Quaker Schools in Kenya the Friend Independent Quaker Journalism Since 1843
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2 September 2011 £1.70 the DISCOVER THE CONTEMPORARYFriend QUAKER WAY Quaker Schools in Kenya the Friend INDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843 COntents VOL 169 NO 35 The Quaker understanding of concern 3 Religious groups lead the way on ‘green’ challenges Throughout the history of the Religious Society of Friends we have recognised that 4 Gordon Barclay Vietnam Fund to anyone may come, at any time, a special laid down inward calling to carry out a particular 5 The Quaker memorial service. It is characterised by a feeling of having been directly called by God and by Anthony Wilson an imperative to act. 6-7 Exploding the myth of money The ministry which has been carried out creation by the banks ‘under concern’ is a remarkable record of John Schmid strength and perseverance in adversity. 8-9 Letters Many speak of the peace that came to them with the certainty that they were 10-12 Developing Friends schools in Kenya working with God. Recognising concern has Roger Sturge and John Welton also placed an obligation on the meeting which tests and supports it. Friends have 13 The reflective mindset on occasion been released from financial David Boulton considerations and in some cases their 14 What do nontheists not believe in? families have been cared for whilst they carried out the service required of them. Dorothy Searle 15 Poem: Oblivion A concern may arise unexpectedly out of an interest or may creep up on one out of Hugo Finley worshipful search for the way forward. It may 16 Q-eye be in line with current desires and projects or it may cut across them; it may lead to action 17 Friends & Meetings which is similar to that undertaken by others Cover image: or it may require a brave striking out into the Children at Kikai Friends Primary School. unknown. Photo: Roger Sturge. Quaker faith & practice 13.02 See pages 10-12. The Friend Subscriptions Advertising Editorial UK £76 per year by all payment Advertisement manager: Editor: types including annual direct debit; George Penaluna Ian Kirk-Smith monthly payment by direct debit £6.50; online only £48 per year. Articles, images, correspondence For details of other rates, Tel/fax: 01535 630230 should be emailed to contact Penny Dunn on [email protected] [email protected] 020 7663 1178 or [email protected] www.thefriend.org/advertise.asp or sent to the address below. the Friend 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ Tel: 020 7663 1010 Fax: 020 7663 1182 www.thefriend.org Editor: Ian Kirk-Smith [email protected] • Sub-editor: Trish Carn [email protected] • Production editor: Elinor Smallman production@ thefriend.org • News reporter: Symon Hill [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 • ISSN: 0016-1268 The Friend Publications Limited is a registered charity, number 211649 • Printed by Headley Bros Ltd, Queens Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 8HH 2 the Friend, 2 September 2011 News Religious groups lead the way on ‘green’ challenges Britain’s Baptists look set to be the first religious group For others, the buildings are homes as well as in the UK to use solar-powered electricity at their places of worship. Nuns at a Benedictine convent near national headquarters. They have begun to install Helmsley in North Yorkshire use a woodchip boiler nearly two hundred solar panels at Baptist House, fuelled by locally sourced trees and collect rainwater to based in Didcot. The arrival of the panels marks the flush the toilets. latest step in an increasing trend for ‘green’ adaptations Meanwhile, visitors to the Vatican can now see to churches, mosques and other religious buildings. solar panels on the roof of a building used for papal Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), the formal audiences with pilgrims. organisation of British Quakers, recently committed Pam Lunn of the Woodbrooke Quaker Study themselves to introducing solar panels and energy- Centre, who focused on sustainability in this year’s efficient lighting at Friends House in London (see Swarthmore Lecture, said she was ‘delighted’ by the ‘Proposed “green” refurbishment at Friends House’, the Baptists’ decision. She explained: ‘It’s excellent witness Friend, 22 July). – quite literally, everyone can see religious groups Richard Nicholls, general manager of the Baptist putting their money where their mouth is’. Union of Great Britain (BUGB), said that the decision Such changes often have spiritual motivations. St to fit solar panels arose from a commitment to Mark’s Anglican Church in Sheffield will fit solar ‘creation care’. He told the Friend that the change ‘gives panels this autumn. Jelly Morgans, a member of staff us the opportunity to reduce our consumption of at St Mark’s, told the Friend that they were motivated energy considerably over the next twenty-five years’. by Psalm 24: ‘The Earth is the Lord’s, and everything Dismissing fears about the cost of the project, the in it’. She added: ‘The church should be at the forefront BUGB have said that the panels will generate more in looking after it’. electricity than the building needs, meaning they can BYM has made a commitment to become ‘a sell it back to the national grid. ‘We expect a return on low-carbon sustainable community’. Other groups that investment very quickly,’ said Richard Nicholls. to explore the issue at a national level include the A number of Quaker Meeting houses have been Methodist Church, who have pledged themselves to among the religious buildings taking up the challenge environmental standards that are binding on their of ‘green’ development. Settle Meeting have introduced local churches. heat exchange systems, Oxford Meeting have insulated The Big Green Jewish Website, supported by a their walls and a number of changes to Cotteridge number of national Jewish organisations, advises Meeting house in Birmingham have reduced energy Jews on how they can make their synagogues more consumption to less than twenty per cent of its 2004 sustainable. The Church of Scotland used a session of levels. their recent general assembly to consider solar panels Some faith groups have found imaginative ways on church roofs. to integrate green technology with worship. Heaton Pam Lunn would like to see many more take up the Baptist Church in Newcastle uses solar panels to heat challenge. She said: ‘Just think of the impact if every the water used for baptisms. Muslims in the German church, mosque, Meeting house, synagogue, temple or city of Norderstedt are planning a new mosque with gurdwara did this’. rotary blades on the minarets to generate wind power, which is expected to fuel a third of the mosque’s electricity. Symon Hill the Friend, 2 September 2011 3 News [email protected] Gordon Barclay Vietnam Fund laid down The Gordon Barclay Vietnam Fund (GBVF) has been East Asia, working in the refugee camps on the laid down. borders of Thailand and Laos doing surgery in field Ratcliffe and Barking Monthly Meeting established hospitals. Celia and he supported craft making and the fund in 1968 when the Vietnam war was at its other enterprises and would return to Britain with height and it became an independent registered beautifully made craftwork, which was sold to help charity in 1971 with Quaker trustees. The trustees boost the funds. Gordon also spent time helping the met earlier this summer at the nursing home where Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong. Gordon Barclay is now living and agreed ‘with regret’ In 1991, after many failed requests to return, to proceed with laying down of the GBVF. Gordon was eventually allowed back to Vietnam by the In the late 1960s Gordon was one of a medical team communist government and worked with the blind and appointed by the British government to go to Saigon deaf in institutions in the northern city of Haiphong. in a response to presdent Lyndon B Johnson’s request The GBVF, over several decades, has done an for British military support. Harold Wilson refused enormous amount of work in Vietnam, helping to send troops. Gordon, a general surgeon, went schools for the blind, working in close association with out for almost a year initially and then, during his the Blind Association, and supporting eye operations annual leave, for a couple of months at a time, worked and the sponsorship of blind students. Celia and in a paediatric hospital. When Gordon’s wife Celia Gordon Barclay paid annual visits to the projects for followed him she found orphanages where children many years and formed very close relationships in were languishing in dreadful conditions. This led to Vietnam. Celia Barclay died in 2001. The fund has the founding of the GBVF. The main thrust of the new been administered by Gordon Barclay. charity was to set up a toy-making workshop with Recently, Gordon was awarded a medal for services Buddhist monks in a pagoda and then to appoint a to Vietnam by the Vietnamese government. team of mostly British and Australian Quakers who Gordon Barclay said that he never wanted to lay worked to improve the conditions of the orphanages. down the work and would say ‘as long as we have When the war ended in 1975 all foreign NGOs money coming in we will keep going’. Without were forced to leave Vietnam but Gordon and Celia’s Gordon’s leadership, however, the remaining trustees work didn’t end there. Gordon went out to South do not feel able, or that it is right, to carry on.