Belief, Worship and Behaviour the Friend Independent Quaker Journalism Since 1843
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25 October 2013 £1.70 the DISCOVER THE CONTEMPORARYFriend QUAKER WAY Belief, worship and behaviour the Friend INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843 CONTENTS VOL 171 NO 43 Remembrance Day lecture 3 Thought for the Week: Unpalatable truths Laurie Michaelis 4-5 News 6 A place for mediation Oliver Robertson 7 Welfare cuts: taking action Margaret Bennett 8-9 Letters 10-11 Wear it as long as thou canst Angela Howard 12-13 British Quakers: Mission and message Photo: Murdo MacLeod. AlastaIR MCINTOSH, the Quaker Belief, worship and behaviour campaigner and author, is to give the Simon Best Movement for the Abolition of War 14 Let your life blossom (MAW) annual lecture at the Imperial War Museum on Sunday 10 November. Bob Johnson The lecture is entitled The 15 Epistle Nonviolence Challenge – Changing Experiment with Light: the Culture of War and will follow the MAW annual general meeting. Alastair, first international gathering who is a strong advocate of nonviolent 16 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world action, has worked extensively with the military. 17 Friends & Meetings In an illustrated presentation on the failures of war to ensure true security, he will examine the rise of nonviolence Cover image: as a credible alternative. Red alder female catkins in autumn. Photo: Noël Zia Lee / flickr CC. 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 and office manager: Elinor Smallman [email protected] • 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, 25 October 2013 Thought for the Week Unpalatable truths enial is a normal way of coping with uncomfortable experiences, such as anxiety and loss. Climate change brings plenty of both, whether through its impacts if it continues unchecked, or through the deep changes in our lives Dthat would be needed to slow it down. When I started working with Quaker Meetings on sustainability in 2002, Friends often asked me for advice on engaging climate sceptics. It is now unusual to hear Quakers dismissing the science, but many Friends do not embrace reducing emissions as a priority or a possibility. This may be a form of denial or there may be truth in their position. Some think it’s too late, and there is growing interest in looking at how we can support our local communities to survive disaster. Some see climate change as a matter for spiritual acceptance and for exercising non-attachment. Some feel that they have other, higher moral priorities – like working to relieve specific instances of suffering and injustice – which often means they are committed to air travel. And, of course, there are many who feel unable to change. In 2011 Britain Yearly Meeting made its ‘Canterbury Commitment’ to become a low carbon, sustainable community. We minuted that we need to be accountable to one another, but also to be tender with one another and to support one another through the grief and fear that radical change will provoke. That means looking carefully at how we work with truth and denial in our lives and Meetings. For me, our Quaker testimony on truth means much more than just being honest. It’s also about a listening and watching spirituality: being open to new light from whatever source, being willing to see our own darkness, reaching for the meaning deep within others’ words. And it’s about a collective process: letting our insights take their place alongside those of others or be cast aside as the Meeting seeks the right way forward. Climate science is just part of the light we need to be open to. There is also the moral truth about the hurt and injustice woven into our society. How do we collude with it? Can we hear the call to a deep nonviolence that Quakers used to call Gospel Order? To my mind using oil, like eating meat, is essentially violent. I’m happy without a car but I still rely on motorised transport in many ways. And there are many other moral challenges I still haven’t fully faced up to. In particular, unlike some Friends who have made positive choices to live in community with minimal property, I still own a house and more than a fair share of so-called ethical investments. What about you? Be honest with yourself. What unpalatable truths might you be evading? Laurie Michaelis Environment editor for the Friend the Friend, 25 October 2013 3 News Quakers concern about RE FRIENDS in the south-west have matter? gave a clear picture of what RE highlighted a concern about the Speakers included Maggie could give children if handled with future of Religious Education (RE) Cartridge, who talked about imagination and clarity of purpose. in schools in England. ‘Religious Education and the The closing minute of the The issue was raised in a public Quaker Peace Testimony’. David meeting stated: ‘We are thankful for meeting on education organised Birch, of the National Education the dedication of many teachers, for by Devon and Cornwall General Trust, gave a considered and their belief in children and young Meeting and Exeter Area Meeting coherent picture of what is people and for their desire to help on Saturday 19 October in Exeter. happening in school education. them fulfil their potential. The event grew out of a concern He spelt out the tensions and ‘We will do what we can to show from Exmouth Meeting about highlighted the problems in the value we place on teachers as the downplaying of RE and other the current system, but also we know that it is not educational subjects (such as art, music and recognised ‘laudable’ intentions, theories nor the models for sport) in proposed changes to the like trying to reduce educational education espoused by our national curriculum. inequalities. politicians but teachers we rely on The event considered questions Ed Pawson, from the National to inspire children and assist them such as: What is happening in Association of Teachers of to see themselves as powerful, life- education? Who is it for? Does RE Religious Education (NATRE), long learners.’ Welsh Quakers highlight terror of drones Brian Terrell THE TERRIblE damagE done Base in Missouri. He has travelled to both victims and pilots of drone in Iraq and Afghanistan and strikes was raised at a public witnessed the impact of drone meeting held at Aberystwyth strikes there. Friends Meeting House on Rachel Howell, of Aberystwyth Tuesday 15 October. Meeting, told the Friend that Brian The meeting was addressed by talked at the public meeting ‘about Brian Terrell, a long-time peace the post-traumatic stress suffered activist from the USA (see right), by the pilots who witness intimate who recently served a six-month details of the lives of those they federal prison sentence for his kill from thousands of miles away, participation in a peaceful protest and cannot justify the killing to against drone warfare. His protest themselves with the thought that was at the Whiteman Air Force their targets were threatening them’. Photo: Jill Gough of CND Cymru. Rainbows within rainbows THE THEME for the most recent space available in the Meeting house ‘We considered the possibility gathering of the Quaker Lesbian and garden. Some of us also visited that our two groups might form Group, held at Leicester Friends local places of interest, including closer connections in the future, Meeting House in late September, the site where king Richard III’s whilst recognising the importance was ‘Rainbows within Rainbows’. It remains were discovered.’ of maintaining our own separate was explored in workshops, group She added: ‘We also looked identity as a group for lesbians only. exercises and conversations. at the Quaker Lesbian and Gay Contact can be made via our email Jill Jesshope, of Wiltshire and Fellowship’s recently published address: [email protected].’ East Somerset Area Meeting, said: consultation document, which we The Quaker Lesbian Group is ‘We were blessed with a weekend found raised challenging questions open to Quakers and those in that was beautifully autumnal and as to our own organisation and its sympathy with their ethos. It meets seventeen of us women enjoyed the way forward. twice yearly for weekend gatherings. 4 the Friend, 25 October 2013 reported by Caroline Humphries and Ian Kirk-Smith [email protected] Militarisation in everyday life Newcastle doesn’t have a lot of job opportunities. What takes the greatest toll on the most vulnerable recruits. incentive is there for a government to put in more job The risk of fatality in Afghanistan for recruits who opportunities if the way they are going to recruit their enlisted into the British army aged sixteen and army is out of kids with nowhere else to go? completed training has been twice as high as it has – Saskia Neibig, member of the Woodcraft Folk and for those enlisting at eighteen or above, according to instigator of their Military Out Of Schools campaign a study published recently on behalf of human rights groups Child Soldiers International and ForcesWatch.