK.com changes of address, etc.) until noon. Children's Meeting every charged at £35 incl. vat for up Sunday except August. Additional QUAKER UNIVERSALIST GROUP to 35 words and includes a MfW Wednesdays 11–11.30am and CONFERENCE ON FORGIVENESS copy of the magazine. fourth Sundays 6–6.30pm. 10-12 May 2019 at Woodbrooke Meeting and charity notices, Quaker Study Centre, Birmingham. (Changes of clerk, new war- WINCHESTER MEETING From The annual QUG conference is dens, new Members, changes Sundays 10 March - 26 May we will entitled Forgiveness – Why forgive? to meeting, Diary, etc.) £29 hold our 10.30am Meeting for Our four guest speakers are Dr. Liz zero rated for vat. Max. 35 Worship in the St Lawrence Church Gulliford, Peter Varney, The Rev Dr words. Three entries £70 (£58 Hall next to the Meeting House. Jean Wadsworth and Tim Newell. if zero rated); six entries £100 The 9am Meeting for Worship will Full-time residential cost £234. (£83.33 zero rated). Deadline continue in the Meeting House. Details and an application form are usually Monday morning. We will continue to have Meeting on our website https://qug.org.uk or Entries accepted at the editor’s for Worship in the Church Hall at write Tony Philpott, 2 Willow Rise, discretion in a standard house 10.30am on the first Sunday each Haddenham, Aylesbury HP17 8JR. style. A gentle discipline will be month. We welcome visitors to all exerted to maintain a simplicity our meetings. Enquiries: UNITY, DIVERSITY, BOUNDARIES of style and wording that [email protected] UNDER REVISION Join us for an excludes terms of endearment exploration, Woodbrooke, 29-31 and words of tribute. March 2019. Conference organized Guidelines on request. New baby in the family? by Nontheist Friends Network with Let everyone know... 3 keynote speakers from different The Friend, 54a Main Street, backgrounds. All welcome. Bookings: Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL ...put all your family [email protected], 07500 Tel. 01535 630230 announcements in 914440. Details: Email: [email protected] the Friend! www.nontheist-quakers.org.uk

the Friend 22 February 2019 17 22 Feb 18/2/19 17:26 Page 8

Classified advertisements 54a Main Street, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL. T: 01535 630230 E: [email protected] for sale & to let jobs wanted QUAKER HOUSE LEEDS, over 60’s flat for Classified ads sale. Contact Una Parker 0113 244 5454. Standard linage 60p a word, MATURE COUPLE SEEK MEETING HOUSE residential wardenship. Please call accommodation semi-display 90p a word. Rates 07505 908230. incl. vat. Min. 12 words. Series WANTED discounts: 10% on 5 insertions, 15% on 10 or more. Cheques where to stay LONG TERM RURAL LET REQUIRED payable to The Friend. Bank COTTAGES & SELF-CATERING Semi-retired quiet-living couple seek transfer payment on request. secluded, cosy cottage, bungalow or annex, etc. with off-road parking. SCOTTISH ISLES (HARRIS), WIND, RAIN, Please email: [email protected] The Friend Ad Dept, 54a Main St rainbows, sunsets, seals, otters, walks, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL eagles, golden beaches, orchids, Heaven! Tel: 01535 630230 Shorefront contemporary bungalow. SEEKING ACCOMMODATION IN LONDON Email: [email protected] Sleeps 2. All comforts, horizon views. preferably Islington/Hackney. From end www.milbothy.co.uk, 01859 530400. March/beginning April for about 1 year. Flat/house-share or lodging. Female Friend working in City. Contact: 07515 SWALEDALE, YORKSHIRE. Superb 024545 or [email protected] selection of gorgeous cottages amid Sewell House stunning scenery. Details, photos, virtual Sidcot Friends Housing Society Ltd tours. www.catholecottages.com 01748 886366. personal Independent THE DELL HOUSE, MALVERN. Cottage Retirement Living and apartments. Extensive gardens. Dogs HEAR YOUR LIFE SPEAK In North Somerset welcome. Suit couples, families and groups Connective Issue Coaching of up to twenty. www.thedellhouse.co.uk to discover, recover, reclaim 01684 564448. Make contact with [email protected] TORRIDON, HIGHLANDS, WESTER ROSS 07739 195009 Spectacular views, comfortable house, www.undoing.me sleeps 7: 01770 700 825. http://www.stronvar.wordpress.com All inquiries warmly welcomed. A small community setting [email protected] with one-bedroomed and OUR QUAKER FAMILY with a deeply studio flats WHITBY, WEST SIDE. Cottage overlooking held wish for another child, a sibling for Residents enjoy a daily 3-course harbour, centrally situated, sleeps 3. our daughter, is appealing for an excep- Some vacancies March/April/May/June. tionally compassionate woman under 35 lunch together, Quaker Meetings www.37cliffstreetwhitby.co.uk to donate an egg. Could you or someone in house and locally, landscaped Email [email protected] Tel. Angela: you know help make our dream come gardens, activities and a 01423 863410 or Ros 01434 604639. true? We hope to find someone who thriving local village. shares Quaker values and openness. Our local Meeting is supporting us in this With live-in staff support you OVERSEAS HOLIDAYS keep your independence. endeavour. All medical, legal and coun- Visitors welcome selling support provided. If you can help FRENCH GITE, POITOU–CHARENTE and want more information please email Respite stays available Peace and Quiet, for the Quiet and the us: [email protected] Belmont Rd, Winscombe BS25 1LQ Peaceful. Google “Le Petit Cormy” for Thank you. www.sewellhouse.org.uk details. [email protected] e: [email protected] 01934 843746 PORTUGAL. National Park. Spacious miscellaneous house in unspoilt coastal village; optional We are a not-for-profit organisation cottage. Gardens, pool. Accommodates FRIENDS FELLOWSHIP OF HEALING 2-8. Secluded beaches, fishing, cliff-top Following in the footsteps of George Fox, walks, riding, birdwatching. Available all the FFH seeks to restore the Quaker year. 07731 842259, www.vilad.com tradition of healing. 01425 626112 / 07512 890768. www.quaker-healing.org.uk

Share the love THE PRIORY ROOMS Meeting and conference facilities Free copies of the new look Friend in central Birmingham. Comfortable, flexible accommodation to share with your Meeting. with a full range of support facilities and optional hospitality packages. Email [email protected] with your name See www.theprioryrooms.co.uk Tel. 0121 236 2317 and address, requesting 4, 8 or 12 copies. [email protected]

18 the Friend 22 February 2019 22 Feb 18/2/19 17:26 Page 9

Leicester Meeting GLENTHORNE RESIDENT FRIEND(S) Leicester Meeting are seeking a Resident Friend/Friends to provide a welcoming presence to our busy community-oriented Meeting House, to keep the building secure and help with the smooth running of the Meeting House. A rent-free 2 bedroom flat is also offered. If you are interested you are encouraged to have an informal talk with Roger Partis 0116 236 2899 or [email protected], from whom further details are available. SPRING 2019 Closing date: Friday 8 March. Interviews anticipated on 24 March. SPECIAL INTEREST HOLIDAYS & COURSES

Musical Encounters Quaker Peace Studies Trust Led by Jeff Dershin Monday 25 – Friday 29 March Eva Pinthus Awards (£430 per person). Creative Writing In recognition of the many contributions for peace made by Eva Led by Tony Rossiter Pinthus, awards are offered of up to £5,000 to Quaker students Monday 1 – Friday 5 April studying peace at the University of Bradford in 2019-20. (£420 per person) Further information at www.evapinthusaward.wordpress.com Finding Out About Quakers: Details from Christy Bischoff, [email protected], or AWeekend for Newcomers telephone 01274 921 379. Led by the Quaker Quest Team Closing date for applications: 1 April 2019. Registered charity 529095. Friday 26 – Sunday 28 April (£205 per person). Ends 12.30pm Walking Holiday Led by Alan Robinson Mon. 29 April – Fri. 3 May Trustee (£420 per person). Ends 12.30pm Creative Textiles vacancies Led by Jenni Simmons Monday 6 – Friday 10 May Bernhard Baron Cottage Homes (BBCH), established in 1945 (£430 per person). Ends 12.30pm to provide care and support to older people, is a vibrant All courses start with Dinner at residential community. We offer independent-living cottages 7pm and end at 1pm unless and deliver residential care services in our main building in otherwise stated. Polegate, near Eastbourne. Extend your visit and stay with We employ 67 staff and about 20 volunteers and hold charity us the Sunday before or after status. BBCH is run by a board of up to 12 Trustees, all of the course: B&B £45pp. whom are Quakers. Our Quaker faith influences all of our Dinner, B&B £65pp. decision-making and, although our staff are not Quakers, our Quaker ethos permeates all aspects of life at the Homes. Come for a holiday or bring your Meeting on a weekend gathering! We are seeking additional Trustees to support BBCH in our strategic direction and our aim to achieve an ‘Outstanding’ We welcome your enquiries. rating with the Care Quality Commission. You will need to Glenthorne Quaker Centre, be available for 4 Trustee meetings a year plus one strategy Easedale Road, Grasmere, day and any committee work you might be interested in. Cumbria LA22 9QH Please email Sue Hallett: [email protected] for more T: 015394 35389 information or if you would like to visit the Homes. Our E: [email protected] W: www.glenthorne.org website is at: www.bbch.co.uk and you are welcome to Registered charity no. 232575 egistered charity no. 1070891 come to our Spring Fayre at 10am, Wednesday 13 March. R

the Friend 22 February 2019 19 22 Feb 18/2/19 17:26 Page 10

ADVERTISEMENT DEPT EDITORIAL V 177 54a Main Street, Cononley 173 Euston Road

Keighley BD20 8LL London NW1 2BJ N 8 T 01535 630230 T 020 7663 1010 E [email protected] theFriend E [email protected] Quakers in Britain

Turning the Tide Programme Coordinator Hours: 28pw. Salary: £27,042pa (£33,802 pro rata) – London scale Contract: Fixed term, two years. Location: Friends House, London NW1.

Are you passionate about nonviolence? Do you share the Quaker vision of a just, peaceful and sustainable world? Turning the Tide is a Quaker programme working alongside people to explore hopes, ideas and collective power to undertake imaginative, nonviolent action for positive social change. This role will focus on inspiring and equipping Quakers to put their faith into action. Do you believe that nonviolence and civil resistance are ethical and effective ways to bring about social change? Do you have experience of organising nonviolent campaigns? Are you able to facilitate groups and deliver workshops and training? Do you like the idea of working with Quakers? If your answer is yes, we’d love to hear from you. Closing date: 6 March 2019 (10am). Interviews: 13 March 2019. For information on Quakers in Britain and Turning the Tide, go to www.quaker.org.uk and www.quaker.org.uk/turning-the-tide Engaging Young Adult Quakers Project Support Officer Hours: 14pw. Salary: £11,074pa (£27,685 pro rata) if based in London, £9,413pa (£23,533 pro rata) if based regionally. Contract: Fixed term 18 months. Location: Friends House or regionally.

It’s a time of change and new beginnings in the way young adults feel part of Quakerism in Britain. This is a unique opportunity to support the work of a vital and exciting project, and to develop your skills in event planning, communications, and monitoring and evaluation. Do you have good communication skills? Can you work on your own and as part of a small team? Do you have a close attention to detail and good numeracy skills? Can you work quickly, creatively and accurately under pressure? Are you confident using social media? Can you plan, maintain and improve administrative systems? If so, we’d love to hear from you! The Engaging Young Adult Quakers Project organises national events and supports local young adult communities. It aims to improve the participation and visibility of young adults in Britain . We are looking for someone to contribute to this work by providing administrative support and helping to maintain links with a vibrant network of young adult Quakers. Closing date: 28 February 2019 (9am). Interviews: 8 March 2019. This post is primarily office-based but could fit around an existing work arrangement. We will consider flexible working options; please contact us to discuss these. To apply for either post, please go to www.quaker.org.uk/jobs, where you will find application forms and further information on the roles. is committed to equality in all its employment practices. Registered charity, no. 1127633.