16 May 2014 £1.70 the discover the contemporaryFriend quaker way the Friend Independent Quaker Journalism Since 1843

Contents VOL 172 NO 20

3 Thought for the Week: Not knowing Jane Pearn 4-5 News 6 ‘The Peace Testimony is a tough demand’ John Lampen 7 Europe is where we belong Andrew Jameson 8-9 Letters 10-13 The Fox Report: Squalor in London

Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi Photo: Adams. John 14-15 Conscription and conscience ‘Reflections’, a sculpture in the garden at Mansfield Meeting House, has a David Boulton base in quarters of shiny stainless 16 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world steel topped with four photo-etched, multilayered ‘filigree’ wings with both a 17 Friends & Meetings positive and negative female form in the centre. It is the result of a collaboration Cover image: between award-winning metalsmith, Memorial to conscientious objectors around the world in Alison Counsell, who works in photo- Tavistock Square, London etched stainless steel and sculptor, Vivien Photo: Trish Carn. See pages 14-15. Whitaker, who directly carves the last of the English alabaster. (See page 5)

Correction: The Fox Report In our appeal letter last week, we inadvertently added The Fox Report is the investigative arm of the an extra zero. There are 5,000 pages in the 1914-1918 Friend. It is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Digital Archive not 50,000. Charitable Trust and co-edited by Judy Kirby and Please accept our apologies. Ian Kirk-Smith.

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2 the Friend, 16 May 2014 Thought for the Week

Not knowing

n the light of recent discussions I find myself perplexed: am I a theist or a nontheist? It all depends on what you mean by ‘_ist’. I take an _ist to be someone who has come to a conclusion: in this case, about the nature of ultimate reality. For them there is, Ior there is not, a dimension called God, and they view all the complexities of existence through this lens. But supposing I’m not an _ist? Suppose that when I’m offered an either/or choice, I find myself to be a ‘sometimes this/sometimes that’ person, or even a ‘both at once’ person? My God-image is not of any agent or actor external to me; but it is a place – the place of unity and truth. I find it within me. The truth about myself, about my relationship to other people and to the world; the indivisible unity of all beings. I try (and fail rather too often) to live in this awareness. It’s a place I choose to approach whenever I can (of course I can’t be fully there – it’s absolute, I’m a mere human): in times of quiet reflection; during Meeting for Worship; with others; or on my own. In prayer, too. And then, because it comes more naturally, I speak to this ‘Being-that-isn’t-a-being’. I voice my thoughts, doubts and joys in words, though seldom aloud. I hold myself, and those I care for, in God’s light. When in difficulty, I call upon God’s help. Do I believe I have a listener? Or am I myself the listener, ‘deep calling to deep’? I honestly don’t know. Does it matter that I don’t know? I’m not sure that it does. And here’s the mystery. I don’t recognise the God of my childhood – the God with supra-human attributes, the God who intervenes in our affairs or responds to our pleas. But I have had direct encounter, three times, with something that might be named as ‘God’. An all-encompassing Presence, more overwhelming, more intense than I have words for; as limitless as space and as tiny as a molecule; with a direct, personal relationship to me; a void – and yet – a voice. Each time, it was not comforting but terrifying. I neither believe nor disbelieve: these have been my experiences. Words are words, thoughts are thoughts, notions are notions: they are not the thing itself. Dear Friends, a binary choice is too limiting for me. I’m content to live with not knowing; with the understanding that whatever I think, it’s entirely possible – even probable – that I may be mistaken. And in case it closes a door, some of us don’t wish to be any kind of _ist.

Jane Pearn Kelso Meeting

the Friend, 16 May 2014 3 News Adam Clarke is new Leaveners’ director He was the co-founder of the events such as The Gates of Cheltenham Film Festival, which Greenham, first performed in the he ran for three years as the Royal Festival Hall, and the recent managing and creative director. performance of The Nayler Passion He said: ‘I’m very excited to at the Birmingham Conservatoire. be taking on this role, and look With the help of a team of forward to building on the past volunteers, the Leaveners run

Photo courtesy of The Leaveners. The Photo courtesy of successes of The Leaveners. workshops and residential projects Adam Clarke is the new I very much look forward to ranging from music making director of The Leaveners, the continuing the organisation’s and creative arts to theatre and Quaker community arts project work, while exploring new ways performance, raising the creative founded in 1978. to further engage with the Quaker spirit for people of ages, both Adam has extensive experience community and beyond; creating a Quaker and non-Quaker, but with in the arts. He has worked as a dynamic programme of workshops a particular emphasis on working practicing contemporary artist and events that encourage a with young people across the UK. throughout the UK, specialising in meaningful engagement with The Leaveners is funded through arts and ecology, while continuing the creative arts, that can both donations from Meetings and to nurture a career in projects/ enrich and inspire through shared individuals, and by grants from events management and creative experiences.’ a number of trusts, especially the writing. The Leaveners’ work includes Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.

Blue plaque for John Henry Barlow Death of Quaker poet Birmingham City Council will be erecting THE distinguished Quaker poet Gerard Benson a blue plaque to the memory of John Henry Barlow has died at the age of 83. Gerard was well-known as on 17 June. a driving force behind the popular ‘Poems on the John is being commemorated for his Underground’ scheme, which was set up in London contribution to peace, his work with the Friends twenty-eight years ago. Ambulance Unit, and as a pioneer of social Gerard, who lived in Bradford with his wife Cathy, housing. was made poet laureate of the town, which was his He was the first manager of the Bournville Village adopted home, in 2008. He contributed to the civic Trust, which was set up to provide decent housing life of the city, including working with children in for industrial workers in Birmingham and to libraries and schools to help them get the most out of develop the village and its surroundings. poetry. He was also one of the Barrow Poets. The plaque is being erected on the house that Gerard recently made recordings in London for the George Cadbury built for the Barlow family, world-famous online Poetry Archive. A Quaker, poet ‘Sunnybrae’, near the Woodbrooke Quaker Study and teacher, he served as an intelligence decoder in Centre in Birmingham. Britain and also worked as a theatre actor. Antony Barlow, a grandson of John Henry Barlow, The Poems on the Underground anthology was said that the unveiling ceremony at the house on 17 compiled by Gerard and two other poets, London- June is to be followed by a reception at Woodbrooke. based American Judith Chernaik and Oxford resident Antony adds: ‘June 17 would also have been my Cicely Herbert. Gerard’s work included verses mother’s one hundredth birthday, so it makes a for major events, including the Bradford City fire happy coincidence.’ disaster memorial services, civic services, the Lord John Henry Barlow was clerk of London Yearly Mayor’s installation service and Holocaust Memorial Meeting (now Britain Yearly Meeting) between 1913 Day. and 1919 and played an important role in getting Gerard’s Memoir of A Jobbing Poet will be printed a conscientious objection clause included in the this year and there are plans to publish a book of his Military Service Act of 1916. Bradford poems.

4 the Friend, 16 May 2014 reported by Ian Kirk-Smith [email protected] American Quakers highlight environmental destruction

Friends in America have been at the forefront of a campaign to force PNC, one of America’s ‘Big Five’ banks, to pull billions of dollars from its support for companies involved in a destructive form of coal mining. The bank is funding big mining corporations that use huge amounts of explosives, in areas such as the Appalachian Mountains, to blow up land to get at the coal buried inside. The environmental destruction has prompted Quakers to speak out. The Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT), for the fourth consecutive year, attended the PNC annual meeting of shareholders in April. Last year the EQAT disrupted the shareholders’ meeting by asking Mountaintop removal mining in Kentucky. Observed each PNC board member to publicly state his or on a flight from Houston to Boston in the morning. her position on mountaintop removal mining. The meeting lasted twenty minutes. management in prayer to “do the right thing”.’ CC. Photo: Doc Searls / flickr At the annual meeting of shareholders, held in PNC claim that it is a ‘leader in eco-friendly Tampa on 22 April, William Demchak, the CEO of development’ but the EQAT argue that it is ‘profiting PNC, called the meeting to an abrupt close soon after from the destruction’ of the Appalachian landscape EQAT member Eileen Flanagan stood up. by providing loans to four of the five largest coal Eileen explained: ‘I stood to bear silent witness to companies. PNC’s continuing investment in mountaintop removal These companies, they say, account for forty-seven coal mining and to hold the board of directors and the per cent of all mountaintop removal coal mining.

Mansfield Friends open 1647 Garden of Reflection

Friends in Mansfield have developed their emptiness, stillness, tranquillity, reserve, silence and beautiful walled garden into a place of contemplation non-action.’ for Quakers and visitors. The garden also honours the life and work of George Fox experienced his first ‘opening’ in Elizabeth Hooton, a mentor and colleague of George Mansfield in 1647 and the garden has been named, Fox, who lived locally in Skegby. It was whilst visiting in celebration of that event, the ‘1647 Garden of Elizabeth’s house that George first encountered silent Reflection’. Meetings for Worship. Fox wrote, in his journal, of the experience: ‘Tears of Friends are invited to the opening of the garden, joy dropped from me, so that I could have wept night on the afternoon of Sunday 8 June, by Juliet Prager, and day with tears of joy to the Lord, in humility and deputy recording clerk, Britain Yearly Meeting. brokenness of heart.’ The experience inspired Fox to become a servant of God and to create the Children Quakers and labyrinths of Light, which evolved into the Religious Society of Friends. Jan Sellers of Wansteaad Meeting, London, is Local Quakers considered how they could enhance speaking on BBC Radio 4’s programme Something their Meeting house and surrounding environment, Understood on Sunday 18 May at 6.05am and then reach out to the local community and use it as a place repeated at 11.30pm. Jan was interviewed by John of rest and spiritual refreshment. McCarthy about her knowledge of the history of Mansfield Friends write: ‘In this busy, twenty- labyrinths and her experience of their use in a faith first century, the 1647 Garden of Reflection offers context. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer.

the Friend, 16 May 2014 5 Peace

‘The Peace Testimony is a tough demand’ Quaker faith & practice 24.11

John Lampen describes ways to get involved wo stories of violence are dominating the news, For Nigeria, British Friends can do little except the kidnapping of girls in Northern Nigeria and hold to our testimony and pray for all those involved. the unrest in Ukraine. It is natural for Friends For Ukraine we can do something more. The epistle Tto find such events disturbing, and in similar cases I from the annual meeting of the Europe & Middle have heard remarks like: ‘I’ve been a pacifist for many East Section (EMES) of Friends World Committee for years, but this time I do wonder whether force is the Consultation (FWCC) in last week’s Friend told of the only way…’ concern of two Friends, Mikhail Roshchen of Moscow I have never visited Nigeria but I have met many girls Meeting and Roland Rand of the Estonian Worship and boys who were abducted and abused in Uganda by Group, to take a party of four to Eastern Ukraine. the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and similar groups. They plan to meet and talk with individuals and (If the Nigerian situation raises anger against Islam, organisations, including government bodies if they are we might recall that the LRA claimed to be Christian.) willing, to hear their views of the crisis and the needs, I was struck by these young people’s courage and and to work out with them what steps could be taken resilience, though there were others who remained to defuse the local situation; and then, if possible, traumatised. link them to international bodies active in Ukraine to The Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) turn these ideas into reality. It is their aim to support workers in Gulu supported Empowering Hands, an initiatives for peace arising in the local community, initiative by some women who had escaped to help not to manage them. If a number of local peace others. It was a good experience for me to work with initiatives could be started, the next step would be to them. I was also taken to meet 150 parents who didn’t link them together as a wider movement for peace in know if their children were alive or dead; I have seldom the region. felt so inadequate. I have watched a former insurgent FWCC’s Europe & Middle East Section recognised asking the village he had harassed for forgiveness and this concern after giving it long and careful considera- being welcomed back with gifts from the villagers to tion and agreed to support it. When I used to travel start a new life among them. In the work to rid the regularly in Ukraine I met many peace-loving people, Rwenzori Mountains of landmines, such men helped and I believe there is a chance for this initiative to be by taking us to the sites where they had placed them. effective. But it needs to begin quickly, which means Thus reconciliation can create opportunities which raising the necessary funding, perhaps as much as violent responses would prevent. It is hard too for £6,000. military operations to succeed against such groups; the Given the sympathy felt by so many British Quakers girls are likely to be murdered by Boko Haram as soon for Ukrainian people caught between two millstones, I as they come under attack. hope some Meetings will find ways to contribute. We may also fear the long-term impact of a violent response on the wider Muslim-Christian relationships in a fragile region. Mohandas Gandhi pointed out that John is a member of Central England Area Meeting. ‘violence, even when it succeeds, has major negative side-effects; side-effects that nonviolent action mostly For further information see www.fwccemes.org for a v o i d s’. contact details.

6 the Friend, 16 May 2014 Opinion Belonging in Europe Photo courtesy of Andrew Jameson. Andrew Photo courtesy of

Last month Andrew Jameson participated in a study tour of European institutions, organised by the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA). He urges Friends to vote in the European elections on 22 May.

ur European Friends in QCEA in Brussels policy, and partly to spiteful press campaigns, to such hope very much that the people of Britain an extent that our politicians have, frankly, feared to will vote in the forthcoming European raise the topic, treating it as a toxic issue. How strange Oelections. Unlike our UK elections, where your it is that it should be necessary, at this stage, to explain vote can be wasted if the party you choose does not to people the advantages of membership! Lies and gain a majority, the European elections are run by scare stories have, to a certain extent, become the base proportional representation. This is a big term for a on which we discuss the issue of Europe. very simple thing. On the international front Poland, The constituencies are large and Remember your the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, regional. The parties enter lists of Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia names of candidates. You vote for a responsibilities as a have been completely transformed party. Candidates ‘succeed’ and are since they became EU members on taken from the party lists according citizen for the conduct 1 May 2004. The European Union (EU) to the percentage of votes cast for has demonstrated the advantages of each party. Therefore, each region is of local, national and peace that, by the way, was not created represented by a number of MEPs. by NATO, which is an alliance against This means that the smaller parties international affairs. external aggression. EU regional policy have a better chance of succeeding. has dramatically benefitted many If a small number of people vote for Advices & queries 34 poor regions. European transport the Green Party in each town, and and communications now run these Green votes, added together, uninterrupted across the continent. are enough, the region will have a Green MEP. Common trading and consumer legislation allow us to trade freely. Common policing policies make it QCEA’s recent study tour to European institutions possible to retrieve offenders when they try to hide (5-12 April 2014), in which I participated, underlined from justice. Cooperation works! And everyone once again how important they are for all of us in (except possibly the British) has an interest in making Britain. At the same time it impressed on us the it work. Of course, it is not perfect – no-one said it difficulty of fully understanding these gigantic was. And it would be much the poorer if we (stupidly, organisations and what they mean for us. Our myopically) left it. Europe needs us! ignorance of Europe and the lack of public education on the topic is partly due to deliberate government Andrew is a member of Malvern Meeting.

the Friend, 16 May 2014 7 Letters All views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Friend

Enemies of Israel? Sarah’s views betray a lack of objectivity, which is The shockingly unjust accusation Sarah Lawson disturbing. (2 May) has levelled at British Friends should not go I wonder if she has ever had an opportunity to talk unchallenged. to the pupils of Ramallah Friends School, who might I well remember seeing her advert announcing the help her to understand the realities of life for young creation of a group called ‘Quaker Friends of Israel’. Palestinians under Israeli control? Since I consider myself a Quaker (and Jewish) friend Nigel Engert of Israel, I contacted her to express interest. Sadly, I Wincanton Meeting, Somerset learned that I would have had to cease all criticism and all opposition to Israeli policy in order to meet her Intellect versus Spirit rather odd definition of a ‘friend’. With a sense of relief and delight, I have at last read a Luckily, our government does not take a similar beautiful piece (9 May) that clarifies why I find that line in regarding all active opponents of their policies the argument about the existence of God is really just as ‘enemies’ – else millions of us would have been a diversion. What is important is the experience of a prosecuted as traitors for demonstrating against the living Presence within and beyond ourselves. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan! Worship or contemplation is a time to lay aside the I, myself, have mixed feelings about Britain Yearly thinking of my mind to wait in the stillness. Then Meeting’s participation in the boycott, divestment I can find myself enveloped in the Presence of an and sanctions (BDS) campaign against the military energy, which is both within and around us, greater occupation of the Palestinian Territories. But I find it than us, beyond us. Noël writes that it does not chilling that a Quaker should call into question other matter what we call this Presence; what matters is our Friends’ sincere wish to do what they believe to be response to it. I experience it as warm, nourishing, in the best interests of both Israelis and Palestinians, creative, sometimes passionate, sometimes disturbing. simply because she disagrees. Above all, it is an experience of unconditional love. I was present at all but one of the several long and Why and how is a mystery. What I know is that when anguished debates in Meeting for Sufferings on the I connect with this Presence and Power, I may find call to support BDS, and was impressed by Friends’ insights, and courage and guidance, which reasoning sensitive forbearance, their careful, respectful listening on its own would struggle to come up with – if at all. and the genuine concern for the wellbeing of all those Worshipping and living in the Presence is an art that affected by the conflict – quite a contrast with Sarah, can be learnt. When I lose this connection, not reason, who seems to have a closed mind on the matter and to but daily spiritual practice and contemplation help care only about one group. me return. Meeting for Worship is special, because I Stevie Krayer feel upheld in the company of others; it is safe to go Southern Marches Area Meeting deeper, to wait without knowing, to be open to receive what I need to hear next, to follow ‘the promptings of Sarah Lawson’s article seems to be less than helpful to love and truth in my heart’, to trust that all will be well. promoting her cause, the work of Quaker Friends of Ruth Tod Israel, since she makes a number of assertions that are Mid Thames Area Meeting somewhat questionable. Most of us, I am sure, seek to be as unbiased as Limits to membership possible in our attempts to address highly contentious I am disturbed by Jane Taylor’s dislike of seeing the issues of which the Israel-Palestine one is amongst the word ‘doctrine’ used in relation to being a Quaker (2 most fraught with anger and bitterness. May). In her first sentence, Sarah refers to ‘the Israeli Anyone might think there was no such thing as a districts in the disputed territories’ as if this statement Quaker doctrine. But a doctrine is nothing more than was indisputable. She also makes the surprising claims a set of beliefs or principles which a body lives by and that “Palestine” had never existed as a state’, though to seeks to promote. Ours starts off with the assertion be fair it was governed as a UK Mandate from after the that all human beings have an inborn capacity to first world war until 1948, and that ‘Israel had regained perceive and respond directly to divine revelation, the West Bank in 1967 from Jordan, which had seized the ‘Inward Light of Christ’, without recourse to the it in 1948’. She also fails to mention the various UN medium of ordained priests or prescribed sacramental resolutions criticising Israel’s military occupation of acts. From this all our other principles and testimonies the West Bank and the illegal settlements. directly derive. ‘Take heed, dear Friends, to the Friends have been at pains to try and help the promptings of love and truth in your hearts’, begins opposing sides to meet and seek ways forward but our first Advice, and ‘Trust them as the leadings of

8 the Friend, 16 May 2014 [email protected]

God’. If that’s not doctrinal, what is? me ‘come out of the woodwork’ as another Friend says. It may be that our Friend is unaware of the difference At our fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration, between doctrine and indoctrination. I think we are in one of our daughters-in-law asked what had been need of a more positive teaching ministry. Or would the most memorable thing in our lives. We both said that be too much like indoctrination? the birth of each of our three sons and one daughter. David Parlett This shared miracle, of seeing your newly born baby, South London Area Meeting is a unique experience. Then there is a total change from being a couple to being a family. The love which Living history comes with the arrival of each child, and enables you Thomas Hodgkin – a doctor with Honours in Classics, to weather the ups and downs of life, is both unique but not a medical doctor, 1831-1913 (Life and Letters yet a comfortingly common experience. of Thomas Hodgkin by Louise Creighton) – was not Stephen’s attitude shows up the lack of real the son but the nephew of doctor Thomas Hodgkin understanding there is of marriage shared by those (Perfecting the world, the life and times of Dr Thomas of us silent Friends in the woodwork, who see and Hodgkin by Amalie M and Edward H Kass) 1798-1866 experience it differently, from those who are, or after whom Hodgkin’s lymphoma was named. He was support, Friends in the gay community. the second son of John Hodgkin 1800-1875 and was Anne McPhun married to Lucy Ann Fox. Their oldest daughter Lucy Northumbria Area Meeting Violet Hodgkin wrote A book of Quaker Saints. Their youngest son George Lloyd Hodgkin was the father of Redundant Meeting houses Alan Hodgkin (also a Nobel Laureat), Robin Hodgkin Is it possible that a Local Meeting, finding that their and Keith Hodgkin all of whom have offspring. historic Meeting house no longer meets the needs of My great-grandfather, Jonathan Backhouse Hodgkin, local Friends, could have their cake and eat it? was the younger brother of Thomas (1831-1913) and I suggest that it could be practicable to construct a it was his second son Henry who was the founder dwelling house inside the Meeting house in such a way of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Cambridge, that if, in years to come when Friends again needed England, in December 1914. My connection with the Meeting house, the wooden (?) structure could be doctor Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866) is that he was removed and the Meeting house revert to its original the brother of John Hodgkin who was my great-great- purpose. During the years between the house would grandfather. be available for rent. A bit confusing isn’t it! Of course, some management would be required. Jonathan Hodgkin This could be provided either by local Friends or by a [email protected] third party such as a housing association. John Rose Copyright concerns Settle Meeting, North Yorkshire While I entirely agree with Hugh Jones’ point about intellectual property ownership (9 May), if he wants ‘Friends [to] hear the full truth about intellectual property’, it would have been helpful when dismissing In essentials unity, ‘fair use’ to have pointed out that, under English law, in non-essentials liberty, there is a principle of ‘fair dealing’ for the purpose of non-commercial research and for criticism or review in all things charity. in sections twenty-nine and thirty of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. John H Hall The Friend welcomes your views. Please keep letters short (about 250 words) and include your full Colchester Meeting, Essex postal address, even when sending emails. Please specify whether you wish for your postal or email Same sex marriage address or Meeting name to be used with your I find a passage in Stephen Cox’s letter (2 May) deeply name, otherwise we will print your post address or offensive and insensitive. ‘To our Friend who trots email address. Letters are published at the editor’s out the stone-dead argument that marriage is special discretion and may be edited. Write to: the Friend, because of procreation, may I point out, yet again,that 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ or email same sex couples raise families too.’ As a happily [email protected] married mother of four who has kept quiet during the Remember if you are online that you can also comment on all articles at www.thefriend.org discussion of same sex marriage, this letter has made

the Friend, 16 May 2014 9 The Fox Report

Squalor in London

Friends in Britain have spoken out about the effect of cuts on the most vulnerable in society. Rebecca Omonira-Oyekanmi listens to the stories of Londoners, living on the poverty line, who struggle to survive. Illustrations: Patrick Koduah. Illustrations: Patrick

ahder Redie has not slept since finishing covers living costs in a city where the average monthly an eight-hour cleaning shift at 7am. It is rent is £1,233. noon on Thursday 3 April. Since 8am he has The family is desperate to move, but for those on low Mbeen waiting for the repairman, as arranged with his incomes there is little choice. The provision of council landlord. Mahder, thirty-five, prepares lunch for his homes and social housing continues to fall. Nine pregnant wife and daughter in the closet-sized kitchen. London councils recently lost a legal challenge to mayor His wife Hiriti tries to relax on the sofa. One-year-old Boris Johnson’s plan to increase the upper limit of rents Merken wants to play, squealing happily. deemed ‘affordable’ in the capital. Hiriti is subdued. ‘I want a fresh start,’ she says. These circumstances have deepened an inequality Speaking a mixture of Bilen, her native Eritrean tongue, of arms between London’s poorest renters and their and English, Hiriti says the thought of raising another landlords. Pamela Fitzpatrick sees the consequences child in the mouldy flat is depressing. Above the every day. After nearly thirty years spent working dining table is a framed photograph of thirty-year- in social welfare, for organisations such as the Child old Hiriti, wearing traditional Eritrean clothes. Her Poverty Action Group and the Citizens Advice Bureau, dark hair is pulled into thick braids that fan out into a Pamela set up the Harrow Law Centre four years ago. ‘I luxuriant mahogany cloud. Her face is decorated and have never seen the level of poverty that we are seeing her expression carefree. today,’ she says. The Centre takes calls from all over The Redie’s one-bedroom flat is infected with mould. London. The biggest problem is housing. They can’t afford to move. Spooning sweet white rice ‘Evictions are a real problem, even with housing and salad into a bowl for Merken, Mahder says that associations,’ says Pamela. ‘We have had a case where since the start of the year his housing association somebody got into arrears with their rent [and was] landlord has sent seven inspectors to the flat and, each unlawfully evicted. Her ten-year-old son came home time, ‘They do nothing’. and found they had changed the locks with no notice.’

Levels of poverty Government deregulation

Mahder Redie earns £8.61 an hour as a cleaner at the The ease with which landlords can evict tenants makes Westfield shopping centre in East London, across the it difficult to challenge the poor state of some housing. road from the multimillion-pound Olympic Park. Like Margaret Thatcher’s government deregulated tenancies many low paid workers, his job is temporary and barely back in 1989. At the time, in parliament, the champions

10 the Friend, 16 May 2014 of deregulation claimed that this would encourage private ‘A lot of rent arrears are through welfare benefits sector landlords to invest and better maintain homes. not being paid properly,’ he said. ‘For the majority of ‘That has not happened,’ Pamela says. ‘All we really our clients, it is because they start working ten hours a have are people who are in very poor accommodation week and, immediately, their Jobseeker’s Allowance gets paying really high levels of rent and living in squalor. stopped and recalculated.’ One five-year-old child brought in her lunchbox to By 2013 Mahder’s arrears exceeded £2,000. But when show me that rats had eaten it. We are talking about Merken got sick, Mahder spent what little he earned pretty grim situations.’ trying to clear the mould. The family moved Merken’s Mahder Redie’s problems began in 2008, a few cot into the living room and the adults took turns months after he moved into the one-bedroom flat in sleeping on the two-seat sofa. Brixton, South London. He scrubbed the dark smudges Then, in April last year, Metropolitan served Mahder on the bedroom walls, but they always came back: an eviction notice: ‘You have failed to make satisfactory furry, blackish green blotches, spreading upwards and payments to clear your arrears, so we are in the process outwards from the wall’s corners. of applying to the County Court for possession of your Each year the mould got worse, seeping into the home.’ Did this mean that Mahder and his family would bedframe, the wardrobe, onto the frame of his daughter’s be evicted and rehoused? No. People evicted due to cot. Merken has been rushed to hospital three times rent arrears are considered ‘deliberately homeless’; the after struggling to breathe while asleep. council is under no obligation to rehouse them. Mahder ‘Every year since 2008 I took a picture of the room,’ and Hiriti were miserable in their squalid flat, but now Mahder says. The landlord ‘just sent people to come they faced something worse. and check it, but they did nothing.’ Mahder’s landlord is Metropolitan, a national housing Eviction association providing homes to social tenants across London, the East of England and the East Midlands. Across the River Thames in Stamford Hill, one private Hiriti became ill while pregnant with Merken back landlord has decided to evict tenants two months earlier in 2012. A desperate Mahder went to Metropolitan to than planned. One Thursday in March the residents of a complain, saying he was sure the damp was affecting three-storey terrace house are given fifteen minutes to her health. Hiriti developed asthma and coughed pack and leave. up blood. After Merken’s birth, in January last year, Two police vans, blue lights flashing, pull up in the Metropolitan sent a handyman to repaint the bedroom large drive. Around half a dozen police officers and walls, and install a small ventilator in the bedroom. The high court sheriffs pile out. They break into the house, mould soon came back. run up and down the stairs, shouting over and over: Mahder began to fall behind on rent. He had to spend ‘You have to leave. You have got ten minutes!’ money replacing things ruined by damp – mattress, bedframe, clothes. ‘I took my family to the housing office to discuss in person the problems,’ he said. ‘When the receptionist informed the housing officer that we had come to see her, she refused to see us and told the receptionist to tell us that nothing can be done until I pay the arrears.’ Up till the summer of 2011, when he lost regular work on a construction site, Mahder paid the rent on time. He put in a claim for Housing Benefit. The money arrived in November, too little, too late. When Mahder found work again the following March, Housing Benefit payments stopped. But the job paid £72 a week, not enough to cover the rent or clear the arrears.

Clearing the mould

It’s a common situation, says Pete Elliott, a caseworker at Brixton Advice Centre. Pete also volunteers at a local food bank at St Paul’s church in Brixton. He sometimes bumps into former clients he’s advised on welfare benefits or housing.

the Friend, 16 May 2014 11 The Fox Report

The house is sectioned into twenty-two rooms, each injunction against the eviction. The warrant possession one home for families, couples and individuals. Some was obtained unlawfully and the residents have the of the residents try to show the sheriffs an order with right to challenge it in court. the original eviction date: 22 May. They are ignored. Nathaniel, a tall Englishman with a shoulder-length Other residents gather what they can, piling clothes into ponytail and bemused expression, converses with the plastic bags. residents in fluent Spanish (most are originally from South America). He’ll need immaculate financial ‘Help me please’ information from each tenant – otherwise the legal aid agency could refuse to fund the work. Libia Montaya, a fifty-seven-year-old cleaner from Hackney Law Centre, like legal aid providers across Colombia, lives alone in a small room on the top floor. the country, has struggled to stay afloat after more She’s had a difficult few years. She separated from her than a decade of cuts. Legal aid ‘reform’ means only husband and is estranged from her daughter. She’s on the very poorest are eligible for legal aid, and even medication for depression. Her hours at work have been those on income-related benefits do not automatically cut. When the sheriffs bang at her door, she crumbles. qualify. Drastic cuts have been made to advice and ‘Why is this happening? Someone help me please.’ representation for housing disrepair and welfare Libia struggles to breathe, her head is spinning. benefits. There is nothing for employment and debt. Terrified, she rushes into the toilet and, in her distress, The injunction has been granted. One, justice Collins, grabs a bottle of bleach and tries to drink it. The officers rules that the landlord, named as Destbray Limited, tackle her, handcuff her and then she blacks out. must allow the sixteen tenants to re-enter the property. Some of the residents spend the night in a nearby They can return home, for now. park. Others stay with friends or find hostels. One group takes a bus to the local town hall. They find the A repayment plan grand Art Deco building closed, and try to bed down on the stone steps. Security guards order them to move on. Back in South London, in January, with the help In the morning they are first in line for the council’s of Brixton Advice Centre, Mahder kept his home, housing officer. The families with children and an negotiating a repayment plan of £3.60 a week on top of elderly woman, who recently suffered a stroke, are his rent. Hiriti was pregnant and their case against the given temporary accommodation, but sixteen adults housing association was due in court within weeks. In are ineligible for help. Around 5pm they are sent to the court Mahder’s lawyers would argue that Metropolitan local law centre. should waive the arrears and cover the cost of extensive work to improve the ventilation in the flat. Legal aid Then Hiriti miscarried. Mahder blames stress caused by their housing situation. As well as the damp and debt, Nathaniel Mathews, a senior solicitor for Hackney the couple had to contend with a broken kitchen sink. Community Law Centre, immediately gets to work on They placed a large bucket under the sink, emptying their case. He applies to the High Court for an interim it three or four times a day. Mahder says this went on

I imagined London to be a city that welcomed you, but it’s the opposite… London is becoming a city only for rich people

12 the Friend, 16 May 2014 for ‘several months’ before the sink was replaced. In sold several months ago. Whoever owns it wants rid February, Hiriti’s doctor wrote a letter that said: ‘I would of them before the agreed notice period. ‘I imagined be grateful if these repairs [to the sink] could be carried London to be a city that welcomed you, but it’s the out as soon as possible as in her present condition she opposite,’ says Diego, ‘I think London is becoming a city cannot manage to carry these heavy loads. She is also only for rich people.’ complaining of back pain and abdominal pain relating Nathaniel says the exploitation of poorer tenants is to this.’ routine. ‘We have got tenants in low paying jobs from Mahder went to court in February 2014. He had abroad, all cleaners, in relatively cheap but completely managed to reduce the arrears from £2,292.80 to unregulated accommodation. It is not uncommon for £953.70, partly by borrowing money from friends. He landlords one way or another to evict these people told the court: ‘Since I’ve moved to the flat I have been whether through the courts, or not through the courts, miserable as the housing office neglects our needs. We and often giving them no notice at all. You have got are physically, emotionally and mentally drained from people who just don’t know their rights.’ this situation, and still saddened by the loss of our unborn child, and nobody seems to understand.’ The legal process Metropolitan agreed to waive the arrears and carry out improvements to the flat. The court order decreed In a statement about Mahder Redie’s flat, the that work must begin within twenty eight days. Metropolitan housing association said: ‘We settled compensation in February and agreed to carry out Windows nailed shut improvement works. A maintenance survey report was undertaken before then which identified a condensation After leaving the law centre, the sixteen tenants broke issue and suggested an action plan to remedy the into their home. In the time they had been away the situation. The condensation was found to be as a landlord had changed the locks and the house had been result of a number of factors, including ventilation and vandalized: mattresses slashed; toilets ripped from the heating, rather than attributable solely to the structure floor surrounded by broken tiles; cisterns discarded in of the building. the yard; windows nailed shut; chunks of plaster gauged ‘We aim to carry out repairs quickly and efficiently… from walls; clothes left behind and strewn across and we have regularly attended the property to carry rooms; no heating or gas. out improvements to assist the resident with managing Diego was embarrassed. ‘We usually keep the house the condensation. Unfortunately, it reoccurred. Prior very clean. We don’t live like this,’ he says. The trim, to the legal process, we have no record of the resident pepper-haired Colombian is forty-five. Before moving making a complaint through our complaints procedure.’ to London, he lived in Spain for ten years. He was a On 3 April the Redie family wait for a repairman to social worker for a charity, providing support for new arrive between 8am and 1pm. They finish lunch and migrants and refugees. Mahder looks at his phone. Around 1.15pm he calls Now Diego earns slightly more than the minimum the housing association to find out why the repairman wage as cleaning supervisor for an agency contracted hasn’t shown up. The visit is rearranged. Mahder tries to clean offices at Canary Wharf, the financial district to sleep before his next shift at 11pm. across the city in East London. He paid £550 a month for his room with a double bed, a sink, a wardrobe and a portable shower. But, he says, it will be difficult to find Rebecca is a freelance journalist and writer-in-residence somewhere similar. ‘They want £1,200 or £1,300 and at Lacuna: Writing InJustice. Her reporting on asylum you see the flat and you want to cry.’ and undocumented migration was shortlisted for the Libia paid £433 a month for her room. It is slightly 2012 Orwell Prize for Political Writing (blog category). smaller than Diego’s and without a shower. She earns Patrick Koduah is a prizewinning London-based about £200 a month from her cleaning job and receives illustrator and animator. £83 a week in housing benefit. ‘I am too exhausted and too tense,’ she says. ‘I can’t think about where to go or This report was funded jointly by the Friend’s Fox what to do. Committing suicide was the only way to Report and OurKingdom’s Shine a Light project. It is leave behind all of these problems.’ published simultaneously in both. The Fox Report is the investigative arm of the Friend. It is funded by the A city only for rich people Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. OurKingdom, the British arm of openDemocracy.net, investigates and Who owns the house? The tenants don’t know. They questions power in the United Kingdom. This piece was paid their money to managers who say the house was co-edited by Clare Sambrook and Ian Kirk-Smith.

the Friend, 16 May 2014 13 Witness

Conscription and conscience

David Boulton begins a three part series on conscientious objectors in the first world war

n Sunday 2 August 1914 Britain saw the the Germans in the mass-attrition of trench warfare. country’s biggest ever anti-war demonstration Calls for a negotiated peace fell on deaf ears. Calls for (before 2003): fifteen thousand people in conscription won the day. OTrafalgar Square led by Keir Hardie, fifty thousand After months of preparation Herbert Asquith, the in thirty-two English towns, and an estimated prime minister, introduced the first Military Service hundred thousand in Scotland led by James Maxton. Act in January 1916. It deemed all single men between A National Peace Emergency Committee was formed. eighteen and forty-one to be soldiers and to obey Two days later Britain declared war on Germany and instructions for call-up. Four more Acts followed over the new committee was renamed the National War the next two years, extending compulsory enlistment to Emergency Committee. ‘The working-class movement married men, lowering and raising the age limits, and is contemptuously passed over’ wrote Hardie in despair attempting to introduce conscription to Ireland. on 6 August. Six weeks later, worn out and deeply disillusioned, he died. Military service tribunals

Volunteers Exemptions were allowed for reserved occupations such as farming, vital industries and the clergy. Under Following the declaration of war the streets filled again, pressure from peace activists the first Act also provided this time demanding German blood. Were some, at for exemption on grounds of conscience. This seemed, least, the same people who had demonstrated for peace at first, a generously liberal concession at a time of only days earlier? Probably. This was a necessary war, national emergency, but military service tribunals were they were told, which would be won by Christmas, appointed all over the country to judge the validity of as the mighty British Empire saw off cousin Kaiser’s every claim to a conscientious objection. Most tribunals impertinent challenge to Britain’s global reach and power. consisted of local political appointees, clergy and an But Christmas came and there was no peace on earth army officer – a body of men with little understanding or goodwill towards men. From the declaration of war of, and no sympathy whatever for, men who refused to to the end of 1915 over a million men volunteered. It fight for king and country. Consequently, most claims was not enough. Throughout the year the death toll for exemption on grounds of conscience, religious or mounted and it became clear that Britain must either political, were either refused outright or the claimants initiate peace negotiations or find two or three million were drafted into the army’s noncombatant corps. This more soldiers to have any chance of driving back satisfied the conscience of some, but by no means all,

14 the Friend, 16 May 2014 Series and that is where conscientious objection turned into in the affairs of the world in a religious spirit’. The aim active resistance with serious consequences. of the COs’ movement, he wrote, was ‘to bring the Some 16,600 men refused to fight and took the Kingdom of Heaven on earth – nothing less’. consequences. Most, under pressure, accepted Often forgotten by historians of these events is noncombatant service or alternative service under the participation of Biblically-literalist groups like the Home Office control, but a minority refused to be International Bible Students Association (later Jehovah’s conscripted into any service they saw as contributing to Witnesses), Christadelphians, Seventh-day Adventists, the war effort. These were arrested, imprisoned, forced Plymouth Brethren and so on. There were probably into uniform and court-martialled for disobeying more COs in the fundamentalist sects than in the orders, or sent to hard-labour work camps. Quakers and mainstream churches put together. Most accepted alternative service of one kind or another, The No-Conscription Fellowship but the Bible Students, in particular, produced many absolutists. Their theology has little appeal to liberal Just three months after the outbreak of war, foreseeing commentators but that is hardly good reason for their the inevitability of conscription, a young Independent exclusion from a history they too helped to make. Labour Party activist, Fenner Brockway, was prompted Somewhat submerged, also, until recent times, is by his newly-wed wife Lilla to call for the formation the story of the women who campaigned with their of a No-Conscription Fellowship (NCF). Under the men-folk. Some of them played pivotal roles in keeping leadership of Brockway, Clifford Allen, Bertrand organisations like the NCF and the Northern Friends Russell and Catherine Marshall, the Fellowship quickly Peace Board afloat. Add to Catherine Marshall the established itself as the umbrella body representing names of Joan Beauchamp, Lydia Ellis, Ada Salter, Emily conscientious objectors (COs) of all colours. It became Hobhouse, Mary Hughes, and the Women’s International a formidable thorn in the side of the warfare state and Conference, which predicted that the Versailles proposals was condemned by general Wyndham Childs at the War would condemn a hundred million people in the heart Office as ‘a pernicious organisation whose propaganda of Europe to ‘poverty, disease and despair, which must is that of conversion of the community at large to anti- result in the spread of hatred and anarchy within each war principles’. nation’ – and, as it transpired, a second world war. The Fellowship defended COs under attack, publicised the inhuman and degrading treatment to which many A declared conviction of the ‘absolutists’ were subjected, and campaigned vigorously for a negotiated end to the war without According to the NCF’s records, 6,261 men refused to annexations or indemnities. Its leaders and activists accept the decisions of the tribunals that denied the were prosecuted and imprisoned under the Defence of sincerity of their declared conviction. They were arrested the Realm Act and its monthly paper, ironically named and handed over to the army. Those who continued The Tribunal, was raided and had its presses smashed. their resistance by refusing to obey military commands numbered 5,739. All were court-martialled, 655 of them The Friends Service Committee twice, 521 three times, 319 four times, fifty five times and three six times. At least thrity-nine suffered permanent The NCF was joined by the Friends Service Committee mental incapacity and seventy-one died as a direct result representing Quaker absolutists, and the Fellowship of their treatment in jail or work camps. These figures of Reconciliation, which drew its membership from are still being revised upwards by recent research. pacifist fellowships in the Anglican and mainstream Yes, to some they will seem insignificant compared nonconformist churches. Together they formed a with the sixteen million who died and the twenty million tripartite Joint Advisory Council. The NCF leaders wounded in action. But if David Cameron really means were atheists and socialists, who tended to express their to spend £55 million on commemorations expressing conscientious objection to war and conscription in the ‘our national spirit’ in time of war, should we not demand language of radical nonconformity, while Christian that the spirit, courage and sacrifice of the peacemakers pacifists voiced their convictions in the language of is also remembered, and celebrated? a social gospel. It was said of Allen’s speeches that they would not have been out of place if delivered as David is a member of Kendal & Sedbergh Area Meeting. ministry in London Yearly Meeting; and the arch- atheist Russell commented that any attempt at a hard Next week David writes about how Quakers responded distinction between religious and political objectors to the first world war. was ‘characteristic of politicians. No-one else would ever have supposed it was impossible to be interested His new book is entitled: Objection overruled.

the Friend, 16 May 2014 15 a look at the Quaker world [email protected]

The Perfect City’s progress

Eye’s spied a dramatic offering on the horizon. With twenty-seven songs, the musical tells ‘the true The Perfect City, a musical by Martin Coslett and story of one man’s dream and his relentless struggle Ross Clark, tells the story of William Penn’s quest against the evils of corruption, slavery and a society to overcome tyranny, injustice and persecution in that is eager to see him fail’. seventeenth century England. Following the musical’s debut at the Etcetera Theatre The show sprang from Martin Coslett’s visit to in London in March 2013 (see Eye, 8 March 2013), Jordans Meeting house many years ago. He told the it is going on tour this spring and will be performed Friend: ‘Seeing the gravestones of William’s family led in several Quaker Meeting houses. The tour begins me on a research expedition. I was so intrigued by the at Jesus Lane Meeting in Cambridge on 17 May and size of his family (and all the gravestones) and of what moves to Brighton on 18 May. It will be performed he had achieved in his lifetime.’ at Jordans Meeting, where William Penn is buried, William Penn wanted to build ‘the Perfect City’ on 22 May. The performance in Dorking on 23 in Philadelphia. He wanted to create a new life of May is already sold out. The musical then travels to freedom and brotherly love for everyone thousands of Westminster Meeting on 25 May. miles away from the turmoil. He stated: ‘Right is right Friends hankering for a taste of what’s on offer can even if everyone is against it – and wrong is wrong find one of the songs from the show, ‘Save our world even if everyone is for it.’ for you’, on Youtube: bit.ly/PerfectCityTaster Friendly footie

Fairtrade footballs are families. The picture shows some connection with Zambian prisons. making their way into Zambian fairtrade footballs I have been able He explained: ‘In 2009 I wrote prisons with the help of Martin to send. The problem of footballs a letter to the Friend about my Schweiger, of Leeds Meeting. being made in exploitative response to a prisoner in Zambia He writes: ‘Sport is a good conditions has encouraged me to who had written to me asking starting point for many to improve source and send fairtrade footballs.’ for help. At that time I know their lives and the welfare of their Martin has an ongoing several readers of the Friend were concerned about requests that were not strictly honest and that responding to such requests would only encourage more bogus letters. ‘I am pleased to be able to report that I have been able to keep in touch with a man I will now call a friend who has worked hard to bring about a change in the way prisoners are helped to move on in their lives both while in prison and, importantly, when they are discharged. ‘The Prisoners Aid Foundation has been able to attract a small amount of international funding and has been able to stimulate education in Zambian prisons and helped to provide training that allows some prisoners to find work

Photo courtesy of Martin Schweiger. on release.’

16 the Friend, 16 May 2014 Ad pages 16 May 13/5/14 15:02 Page 3

Friends&Meetings Memorial meetings

Margaret MORGAN A Meeting for the Friends Worship to celebrate the life of Margaret Morgan (formerly Quarterly Murphy) and her service to Special Needs Education will be held at Who are Quakers today? Streatham and Brixton Quaker Meeting, 2.30pm Saturday 31 May. Glenthorne Changes to meeting Quaker Centre

CHARLBURY MEETING Change SUMMER SPECIAL of venue for Meeting on Sunday INTEREST HOLIDAYS 18 May only. Friends will hold Meeting for Worship with neigh- Let me Introduce you to my bouring churches in St Mary’s Friends. What was really going Parish Church, Church Lane, on in the 18th Century and how Charlbury at 9.45am. All welcome. is this relevant to Quakers today? Friday 27 - Sunday 29 June. Led by Gil Skidmore. Course starts Diary 8.30pm after evening meal Friday. Finishes 12.45pm Sunday. £160. ETHEX FIRST ANNUAL A Sense of Summer in Poetry Issue Two 2014 out now. GATHERING Friday 23 May, and Prose. Friday 25 - Sunday 11am–4pm, Oxford. Discover how Stuart Masters 27 July. Led by Thelma Laycock. The transformative power of God to invest for positive impact. Free for Course starts 8.30pm after Ethex members. Make money do evening meal Friday. Finishes Hugh Rock good. Details and booking: Do Quakers possess a theology? www.ethex.org.uk/annualgathering 12.45pm Sunday. £160. Dru Yoga. Monday 11 – Friday Peter Bevan 15 August. Led by Julia Slater. Creativity and existential guilt Notices on this page Course starts 8.30pm after Linda Murgatroyd evening meal Monday. Finishes Personal entries (births, marriages, Lies, truth and statistics deaths, anniversaries, changes of 10.00pm on Thursday. £355. address, etc.) charged at £20 incl. vat for up to 35 words and includes Boot, Boat & Goat. Monday 1 – Please send me a copy of Friends a copy of the magazine containing Friday 5 September. Led by Terry Quarterly Issue Two 2014, the notice. Meeting and charity Winterton and Grace Ogilvie. price £5 + 50p postage notices (changes of clerk, new war- Course starts 8.30pm after dens, alterations to meeting, diary, Please send me a subscription to etc.) £16.67 zero rated for vat. evening meal Monday. Finishes Friends Quarterly, starting with Max. 35 words. 3 Diary or Meeting 5.30pm Thursday. £360. Issue Two 2014. First issue free for up entries £40 (£33.33 zero rated); new subscribers. 6 entries £72 (£60 zero rated). Extend your visit and stay with Notices should preferably be prepaid. us the Sunday before or after the UK £20 pa Cheques made out to ‘The Friend.’ course: B&B £30 p.p. or Dinner, Deadline usually Monday morning. Rest of World £22 pa B&B £45 p.p. Cheques payable to ‘The Friend’ Entries are accepted at the editor’s For further details please contact discretion in a standard house style. Name...... A gentle discipline will be exerted to us. We welcome your enquiries. maintain a simplicity of style and Address...... wording that excludes terms of Glenthorne Quaker Centre, endearment and words of tribute. Easedale Road, Grasmere, ...... Guidelines on request. Cumbria, LA22 9QH. T: 015394 35389 Postcode...... The Friend, 54a Main Street, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL E: [email protected] Return to: Penny Dunn, T: 01535 630230. W: www.glenthorne.org The Friend, 173 Euston Road, E: [email protected] Registered charity number 232575. London NW1 2BJ

the Friend, 16 May 2014 17 Ad pages 16 May 13/5/14 15:02 Page 4

Classified advertisements Quaker Council 54a Main St, Cononley Keighley BD20 8LL. T&F: 01535 630230. E: [email protected] for European volunteers MUSWELL HILL QUAKER MEETING Affairs (NW London AM) Seeks to appoint two or three CLAVERHAM MEETING HOUSE TRUST Resident Quakers Are seeking a Live in volunteers Programme Voluntary Resident Friend/s An opportunity to develop your own To help care for our historic Quaker service to and engagement with the Assistants Meeting House, maintain its special Society of Friends doing a range of atmosphere both as a place of worship practical, communication and and as a venue for retreat, recreation and administrative tasks around the meeting Would you like to start your a variety of activities. house premises and its users. career in politics, social Details of Claverham can be seen on Applications welcomed from individuals www.claverhammeetinghouse.org.uk . or couples who already have close links change, international rela- An unfurnished two bedroom cottage is with the Society of Friends. tions, or the NGO sector? available with service occupancy agreement. Further details from Ann or Robin: Further details available from [email protected] Clerk of Management Committee, Phone 020 7281 1779 Apply to be a QCEA Tom Leimdorfer Closing date Friday 20 June 2014. Programme Assistant - [email protected] living and working for a year 01934 834663. where to stay in Brussels at the centre Applications close on Monday 9th June GUESTHOUSES, HOTELS, B&BS of European institutions! E-mail applications are due To contact the Ad. Dept B&B AT WOODBROOKE, BIRMINGHAM. electronically please Explore Birmingham and the Midlands by 10 June 2014. or relax in 10 acres of gardens and always use our published woodland. Close to Bournville and public transport. Wonderful library, delicious Visit www.QCEA.org email address: meals, Friendly welcome. Great value. to find out more. [email protected] Book at www.woodbrooke.org.uk or call 0121 472 5171.

TEN MINUTES DARTMOOR/CORNWALL Quaker couple offer ensuite B&B, £30pp. Programme [email protected] 01822 614378. Leader COTTAGES & SELF-CATERING 14TH CENTURY CORNISH COTTAGE Based in Selly Oak, Birmingham overlooking sea. £180-210 pw. Short Full-time. Salary: £17,500pa, rising to breaks. www.wix.com/beryldestone/ £19,000pa over three years cornishcottage 0117 951 4384. The Leaveners, a Quaker arts organisation, are seeking to appoint a A WARM PEMBROKESHIRE WELCOME dynamic and enthusiastic Programme Leader to create and deliver awaits you in 2 cosy well equipped arts projects, events and workshops for the Quaker community and cottages each sleeps 4. Woodburners, sea views, coastal path 2 miles. 01348 beyond. You will hold a degree, or equivalent, and have experience 891286. [email protected] in the performing arts, as well as experience of delivering workshops www.stonescottages.co.uk and projects to adults and children of all ages and abilities. COTSWOLDS. Spacious barn conversion You are conscientious, with an enthusiastic interest in the arts in in Charlbury near Woodstock. Sleeps 2+. general and with a working knowledge of social media platforms. Woodburner. Lovely walking. 01608 You are highly organised, proactive and able to work effectively as 811558. [email protected]. part of a small office team, while using your own initiative. The role www.cotswoldsbarn.com will require travelling throughout the UK. HIGHLANDS: NW SCOTLAND, Loch IT and administrative skills are essential and should be of a high Torridon. Rugged mountain views; comfort- able house; log fire; orchard garden. standard, with a good working knowledge of Microsoft Office, Brochure: [email protected] specifically Excel and Outlook. A good working knowledge of 07818 082897. Photoshop Creative Suite, specifically Indesign, is highly desirable. REETH, SWALEDALE. Comfortable, For more information please contact [email protected] south-facing house, central but quiet. Sleeps 4/5. Ideal for walks and for this Closing date: Friday 30 May. Interviews in Birmingham: w/c 9 June. year's Tour de France. 01235 832753; Start date: Monday 7 July. [email protected]

18 the Friend, 16 May 2014 Ad pages 16 May 13/5/14 15:02 Page 5

A QUAKER BASE IN Classified ads Make time for CENTRAL LONDON Standard linage 54p a word, Central, quiet location, semi-display 82p a word. Rates the Friend convenient for Friends House, incl. vat. Min. 12 words. Series British Museum and transport. discounts: 5% on 5 insertions, Comfortable rooms tastefully 10% on 10 or more. Cheques Set aside time to enjoy a furnished, many en-suite. Full English breakfast. payable to The Friend. quiet read and make Discount for Sufferings and Advertisement Dept the Friend a regular part Club members. 54a Main Street, Cononley, of your week. 21 Bedford Place Keighley BD20 8LL London WC1B 5JJ T. 01535 630230 Tel. 020 7636 4718 Because you deserve it! [email protected] E. [email protected] The Penn Club www.pennclub.co.uk

OVERSEAS HOLIDAYS

PERSONAL RETREATS, FRANCE. Make space to reflect and be still. Beautiful old farmhouse in rural Auvergne offers supportive, nurturing environment for individual retreats. Simple daily rhythm: meditation; silence; contemplative/artistic activities. Walking. Organic vegetarian food. www.retreathouseauvergne.com

TUSCANY, APARTMENT WITH PATIOS. Hill village south of Pisa near coast. Beaches, culture, walks. £350 p.w. 01643 818176. [email protected] • We are open to all, providing residential care since 1977. courses • We have a welcoming and homely atmosphere with an emphasis on quality care provided by a qualified, UNLOCK YOUR INNER MUSICIAN. long-serving staff team. Inspirational courses all levels, complete beginner to professional musician. Singing, sightreading, inner hearing, universal • We can talk about your care needs over a cuppa or join harmony. enquiries@britishkodalyacademy. us for the day and stay for a home-cooked lunch where our org / www.britishkodalyacademy.org/ residents can chat about their experience of our friendly home. courses_workshops.htm • The home offers a simplistic approach to fees and offers miscellaneous three categories of care depending on your assessed need. • Large, pleasant and well-maintained gardens surround the house and we are close to all amenities; PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTANCY &TAXATION SERVICE one mile from the town and sea. Quaker Accountant offers friendly • We welcome continued involvement from our residents, service countrywide. Self-assessment & small businesses. families and friends to complement the care we provide. Richard Platt, Grainger & Platt Chartered Certified Accountants 3 Fisher Street, Carlisle CA3 8RR Please contact Paul Abbott, Home Manager, or Kristie Telephone 01228 521286 Goode, Assistant Manager on 01425 617656 [email protected] www.grainger-platt.co.uk www.newforestquakercarehome.org.uk

SASSOON POEMS FOR CHOIR & ORGAN New Forest Quaker Care Home Suitable good amateur choir. Thoughtful 40-44 Barton Court Road, New Milton, Hants BH25 6NR contribution to WW1 commemoration. Quaker composer. £1.50 per copy. Registered charity no. 1156022. Company registration no. 08917492 Sample: [email protected] CQC No. 1-101663819 Formerly New Milton Quaker Housing Association ALWAYS READ THE SMALL ADS!

the Friend, 16 May 2014 19 Ad pages 16 May 13/5/14 15:02 Page 6 V ADVERTISEMENT DEPT EDITORIAL ol 54a Main Street 173 Euston Road 172 Cononley London NW1 2BJ Keighley BD20 8LL T 020 7663 1010 No

T & F 01535 630230 F 020 7663 11-82 20 E [email protected] the Friend E [email protected] Young Friends General Meeting YOUNG ADULT QUAKERS IN BRITAIN Internship Young Friends General Meeting & Britain Yearly Meeting Hours: Full time, 35 hours per week. Salary: £19,919 pro rata plus benefits Contract: 10 months fixed term (September 2014 – June 2015) Location: Friends House, Euston Road, London NW1 We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic person who is in sympathy with the values of the Quakers and who wishes to develop their skills through an internship opportunity. This role supports the administration of Young Friends General Meeting (YFGM) and Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM). YFGM represents Quakers aged 18 - 30’ish and BYM represents Quakers across Britain. The role will support the residential gatherings, committees and Trustees for Young Friends, as well as working on BYM projects. Based in the Events & Committee Services Team in BYM, the successful candidate will