A Diversity of Gifts the Friend Independent Quaker Journalism Since 1843
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8 June 2018 £1.90 theDISCOVER THE CONTEMPORARYFriend QUAKER WAY A diversity of gifts the Friend INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843 Contents VOL 176 NO 23 3 Thought for the Week: Ways of seeking Love and truth I should like to change the name Elaine Miles ‘seekers’ to ‘explorers’. There is 4-5 News a considerable difference there: we do not seek the Atlantic, we 6 Other matters? explore it. The whole field of Simon Risley religious experience has to be explored, and has to be described 7 ‘It’s a bit more complicated than that’ in a language understandable to Paul Parker modern men and women. 8-9 Letters Ole Olden, 1955 10-11 A diversity of gifts Quaker faith & practice 26.17 Edward Dommen 12 Words killeth John Senior 13 Without masks Abigail Maxwell Correction 14-15 Mary Elmes Dale Andrew In the article by the Quaker Disability Equality Group (25 May), reference to 2017 should have been omitted. 16 Enlightenment now The Group had recommended, before the 2017 Yearly Reg Naulty Meeting (YM) Gathering, having speech-to-text on a large screen, and again before YM 2018. This was not taken up on 17 Friends & Meetings either occasion. This year Friends were still limited in the choice of where to sit at YM. While putting speech-to-text Cover image: on phones and tablets was welcome, ‘clearer speech-to-text Photo: Maëlick / flickr CC. on the [main] screen would benefit a much greater number See page 10-11 of people than those who consider themselves disabled’. The Friend Subscriptions Advertising Editorial UK £86 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] £7.25; online only £69 per year. Articles, images, correspondence For details of other rates, Tel 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 • www.thefriend.org Editor: Ian Kirk-Smith [email protected] • Production and office manager: Elinor Smallman [email protected] Advertisement manager: George Penaluna [email protected] • Subscriptions officer: Penny Dunn [email protected] Sub-editor: George Osgerby [email protected] • Journalist: Rebecca Hardy [email protected] • Environment correspondent: Laurie Michaelis [email protected] • Arts correspondent: Rowena Loverance [email protected] Clerk of trustees: Paul Jeorrett • ISSN: 0016-1268 • The Friend Publications Limited is a registered charity, number 211649 • Printed by Warners Midlands Plc, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH 2 the Friend, 8 June 2018 Thought for the Week Love and truth Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts. Trust them as the leadings of God whose Light shows us our darkness and brings us to new life. Advices & queries 1.02 e all treasure the words of our first Advice, and in fact they seem to me to be much nearer the Greek of John 14:15-18 than either the authorised (King WJames) version of the Bible or the New English Bible. The King James version tells us that Jesus said to his disciples (John 14) that he would pray to the Father ‘and he shall send you another Comforter’, and the New English Bible says that he would ask the Father ‘and he will give you another to be your Advocate’. However, there is no capital letter in the Greek, and both translations seem to fail to express the sense of the original. The Greek word paracletos meant a legal assistant who would help you to get it right on a point of law. That does not seem to be the same thing as a comforter, which we nowadays think of as someone who consoles you; originally, however, ‘comfort’ had the legal sense of strengthening your legal case, valid when the authorised version was written, but now out of date. The word ‘Advocate’ is ambiguous, because although it can mean ‘one who gives you the legal information you need’, it can, alternatively, mean ‘one who speaks for you’ – besides being a rather ugly and unfamiliar English word. The word ‘prompt’, however, seems to give just the right sense; moreover, the ‘prompter’ turns out to be the Spirit of truth, which sounds very Quakerly, and John goes on in 14:17: ‘but you know him, because he dwells with you and [shall be] in you’. Of course, early Friends knew their Bible so well that the wording they used constantly echoes Biblical language. Elaine Miles Chilterns Area Meeting the Friend, 8 June 2018 3 News Boost for ‘greener’ financial markets A REPORT to align EU financial divestments from unsustainable markets to long-term sustainable energies and phasing out subsidies goals has been adopted by the to fossil fuels. Economic and Monetary Affairs Molly Scott Cato said: ‘Today’s Committee of the European vote is a signal of the positive shift Parliament. taking place towards investment in The report on Sustainable sustainable sectors of the economy.’ Finance stresses the need to She added: ‘There is a growing establish a policy framework realisation, across the political that guides investments towards spectrum, that if we are to Photo courtesy of Molly Cato. Scott ‘decarbonised, disaster-resilient safeguard future generations Molly Scott Cato. and resource-efficient economic from climate chaos and meet that transition and a common activities’. The rapporteur of the our obligations under the Paris understanding of what constitutes report for the European Parliament Agreement, we must rapidly sustainable finance will help was Quaker MEP Molly Scott Cato. decarbonise. Finance offers guide investment towards such a Proposals include encouraging a powerful tool to accelerate transition.’ Quaker scientist and writer at the Hay Festival Two QUAKERS spoke at the Hay Festival last month: towards the award of a Nobel Prize for her supervisor, leading scientist Jocelyn Bell Burnell and novelist Antony Hewish, and the astronomer Martin Ryle. As Sally Nicholls described how their Quaker faith has a research student, she was not included in the prize, informed their lives and work. despite being the first to precisely record and analyse Jocelyn Bell Burnell, professor of astrophysics at the pulsars. the University of Oxford, talked to journalist Rosie The festival also featured talks by Sally Nicholls, Boycott on 28 May about how her scientific discoveries whose book Things a Bright Girl Can Do tells the story sit with her Quakerism. of three young women’s fight for women’s suffrage. The Northern Irish scientist, who discovered pulsars Sally Nicholls, who grew up in a Quaker background in 1967, said that as a child her Quaker community was in Stockton-on-Tees, spoke on 30 May with authors ‘very scared of science because it threatened the Bible’ M A Bennett and Will Hill to Chelsey Pippin. She was but since ‘has changed shape to fit around the science’. also part of a pre-award panel of authors featuring on Jocelyn Bell Burnell studied at the University of the Young Adult Book Prize 2018 shortlist. Glasgow and then at the University of Cambridge, Sally Nicholls previously told the Friend that she on her PhD, where her work on pulsars contributed ‘took the decision’ to be a writer ‘to a Quaker Meeting’. Universal credit is a ‘huge concern’ A compUTER DRop-IN to switch to Universal Credit. after a Quaker concern about the CENTRE set up and run by Claimants are facing big problems problem of homelessness in the Cornwall Friends has reported changing to the new system. We Penzance area. ‘huge concern’ about the switch to are having extra training from The group runs for two-and- Universal Credit. Cornwall council on how to switch a-half hours every week, and Alison Meaton, from Penzance over, and we have also applied is staffed by nine volunteers, Meeting, who set up the ‘Computer for funding from the Co-op including five Quakers. Drop-In’ in Penzance with Mike Community Fund and Marazion Alison Meaton said that Berris, from Marazion Meeting, Town Council. We need more claimants need to show they have told the Friend that the new system computers. We bought two new accessed the online ‘government of Universal Credit is causing laptops, but the others are very gateway’ or may face sanctions. stress among claimants and putting s l ow.’ She explained: ‘These days being increased pressure on volunteers. The service, based at ‘Breadline’, able to access computers is so She said: ‘We are one of the the homeless ‘hub’ run by St important to claim benefits and last areas for people on benefits Petroc’s Society, was established stay in touch with families.’ 4 the Friend, 8 June 2018 reported by Rebecca Hardy [email protected] COs’ sculpture on display in London AN ARtist in Haringey, London, has created a sculpture to reflect the experience of the conscientious objectors (COs) in world war one. The sculpture, The Lost Files, is inspired by the 350 conscientious objectors and their families who lived in Hornsey, Tottenham and Wood Green. Artist Al Johnson told the Friend: ‘I wanted to give information about those particular men, and also Photo courtesy of Al Johnson. explore the whole issue of COs, while also having an ‘Tortured’, a detail from Al Johnson’s sculpture The Lost Files emotional impact. The ‘office’ consists of twelve wooden filing cabinet ‘Most people don’t realise how badly they were drawers, each titled to reflect how the COs were treated. treated – worse than murderers.