Belief, Worship and Behaviour the Friend Independent Quaker Journalism Since 1843

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. Belief, worship and behaviour Alastair McIntosh, the Quaker 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 Bob Johnson War Museum on Sunday 10 November. 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.

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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. There is no evidence to show that military Higher fatality rates are also correlated with higher training results in improved life chances for young rates of non-fatal physical injuries and mental health people with few qualifications, claims Victoria Basham, problems. senior lecturer in politics at the University of Exeter. One veteran talked about how many young people, She made the claim at a one-day conference on recruited into the armed forces from disadvantaged Militarisation in Everyday Life in the UK held at backgrounds such as care leavers, have pre-existing Friends House in London on Saturday 19 October, mental health problems, which are masked by which brought together academics, activists and NGO the institutionalised life in the army and then workers in the field. exacerbated by trauma experienced in conflict. Victoria challenged the recent trend whereby David Gee said: ‘killing people is the most stressful ‘childhood has come to be thought about as a site thing a soldier ever does… it’s more stressful than where military intervention can be a very positive being fired at from a distance… few come away from force’. She said that although the armed forces are keen that unscathed.’ to highlight the benefits of military training – such as David Jackson, a veteran who provides support to increased skills, discipline, and values such as loyalty people leaving the armed forces and who set up the and self-sacrifice – there is no publicly available organisation ‘Veteran to Veteran’, said: ‘Transition is research evidence to back up their claims. not a solitary concept which you can put into some Her concern is backed up by ForcesWatch, an NGO form of compartmentalisation… it is a very complex that raises ethical concerns over military recruitment layering of areas of adjustment.’ He highlighted how a practices. They state on their website: ‘There is veteran’s transition into civilian life can be set back by no verifiable evidence that sixteen-year-old army traumatic events in the future, and how the problems recruits eventually leave having experienced training are compounded by many veterans’ reluctance to seek opportunities that serve them well when they later help: ‘war veterans on the whole don’t do counselling, join the civilian jobs market (typically around the age though they will come for mentoring’. of twenty-six), or that these recruits are better off in Ann Feltham, from Campaign Against Arms Trade, the army than staying on in education or some kind of pointed to another worrying trend: the government’s civilian training before enlisting at age eighteen.’ increased use of private security companies to source The UK military is facing a recruitment crisis. and deploy military force in combat overseas. The According to official figures, the number of people sector is unregulated and there is no right of redress joining the armed forces has gone down over the last for the families of civilians killed overseas. These two years and more people leave each year than join. companies recruit from developing countries where The crisis is worst in the sixteen-to-seventeen-year-old employment opportunities are thin on the ground, age bracket. Speakers at Saturday’s conference claimed the employment market is unregulated and healthcare that this recruitment crisis, along with a perceived facilities for injured veterans may be few and far drop in public support for the armed forces, is driving between. a change in government policy. This has led to a The event concluded with some examples of action marked increase in military visibility and engagement underway to promote change. Saskia Neibig spoke in everyday life. about the ‘Military Out Of Schools’ campaign that David Gee, who works with ForcesWatch, said she set up with the Woodcraft Folk: ‘We thought that that the military targets the most vulnerable for people were being shown a version of the military that recruitment. School engagement projects have been was unfair, that was unrepresentative. It was dishonest increased over the last few years in the most deprived and it was exploitative of the very poorest of our areas where there are the fewest job opportunities. friends and classmates and that was what we wanted Speakers at the conference emphasised that war to oppose.’

the Friend, 25 October 2013 5 Opinion A place for mediation

Oliver Robertson reflects on the value of Quaker mediation

Am I hearing that we want to take this work forward, times a year for intensive negotiating sessions. How that we want to intensify our involvement and that we could we best bring Quaker approaches to bear on such want it to continue at least until 2015? a situation? It became increasingly clear that if we were Yes, clerk, that’s what you’re hearing. going to engage properly, we needed to do it properly. That meant something like a full-time position, at hose are not the precise words that were said, a sufficiently senior level to be taken seriously by but they capture the general feeling. It’s the diplomats (hierarchy can matter a lot in diplomacy) feeling of a Quaker Business Meeting realising and a multiyear commitment to an often long and slow Tit’s taking a bold step and hearing the sense of the process. So, that’s what was presented to the Quaker Meeting, which had been gathering and coalescing, United Nations Committee in May: a description of our pinned down by the clerk. The first time I experienced work so far and our assessment of what was needed. this was at York in July 2009, when Britain Yearly In what had already been a weekend of powerful Meeting took the decision to affirm same sex discernment, committee members spoke again and marriage. The second was near Geneva in May 2013, again of the importance of the issue, the gap that at the Quaker United Nations Committee. Quakers could try to help to fill, and the need for Half of my job at the time was leading the climate engagement now: the next global agreement is due in change work of the Quaker United Nations Office 2015. From that, the clerks crystallised the next step: (QUNO), which works with the UN on behalf of to continue and intensify our work on the climate Quakers worldwide. QUNO had been exploring what negotiations. They mandated recruitment of a staff role Quakers could play internationally on climate member to cover this area and noted: ‘In affirming the change, prompted by repeated calls from Friends direction of this work, we are conscious that success in Britain and around the world. One of the most in the climate change negotiations is by no means memorable calls didn’t come from a Quaker at all. certain. We hold the staff in the light and acknowledge At one of the rounds of intergovernmental climate that this is work we are nonetheless led to do.’ change negotiations, there was a side event on A climate change agreement is a curiously mediation. It was run by a group pushing to include multifaceted thing. It’s about all of us, in terms of mediation as a way of resolving disputes under a new pressuring our politicians and living with the lifestyle climate agreement. A Quaker was attending and (after changes an agreement will require us to make. It’s explaining about Quaker quiet diplomacy) asked if about governments and the many pressures (chiefly they also planned to use mediation to help the talks economic) they feel. But it’s also about the individual themselves. No, came the reply. Then a Swedish negotiators, many of whom care deeply about climate ex-diplomat stood up and said that the talks were in change and suffered a profound loss of trust following serious trouble, that Quaker mediation had been crucial the failure of the Copenhagen summit in 2009. in getting agreement on the Convention to Combat Rebuilding that trust will take time (and care). Helping Desertification in the early 1990s and that they needed this process, as well as providing our own ideas and that kind of help again. This happened back in 2010. suggestions, is what Quakers will be offering. For QUNO, hearing calls such as this and trying to work out how to act on them was a slow business. Each Oliver is a member of North London Area Meeting. country’s climate change negotiators are based in their He was a staff member at QUNO Geneva until August national capital and only come together three or four this year.

6 the Friend, 25 October 2013 Faith in action Welfare cuts: taking action

Margaret Bennett describes how Ludlow Friends joined a local credit union

he effects of government cuts on low-income The money deposited stays in the community to families, as well as the extortionate cost of help local people and pays an annual dividend to borrowing for people with a poor credit rating, members from the surplus created during the year. Thave become a significant concern of many Friends in Savings provide a pool of money that can be used Britain today. It is a concern that has also led Quakers, to offer low-cost loans (from 12.68 per cent APR – in every part of the country, to action. [Annual Percentage Rate]) to members. This means Ludlow Meeting, in response to their concern about that members do not have to resort to borrowing from this issue, decided that saving with their local credit pay-day lenders such as Wonga, who can charge an unions would be a straightforward way for Friends to eye-watering APR of 5,000 per cent. help some of those most affected. The photo above The three credit unions operating within the locality shows Ludlow Friends outside the offices of one of the of Ludlow are all keen to expand their membership local credit unions, Fairshare, where some of us had and make their facilities better known. They were all just opened an account. delighted that we were giving our support and raising Credit unions are not-for-profit ‘community banks’. awareness of ethical lending during Quaker Week. They were originally set up to help people save small Twenty Ludlow Friends have now joined a credit amounts regularly. There is a one-off membership fee union and we are spreading the word among other of £5 to join; but once the account is opened there are local church groups in the hope that they, too, will no charges for deposits or withdrawals and no costly become involved. set-up fees or penalties for clearing loans early. As with other banks and building societies, savings are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Thus, for small savers they offer a good alternative to high street banks. Margaret is a member of Ludlow Meeting.

the Friend, 25 October 2013 7 Letters All views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Friend

Disagreeing about God Quakers are what Quakers do. Michael Wright (18 October) describes exactly my own So, what should one do in Meeting for Worship? journey over many years within Quakers. Try, as best you can, to wrap your fellow worshippers However, we reach different conclusions. Michael is in compassion (I’m not good at this!). Is that not what led to nontheism. The feeling that certainly God has left Christ and the Buddha and Mohammed did? That and is not dwelling among us leads me, as a theist, to seems to me to be faith. Statements of belief (or lack worship God elsewhere, whilst continuing to appreciate of belief) are just words – traditionally, and rightly, the Quaker community for what it represents. distrusted by Quakers. Janet Perry Philip Hills Leicester Meeting, Leicestershire Kingston & Wandsworth Area Meeting

Friends’ churches I was glad that you published Roger Iredale’s letter. The question (18 October) is surely a common Since I first went to Quaker Meetings about fifty years one: ‘How are Friends’ churches around the world ago and discovered that it was like ‘coming home’, distinctively “Quaker’’? Overseas Friends might ask the I have regarded myself as a member of a religious same – where is our shared parentage evident now? society, that is to say a society that holds the divine Neither of us, I guess, have any direct experience, or sacred in reverence and awe, and accepts the bond but, luckily, we have Ben Pink Dandelion, who has, between us and the ‘God’ who to George Fox was, ‘the and gave an interesting account of an evangelical incomprehensible being that fills heaven and earth’. Friends’ church in northwestern America in The George Fox did not spend time thinking up dogmas Liturgies of Quakerism. and definitions, which to him were just notions that Although his thoughtful work was more concerned distract us from loving God with all our hearts and with a sociological unravelling of the various strands, minds, and our neighbours as ourselves. About 1300 he does frequently return to one framework – the years ago, John of Damascus used the same word, sense of ‘intimacy’ or, as George Fox termed it, the ‘incomprehensible’, when writing about the nature way ‘Christ has come to teach his peoples himself’ – of Deity, saying, ‘…all we can affirm concerning an experiential spirituality without creed or clergy. The God does not show forth God’s nature, but only the pastors in his case study are not priestly or numerous. qualities of His nature.’ They are described as more like our elders in function. Do these qualities include humanism, atheism or The programme of worship is quite flexible. There agnosticism, or are they much more profound? is always silence and open worship of fifteen minutes Donald Gill or so towards the end: ‘Communion after the Manner Great Ayton Meeting, North Yorkshire of Friends’. There are many things that set them apart from other churches: there is no water baptism – Anna Bidder unlike Methodists or Baptists – it’s something inward Quaker Manchester Pride are producing a booklet, and ongoing. Ben points out how African and South drawing on the texts of the talks given at the events American Meetings are not as strictly timed as in the this summer, celebrating Quaker involvement in gay northern hemisphere, making us look in this respect equality. Anna Bidder was a key person in setting up more ‘programmed’ and less spirit-led in form. the original Towards a Quaker View of Sex group and I believe it is this ‘intimacy’ that is the global Quaker we would be very grateful to receive any reflections ‘distinctive’, the foundational belief in the inward from Friends who knew her. teacher, despite how cultural variations may colour We would also be grateful for the loan of any photo- outward appearances. graphs of her, which we will carefully guard and return. Mike Beranek Please send to Marion McNaughton, Quaker London West Area Meeting Manchester Pride, c/o Quaker Meeting House, 6 Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS. Atheist members? Marion McNaughton I have much sympathy with the spirit in which my [email protected] Friend Roger Iredale writes about ‘Quaker atheists’, but I hesitate about the letter of his argument (18 October). Boycotting Israeli goods Might we not do well to worry less about whether To me, the issue of boycotting Israeli goods, not simply we are ‘Christians’, ‘agnostics’, ‘atheists’, ‘nontheists’, goods from the occupied territories, is a simple one. ‘universalists’ or whatever? These are just words about The treatment of the Palestinians by the Israelis is one the indefinable. If I see a woman behaving like Christ, of the outstanding wrongs of the twentieth century, I see a Christian, whatever she chooses to call herself. now spilling over into the twenty-first. I acknowledge

8 the Friend, 25 October 2013 [email protected]

that the tactics used by Palestinians in defence of their over tea and coffee. (‘Do not forget to show hospitality cause are sometimes horrific, as in the case of suicide to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown bombing. But the root of the problem in that part hospitality to angels without knowing it.’ Hebrews 13:2) of the world is the, often violent, encroachment by I hope that it is a minority of Meetings that do not Israelis onto Palestinian land. All the other wrongs of welcome visitors; but how many enquirers are put which both sides are guilty stem from this initial cause. off by a cold, uncaring first Meeting? Is this why our The present government of Israel not only justifies numbers are dwindling? A small effort by Meetings to this situation but continues to expand onto Palestinian welcome people could avoid the hurt of those Friends land. I do not see how ‘dialogue’ can negate injustice. who have been distressed by these experiences and it David Rubinstein may increase our attendances and membership. Friargate Meeting, York Leslie Tether Painswick Meeting, Gloucestershire Knitting Knitting a seven-mile scarf sounds awfully jolly (11 Counting Quakers October) – but would not knitting garments, scarves Evelyn Shire’s comments and questions (11 October) and/or blankets for people who need them be a better expressed concerns that I have felt very strongly for use of the time and the wool? some time, but not expressed so clearly. Laurence Ambrose Her description of the off-putting effect on attenders Hartington Grove Meeting, Cambridgeshire when ‘immediately after the hour of wonderful stillness, which draws them, they see us frantically Ed: On their website, Wool Against Weapons state: running round trying to do all our multiple roles’ ‘After we have finished, the scarf will be taken down echoes my own experience only too clearly. I recall a and re-purposed into blankets for local hospices, recent crossed transaction when two of we ‘headless emergency areas and war zones. Nothing wasted.’ chickens’ failed spectacularly to communicate because we were both intent on different tasks. Do you make your visitors welcome? I feel very strongly that the Society needs to grapple I am extremely sad to read the correspondence (20 bravely with the questions at the end of Evelyn’s letter, September and 4 October) concerning the lack of especially those concerning coping with property and welcome given to people when visiting a Meeting for what effect trying to do that has on the real purpose of Worship. our gatherings. It certainly interferes significantly both May I suggest that Quaker plain speaking – via a with my own spiritual life, and with tasks in the wider letter addressed to the elders and overseers of that community – both civic and family – that it would, particular Meeting – could be in right ordering. Is this ideally, enrich. one reason why we need to be concerned regarding Eithne Dodwell the future of our Society? Bradford Meeting, West Yorkshire Reference to the roles of elders and overseers in Quaker faith & practice might also be helpful. Sylvia Riddell Alton Meeting, Hampshire In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, I, too, found some Meetings somewhat less than inviting when I used to visit years ago. I am saddened in all things charity. that this still seems to be the case. At that time I had only been a Friend for a few years and it was only the The Friend welcomes your views. Please keep letters warm loving friendship which I found in my home short (about 250 words) and include your full Meeting that kept me in membership. postal address, even when sending emails. Please When I became clerk I resolved to ensure that all specify whether you wish for your postal or email visitors would be made welcome. I look for new faces address or Meeting name to be used with your as they come into Meeting and endeavour to find out name, otherwise we will print your post address or their names, where they come from and whether it is email address. Letters are published at the editor’s their first Meeting for Worship. At the end of Meeting, discretion and may be edited. Write to: the Friend, before reading out notices, I welcome everyone and 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ or email especially the visitors by name and thank them for [email protected] sharing Worship with us. I then ensure that they are Remember if you are online that you can also comment on all articles at www.thefriend.org spoken to by either me or other members of Meeting

the Friend, 25 October 2013 9 Witness Wear it as long as thou canst

Angela Howard reflects on the slaughter of animals for food

Not until he extends the circle of his compassion to I’ve had conversations like this before and I never include all living things will man himself know peace. know what to say next. Albert Schweitzer Slaughter houses ome taxi drivers like to chat to their passengers, some don’t. It’s a matter of temperament. Many years ago I represented Quaker Concern For On a recent journey from Liverpool Street to Animals on a group of animal welfare societies. They SFriends House I met a chatty one. He wanted to know advised the Farm Animal Welfare Council, which, in about Quakers. I find conversations of any depth turn, advised the government on future legislation. difficult when carried on through a glass screen against One of the things we had to do, and which I dreaded, the roar of London’s traffic. I decided to be succinct. was to watch films taken in slaughterhouses – to see if ‘So what do Quakers believe in?’ the methods of slaughter were ‘humane’ – as humane ‘Well, peace!’ I shouted. as possible under the circumstances I would add. I ‘You’re pacifists?’ will admit, now, that I used to close my eyes at times – ‘Yes.’ especially when, on one occasion, we watched a young ‘Don’t believe in killing?’ bullock die again and again in slow motion by the ‘Yes.’ captive bolt method. He thought for a moment of two. ‘So you’re The bolt, remotely controlled, is intended to hit the vegetarians then?’ animal, as it is driven into a small pen, squarely in the It was my turn to think for a moment or two. I always middle of its forehead. Often it fails to do so. I was have difficulty with this one. afraid of landing in a crumpled heap on the floor and ‘Some of us are. Not all.’ I replied. disgracing myself. The other members of the group That took a while to sink in. were made of sterner stuff and would see it through ‘Oh?’, he said. It was in the tone of voice that I was for the sake of the animals. I admired them profoundly dreading. Amused, dismissive. because they were all sensitive people. They wouldn’t He didn’t ask any more. have been doing the job otherwise.

From Minute 36: Our Canterbury commitment. BYM 2011.

A concern for the Earth and the well-being of all who dwell in it is not new, and we have not now received new information which calls us to act. Rather we are renewing our commitment to a sense of the unity of creation which has always been part of Friends’ testimonies. Our actions have as yet been insufficient.

10 the Friend, 25 October 2013 Photo: Seniju / flickr CC. Photo: Seniju / flickr

When working as a physiotherapist I can recall it. I start by considering whether I am dependent on two young men I treated who were working in someone else doing a job that I could not do myself, slaughterhouses. One had just given the job up because given the necessary health, strength and know how. he couldn’t stand it any longer. He described it as ‘soul I could not do a job that involved killing sentient destroying’, if I remember rightly. The other young creatures. I know that there are butchers who take pride man was of mixed race and found it difficult to get any in their work and their expertise. I can respect this. I sort of job. He was hoping to work in the office of a can’t walk in their shoes but I can understand that they slaughterhouse for chickens. He was taken on in that believe they are doing a necessary job as well as it can be capacity. Management, I suspect, had always had other done. But there are many people who are slaughtering ideas. Every Monday morning, when he presented animals because it is not popular and is the only job himself, he was asked to take a turn on the killing lines available to them. – ‘just for the time being because we’re short staffed’. I gave this young man treatment over the course of Making an informed choice several weeks and watched him become more and more disillusioned and unhappy. Surely, we should be aware of the methods used to produce the items we consume – whether it is a cheap Hardening of feelings garment from the sweat shops of Asia, or the meat on our plate. I believe Quakers are probably much more Chickens should be stunned when their throats are slit aware of exploitation in clothing manufacture than they but, suspended from a conveyor belt by their legs and are of methods of animal rearing, transportation and flapping wildly, they may fail to make contact with the slaughter for food. It is, after all, human beings who are electrodes that deliver the electric shock, and so remain involved in clothing production. But humans and non- in full consciousness. This frequently happens. human animals are involved in food production and it For those who can’t get out of the work, there is surely is happening much closer to home. bound to be a hardening of the feelings when one is I’m not suggesting that everyone visits a slaughter- constantly killing living creatures. Indeed, the appalling house. This would be too disruptive and complicated exploitation and brutalisation of workers in the meat to arrange. But I think that every adult should witness industry is well documented and links have been shown at least once in their life the processes involved, between animal slaughtering and violence in society in and become conversant with them. Only then is it general. possible to make an informed choice as to our food consumption. Could we, perhaps, have a screening of Cruelty and exploitation a film of animal slaughter at the next Yearly Meeting Gathering? Trying to clear our lives, in the present day world, from a dependence on cruelty and exploitation is complicated. But we each, in our own way, attempt Angela Howard is a member of Bardfield Meeting.

the Friend, 25 October 2013 11 British Quakers: Belief, worship and behaviour

Simon Best, in the fourth article of the series, gives a personal response to the question: Do liberal Quakers in Britain actually have any boundaries?

tuart, in last week’s article, has outlined where unequivocally a good thing and accommodated to the Friends have drawn boundaries in the past, but I extent that people can think what they want and still contend that now there are few, if any, boundaries be part of the Quaker ethos. The acceptance, and even Sin relation to three key areas: belief, worship and affirmation, of individualism means there is no test of behaviour. what truth, revealed to individual Friends, is part of a corporate Quaker theology. We find ourselves in the Belief position where we come close to not mentioning God in the Yearly Meeting epistle for fear it will upset people. Quakerism doesn’t just let you believe what you want, I understand people’s need to use language they feel but helps you believe what you want, allowing us to comfortable with and have no objection to that but if we interpret Quakerism for ourselves go to the extent of thinking the transcendent is merely (Junior Yearly Meeting Epistle 2013). a human construct then we’ve lost the faith basis of the Quaker way. In Britain Yearly Meeting there are Christian Quakers, Buddhist Quakers, nontheist Quakers, atheist Quakers. Worship You might wonder why any of this matters? Maybe it doesn’t, theological diversity can be seen as strength Our method of worship, that of silent waiting, is central and the absence of a credal statement means that we to our corporate life and to our life as Friends. Perhaps are not tied to what Friends believed 300 years ago. that is where we can draw a boundary? But I doubt The possibility of continuing revelation is central to all Quakers have a shared understanding of worship Quakerism: we as individuals can have truth revealed and many aren’t actually aware of who or what (if to us that is different to that which has previously been anything) or even how the person next to us in Meeting known. However, if we have no beliefs in common what is worshipping. provides the basis for our faith? The Quaker belief that there is that of God in everyone Does this matter? Absolutely. is the one belief that most Quakers say they agree with. Perhaps that is a boundary? But what happens when As with belief, any boundaries there might be in people don’t believe in God? Often God is replaced with relation to worship are hidden in the silence or the busy- other words: ‘light’ or ‘good’. ness of keeping the Meeting going. Quaker worship is, essentially, a communal activity and is as much about Does this matter? Absolutely. renewing our connection with each other as with God/the Light/the Spirit. If people spend worship in As Quakers we emphasise our acceptance and individual meditation then they fail to recognise their inclusivity but this makes us afraid of doing anything responsibility to the worshipping community, and the that is a rejection of this. Plurality of belief is seen as true nature of Quaker worship. Silence is not a blank

12 the Friend, 25 October 2013 Mission and message canvas to be filled by our human thoughts, feelings and sense of the Meeting’, which is no different to secular observations – it’s not a place to share what we’ve read consensus. in the Guardian or thought about on the bus. Silence is a response to the mystery of the divine. Speech, too, is a Behaviour response and vocal ministry adds to the transformative power of the spirit that we experience in silence and Behaviour is about what we do as Quakers and what we is an expression of that transformation. The length of do because we are Quakers. silence isn’t important, it’s the depth. You can have deep In our behaviour within our Meetings, again, the silence that only lasts a moment. The deepest worship individual has priority over the community. Of course, I have experienced was several years ago, with a group we need to accommodate individuals’ needs and ensure of twelve – to fifteen-year-olds, sat round a bonfire. that all those who want to participate in the Meeting There was lots of ministry with deep, powerful silence can do so. I’m not suggesting that we remove hearing between contributions. Being a Quaker is not about loops or don’t fit wheelchair ramps; but how often in our keeping quiet but knowing when to speak, what to say Meetings do we find ourselves adjusting to the less than and how to listen. We no longer have that boundary in reasonable demands of individuals? In being part of any our worship. community, like a workplace or a school or a family, we Connected with worship is the Quaker process for have to give up some of our own personal preferences. decision-making – perhaps we can draw boundaries The same is true of the Religious Society of Friends. in relation to discernment and corporate decision- Is it okay to choose which of the formal and informal making? Maybe here we are on stronger ground but rules of Quakerism we follow? No. If we want to be part I’d suggest that what we say about discernment masks of an intentional spiritual community then we have to what is really going on in our Meetings for Worship for make sacrifices. Of course, we need to support each Church Affairs. Firstly, are we really trying to discern other but we also need to lovingly challenge each other the will of God? How does this work for atheists? How and we need to be accountable to each other and to the often is what we reach just a collective view? Quaker communities that we are part of. Being a Quaker is about who we are all the time, not Does this matter? Absolutely. just on a Sunday, and about how we live our lives and about seeing the whole of life as sacramental. Maybe The ‘collective view’ gives space for individuals this is a boundary that we can draw? I don’t think we to demand that their opinion is taken into account. can. Often we are only activists, campaigning on the Decision-making is where one of the most damaging latest issue that we are politically or philosophically or and insidious characteristics of current British personally interested in. If we can’t find an essentially Quakerism is most apparent. There is a tyranny of the Quaker basis for doing something, a reason that is individual and small pressure groups, who are allowed grounded in our corporate faith and discernment, we to exercise a power of veto over the community in shouldn’t be doing it at all. We need to only do what is relation to decisions they’re unhappy with or push essential to our life as a religious community guided by through things that are their personal projects. This God and witnessing to a world built on love and peace happens because we listen to ourselves more than rather than violence and greed. we listen to God. Often in our Meetings one person’s Without boundaries we cannot tell who we are as a trenchant opinions are allowed to block a properly religious community, who belongs and who doesn’t; discerned decision because we think we should be we become disparate and disconnected. As Quakers in seeking unanimity or even consensus. Britain we are faced with a choice: Are we a faith group Central to Quaker decision-making is the under- that is rooted in Christianity and open to new light or standing that when we wait and listen we can be are we a big melting pot that exists to support individuals led by the spirit, both individually and collectively. on their personal spiritual journey and enables them to Early Friends’ understanding of discernment was about engage in social activism with like-minded people?What ascertaining the source of people’s insights – are they we decide will determine where the Quaker boundaries eternal, transcendent, spirit-based or are they pure are drawn for the next generation. experience? It is about whether the source of these insights is one of truth or of delusion – it is not about not using our rational faculties. Amongst Quakers now Simon is nurturing Friends and Meetings tutor at the intellectual interpretation of experience, common Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. amongst early Friends, is rejected in favour of individual or collective ‘feeling’ – often ‘the will of God’ will be This eight part series is devised and written by Stuart substituted with ‘the feeling of the Meeting’ or ‘the Masters and Simon Best.

the Friend, 25 October 2013 13 Reflection Let your life blossom

Bob Johnson reflects on our human potential Photo: Leanne McCauley / flickr CC. / flickr McCauley Photo: Leanne

nce upon a time there was a keen gardener. ‘self-weeding’ molecule. This favoured variation is a She toiled long and hard so that her lawns were precise spiral or tube and this unique shape allows trimmed, her roses pruned and her borders electrons to whiz to and fro. It’s nature’s semiconductor. O‘laughing with flowers’, as the French poet has it. ‘Isn’t No other shape works; our very thinking depends upon God’s handiwork marvellous?’ said her neighbour. it – but where did it come from? ‘Well, yes,’ she replied, mopping her brow, ‘but you should have seen the mess He made of it, when He Not only is DHA ‘self-weeding’, but it has been doing had it all to Himself!’ this for 600 million years. Something really odd is going on, and we can only half-guess what it is. Again, This everyday story hides a deep and uncomfortable many are content to leave it to ‘science’. One day, so truth. Everyone knows that unattended gardens fast the comforting mantra goes, all will be known, and become jungles – brambles and nettles have a field day, all manner of things will be known. But suppose not. and any semblance of order is rapidly lost. But, and Odds of one in sixty-four, and 600,000,000 years, are this may surprise you, no one knows why. Not only is rather long, even for the most optimistic scientist. there no scientific explanation for it whatsoever – but, Most scientists settle for much less, generally one in worse, there never will be. Neither the exuberance twenty, which doesn’t help here at all. of natural vegetation, nor the ability, or otherwise, of humans to tame it has ever been satisfactorily Well, what we have to do is pick ourselves up, dust explained scientifically. Nor is it ever likely to be. And ourselves down, and do the best we can with what it matters. we’ve got. We know that diligent weeding can produce glorious gardens. We know that by deploying many Everyone has to make up their own minds. Some plans, and by straining much effort, we can achieve are content to say ‘it’s God’s Will’ – but then they are at least some of our aims and our ideals – a bit like left with deciding what that means in their daily life. weeding our human society. Things will go wrong. Others say ‘It’s Mother Nature’ and, again, though that They seem, at times, to have an unerring tendency may satisfy their curiosity, it’s hardly scientific. The to. So, this calls for faith and for confidence in point is, we must each make up our own minds, and what humans really can do. But isn’t this just what what we decide makes a world of difference. Quakerism is all about and always has been?

Jungle-like gardens are obvious to all, but an even The truth is that we have within us a fish-oil deeper mystery lurks within our heads. Our brains are, that can ‘self-weed’. It is time we built on that. If actually, composed largely of a single chemical substance this is just one ‘living’ chemical then what can the – the most important biological molecule of them all. rest of ourselves, as living organisms, achieve? Let’s It’s a ‘fish oil’, labelled ‘DHA’ (scientifically, it’s all-cis- extend this wonderful creativity and ‘weedability’ to DocosaHexaenoic Acid). Now the challenging thing everywhere and everyone. Let’s help everyone blossom. about DHA is its shape. If you made it chemically, in a Floreat Quakerism. test tube, it can come in any one of sixty-four different varieties. It is even more random than brambles. But Bob is a member of Hampshire & the Islands Area only one ever occurs in living tissue, so it’s a kind of Meeting.

14 the Friend, 25 October 2013 Epistle

Experiment with Light

Greetings to all Friends everywhere. ‘Two words come to mind, trust and perseverance. Trust, that this experiment has been tested and is ow far, how deep, how wide can you go this ongoing. Perseverance, in that it’s not easy; we need to weekend?’ was the question Rex Ambler keep working at it, not just accept we’ve found a nice asked us to consider as seventy-one of us easy form of meditation.’ ‘fromH the UK, Palestine, Finland, Russia, South Africa, Waiting without expectation for the Light to reveal Austria, Canada, Sweden, Norway and the USA itself requires the ego to step aside.’ gathered in the Cadbury room. ‘It is open to seemingly absurd coincidences. In ‘If we are to deepen our meditation,’ he went on, ‘we my meditation I had an image of myself stuck on an need to risk facing unpalatable facts about ourselves electro magnet. The best solution is to turn off the and risk speaking about this with our group, not get power, I thought. At that moment a Friend got up and stuck at a comfortable level which we feel safe sharing switched off the light…’ with others. ‘My experience of EWL fills me with joy. Will it last? ‘How wide can we go? A group of nonreligious Then I think, it’s like couch grass, the kind you can’t friends trying the Experiment said they were happy get rid of; it’ll be here when I’m gone. The Experiment with the words “the Spirit within you”. with Light will spread – within my own life, within my ‘How far can we go? A woman in a Muslim group own Meeting, within the world.’ who had started doing the Experiment with Light ‘It is important to allow our body to experience our (EWL) said that as a result of taking part she was feelings.’ able to cry for the first time for her son who had ‘EWL is for everyone. I introduced it to a non- disappeared. Quaker friend when we were sitting under a tree. She ‘We can take the Experiment with Light farther, loved it, and wanted to pass it on to others. We need deeper and wider. That is our challenge.’ to experiment with EWL!’

On Saturday after a meditation together and a In the afternoon we had a Meditation on the sharing in small groups – and, of course, a break for World. We connected deeply with the problems – the coffee and hot chocolate – we came together to share suffering and conflicts – in the world, yet we could our experiences with Experiment with Light that also see hope, and as a result ended with renewed morning, in our groups at home or on our own. These will to act in the various ways we were led, as well as were some of them: collectively. There was also optimism based on the ‘The words of George Fox, “Come in to the new concept that the world is a self-renewing organism world”, came to me with depth. And with it a feeling of and that balance can be regained (Gaia principle). immense gratitude. We must try to keep the freshness The shared entertainment in the evening was the of “a new world”.’ best we have ever experienced. Songs, dance, games, ‘This is the first time I’ve done Experiment with music and poems were enjoyed by all. It showed the Light. I’ve searched many places for a profound Light and beauty that we all have to offer. experience like this. The phrase, “Why do you hide your Light under a bushel?” comes to mind.’ We invite Friends everywhere to see how far, deep ‘I offer EWL to those who are not Quakers. I always and wide they can take the Experiment with Light. feel anxious wondering if it’s going to work. But there is always someone who experiences something Epistle from the first international gathering of the profound. It is an exercise in faith – faith in the Experiment with Light (EWL) held at Woodbrooke process, but even more so, faith in the Light.’ Quaker Study Cantre from 27 to 29 September 2013.

the Friend, 25 October 2013 15 a look at the Quaker world [email protected]

Uniting in elbow grease Photo: Dawn Beck. Photo: Dawn

What can you do when walls He, and other members of the ‘We got the walls done in very need repainting, drains unblocking, workcamp, had stayed at the centre quick time, and a major drain dug windows repairing and a safer before: ‘I first visited in 1979, out and replaced. Others cleared kitchen… but funds are scarce? meeting a wonderful lot of other the kitchen to replace the flooring Form a Quaker workcamp! young Friends and doing some and put a fireproof barrier to the Chris and Catherine Thomas and lovely walks too. It is a wonderful sleeping area. The doors got their Dawn Beck called some Friends place, with fantastic views of the first coat of paint in years… What for help when the Pardshaw Young fells, great daffodils and a feeling of a pleasure it is, though, to make do Friends Centre in Cumbria was in peace. and mend as best you can, leaving need of some tender loving care. ‘A workcamp at a time when I something looking that bit better In September the ‘rarely used was free, with some I knew, and for the next few years.’ but much loved’ centre greeted others I did not seemed a lovely Work will continue in 2014. a team of volunteers with their idea. And slapping on Snowcem Andrew reflected: ‘It reminds me sleeves rolled up and paint brushes [exterior waterproof paint] to of the real importance of Quaker at the ready. Andrew Backhouse, the walls to bring the place alive workcamps to get a range of ages of Wilmslow Meeting, got in touch was going to be fun when the sun working together in a spiritual after taking part. shone – and it did. community.’ Half a century at St Andrews

St Andrews Meeting recently marked fifty years Andrews played its part in a personal transformation, of Meeting for Worship. before moving on after twenty years. Jill Marshall got in touch to tell us more about the ‘Having taken responsibility for the youth group ‘joyful coming together of Friends who returned to Ellen Colingsworth remembered the experiences share the occasion’. of teenagers that opened up through the group in A number of Friends reflected on their time with the the nineties, she quoted their direct recollections, Meeting, which began in 1963: ‘The nearest Meeting reminded us of their activities and of the lasting values previously had been across the Tay in Dundee, in the developed in Meeting. days when there were no trains on Sunday, no road ‘And, finally, Buša Cochrane-Muir, whose story bridge and no bus to the ferry… Christine Davis, began five years ago, related her journey into the life of who was a student at St Andrews, was asked, “Why the Meeting today.’ hadn’t she started a Meeting in St Andrews?” After There were also displays featuring activities such advertising in the local paper on 17 November 1963, as the peace initiatives by PASTA (Peace Action St the Meeting was born. Andrews), which became QASTA (Quaker Action St ‘Jonathan Dale arrived the following year and Andrews); photographs of Quakers opposing the Iraq he recalled the sense of a close-knit community, war and the use of armed drones; correspondence with discussion groups and students who made a wonderful prisoners of conscience; as well as social occasions contribution to the life of the Meeting and how St such as shared picnics and marriages.

16 the Friend, 25 October 2013 Ad pages 25 Oct 22/10/13 11:53 Page 3

Friends&Meetings Deaths Diary Let your life Edrey ALLOTT (née Peet) MEETING FOR WORSHIP AT 17 October at Isle Court, Shrewsbury. RAF FYLINGDALES Saturday Wife of the late Stephen, mother of 2 November, 12 noon - 1pm under speak... Rachel, Kate, Andrew and Philip. the care of Pickering and Hull AM. Aged 92. Memorial Meeting in Bath, Followed by picnic at Pickering date not yet fixed. Enquiries to FMH. Contact 01751 432416 or ...through Philip 01753 864252, 01751 472827. All welcome. [email protected] a legacy to TOWARDS A QUAKER BANK Douglas ROLLS 16 October What could a new Quaker bank do the Friend (aged 89) and Margaret ROLLS for you? What do you want its 18 October (aged 90). Members of products to be? Come and influence Harpenden Meeting. Funeral its evolution. Quakers & Business When making 10.30am Friday 1 November, Luton Group Day Conference, your will, please crematorium. Refreshments after- 13 November, Friends House. consider leaving a wards at Harpenden FMH. Info/booking: www.qandb.org legacy to The Friend Publications and help Memorial meeting the continued production Make time for of the Friend and Peggy McGEOGHEGAN Friends Quarterly. (d. 22 August). Memorial Meeting at the Friend Brentford & Isleworth Meeting Registered charity 211649 House on Saturday 7 December at Registered address midday. Refreshments afterwards. Because you 173 Euston Road If you wish to attend please call deserve it! London NW1 2BJ Anna 0208 412 0077 or email London NW1 2BJ [email protected] for details.

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