19-26 December 2008 £1.70 the DISCOVER THE CONTEMPORARYFriend QUAKER WAY

Culture at Christmas Poem by UA Fanthorpe Friend writers share 2008 highlights Essay by David Yount Quaker jokes Eye launches the bookclub Two-page quiz the Friend INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843

CONTENTS Vol 166 No 51 3 Eye presents ‘Follow the star’ Colin George Now UA Fanthorpe 4 Babylon: memory and survival Rowena Loverance 5 Beatrix Potter: an exceptional life Mary McKerall 6-7 Launch of the Friend book club Eye and Friend writers 8 Rothko’s influence James Hugonin 9 A valediction by George Fox Barry McGibbon 10-11 No jokes please, we’re Quakers! 12-13 A Quaker appreciation of human nature David Yount Cover image: An interpretation of ‘Now’, the poem by UA Fanthorpe. Drawing © 14 Every day is a sacrament – or is it? Cally Gibson. www.callygibson.co.uk. Cally’s Keith Minton illustrations feature throughout this edition. See 15 Saluting a literary perfectionist page 3. Stephen Taylor Illustrations this page: AN413345 The Tower of Babel; 1595, Oil on panel. Artist: Lucas 16-17 Our 2008 highlights van Valckenborch (Inv. No. MRM M31) © Friend writers Mittelrhein-Museum Koblenz. See page 4. Reflections on Grasmere lake. Photo: ArtToday. 18-19 Christmas greetings and Friends & Meetings See page 5. 20 Christmas quiz: brain teasers for post-prezzies Merry Christmas The Friend Subscriptions UK £72 per year by all payment types and a happy new year from including annual direct debit; monthly payment by direct debit £6.50; everyone at the Friend. online only £45 per year. For details of other rates, See page 18 for more greetings. contact Penny Dunn on 020 7663 1178 or [email protected]

the Friend 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ Tel: 020 7663 1010 Fax: 020 7663 1182 www.thefriend.org Editor: Judy Kirby [email protected] • Production editor: Jez Smith [email protected] • Sub-editor: Trish Carn [email protected] • News reporter: Oliver Robertson [email protected] • Website editor: simon gray [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: A David Olver The Friend Publications Limited is a registered charity, number 211649 • Printed by Headley Bros Ltd, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH

2 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 presents… The Friend Christmas issue Eye has devoted this special edition to the arts. We hope that during the peace and joy of Christmas there will be time to reflect on how culture can be the link that connects us to our creative voices. On this page Now Colin George describes how music, drama and art are the great enablers, After the frantic shopping and with this in mind we have a poem from UA Fanthorpe exposing the The anxious road hidden messages of Christmas. Right through to the quiz on pages 20- After the office parties 21, Friends give their interpretation on various aspects of the arts. We The crowded inn hope that you enjoy it. Before the quarterly bills The stones gathered Before the January sales ‘Follow the star’ And Stephen, broken Already it has arrived: the Christmas card with the After the carols and lessons three wise men on their stately camels following The psalms, the prophets the star. I have followed a star from my youth, After the gifts are wrapped not in the sky but on this earth. It is the theatre. The swaddling clothes There have been several articles in the Friend this autumn about Art and the Quakers. Misguidedly Before the Queen’s speech some define an artist as someone who puts paint A baby’s cry on a canvas. Friends from Glasgow were the first to Across the morning suburbs point out what a narrow view this is. It ignores the The Light of the World sculptor, the dancer, the actor and all those in the world of music and drama and literature, and the UA Fanthorpe performing arts. In a theatre contract, for example, the performer – whether a leading actor at the National Theatre or a comedian playing the clubs or busking the streets – is described and dignified by the word ‘artist’. As for the artists who create great literature or music – how can anyone say that Mozart or Chekhov have not directly contributed to the betterment of humankind? To take the word ‘betterment’ literally and prosaically: since his death, the works of Shakespeare have been used and adapted by revolutionaries all over the world under the guise of classical theatre to fight dictatorship; and the music of Mozart has a scientific record of influencing the mind – inspiring the student or sometimes bringing harmony and peace to those disturbed or confused. What can serve as a guide to the true artist? From my perspective as an actor, our Quaker testimonies. Simplicity – the innate quality of a great performer. Equality – between members of the best theatre companies. And above all – Truth. What about Peace, you say? Well, that may come when a good performance connects with and influences the audience. But I would deceive you to say that there is not a lot of fierce fighting on the way. If any one of the three wise men had been seduced by the star of the theatre, he would have had a far more uncomfortable ride than on the road to Bethlehem. Colin George UA Fanthorpe and RV Bailey are Colin is a member of Luton & Leighton AM. a book club choice, see page 6. ‘My son – Will!’, RSC Fringe Festival. Courtesy Colin Festival. RSC George. Fringe ‘My Will!’, son – Colin George as John Shakespeare in his one man show

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 3 exhibition Babylon: memory and survival

Jewish exiles hanging their Opening the exhibition are the fall to building Babel all over again. lyres on willow trees by the most spectacular survivals from ‘But when the Eternal stirs in him, waters of Babylon; mad king Babylon, the blue- and gold-glazed then he has some little glimmerings Nebuchadnezzar on all fours eating brick relief panels that adorned of his estate… Then he gathers grass like oxen (below); a doom- the processional way into the stones and makes mortar to build laden finger tracing Hebrew letters city through the northern Ishtar up a wall and raise a tower, that he on the wall plaster at Belshazzar’s Gate. They depict, alternately, a may not be open to the deluge of Feast; it is quite extraordinary how roaring lion (above right) and an wrath.’ much European myth and legend, elegant mushushu, the Babylonian The Babel story in Genesis 11 much of it commemorated in great dragon. Thereafter, however, it is a reads as if, originally, people had works of art, has derived from matter of a cuneiform tablet here a single language, which God a period of little more than two (several of them, however, helpfully then deliberately confused. Fox, generations, the mid-sixth century enhanced with audio) and a Blake though, characteristically goes BC, and from a single city, Babylon or Burne-Jones picture there, as the one better. Restoration to the on the Euphrates, which, even curators struggle to span the 2,500- pre-fall situation, achieved by before the recent efforts of Saddam year divide. the crucifixion and witnessed for Hussein and the US army, had left Perhaps the most interesting the first time at Pentecost, is to a little archaeological trace. section for Friends is that dealing state in which people can perceive The British Museum’s latest with the Tower of Babel (see spiritual truth directly, without exhibition seeks to address this page 2). The exhibition explains relying on natural language at all. conundrum. It is not a blockbuster that this tale of men trying to One cuneiform tablet rang like the terracotta army, it doesn’t build up to heaven may enshrine a bell with me about another command the historic Reading a folk-memory of the ziggurat contemporary language row. Room but squeezes into Norman of Babylon, a mud-brick multi- Time for one of those Christmas Foster’s modest exhibition space, stepped temple built up over cracker-type questions: What do and it’s not all the museum’s many centuries and known as beetroot, leek and turnip have in own work, having already been Etemenanki, ‘House platform of common? Answer: they feature in seen in Paris and Berlin. It does, Heaven and Earth’. a Babylonian plant list but they no however, provoke reflection about Babel was a staple theme of longer feature in the latest edition the relationship between the ‘real’, seventeenth-century Quaker of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. We biblical and mythological pasts. moralising. George Fox warned can’t be sure whether this tablet of the dangers of over-reaching was used, as many were, to teach oneself, of out-running one’s Babylonian children their letters. Guide. Margaret Fell condemned But we do know why beetroot and the teachers and ministers of the the rest (including, appropriately established churches who drew for the time of year, holly and ivy), people ‘from the light and spirit have been omitted from the OJD: of God within them, unto their it’s to make room for such essential inventions, imaginations, meanings words as blog, broadband and and expositions of the scriptures bullet point. Babel, it seems, is with without them: so they have been us still. building Babel in many languages’. Rowena Loverance Isaac Penington drew a rather Babylon: Myth and Reality, different analogy: openness to the continues at the British Museum Light may be so terrifying that we until 15 March Top right: AN414533 Lion Relief, 6th century BC glazed brick panel (Louvre, Antiquité orientales, Inv. AO21118) © Photo RMN/Franck © Photo RMN/Franck 6th Lion centuryright: AN414533 Relief, AO21118) BC Antiquité panel glazed orientales,brick (Louvre, Top Inv. Colour print finished 1795/c.1805. in WilliamNebuchadnezzar; ink AN413632 Artist: Blake, and left: watercolour on Raux. paper. Bottom London 2008. Tate, N05059) © Inv. (Tate

4 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 biography Beatrix Potter: an exceptional life

Beatrix Potter: The extraordinary many years later. of the Quaker community at life of a Victorian genius by Linda Her love for writing, sketching Colthouse for generations, and Lear. Penguin/Allen Lane, £11.99. and painting animals and nature Beatrix sometimes accompanied ultimately became ‘pretty’ her to the Quaker Meeting there. Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) little books that provided an In accordance with the best ideals led a life of simplicity, truth, income allowing Beatrix to live of the Dissenting tradition they devotion to her community and independently. shared, Beatrix and Emily decided the environment and a belief in Her engagement to publisher to do something about the lack of equality. Norman Warne met with fierce nursing care.’ Beatrix summered with her family opposition as Norman was Beatrix continued to write her family in the English Lake District ‘in trade’. Norman’s sudden death little books, using earlier stories and Scottish countryside, delighting left her heartbroken. and paintings after failing eyesight in nature. Her wealthy cotton While Beatrix did not abandon made new work difficult. Before manufacturer relatives were her demanding parents, she used her death she arranged for most of ‘liberal’ Unitarians who believed her Peter Rabbit royalties to buy her estate to go the National Trust in universal education as well as Hill Top Farm in 1905. More book and requested no memorial other art education for all children. The royalties led to the acquisition and than her ashes be scattered near her Quaker politician John Bright was a preservation of more farms with beloved Lake District home. frequent visitor in the Potter home. the advice of William Heelis, a Linda Lear’s detailed life of Beatrix kept a journal in a solicitor, whom she later married the Quakerly Beatrix Potter is secret code. At eighteen she at age forty-seven. Beatrix was recommended. observed that: ‘All outward forms concerned about whether his Mary McKerall of religion are almost useless, are Anglican family would accept her, the cause of endless strife. What as she was ‘uncomfortable with Mary is a member of Live Oak

do Creeds matter, what possible any sort of organised religion, Friends Meeting, Houston, Texas. Carn Trish Photos: difference does it make to anyone preferring a simple Quaker meeting today whether the doctrine of the above any’. resurrection is correct or incorrect, Beatrix Heelis lived simply at or the miracles, they don’t happen Hill Top Farm, without electricity, nowadays, but very queer things dressing in sturdy Herdwick sheep do that concern us much more. woollen garments. When able she Believe there is a great power worked the farms along with her silently working all things for good, shepherds. behave yourself and never mind In 1919 the great influenza the rest.’ epidemic led Beatrix to find a Beatrix took an interest in nurse for Hawkshead District. As fungi and their study. In 1897 she Linda Lear writes: ‘[Beatrix] found presented a paper to the prestigious a congenial ally for this endeavour Beatrix Potter’s home, Hill Top, when Linnean Society, but her theories in her friend… Emily Fowkes. visited by members of Quakers Uniting in were not accepted until proven Emily’s family had been members Top right: AN414533 Lion Relief, 6th century BC glazed brick panel (Louvre, Antiquité orientales, Inv. AO21118) © Photo RMN/Franck © Photo RMN/Franck 6th Lion centuryright: AN414533 Relief, AO21118) BC Antiquité panel glazed orientales,brick (Louvre, Top Inv. Colour print finished 1795/c.1805. in WilliamNebuchadnezzar; ink AN413632 Artist: Blake, and left: watercolour on Raux. paper. Bottom London 2008. Tate, N05059) © Inv. (Tate Publications, April 2007.

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 5 books

The Friend invites readers to join us in a literary adventure

Book clubs have been a phenomenal success in Britain. They’ve encouraged reading Book club within a social context and have revived interest in a variety of literary forms. The Friend announces its own club today and from a small start we hope we will inspire books for readers to participate and to help develop it themselves. One of our aims is to look more closely at Quaker writers and poets and possibly 6 February discover some little-known gems of writing by Friends. We want to look at Quaker Keith Ward: Why there themes in fiction, to carry profiles of spiritual writers and to tackle some of the more almost certainly is a God, complex theological works. But there will always be a choice of books each month. Lion £7.99 The first club will be in the issue of 6 February and the book titles are in the box on this page. You can buy the book you choose from the Quaker bookshop with free Margaret Elphinstone: postage and packing for the Friend book club. If you feel inspired to write a review Voyageurs, Canongate of the book, please keep the review to about 300 words (three examples follow) and Books £7.99 submit to our office no later than 28 January; earlier if possible. At a later stage we hope to open a discussion forum for the club on the Friend website. UA Fanthorpe, RV We also invite you to nominate titles you think would interest a Quaker audience. Bailey: From Me to You, Happy reading! Enitharmon £8.95 The Quaker Bookshop can be contacted on 0207 663 1030, [email protected] or by post: Quaker Bookshop, Friends House, 173-177 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ. In quest of silence A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland. Granta in an aesthetic guise. But she perceives our Meetings Publications. ISBN: 978 184708 042 4. £17.99. for Worship as ‘a silence waiting to be broken’. Metaphysically speaking, she is probably right. But this ‘Speech is often barren, but silence does not excludes us from her quest. necessarily brood over a full nest.’ Women Friends of a certain age will remember Sara George Eliot, Felix Holt Maitland as a feminist, Anglo-Catholic, novelist. In middle life, with her marriage dissolved, her children ‘The cell of the monk is the furnace in Babylon.’ grown and her religious affiliation shifted, she began Helen Waddell, Desert Fathers her pursuit of silence. Her book is a fascinating testament to some of the psychological results, such If you approach Sara Maitland’s A Book of Silence as a as decreasing inhibition and a decreasing sense of the commonplace book, packed with fascinating literary self. The latter is of particular concern to a writer, references wrapped up in some highly lyrical prose especially a novelist. ‘In prayer one is trying to empty of her own, then this can be an enjoyable read. If, oneself of ego… whereas in the act of making art however, you’re looking for a manual to the spiritual one needs the silence… to strengthen the ego.’ But life, then this is probably not the book for you. this is Sara Maitland’s first report from her, thus far Let’s get the defensive stuff over first. The Religious only eighty per cent, silent life. We can hopefully look Society of Friends is dealt with in just three pages. forward to further instalments. There is an interesting attempt to define a gathered Meeting and a lovely quote from Pierre Lacout. Sara Rowena Loverance Maitland clearly warms to Quakerism, especially if it presents itself, in ancient country Meeting houses, Rowena is a member of London West AM.

6 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 Two books on moving towards happiness Happiness: Lessons from a Centre for Economic Performance up that I skipped a lot of the stats New Science by at the London School of in favour of the cartoons, which Richard Layard. Economics and has advised the always find the right explanation. Penguin. ISBN 978 0 14 101690 0. government on policy. The welfare- Take this one – two dogs conversing £8.99. to-work approach was credited to in a garden, the resident pooch him, but more recently Layard has explaining: ‘I’ve got the bowl, the This little book caused quite a stir got into happiness in a big way. bone, the big yard. I know I should when it first appeared in 2005 and He has found a hero in Jeremy be happy.’ Or this, illustrating has continued to arouse curiosity Bentham and the common good. how the modern obsession of ever since. Why? The thought While the salaries – for some at ‘optimising’ every opportunity of happiness being capable of least – have stacked up over the available is the true enemy of measurement, rather than existing past decades, any sense of feeling happiness: two small girls playing as a purely ad hoc quality no-one happy has either diminished together in a plush bedroom with can predict, is intriguing; plus it is or remained the same. What is one declaring: ‘Sometimes having written by an eminent economist. happening? to have the happy childhood my When such professionals start You can look at all the statistics parents never had is just too much saying that money doesn’t bring offering insight into this sad fact of a responsibility’. happiness, people tend to take (that we are no happier now that we Judy Kirby notice. are more materially successful) but Judy is a member of Richard Layard founded the they don’t really help, I find. I own Northumbria AM.

Just Me by Sheila Hancock. Bloomsbury. widow boring the arse off everyone, or get on with it. ISBN: 976 0 7475 8882 5. £18.99. Your choice.’ Realising that ‘grannying’, gardening and grumbling Sheila Hancock picks up again two weren’t satisfying her, she picks herself up and starts years after the death of her husband travelling, signing up for a cooking course while in John Thaw in this sequel to The Two Italy, fighting against invisibility as an older woman of Us. She opens sitting in her bed in travelling alone and contending with the staff of their house in Saignon writing this budget airlines. book and realising that it is a time of Finally she travels out of her comfort zone and visits ‘transformation’, a word that ‘speaks to Germany, while contending with the antipathy her her condition’, drawing on her Quaker experience. experiences during the second world war had given The book continues with her realisation that John her towards that country and its people. Looking back wasn’t coming back and that she needed to pick herself at her generation and their experiences she came to up. Struggling to light the recalcitrant stove – a job terms with the person she had become. that had always been John’s – she is startled by a bird The book is an easy but captivating read about emerging from the flue and flapping around the room Sheila’s various adventures travelling and working. until she can get it out the window. Following a vivid Despite slips into sadness and loneliness, she does dream about John drifting away from her, she wakes what we all have to do eventually: pick yourself up, to realise that her ‘mother’s maxim: “Pull yourself dust yourself off and start all over again. together” had a lot to recommend it. Never mind I found the book thoughtful, inspiring and therapy, religion, AA – eventually it is all down to you. thoroughly enjoyable. I recommend it. ‘“Live adventurously”, a Quaker advice, was also Trish Carn whirling around somewhere. Trish is a member of North West London AM. ‘Well, what about it, Sheila? As John would say, “Put your money where your mouth is”. Be a depressed See page 23 for information on ordering Just Me.

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 7 painting Rothko’s influence

James Hugonin reflects on the poignant intensity of Mark Rothko’s last paintings

absorbed. I had never seen edge had never appeared in his Rothko, Tate Modern, Level 4, anything like this before. work before and it totally alters London until 1 February 2009. Recently at Tate Modern, the way in which the paintings When I was an art student at seeing Rothko’s late paintings, are apprehended. They are austere Chelsea School of Art in the mid- including the same Seagram series works of great subtlety, which also 1970s, the work of two painters I’d seen thirty-five years before, reveal a warmth and deep humanity. from New York, Jackson Pollock altogether different thoughts and It is now impossible to see these and Mark Rothko, was much feelings became apparent when I paintings without the knowledge of discussed and their influence clearly was standing in front of them. I Rothko’s suicide in February 1970, apparent in what many of us were spent a long time looking at the but it is important to point out concerned with at that time. Many series of acrylic works on paper that he also made a number of very paintings were made on the studio that he made in 1968 and his last pale pink, grey and blue acrylic floors, with much emphasis placed paintings on canvas from 1969. works of an altogether different on gestural expression, and the They are obdurate, difficult and nature in the last two years of his paintings were often very large. extraordinary; they are about what life. These particular works are not It seemed to us then that it was actually happens at the meeting included in the current exhibition important to acknowledge the way point of darkness and light, when at Tate Modern but remain part of in which both Pollock and Rothko these two forces are moulded the same series, which evokes yet had extended and dramatically and nuanced into having to exist another aspect of this complicated identified a new and exciting way together. Darkness and light form man. His last paintings are a of making paintings that was the fabric of our existence in the poignant summation of a dark impossible to ignore. world and Rothko’s insistence on tonal density balanced with a form The Rothko room at the Tate the total exposition of this reality is of hovering lightness that is totally Gallery had opened in 1970 and I palpably present in these paintings. compelling and enriching. remember seeing the Seagram Every mark, every agitated, urgent murals that Rothko offered to the gesture of his hand matters. Except James Hugonin is an artist living Tate Gallery after withdrawing for Untitled 1969, owned by his son and working in Northumberland. 1969. Untitled National of 1969. GalleryGift the Washington. Mark of Art, Rothko from a commission by The Four Christopher, each of these last dark, His work can be seen in the Tate, Seasons restaurant in New York. I brownish-black and grey paintings Victoria and Albert Museum and in was both confused and enthralled on canvas and the acrylic works on private and public collections in the by what I saw. These paintings paper are contained by a very thin Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Foundation, Inc. 1986.43.164. © by Kate and 1998 Prizel Rothko Inc. Christopher Foundation, 1986.43.164. Rothko Mark Rothko: Mark Rothko: needed to be experienced, felt and white border. This stark framing the USA.

8 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 last words A valediction by George Fox

To all Friends’ Meetings everywhere Fox reminds Friends of the true of their organisations. Thus Quaker Source that encompasses us all Meetings, founded in the Spirit, This is for all the children of God, when we gather together. This have endured down the centuries, who are led by his spirit, and who exhortation to ‘centre’ on Jesus as accepting small changes while walk in his Light, in which they have our true Teacher is as valid today recovering from such excesses that life and unity, and fellowship with when many Meetings report a occur from time to time. the Father and the Son, and one diminishing of the Spirit in their This is the true ‘ground’ of with another. Meetings for Worship. all our Meetings: Local, Area, General and Yearly. For Quakers Thus starts the message from As for this spirit of rebellion to thrive through this century we George Fox read out at Yearly and opposition that has arisen must ensure that our decisions Meeting in 1691 following formerly and lately, and is not of are truly led by the Spirit and not his death. Written in his own the kingdom of God and heavenly by some form of corporate-style handwriting and sealed until his Jerusalem. It is for judgement and modernisation. death, this valedictory message condemnation, with all its writing, was later published by Thomas words and works. Therefore Friends Barry McGibbon Ellwood. It was then forgotten and are to walk in the power and spirit ignored until rediscovered by Hugh of God, that is over it, and in the Barry is a member of Dorset & McGregor Ross during his detailed seed that will bruise and break it to South Wiltshire AM. research on Fox’s papers. This work pieces. In which seed you have joy culminated in his new publication and peace with God, and power and Italic text is extracted from George George Fox – a Christian Mystic in authority to judge it. Your unity is Fox – A Christian Mystic by which the message appears in full. in the power and spirit of God, and Hugh McGregor Ross. The website does judge it. All God’s witnesses in www.george-fox.info has further Keep all your Meetings in the his tabernacle go out against it, and information. name of the lord Jesus, that be always have and will. gathered in his name by his light, grace, truth, power and spirit. By From down the centuries comes which you will feel his blessed and this timely reminder of the perils refreshing presence amongst you, of tension and division within any and in you, to your comfort and democratic organisation. When God’s glory. many members have strongly Now all Friends, all your held opinions the result is either Meetings, both men’s and woman’s, confusion and inaction or the monthly, quarterly and yearly, were adoption of the views of the set up by the power and spirit and strongest or loudest personalities. wisdom of God. In them you know Similar problems beset the early and you have felt his power, spirit, Quakers, who were only one of wisdom and blessed refreshing the tens of religious communities presence among you, and in you, and sects of that time. Only two to his praise and glory and your survived beyond the end of the comfort. So that you have been a seventeenth century: Quakers and city set on a hill, that cannot be Baptists. And the reason for their hid… survival was the nature and strength George Fox speaking.George ArtToday. Fox

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 9 Christmas crackers No jokes please, we’re Quakers! Who is the best Friend of them all? A Friends Meeting hosted an interfaith conference. During a break, the Meeting’s clerk fell to talking with a priest, a rabbi and an imam about the nature of God. Despite everyone’s good intentions, they soon began to argue: God was a trinity, contended the priest; oh no, the imam retorted, Allah is One; the rabbi nodded at this, but insisted the Most High was truly revealed in the Torah, not the Qur’an. And so it went, growing more heated with every exchange. The clerk sat mostly silent, wringing her hands and trying to remember the main points of the Alternatives to Violence workshop she’d attended the previous month. The argument was interrupted by a sudden thunderclap that shook the building and rattled an open window. As the four believers trembled in awe, a piece of paper blew through the window and floated to the table in front of them. The clerk cautiously picked it up and looked it over. ‘It’s a message’, she said, and began to read: ‘My children’, it began, ‘why do you wrangle over words? My glory and mystery surpass all your human imaginings and I love each of you equally. Now cease your senseless quarrels and get on with my work in your wonderful, needful world.’ The abashed clerics bowed their heads in prayer. After a moment, the clerk cleared her throat. ‘Um’, she added quietly, ‘it’s signed, “Thy Friend, God”’. More on best Friends No kidding When the family dog produced a the box were sent off in another A group of second world large litter of pups, mother and direction, towards a Quaker Meeting war conscientious objectors father decreed that one hound was house. This time, though, the sign (COs) was assigned to enough, and directed son Tommy on the box said ‘Quaker Puppies’. the Byberry State Mental to give the little ones away. A couple As he sat waiting for the Friends Hospital near Philadelphia. of Sundays later, Tommy showed up to emerge from the building, The COs lived at the outside a local church, which loudly an older woman walked by and hospital and were subject to advertised itself as firmly rooted stopped when she saw the sign. a wide range of government in literal biblical interpretation, ‘Young man’, she said, ‘didn’t I see regulations, under which they personal salvation you outside the Bible church last often chafed and grumbled. and sanctification. week?’ When the boy nodded, she With this in mind, one wag He was carrying said: ‘And didn’t your sign say then put up a banner outside their a cardboard box that they were Fundamentalist dormitory for the benefit of with a sign taped to Puppies?’ the patients, which read: ‘We one side that read Another nod. are as committed as you are’. ‘Fundamentalist ‘Well then,’ she exclaimed, Thanks to the late Bob Lyon. Puppies’. ‘how did they go from being When he came Fundamentalist to being Quakers in home there were one week, I wonder?’ Eye offers a special thanks still several pups The boy thought, then did his left. So the next best. ‘Well, ma’am,’ he answered, to Chuck Fager for helping Sunday, he and ‘now their eyes are open’. to gather these jokes.

10 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 Christmas crackers No jokes please, we’re Quakers! Putting a president Friends are advised in his place Chuck Fager, this issue’s resident jokesmith, admits that humour has not always had a good Quaker press. He’s been The story goes that Herbert Hoover could looking through some Faith & Practices and reflects on the be rather gruff in manner when he felt following: irritated. At one private White House dinner he became piqued when one of his guests, ‘It is not lawful to use… among other things comedies a Quaker, responded to his request for a among Christians, under the notion of recreations, which blessing by praying in a very low tone. do not agree with Christian silence, gravity and sobriety: The exasperated president finally for laughing, sporting, gaming, mocking, jesting, vain interrupted the prayer with a curt: ‘Louder, talking etc, is not Christian liberty, nor harmless mirth.’ Fred – I can’t hear!’ Robert Barclay, The Apology, 1676 Without looking up, the Quaker paused, then said distinctly: ‘Herbert Hoover, I was ‘This Meeting being sorrowfully affected, under a not talking to thee’. consideration of the hurtful tendency of reading plays, romances… and other pernicious books, it is earnestly recommended to every member of our society, to discourage and suppress the same.’ Time will tell Dublin Yearly Meeting, 1811 Historian J Travis Mills, in his book John ‘The wise man… is never captious, nor critical; hates Bright and the Quakers, recounts the story of banter and jests: he may be pleasant, but not light; he two Friends who paid a visit at the turn of never deals but in substantial wares, and leaves the rest the twentieth century to the speaker of the for the toy pates (or shops) of the world…’ US House of Representatives, Joe Cannon. William Penn, Fruits of Solitude They found ‘Uncle Joe’ sitting at his ease, ‘I felt thankful that I had been preserved from gross sins smoking a big black in… my youth, but I was convicted of much lightness and cigar, thumbs under his emptiness from having given way to the natural liveliness of armpits and feet on his my disposition.’ desk. ‘Did thee know’, Hannah Taylor, Journal said Cannon, ‘that I used to be a Quaker?’ ‘No, Mr speaker, I did The Friendly old west not.’ ‘Well, I was, and I A drunken cowboy charged into a frontier saloon one married out of the day, waving a gun and yelling: ‘All right, you mangy Meeting and I was visited by a delegation of varmints, clear out and give me some elbow room!’ Friends. They said to me: “Joseph, thee will All the customers fled except for one man wearing a have to come before a Meeting and say thee broad-brimmed hat. The cowboy sauntered over to his is sorry”. table and said ominously: ‘Maybe you didn’t hear me, ‘“I can’t do that just now”, I told them partner. I said for all the mangy varmints to clear out.’ “seeing I’ve been married only three days. The other looked up from his glass of milk and But if you will call again at the expiry of replied: ‘Yes, I heard thee, Friend. And I must say, there twelve months, mebbe I shall be better able certainly were a lot of them, weren’t there?’ to satisfy you.”’

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 11 Essay A Quaker appreciation of human nature David Yount says that humans are a little lower than the angels Are cats Christian?

The late English pundit Gilbert change human behaviour for the cannot blame a wild animal for Keith Chesterton holds the dubious good? acting beastly (that’s its nature), distinction of having produced the Human nature remains a but we do punish human beings shortest essay in history, consisting mystery because, when each of who act beastly. of but one word. us is born, we enter life with My wife and I are cat-lovers. But In the immediate aftermath neither a lifetime warranty nor a in my very first book, Growing in of the first world war, The Times book of instructions. You and I Faith, I argued that ‘Cats Are Not asked some of Britain’s greatest expect warranties and operating Christians’. Here’s what I wrote: thinkers to submit an essay to the instructions with every major ‘My family’s cats are object lessons newspaper appliance we purchase – but not in natural, amoral behavior, so let responding to with the offspring we produce and us examine them. Each has his or the question: raise. her own personality, to be sure, but ‘What’s Wrong When our own children were Rufus and Ginger are alike in being with the born, I went out and bought a creatures of instinct – which seems World?’ copy of child care instructions by to serve them well except for getting Chesterton paediatrician Benjamin Spock. The out of the way of moving vehicles. replied simply: good doctor suggested how we The cats sleep, eat, purr, lick ‘Me!’ parents should act and attempted themselves and hiss at our Scottish In personally to be reassuring, but he did not terrier. The younger cat, Rufus, also accepting the blame for the world’s really tell us what to expect. Indeed, hunts moles, frogs and baby birds evils, Chesterton was not implying each child, despite being raised and presents us proudly with his that others were faultless. Clearly, under roughly similar conditions carnage. Rufus is an affectionate pet there was plenty of blame to go and with similar expectations, has but he is no Christian.’ around for the violence, poverty, turned out to be very different That is to say, Rufus never has and distress of humankind that from each other. second thoughts. He does not continues to our day. What the A mother squirrel or bird, cat question what is expected of him pundit was criticising was the or dog, is spared this uncertainty. or ponder whether he has done human nature we all share. Her offspring, like herself, operate the right thing. In short, he has He acknowledged that he was from instinct. In this important instinct and affection, but no an accomplice in evil, most often respect, our Scottish terrier and conscience. By contrast, our dog passive and unwitting, of course, two cats are vastly more predictable has an artificial sense of shame but an accomplice nonetheless. than their owners. Whereas human that prompts her to crawl into a Good intentions do not suffice. beings spend vast amounts of dark bathroom when she has left Which prompts the questions: time pondering their identity something that we must clean are we at the mercy of our habits, and questioning their motives in off a carpet. But she, like the cats, impulses, passions and sloth? Can an attempt to ‘find themselves’, lacks an ethical sense; she is only we change human nature for the animals typically act without sensitive to our displeasure and

Photos: ArtToday better? Or, at the very least, can we taking thought. For that reason we prefers to punish herself before we

12 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 A Quaker appreciation of human nature David Yount says that humans are a little lower than the angels

think of something more drastic. Just in case you suspect that all be saved – never through our own It is men, women and children this talk about human nature is efforts alone. alone who agonise over whether idle speculation, the fact is that we As Martin Luther rudely depicted they have done the right thing. Quakers take a strong position on it, human nature is a dungheap According to human nature, the matter. unchanged by God’s grace, but what sort of animal is each Friends are inclined to think the only covered up as by snow. person? Good? Evil? Indifferent? best of everyone. At the same time Baptism is necessary as the sign Or all three depending on the we are equally prepared to fault that the burden of sin’s inheritance circumstances? Or is each one of ourselves and each other for our has been lifted. Confession and us morally unique? Finally, what shortcomings. Our Quaker legacy repentance of sin is necessary do we have a right to expect from recognises the power of evil to for the sinner to continue calling ourselves and one another? seduce us. on God’s grace. The Reformers’ In the Bible, the Psalmist speaks However, it was the genius of our argument with the Roman Church to God: ‘What is man that you early Quaker forebears to affirm was that Catholics were too easy on should care for him? You have the essential innocence of human themselves, acting as if they could made him a little less than the nature, dramatically breaking with help to achieve their own salvation angels, and crowned him with Christian tradition. Our founders with the aid of the sacraments, glory and honor. You have given argued that no baptism was needed ‘good works’ and borrowing from him rule over the work of your because each human was conceived the church as a repository of grace. hands, putting all things under innocent and capable of perfection George Fox, a century later, took his feet.’ That sounds pretty in this life. No sacraments were an entirely different tack. Baptism complimentary. required because God graces us at was unnecessary, he said, because Shakespeare’s prince Hamlet every moment in our lives. each person is graced at the borrowed from the Psalmist and People who are ignorant about moment of conception. To be sure, went even further in exalting Quakers tend to lump us in with we are each capable of evil, but it human nature: ‘What a piece of the Protestant reformers. They are is not our legacy. Rather, we are work is man! How noble in reason! mistaken. The original sixteenth innocent until proving ourselves How infinite in faculty! In form century reformers, among them guilty. Indeed, we are called to and moving how express and Martin Luther, John Calvin and perfection during our earthly lives admirable! In action how like an John Knox, concurred that every and, by following God’s leadings, angel! In apprehension how like a person bears the burden of original are capable of achieving it. god! The beauty of the world! The sin and is incapable by his or her David Yount is a syndicated paragon of animals!’ own efforts of accomplishing any columnist, TV commentator, and Still, in his very next sentence good. Human nature, they believed, author of thirteen books, among Hamlet dismisses all he has just was corrupt from the moment of them How the Quakers Invented affirmed. ‘Yet, to me,’ he complains, one’s conception in the womb. It America. He is a member of ‘what is this quintessence of dust’ was only through a total reliance Alexandria, Virginia, Monthly that is humanity? on God’s forgiveness that we could Meeting, USA.

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 13 Reflection Every day is a sacrament – or is it? Keith Minton takes a ‘Quaker’ view of the Christian year, especially with regard to Christmas

It hardly seems a year since a on the day especially, most of us are limits even to ideals. This may group of Quakers and attenders can at least try to be a little better, a sound cynical, but cynicism has its in Newcastle Friends Meeting little more caring and loving to our own truth and I would say let us House ‘made merry’ on Christmas family and our neighbours. spread our virtue over the whole Day 2007. After a thirty-minute Friends say, following the year but leave an extra helping for Meeting for Worship, we brought guidance of George Fox, the special days. That way we achieve in mince pies and coffee and founder of Quakerism, that if every at least something at some time, sang well-loved carols. It was day is a sacrament, Christmas, rather than feel we have failed to wonderful to have Friends together, Easter and the other religious live up to our ideals continuously. celebrating the greatest birthday in festivals should not be treated Christmas was celebrated by the Christian world, the birth of differently from any other day. To Newcastle Friends mid-December Jesus. set aside one particular day for with music and bells. And their I have long felt that Friends, celebration is unnecessary and, in Meeting House will also be open like all Christian groups, should the view of some Friends, unethical. for Meeting for Worship on 25 celebrate Christ’s birthday. It It gives too much importance to December. I am delighted about does not matter that we do not one day compared with the others, both and hope Friends as standard know exactly the date, or even if which should be all of equal value. practice will soon be celebrating it took place. Christ’s legacy is a Christmas everywhere on pattern of life, incomparable and Every day is a sacrament – Christmas Day. That way, as well unattainable; it is a true ideal and or is it? as Friends, lonely people who need in our age of practical cynicism This seems to me unrealistic. If the comfort of Christmas can share we could do with a few ideals. we took this approach logically, its happiness… I would like to wish To celebrate His birthday, real or we would not choose Sunday everyone a very Happy Christmas! mythical, can go a little way for us as a special day for Meeting for to give thanks for this gift from Worship, any day would do. And Keith is a member of Northumbria God, not for the person of Christ we would not have any of the AM. but for what He represented to us ‘celebrations’ that Friends then and should still now. openly enjoy. Almost every week Every day a sacrament? But where in Newcastle there is celebrated do Friends stand in this? Why is the birthday of someone, and it that Christmas Day is optional of course there are plenty of for many Quakers and for some funerals… even ‘wrong’? The materialistic and That every day is a sacrament debased treatment of Christmas is also an impossible ideal and is undeniable, especially by does not take into account our traders, many of whom do not humanity. It is hard to be even even profess to be Christian. But half as good as one would like however imperfect our celebration to be one day in the year. To of Christmas may be, there still be expected to be equally good remains that spark of light when, every day is impossible – there Photo: Trish Carn Trish Photo:

14 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 language Saluting a literary perfectionist

Stephen Taylor looks back at a lapsed Quaker pedant

James Logan Pearsall Smith, writer, where this eager Anglophile of National Biography, wrote: ‘He social observer and philologist, was took a degree at Balliol College, retained a large residue of Quaker born into a wealthy Philadelphia Oxford. His became a favourite of virtue; apart from occasional Quaker family on 18 October Balliol’s legendary vice chancellor divergences from commendable 1865. He was an Anglophile who Benjamin Jowitt while admiring conduct, he often performed acts spent most of his life in England, the exquisitely crafted prose of of thoughtful and unostentatious where he acquired a reputation as Walter Pater, one of the leaders of generosity’. a fastidious stylist and a passionate the Aesthetic Movement. Although he wrote an advocate of correctly used English. Logan’s first book, a volume autobiography and a scholarly His Quaker antecedents were of short stories entitled The study of John Milton, he is best notable. His paternal grandfather, Youth of Parnassus, owed much to known for three books, Trivia, John Jay Smith, editor and that master of the genre Guy de More Trivia and Afterthoughts. All librarian, traced his descent Maupassant. Meanwhile, his elder were notable for their perceptive – to William Penn’s secretary, sister married Bernard Berenson, and sometimes waspish – opinions James Logan. Both parents were the great art connoisseur, while his on a host of subjects and written in celebrated preachers and his younger sister Alys became the first the beautifully balanced sentences mother was a gifted writer. His wife of Bertrand Russell. A niece that became his life’s quest. father, Robert Pearsall Smith, was a married Virginia Woolf’s brother His independent income enabled partner in a glass-making business and another niece the brother of him to travel widely and pursue owned by John Mickle Whitall. writer Lytton Strachey. a literary life that was the envy of Robert married John’s daughter He followed his first book, which contemporary writers. But he was Hannah. High-minded, cultivated wasn’t commercially successful, no dilettante; he took his work and with a strong social conscience, with an admired biography of seriously and was rarely satisfied the Pearsall Smiths typified a Henry Wotton. But it was with with what he wrote. Gore Vidal Quaker family of that period. Walt his next two books, The English has spoken admiringly of the three Whitman was one of their friends Language and Words and Idioms, books on which his reputation and an early influence in kindling that Pearsall Smith signalled his depends. So too did Cyril Connolly, Logan’s interest in literature. lifelong passion for the English who for a time was Pearsall Smith’s Logan was educated at Penn language and what he considered secretary. Leonard Woolf, Virginia’s Charter School, Haverford College should be its correct usage. With husband, giving a dissenting view, and Harvard. After university, he the poet Robert Bridges, he thought his writing rather precious. spent a year working at the New launched the Society for Pure James Logan Pearsall Smith died York branch of the family firm, English, contributing many articles on 2 March 1946 aged eighty-one long enough to convince him that to its journal. In 1913 he became a at his Chelsea home. He never his career should be in literature naturalised British subject. married. Although his output was and not commerce. With no need Despite losing his faith, he small, it continues to give pleasure. of gainful employment as his remained strongly influenced by His reputation has retained its father had provided him with an Quaker ideals. Robert Gathorne lustre. independent income, Logan and Hardy, who contributed Pearsall Stephen Taylor is a member of his mother settled in England, Smith’s entry in the Dictionary Kingston & Wandsworth AM.

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 15 2008 highlights Inspiration and hope I was thinking back over this Gardens? The butterfly exhibit written by many young Quakers past year at what had moved at the Natural History Museum of all varieties of Quakerism me the most of the many – shimmeringly vibrant colours giving each person’s experience of events I have attended. I on tiny beings, encouraging our faith. The panel’s individual could say that I was extremely conservation of our planet, but… introductions about what they inspired by the Kaos Signing What about the wonderful hope to accomplish with this Choir that I saw and heard at the exhibition of American prints at book were really overwhelming. South Bank Centre at the end of the British Museum during the Coming from both programmed November. The choir consists of summer? It took a fascinating look and unprogrammed backgrounds, children from about five years old at the development of printmaking as well as a range of evangelical, to late teens, including both deaf and the use of light – wonderful. liberal and pastoral Quakerism, and hearing singers. Everyone in My visits to the Museum of the panel members had spent just the choir signs the words while Pottery and to several potteries a week together in the mountains they sing, thus teaching the around Greensboro, North of North Carolina. They had come children and the audience about Carolina, with the varieties of to respect each other and to realise inclusion. Inspiring, yes, but most shapes, colours and methods of that each person had something moving? No. making the pieces were again different to offer to the project. Then I thought about the marvellous. This simple evening discussion Tutankhamen exhibition at the O2 But, when it came down to with the panel’s enthusiasm and centre during the early part of the looking for the most moving and excitement truly was the most year. It was fascinating, historically uplifting evening I experienced exciting, inspiring and hopeful interesting and enjoyable, but not this year, it was a simple panel of event I attended this year, despite the most moving. nine young adult Quakers coming the wealth of other ‘cultural’ Well, what about the First together from four continents at exhibitions in museums and Emperor exhibition? It was the Quakers Uniting in Publications galleries, the music I heard and the impressive and I learned a lot annual meeting. Through the places I visited. It gave me faith about that period of Chinese support of many corporate and that our Society is in good hands history but… The Viking living individual donors, they are working for the future. history day? The visits to Kew together to bring out a book Trish Carn Games to live by Earlier this year I came across a to shun killing things or acquiring in an unguarded moment – can set game lurking at the back of my wealth and riches as an aim, the you back. computer. Like many computer mainstays of so many other titles. But Ultima IV is more than mere games, it has the kind of name Instead, the goal is to inspire the entertainment with a novel twist, (Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar) people of the land by becoming an because many of the good works no self-respecting film could ever embodiment of the game world’s can be repeated in the real world. get away with and, at first glance, eight virtues: honesty, compassion, In the game, as in reality, leading a ‘retro’ would be the kindest word valour, justice, sacrifice, honour, good life is something that happens you could say about it. Made in spirituality and humility, and slowly, incrementally, through 1985, it’s ancient in computer through them live a life that is small everyday actions. And while terms and even modern remakes truthful, loving and courageous. some aspects of the game have use only about 250 colours, You become more compassionate no real world parallel (how many compared to the millions utilised by giving to the poor, more honest people run into trolls every time in new games. The music consists by offering a fair price for the things they go into the woods?), many of a few electronic squeaks and is you buy, more just by refusing to of them do and I am challenged better turned off. The whole thing attack non-evil creatures and so on. by the actions of my in-game would probably have been long As you progress through the game, character to be a better person. My forgotten were it not for one thing: it becomes ever more important to life may not imitate this art, but it’s brilliant. uphold the virtues and even a small I’m working on it. The genius idea of the game was slip – such as a proud boast made Oliver Robertson

16 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 From art shocker to human being This was the year that I stopped disapproving of and started loving Tracey Emin. Visiting Edinburgh one day and curious, I dropped into her twenty-year retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. There indeed was the horrid bed with all the detritus cluttered about it, encouraging prurience from the crowd, but the rest of the show revealed a simplicity of emotional honesty and compassion that was breathtaking. There were the confessional, handwritten letters giving an Exploration of the Soul, complete with spelling mistakes, which tore at the heart; the appliqué blanket work with stark messages (did you know Tracey Emin embroidered?), which gave a whole new dimension to folk art. There were the installations dwelling on domestic themes, like the garden birdhouse with a DVD inside of her father, and the video of a conversation between Tracey and her mum, which had the enfant terrible leaning on the kitchen table attempting to persuade mother that children were not such a bad thing. ‘We turned out all right, didn’t we?’, she asks a sceptical parent. This was strangely touching, knowing as we do of Emin’s own abortion, detailed elsewhere in the collection. But the item in this multimedia collection that really caused me, finally, to fall in love with this much-misunderstood artist was the video of Tracey dancing superbly to the beat of the Sylvester hit ‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real’. This was a gift to all the boys in her youth who gave her a bad name. I watched it six times. Don’t ask ‘is it art?’ When you are completely captivated, it certainly is. Tracy Emin at the Lighthouse Tracy Gala auction in aid of Photo: Allardyce CC/BY Paul Trust. Higgins Terrence Judy Kirby Kelvingrove gets it right ‘Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.’ The truth of this old adage struck me forcibly as I reeled out of Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. As a museum education person (not a very elegant expression, but I can’t bear ‘educator’), I have long advocated more interpretive material in museums and art galleries – what an American friend calls ‘didactics’. Kelvingrove is a massive Victorian edifice with global collections. When it reopened in summer 2006 after a three-year refurbishment, it became clear that its curators had subjected their objects to a once-in-a-lifetime reappraisal. Why are they there? What do they say? Who might be interested in them and what would they need to know? They’d then set about creating displays that both encouraged their visitors to ask such questions and started to provide answers. Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age – how could such a tiny country support so many world-class artists? Cue: model of a Dutch galleon and examples of imported Chinese ceramics. French Impressionists – how did Pissarro and the rest construct their vivid Parisian street scenes? Cue: a selection of children’s building blocks at floor level in front of the painting. Italian Renaissance – what do those symbols actually mean? Cue: audiovisual presentation of a St Laurence panel, which demonstrates how to put someone to death on a gridiron. It was about this point that admiration gave way to total exhaustion. The new Kelvingrove is not without its detractors – cries of ‘dumbing down’ and

‘too child-centred’ abound, and not just in the scholarly community. Nor have all its objects benefited from the treatment – its single most famous painting, Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross, unaccountably languishes at the end of a dark landing, with its sightlines marred by an obtrusive heating grill. But overall this is definitely my museum visit of the year – and I shall go on wishing that other museums learn some lessons from it. © Culture and Sport, Glasgow Rowena Loverance Artist: Sophie Cave

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 17 Ad pages 19 Dec 15/12/08 22:37 Page 2

Raymond and Mary Abbotson send Plain Quakers thank all Friends their loving greetings to all with who made our autumn tour such whom they have shared in fellow- a success. Thanks for arranging ship and worship throughout performances and finding Britain Yearly Meeting. They are grateful audiences, and for generous hospitality. for all the kindness they have received. To all who joined us to reflect On Human Folly, warmest greetings from To Friends everywhere, including Arthur and Mike. St Albans and especially Winchmore Hill Meeting for their help this year, and also Quaker Concern for Animals wishes a to Heather Hawkins of Derby Meeting, Lewis Edwards sends warmest Christmas happy, peaceful and compassionate from John Arnison of Carlton Hill LM. greetings to all his friends, with many Christmas to all. To join QCA, see happy memories. www.quaker-animals.org.uk or contact Love and best wishes to Friends every- Marian at [email protected] where for a happy and peaceful Jill and David Firth wish a year of hope or 0151 677 7680. Christmas and 2009. Jane (Constance) to all Friends and blessings on the Friend Brown 26 Redvers House, Union Road, and all who sail in her. Quaker Quest Network in seasonal Crediton EX17 3AW. mode, joins all QQs throughout BYM FWCC is especially grateful for Friends’ celebrating their 2008 adventures, with Margaret Burch sends cheerful and lov- generosity to Kenya Peace Teams and high hopes that Meetings not yet part of ing greetings to Friends in Staffordshire Friends House Georgia during 2008. the movement, will dare to seize the Area Meeting, Banbury & Evesham Area Your support for this peace work and opportunities to share truth with the Meeting and Berks & Oxon Regional FWCC’s work to keep us connected world in 2009. Meeting, and to all others who know her. makes a difference! Best wishes to all in Abbeyfield House, The Hawthorns, 2009. In the Spirit of the holydays, Nancy Farrand and Laura Radley wish all Banbury OX16 9FA. 01295 269510. Irving, Harry Albright, Cathy Rowlands, Friends we know, especially at Hammersmith Meeting, the merriest of Roland and Trish Carn wish all their Kim Bond, Brian Odell - World Office staff and volunteer. Christmases and the brightest of New friends around the country a very happy Years. Christmas and a peaceful New Year. Grainger & Platt, Chartered Certified 56 Alexandra Grove, London N12 8HG. Accountants of Carlisle, wish all our Donald & Gillian Robertson send loving greetings to all our Friends from our Christmas and New Year Greetings to clients, past, present and future a Peaceful Christmas and Exciting New new home at 6 Lodge Gardens, my Friends everywhere, especially in Harpenden AL5 4JE. We hope to meet Norfolk, Bath and Kendal. Memories are Year. Richard Platt 01228 521286. Email: [email protected] many of you again during 2009 - if not truly precious. Vicky Carter, Grandy here then perhaps at Woodbrooke or York? Nook Cottage, Kendal LA9 4NZ. www.grainger-platt.co.uk Having just returned from two weeks Best wishes for 2009, love Jez and Laurel. Le Centre Quaker de Congenies souhaite (re)discovering Sri Lanka, where Ann de joyeuses fetes de fin d’annee a tous ses Warm Greetings to all readers of was born, the Strausses’ Seasonal visiteurs passes, presents et a venir. the Friend from Marisa Johnson, Greetings missives will be a little later Francoise, Libby et al. 00 334 66 71 46 41 Secretary of Europe and Middle East this year than usual, but rest assured that www.maison-quaker-congenies.org Section of FWCC, and member of you will be in our thoughts and prayers. Cambridgeshire Area Meeting. Magda Cross sends loving Christmas Walk cheerfully and leave your car greetings to her Friends everywhere, Mary Jones of Inverness Meeting, living behind this Christmas. Greetings from especially those in Exeter, Dundee and in Mull Hall Care Home, Barbaraville, James Taylor & Son,bespoke shoemakers the Quaker Women’s Group. Ross-shire, now 96 and with a new pace- since 1857. 4 Paddington Street, London John and Mal Derricott send Christmas maker, sends loving greetings to all ‘Old W1U 5QE. Tel. 020 7935 4149. greetings and wishes for a happy and F/friends.’ Good soles all. peaceful New Year to all our F/friends at To all my F/friends everywhere. Greetings Pip (Phyllis) Turner sends greetings to Shaftesbury, Poole, Bewdley and in at Christmas and best wishes for 2009. As Friends in Wolverhampton and Penn America, and many others we have met you have enriched my life, so I pray I Meetings, Staffordshire and Central along the way. may have helped you. With love from England Area Meetings, and to all my David and Helen Edwards send warmest Elmay Kirkpatrick, 9 Mount Haviland, friends scattered around the country. Christmas greetings from the heart of Lansdown Lane, Bath BA1 4NB. 1 Woodlands Paddock, 434 Penn Road, Wolverhampton WV4 4DY. Somerset to all F(f)riends we have made Doris Lee sends loving Christmas over the last 20 years. Email: greetings to all F/friends everywhere, Jack Unite of Wincanton Meeting sends [email protected] especially to all at Westminster Meeting. his (and Marjorie’s) loving Christmas David Edwards Insurance Brokers sends Still at the same address. greetings to all our Quaker friends and Spicelanders still here, and, ahead, may warm Christmas and New Year greetings Joyful greetings to all - what a world to the wonderful experiences we’ve shared to our many Quaker clients. We are bring us to, O’ F/friends. Let us build the enable us to spread divine hope in these delighted to serve many church and world anew in 2009 - not trite but sense. charity groups and thank you for your Strengthen our faith this Christmastide troublous times. support. David Edwards 01564 782400, with greater love, hope, joys, and caring Christmas Greetings are continued [email protected] for all, from Orion. on the next page. Ad pages 19 Dec 15/12/08 22:37 Page 3

Friends&Meetings Jeff LEMON 13 December. Suddenly at home. Brother of Eunice Lemon. Diary Former Attender at Wanstead Meeting. Enquiries Eunice 01483 CHRISTMAS DAY MfW AT 578991. [email protected] WIMBLEDON LM Christmas Day Meeting for Worship 10.30-11am at Elizabeth WATERFIELD Wimbledon FMH, 40 Spencer Hill Rd, Beatrice Watson now at 7 Church SW19 4EL. All welcome. Road, Dartmouth TQ6 9HQ, sends 7 December. Wife of Kenneth greetings for Christmas and the New (deceased), mother of Lisa and Year to my many friends. Peace and Hilary, grandmother of Christopher, DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO blessings. Susannah, Sophie, Lucy, Matthew, FOR NEW YEAR? Why not take a Luke and Hester, greatgrandmother spiritual focus and come on the Elspeth Wollen sends warmest good retreat in Bath, 29 Dec. - 2 Jan. wishes for Christmas to all the of James and Alea. Aged 80. Friends she’s met and known at Memorial Meeting Streatham FMH, Contact Emma on 01225446972 or Woodbrooke and other Quaker 11am Saturday 3 January. Enquiries visit www.ei-bath.info gatherings. Looking forward to Hilary 07891 561683. many reunions in York next summer. LONDON QUAKER LESBIAN AND GAY FELLOWSHIP meet on Woodbrooke staff, volunteers and Alterations to trustees send Christmas greetings to the second Saturday of each month all readers of the Friend.We hope to meeting from 5 - 7pm at Westminster Friends see many faces, familiar and new, in Meeting House, 52 St. Martin's Lane, the coming year. May it bring you WC2 (Hop Gardens side entrance). contentment. BURNHAM-ON-SEA LM From Tea, MfW and discussion. Sunday 4 January 2009 MfW will only be held on the first Sunday of NEW JORDANS CHALLENGES the month. Other details unchanged. FOR OUR TIME Lecture Series. Births Please ring the Correspondent on 7.30pm Thursday 15 January. 01278 78883 for last minute changes. Michael Bartlet & Laurel Townend Elspeth (Elsie) Caldecott MILES will speak on Quakers and Human 3 December, a daughter for Gaby RATCLIFF LM From Sunday Rights. Tickets £10 from Janet May- Caldecott and Barney Miles, grand- 4 January 2009 MfW will start at Bowles on 01494 876594 or daughter for Cressida Miles and 10.30am (11am until then). See [email protected] great granddaughter for Carol Shaw www.londonquakers.org/ratcliff or www.jordans-quakers.org.uk of Ealing Meeting. call our clerk on 020 8986 5510 for directions. A warm welcome to all OUTDOOR MEETING FOR our visitors in 2009. WORSHIP Speakers Corner, Marble Deaths Arch,London. Sunday 28 December, Changes of clerk 2-2.45pm, and on the last Sunday of each month in 2008. Come and Tony BEAMISH 11 December. join Westminster Quakers! Details Husband of Theo, father of Sally CHILTERNS AM From 1 January, from: Jez Smith, 0798 007 2003. (Glasgow LM), Oliver and Chris- Clerk: Rodney Houghton, 34 topher, son of the late Lucia Beamish. Hundred Acres Lane, Amersham, Member of Worthing Meeting. Aged Bucks HP7 9EA. Tel. 01494 728915. RAF FYLINGDALES MEETING 83. Worthing crematorium Friday [email protected] FOR WORSHIP 19 December 1.20pm, Worthing Saturday 3 January, 12 noon - 1pm FMH 2.15pm. under the care of Pickering and GARSTANG LM From 1 January, Hull AM. Followed by picnic at Co-clerks: Tricia Clark and John Pickering FMH. Contact 01751 Hugh FLATT 7 December. After May. Correspondence to: 432416 or 01751 472827. short stay in hospital. Member of 32 Greenacres Dr, Garstang PR3 1RQ. Email: [email protected] Wellington Meeting, Somerset. Aged THE SHEPHERDS PLAY Traditional 91. A Memorial Meeting will be nativity from Oberufer. Meeting held Saturday 31 January at NORTH CUMBRIA AM (formerly members will perform the play as a Wellington Quaker Meeting House, Carlisle & Holm MM) Clerk: Jo gift to the children and community. 2.30pm. Enquiries Jane Ruell 01984 Kirke, 9 Lowry Hills Road, Carlisle Sunday 21 December, 10.30 Meeting, 624898. CA3 8JJ. [email protected] 12.30 Christmas Shared Lunch, 2.30 Play. Walthamstow FMH. 020 8926 For details of how to place a notice on this page, see p. 23 7853. www.londonquakers.org

the Friend 19-26 December 2008 19 A Christmas Quiz

Quaker quiz: John, Paul, George… and Richard All these well-known Quakers have one of the first names above. They are arranged according to the century in which they lived the greater part of their lives. Some are still alive! Can you identify them? (Apologies to the feminists: next time Eye’ll do Elizabeth, Margaret and Joan – maybe.)

Seventeenth century 8. Chocolate manufacturer who built a village. 1. Founder and hat honour refusnik. 9. Poet and hymn-writer. 2. Political economist, educational theorist and visionary. Twentieth century 3. This seeker after truth was first an Anglican rector, 10. Disgraced president. then a Baptist, finally a Quaker. 11. Funny actor. 12. ‘Quanglican’ cleric and peacebuilder. Eighteenth century 13. His writings on Quakerism are often given to 4. Kindly and tireless campaigner against cruelty and enquirers. slavery. 14. Specialist in conflict resolution and reconciliation. 5. Prison reformer. 15. Missionary in India, writer and Woodbrooker. 16. Co-founder of Child Poverty Action Group. Nineteenth century 17. Biblical scholar whose name sounds a bit like a 6. MP who opposed capital punishment. lesser prize or a blue-footed bird. 7. Theologian with a German middle name and a chocolate connection.

More Quaker questions 10. Where is Willam Penn buried? Publications Ltd? (without help…) 11. Which is the nearest Quaker 19. Which department at Friends 1. Who was the first Quaker MP? Meeting to Fenny Drayton, House publishes Quaker News? 2. Who was the second? where George Fox was born? 20. Which department publishes 3. Name four Quaker scientists 12. Which Quaker Meeting is Quaker monthly? and their areas of expertise. furthest from Fenny Drayton? 4. Which Quaker drained St 13. Where is George Fox buried? Petersburg’s marshes? 14. How many countries in Europe 5. Which Quaker suggested a and the Middle East have nationalised health service? Quakers in them? 6a. Which Quaker was the child 15. British Quakers started of the author of Tom Brown’s supporting EAPPI in 2002. Schooldays? How many BYM-supported History: b. What was he/she famous for? peaceworkers have gone out to 1. What was the name of 7. Which Quaker doctor became Palestine-Israel since then? the Indian ruler who an MP from south London? 16. In which city is the newest commissioned the Taj Mahal? 8. How many children did worship group in Europe and 2. In which year did Russia Margaret Fell have? Middle East Section? emancipate its serfs? 9. Where was the first purpose- 17. How many countries in Africa 3a. Who was the last reigning built Meeting house that has have Quakers in? English monarch to take been in continuous use from 18. Which are the only two command in battle? its being built to the present? publications of the Friend 3b. And for a bonus point, what

20 the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 was the battle? Religion (general) 4. Who was the seventh-century Anglo-Saxon king 1. What is the name of the leader of Tibetan of Northumbria who restored Christianity in his Buddhism? kingdom? 2. What was the religious sect that believed 5. Which London area where Edward III kept humans have a lifelong choice between light hunting hounds is now best known for its and darkness, body and soul and good and evil? newspaper industry connection? 3. Name the breakaway Anglican grouping that held 6. Who was the French emperor, nicknamed ‘The its founding conference in Jerusalem in June. Corsican’ after his birthplace, who died in exile on 4. In which Hindu festival do people throw coloured St Helena? powder at each other? 7. Which religious movement favoured by Charles 5. In which Muslim festival do worshippers throw I was opposed to Calvinism and aroused great rocks at the devil? hostility for advocating obedience to royal power 6. What is unusual about the eleventh Sikh guru? prior to the English civil war? 7. What does the word Apochrypha mean? 8. Which battle, in June 1645, marked the defeat of Charles I in the English civil war? 9. Which public school was founded by Henry VI in 1440? 10. Which eighteenth-century French philosopher wrote ‘Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains’? And for a bonus – what was the name of his most famous work of non-fiction? Arts 11. Name the youngest daughter of czar Nicholas II 1. Which writer, who began his career as a policeman killed with other members of her family in 1918. in Burma, now gives his name to an annual award 12. In which castle was Mary, queen of Scots executed for political writing? in 1587? 2. In which book and musical does the eponymous 13. Which English prelate and statesman dominated hero eventually reject both optimism and the early reign of Henry VIII? pessimism in favour of making his garden grow? 14. What nationality was Marie Antoinette? 3. Which note on the piano keyboard has only two names (not three)? 4. Which musical instrument has the largest range? 5. Who invented musical notation? 6. Which Pulitzer prize-winning novel takes the form of a letter from an aging father to his young son? 7. In Arthurian romance, which position did Medicine and Science Arthur’s brother Kay hold in Arthur’s court? 1a. Whose theory clashed with the church’s view of 8. Name the two main horses in Michael Morpurgo’s the earth being at the centre of the universe? War Horse. b. Who backed him up? 9. Who said: ‘People who look for symbolic 2. Who said that matter can be subdivided endlessly meanings fail to grasp the inherent poetry and but the soul cannot be divided, even once? mystery of the image… The images must be seen 3. Who was the professor of social history and such as they are’? medicine who collapsed and died while cycling to 10. Which British painter worked on camouflage for his allotment in 2002? royal navy ships in the first world war? 4. What was the drug that conquered TB? 11. Which writer and airline pilot disappeared over 5. Which psychotropic drug emptied locked wards in the Mediterranean in 1944, never to be seen again? hospitals for the mentally ill? 12. Which satirist and confidant of ministers in 6. Which physiologist was so furious that his Queen Anne’s government can be regarded as one research assistant had been overlooked that he of the first ‘spin doctors’? shared his Nobel Prize with him? 7. Which nation was first to pass legislation regulating animal experimentation? Thanks to those who helped formulate the questions: Ron 8. What was the name of the first recipient of a Kentish, Annette White and the staff of the Friend. heart transplant? 9. How many lobes does a human brain have? Answers will appear in the 2 January issue.

the Friend, 19-26 December 2008 21 Ad pages 19 Dec 15/12/08 22:18 Page 4

Classified advertisements 54a Main St, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL T&F: 01535 630230 E: [email protected] NEW VAT Classified ads in RATE EDINBURGH. City centre accommodation job vacancies at Emmaus House. Tel. 0131 228 1066. The Friend www.emmaushouse-edinburgh.co.uk Standard linage 47p a word, semi- Email: [email protected] display 72p a word. Rates incl. vat. RESIDENT FRIENDS Min. 12 words. Series discounts 5% (Two posts) required for LONDON: B&B IN CENTRAL, quiet com- on 5 insertions, 10% on 10 or Lincoln and Spalding Meetings fortable family homes. Double £25 pppn. more. Cheques to The Friend. Single £36 pn. Children’s reductions. 10 hours service per week in early 020 7385 4904. www.thewaytostay.co.uk Ad Dept, 54a Main Street mornings and evenings in return for Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL rent free accommodation in adjoining flat. WARM, FRIENDLY NEWCASTLE B&B T&F: 01535 630230 Ideally starting in May. Jesmond. Quiet, adjacent Metro/city. E: [email protected] Duration of post negotiable. Veggies welcome. 0191 285 4155. For details contact Andrew James, 38 Northgate SWARTHMOOR HALL. 1652 Country, Newark NG24 1EZ SELF-CATERING HOLIDAYS South Lakeland. Flexible quality accom- [email protected] modation sleeping maximum 16. Fully 01636 642803 daytime catered, self-catered or B&B for groups 1652 COUNTRY, HOWGILL, SEDBERGH. and individuals. Retreats, pilgrimages and 01949 20512 evenings Comfortable 4 star holiday cottages in Closing date 9 January. holidays. Maps for cycling and walking. Yorkshire Dales National Park overlooking Details 01229 583204. Firbank Fell. Walks and Quaker trails from the door. 30 minutes to Lake District. THE QUAKER UNITED NATIONS OFFICE, TRANQUIL NORFOLK VILLAGE, www.AshHiningFarm.co.uk New York invites applications for its near Blakeney. Delightful artist’s cottage, Jim Mattinson 015396 20957. 2009-10 internship program. The intern- accommodates 5+. Sunny orchard ship provides an opportunity for candidates gardens. Bird watching, sailing, walking. with an interest in international affairs, BEAUTIFUL, RUGGED PEMBROKESHIRE. Available all year. Tel. 01382 275395 and a commitment to Friends’ principles, Two eco-friendly, recently converted www.thornage.com to work at the UN. Further information barns on smallholding. Each sleeps 4. and applications are available online Coastal path 2 miles. 01348 891286. WEST CORNWALL. Studio flat, sleeps 2. www.quno.org. Deadline for submission [email protected] Near south coast. Walking. Beautiful of applications and references: 6 February www.stonescottages.co.uk beaches. Contact 01736 799170. 2009. [email protected] CROMER. First floor apartment over- THINKING OF RECRUITING A WARDEN looking sea. Sleeps 4. Ideal for exploring or Resident Friend? Contact Quaker Life the North Norfolk coast. Price? What you OVERSEAS HOLIDAYS for friendly, helpful advice. Richard can pay! Call 07867 955336 or email [email protected] Summers 020 7663 1096. CENTRE QUAKER de CONGENIES, near [email protected] Nimes. Not only attractive bedrooms COTSWOLDS. Winter/Spring vacancies (self-catering) and garden in tranquil still available. Spacious barn conversion in village, but also the new programme, where to stay Charlbury. Sleeps 2+. Convenient Oxford, "1788 Country" or music at Christmas. Stratford. Tel. 01608 811558 or email See www.maison-quaker-congenies.org HOTELS, GUESTHOUSES, B+BS [email protected] +334 66 71 46 41.

HIGH CHAPEL HOUSE, RAVENSTONEDALE, ISLE OF HARRIS. Simple, peaceful, SOUTH WEST FRANCE. 2 houses; 1 Cumbria. www.highchapelhouse.com open-plan cottage, sleeps 1-4. Beautiful sleeps 4/5, the other 6/7, sharing large Peaceful, rural B&B in stunning walking situation. £110-375pw. www.4cliasmol.net garden and swimming pool, in peaceful country. Yelly 015396 23411. Cookery days 01859 560250 or rural setting. Beautiful views. Each also available: www.cookincumbria.com [email protected] comfortably furnished and well equipped. May be rented together or separately; High season: (July-August) £500- A QUAKER BASE IN ORKNEY, WEST MANSE, WESTRAY. £600pw. Less in low season; longer lets Dramatic seas and skys outside: peace, welcomed. Contact: 01235 200537. CENTRAL LONDON security and friendship inside. Self catering [email protected] cottage, and rooms. 01857 677482 Central, quiet location, www.millwestray.com convenient for Friends House, TUSCANY, CAMPIGLIA MARITTIMA. British Museum and transport. Garden apartment, medieval village. Comfortable rooms tastefully RUGGED SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS Loch 15 min. Populonia, Etruscan Archaeological Park. Near coast overlooking Elba. furnished, many en-suite. Torridon. Comfortable house. Log fire. 1 hour south Pisa. Sleeps 2-4. Full English breakfast. Panoramic mountain views. £275 (inclusive). [email protected] Discount for Sufferings and Brochure: 07818 082897. [email protected] Club members. WEST ALGARVE (NATIONAL PARK). 21 Bedford Place SUFFOLK COAST, WALBERSWICK. Attractive country house. Unspoilt coastal London WC1B 5JJ Self-contained annex. Sleeps 2/3. £100- village. Accommodates 4-10. Pool, Tel. 020 7636 4718 175pw depending on season. gardens, bird watching, walking, secluded [email protected] Not available during school holidays. beaches. Tel. 01832 275395. The Penn Club www.pennclub.co.uk Tel. 01502 723914. www.vilad.com

22 the Friend 19-26 December 2008 Ad pages 19 Dec 15/12/08 22:18 Page 5

to let study tours investing

NEAR HAMPSTEAD HEATH. i.e ethically ltd Single room AFRICAN SUMMER WORKCAMPS 2009. to let in flat, £550 a month inclusive. AGLI - The African Great Lakes Initiative working with you to plan a secure financial future Good transport. Zone 2. Must like cats. of Friends Peace Teams is sponsoring without exploitation, repression or pollution 020 7485 7649. intergenerational workcamps in Burundi, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda June 24 - New baby in the family? July 25. Workcampers assist building or room wanted repairing clinics, schools, peace centers - Ask us about an no skills required. Open to all ages. Ethical Child Trust Fund! Details at http://www.aglionline.org or FINSBURY PARK/ISLINGTON. Room contact [email protected]. Telephone: 01603 30 90 20 required with kitchen/bathroom access, £100pw max. inclusive, for woman carer [email protected] of disabled Quaker. Alec 020 7226 5448. QUAKER BOLIVIA TRIP 13-27 June 2009. Authorised and regulated by the Study Tour and Community Service. Visit Financial Services Authority. projects of qbl.org and bqef.org. Work Member of the Quakers and Business Network with villagers on Quaker funded projects. Friends & Meeting notices, Meet leaders of civic reform. Hike Inca FRIENDS FELLOWSHIP OF HEALING usually on page 17 ruins, Lake Titicaca. Optional Peru-Machu Restoring the Quaker tradition of healing. Births, marriages, deaths, anniver- Picchu or volunteer service. Reserve early. www.quaker-healing.org.uk www.TreasuresoftheAndes.com saries, changes of clerk, new wardens, (001) 707 823 6034 (California). changes of address, diary items, LEISURE LEARNERS. This website started etc., should preferably be prepaid. by a Quaker fills the gap left by Personal entries £15.40 incl. vat, restrictions on government funding for Meeting and charity entries £13.40 miscellaneous adult recreational learning. Free (zero rated for vat). Max. 35 words. Membership/Students. Free Trial/Tutors. 3 Diary entries £35 (£30.63). Add EFFICIENT LIGHTING. Change your light www.leisurelearner.com £1.70 to receive a copy of the issue bulbs and fittings. Save money and the NB amended web address. with your notice. planet. Less maintenance. Bright, long- lasting lights, all shapes and sizes, indoors Entries are accepted at the editor’s LOVE TO SING and improve your health? and out. For Meeting Houses, homes and Try visiting www.classicalvoiceteacher.com discretion in a standard house style. offices. www.efficientlight.co.uk A gentle discipline will be exerted to 0800 043 8893. maintain a simplicity of style and WALK CHEERING OTHERS UP this wording which excludes terms of Christmas in shoes from James Taylor & Son, endearment and words of tribute. FLY FROM STANSTED. Leave your car Bespoke shoemakers, 4 Paddington Street, with a Friend. Free transport. Reasonable (near Baker Street), London W1U 5QE. Please include a daytime phone rates. 01279 870407. number. Deadline usually Monday Telephone. 020 7935 4149. am. Cheques payable to The Friend. www.taylormadeshoes.co.uk The Friend, 54a Main Street, JULIAN OF NORWICH Beautiful silver Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL. pendants and brooches, made to raise Christmas & New Year greetings funds for The Julian Centre, Norwich. Tel. 01535 630230. to all our advertisers, and to all Email: [email protected] Wonderful gift. Tel. 01603 767380. www.FriendsofJulian.org.uk those who reply to them!

1 copy £15 Just Me by Sheila Hancock 5 copies £60 Sheila Hancock ‘lives adventurously’ in this moving, honest and charming account of her incl. UK p&p life after the death of husband John Thaw. (rrp £18.99 each) In this latest chapter of her life she faces down burglars and EasyJet staff, makes friends with waiters and taxi drivers, unearths secrets in Budapest and gets arrested in Thailand. Just Me is a book about moving on, but it is also about looking back, and looking anew. Honest, insightful and wonderfully down-to-earth this is the story of a woman seizing the future with wit, gusto and curiosity.

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the Friend 19-26 December 2008 23 Ad pages 19 Dec 15/12/08 22:11 Page 6 vol ADVERTISEMENT DEPT EDITORIAL 166 54a Main Street 173 Euston Road Cononley, Keighley London NW1 2BJ BD20 8LL T 020 7663 1010 No

T&F01535 630 230 F 020 7663 11-82 51 E [email protected] the Friend E [email protected] Ramallah Friends School says Thank you

Dear Friends

Your continued kindness and generosity gives us great encouragement and has been instrumental in making it possible for nearly two hundred Christian and Muslim children, from ninety-two families who see the future together, to join our Quaker School.

Despite all the challenges we face, with you we are working towards our goal that no child should be denied a place at Ramallah Friends School because of a lack of money. Thank you.

All of us at Ramallah Friends School wish you a Happy and Peaceful New Year. Joyce Ajlouny Director