5 December 2014 £1.80 the discover the contemporaryFriend quaker way the Friend Independent Quaker Journalism Since 1843

Contents VOL 172 NO 49

3 Thought for the Week: Prayer and upholding In our Quaker work, are we sure that Peter While our decision-making is rooted in prayer and thought, those dual bases 4-5 News of all our actions? And as Friends with a responsibility for overseeing one 6 Food banks are not enough… another’s faithfulness, how often do we Barbara Forbes stop and hold in the Light the people 7 Meeting and making Friends who are acting on our behalf? How often do we stop to think how much Diana Brockbank research and information gathering is 8-9 Letters behind their actions? Too often I fear we jump to judgement. Both the work 10-11 Vision for our future and its oversight have to be rooted in Roger Seal the silence of worship. 12 Words: Christianity Christine A M Davis, 2008 13 Words as sacraments Quaker faith & practice 8.01 Harvey Gillman 14 Voices of the great war Helen Snelson 15 Poem: Hide and seek Charles Hadfield 16 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world 17 Friends & Meetings

Cover image: Compass. Photo: Walt Stoneburner / flickr CC. See pages 10-11.

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2 the Friend, 5 December 2014 Thought for the Week

Prayer and upholding

ften I hear ‘Let us uphold (this person) in our thoughts and prayers’. There is also frequent comment and discussion among about different approaches to prayer. There are some people whose prayer takes the form of petitions addressed to Oa personal who may or may not intervene to bring about the desired change. I have veered away from that position over the years. Today, I acknowledge the universal power that we call God and simply describe a different way of working with God in our prayer and upholding. I receive invitations via the internet to sign this or that petition. We are given some information and so we have an outline of the issue in our mind. What is required of us is almost effortless. All we have to do is click on the button that says ‘sign petition’ and our concern and support for the petition is instantly registered. Even one signature creates a tiny ripple. That is the power of the individual. A small group of individuals clicking on the button creates a bigger ripple. A large group of individuals creates a wave. Prayer can be like that – an almost effortless process. We often say ‘God knows’; in other words, we accept that the power we call God has total knowledge of everything in the universe. It may be best, therefore, if we don’t spend much time dwelling on what is already known. Any mental effort or strain is likely to be counter-productive. Why do it when we have a droplet of Divinity, a share of the almighty power of God, already within us? The power of the computer and the internet is derived from our discovery and application of the relevant laws of nature. All natural laws, including those that bring us humans into Being, are surely part of the total all-embracing Divine knowledge. Human consciousness seems to work rather like a computer. There’s the consciousness of the individual, like a single computer, and there’s a collective consciousness, like the internet. If we want to make an effortless, well-targeted, prayer then all we need to do is draw back the bowstring, take aim and let go. ‘Centring down’ in silence to simple, effortless consciousness is like drawing back the bow string; bringing the person or concern briefly to mind is like taking aim; and letting go is like the simple motion of clicking on the button. We have used the power of God that is within us, and the universal natural laws of the almighty power that we call God will do the rest. The transcendent God within us is to be found in the silence beyond thought. The immanent God within us is the God within all things, to be found by our senses and expressed in thought and speech. Any prayer requires both; but the prayer launched from the transcendent will, like the signature on the internet petition, reach its target in an instant. If there is any new light in what I’ve written, it was certainly not generated by me. Is it the case that science creates anything new? I rather think that all knowledge – the full panoply of natural law – already exists and that scientists are simply unfolding new laws and applying them through technology. I think it is now time that we Quakers began to consider whether or not there is a ‘technology’ of human consciousness, and if there is, how its full application by us might impact on worship, prayer, and peace. Peter While Wells-next-the-Sea Meeting

the Friend, 5 December 2014 3 News Quakers join fuel poverty ‘die-in’ Friends were among a 100-strong group protesting against fuel poverty in London on 28 November. Participants in ‘No more deaths from fuel poverty: Energy Justice Now!’ represented pensioner, anti-poverty, and climate action groups. Friends joined in solidarity with those in fuel poverty and as a faith witness to the suffering caused by the current system. They also joined to show their commitment to working towards an alternative energy system. Sunniva Taylor, programme manager for sustainability and peace, Quaker Peace & Social Witness, said: ‘The protest demonstrates an analysis – shared by many Friends – of the current Colin Hall of Luton equality and climate crisis, that both are caused Meeting at the die-in by a neoliberal capitalist economic system which on Friday. privileges the wellbeing of a few over many, QPSW. Taylor Photo: Sunniva polluting the earth in the process.’ Statistics figures showed 18,200 excess winter deaths On the same day as the ‘die-in’, Office of National in 2013/2014. Russian adventures at Friends meet to Woodbrooke challenge inequality Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham recently Quakers met in Birmingham on 29 hosted its first Russia-themed weekend, at the suggestion of November to discuss practical steps for Friends House Moscow. challenging inequality and austerity. ‘Russian Adventures: Russia, Quakers and civil society’ took ‘Food Banks are not enough: Practical place on 28-29 November. It attracted almost fifty participants. ideas to challenge inequality’ was The course covered both past and present Quaker activity in organised by Central England Quakers. Russia, including the work that is being undertaken today by The conference took place at Bull Street Friends House Moscow. Delegates also enjoyed a cultural evening Meeting House. and the opportunity to share their own experiences in the Suzanne Ismail of Quaker Peace country, Michael Eccles, young adult programmes coordinator & Social Witness was the keynote and Quaker Peace & Social Witness tutor, told the Friend. speaker. Topics addressed in workshops Friends House Moscow staff members Sergei Grushko and included income equality, banks and big Natasha Zhuravenkova spoke at the event, as did Sergei Nikitin, businesses, and privatisation. head of Amnesty International’s office in Russia. (See page 6.) Quaker schools in anti-bullying stand Bootham Junior School On the Thursday, they dressed at what we want – respectful and Sibford School marked Anti- ‘according to their personality, behaviour.’ Bullying Week (17-21 November) their attributes and their talents’, ‘The Quaker view of respect is in a particularly Quaker way. with cross-age group activities an easy concept for all pupils to At Bootham, in York, the replacing lessons. sign up to; ultimately we must lead school encouraged pupils to In Banbury, as Sibford deputy and trust our pupils to respect support ‘what makes each of us head Maggie Guy explained, the each other. We want them to be different, special and unique’, school prefers to ‘flip the idea of “examples and patterns” in their said headteacher, Helen Todd. anti-bullying around and look lives’, she added.

4 the Friend, 5 December 2014 Report Quakers join fuel poverty ‘die-in’ US Friends in Washington campaign American Friends recently staged the biggest pro-peace, pro-diplomacy lobbying day of 2014. The event was organised by the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). More than 430 people from forty-three states travelled to Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, to urge members of Congress to support the ongoing negotiations with Iran. The lobbying took place three days before the deadline for a final nuclear deal. Between them, the participants visited more than 200 congressional offices on November 20 and 21. They spoke directly to dozens of members of Congress,

urging them to publicly speak out in support of a Photo courtesy of FCNL. diplomatic solution to the impasse over Iran’s nuclear Mira Linn (Austin, Texas), and Quakers Liz Yeats (Friends programme. Meeting of Austin) and Lon Burnam (Ft. Worth Friends FCNL executive secretary Diane Randall said: ‘As I Meeting) with Republican Texas senator John Cornyn. listened to stories and saw the excitement on the faces of FCNL constituents returning from meeting with ‘As a result of our visits, already eleven offices have congressional offices, I was reminded of the power of reached out to our lobbyists asking for help in crafting citizen lobbying. statements in support of negotiations.’

PFP aims to educate about Ebola Purple Field Productions ‘Ebola is Real is designed to Meanwhile, we understand it has (PFP), founded by Quaker Elspeth encourage people to overcome their gone on local radio, and FVFG Waldie, has launched its latest film, fears and go for early treatment, and themselves have worked hard taking a music video called Ebola is Real. also to advise them on steps they it round from house to house and PFP works with people in Africa can take to reduce their chances showing it on a laptop,’ Fiona added. and Asia to make educational films of contracting the disease,’ PFP The charity’s Ebola appeal in local languages. The new video administrator Fiona Day told the was recently awarded a £2,000 was made with the help of Future Friend. grant by Quaker Peace & Social View Film Group (FVFG), a group ‘The video has attracted the Witness, from the Dorothea of forty-two young film makers in interest of the Sierra Leone health Simmons Fund. Sierra Leone. It was funded entirely authorities who, we believe, are Elspeth Waldie is a member of by PFP. planning countrywide distribution. West Somerset Area Meeting.

QSA teams up with Mind Pickering Friend to be Quaker Social Action approach is about bringing candidate (QSA) has launched its first people together, sharing troubles, project with Mind, the mental sharing successes, bonding over Alan Avery, who attends health charity. fun and interactive exercises, Pickering Meeting in Yorkshire, has ‘Mindful Money’ is a free gaining confidence and been selected to stand in the 2015 ten-week course, taking place communication skills. Haringey general election as Labour Party in Haringey, North London. It Mind will be taking all of this on candidate for the Thirsk and Malton has been designed for people board when delivering Mindful constituency. who feel anxious, stressed or Mon e y.’ Alan will campaign on a range depressed because of financial The new project is part of of social and environmental issues, problems. Participants will learn QSA’s ‘Futureproof’ initiative, such as funding of the NHS, youth how to manage their money. which is working towards unemployment, threats to the North QSA director Judith Moran financial capability among low- Yorkshire Moors and lack of public told the Friend: ‘Our whole income residents in Haringey. transport in the area.

the Friend, 5 December 2014 5 Report Food banks are not enough...

Barbara Forbes reports on a conference

that highlighted the underlying causes of Forbes. Photo: Barbara Suzanne Ismail (l) with Barbara Hayes (r), who inequality led the session on ‘Banks and Big Business’.

e Quakers can move fast when we need to. murky world of corporate lobbyists. It was a relief to In mid-July Central England Area Meeting hear that ‘click-activism’ – signing online petitions received minutes from four of its Local – is not lazy but can achieve results that sometimes WMeetings, plus its Peace Committee, in response elude other groups. From this workshop, as well as the to the statement on inequality adopted by Meeting others, came a range of suggestions for action. These for Sufferings in April. It was quickly decided that included: go to the AGMs of companies that are a Peace Committee should be tasked with organising a cause for concern and ask awkward questions (or use conference to look at our response to the underlying proxies to do so); when lobbying on a particular issue causes of inequality, rather than only trying to make be aware of the counter-lobby and try to expose them; the present situation slightly less dire. campaign on tax justice issues and for the enforcement Peace Committee felt the need to respond to the of the Living Wage; campaign for an ethical lettings reference in the report to ‘forces at work within policy and examine the way in which housing has the global economic system’. Some members had become a way to make profits for a few. a concern that this phrase served to mask the There is so much to do – and Suzanne’s advice was devastating results of policies deliberately chosen and ‘keep plugging away’. Sometimes we can feel isolated rigorously followed by our government. The Meeting and down-heartened as new areas of concern seem to for Sufferings statement also called us to ‘act more be opening up on all fronts; but when we come together radically to tackle the underlying causes’. We felt that we can energise each other and become aware of the this would be a challenge. wealth of knowledge and expertise we have amongst us. Ten days after the Area Meeting, we had a Many of us are active in local groups and many of programme, a speaker and ideas for workshop leaders. us know about local Quaker initiatives. We were left With the help of the clerks’ mailing and a notice in the with the problem of wondering how to continue the Friend, our eighty places were fully subscribed by mid- discussion started at this conference. Taking Suzanne’s October. And at the end of November, the conference advice, I have signed up to the Quakernomics website took place. and have started a discussion thread there. I hope On the day itself, Friends started arriving early other concerned Friends will join, too, and use the site from all over the country. There was almost tangible to share information about planned events. There is excitement as people gathered – enthusiasm about the also a brand-new Facebook group, Quaker Action on topic and about the chance to spend the day with dozens Inequality. of other like-minded Friends, with an opportunity to One of the feedback post-its at the end of the day exchange ideas and make plans for future action. said: ‘The Quaker Revolution starts here!’ Well, maybe Our keynote speaker, Suzanne Ismail from Quaker it does; but like all good things, it will need careful Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), set out the position consideration and thorough organisation. Let’s go for it. in a clear and wide-ranging introduction to the day. Our workshops covered a variety of topics: income Barbara Forbes is a member of Central England Area inequality, banks and big business, housing and Meeting, benefits and lobbying. This last topic was a new one for many Friends, and Tamasin Cave from the Further information and background papers from: organisation Spinwatch (funded partly by the Joseph [email protected] Rowntree Charitable Trust) gave us a glimpse into the Quakernomics: www.quakerweb.org.uk/blog

6 the Friend, 5 December 2014 Scotland Meeting and making Friends

Diana Brockbank reflects on a busy General Meeting for Scotland held recently in Glasgow

ecollections of the witness and life at this year’s was particularly aimed at families who have no other Gathering, which was held in children in their Meeting and to support children who Bath in the summer, featured strongly at the hoped to attend Northern Young Friends’ Summer Rrecent General Meeting for Scotland in Glasgow. Shindig for the first time. My home Meeting had The first session was devoted to the Gathering and ‘supplied’ one of the group of energetic (and I guess we had an impressive array of contributors giving noisy) nine-year-old boys. After an initial wariness, he reports. We heard about the broad range of events had really enjoyed it, and his mother had, too. It was offered for all ages and interests and enjoyed stories a wonderful opportunity for connection: blessings on of the experience of those who had camped. I got a the organisers. sense of the wonderful smorgasbord of activities. Two There was a long discussion following the report slide shows brought it all more alive for me. I was from the Community Justice Network, particularly particularly inspired by images of the Quaker Garden, around prison visiting. The rules in Scotland make which had been constructed during the event. it hard for Quakers to be involved, as we have to be After tea we divided into groups to consider some specifically requested and this does not often happen – questions about what we had heard. We did this so no multi-denominational/faith support groups. Let’s through discussion, silent listening, worship sharing hope the working group can help things to change. or art. Six of us, who were previously strangers to each Our parliamentary liaison group had thirty-two other, used pastels together on three huge pieces of applicants for the new parliamentary engagement post! paper. When we talked about the process one woman Wow! The process is ongoing. observed that it had been a bit like being at Yearly It has come at last. From 16 December we in Meeting: the first tentative explorations with each Scotland will be able to apply to conduct marriages for other; the outgoing and the holding back observing, same sex partners in exactly the same way as for those a bit intimidated perhaps; settling in, building of opposite sex. With the two-week process time this confidence and finding our own space and how best to takes us to 31 December. Civil partnerships registered work with the situation; discovering our own paths. It in Scotland will be able to have a Quaker conversion, was a beautiful picture! which will be backdated for them. On the whole, the session was, for me, very Post Referendum: our clerks attended a Church of satisfying. I would, however, have liked some time Scotland service of reconciliation in St. Giles cathedral to relate a little deeper and ask questions of the in Edinburgh and spoke warmly of it. wonderful reporters. In our opening period of South East Scotland Area Meeting brought a moving worship, at the start of the day, a Friend read a very minute about the increase in militarisation, especially moving ‘testimony to the grace of God as shown in the in schools, and there was interesting discussion. life of Alison Joan Gean Davis’. I was very grateful and An important part of our residential General Meetings inspired. is getting to know Friends from around the country. The rest of the weekend was more business oriented. After the business (busyness) of Saturday a good This included getting into groups to explore our number of us walked to an Indian restaurant for our responses to the Long Term Framework questions. evening meal. When we had eaten, a curtain was drawn Small groups are great, even though these were all across and we entertained ourselves with a ceilidh – a larger than my home Meeting! (that is great, too) and most unusual setting. A Friend then walked with me to there was some good stuff to send to Friends House. Central Station, so that was another friend made! A report that particularly interested me was about a weekend held in Braemar for parents and children. It Diana is a member of Forres Meeting.

the Friend, 5 December 2014 7 Letters All views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Friend

Words passing interest in the news, a report of an unexplained It has been interesting to follow the series on the suicide stuck in my memory because it struck me as meaning of words by Harvey Gillman. The latest one unusual and odd, in the same way as David Kelly’s did, (28 November) on Mysticism may help us to return although I have no idea why. On 19 November Echo to our contemplative, yet still practical roots. This is Chambers published an article on the BBC news website summed up in his last paragraph about a ‘community about Martin Luther King and FBI surveillance. of practical mystics’. ‘A disturbing, decades-old letter sent to Martin Luther More than just beholding and wondering about our King, Jr, by the FBI is serving, for many, as a reminder of numinous experiences, please may we also speak and the scope and history of US governmental surveillance write about them? May we do this openly, sharing programmes – and their potential for abuse.’ them freely with each other? So, then, having such The correspondence ends with a vague threat. wonderful moments (‘sent to us by the Holy Spirit’) ‘King, there is only one thing left for you to do,’ it will no longer be seen as ‘weird’ but as an everyday reads. ‘You know what it is.’ experience: of being a on a spiritual journey – Many, including King at the time he received it, see of being an eternal, immortal spirit evolving in our this as a suggestion that King should kill himself. human body on earth. Giving this ‘here and now’ Nadia Kayyali, writing for the Electronic Frontier evidence will enable everyone to know their raison Foundation’s blog, Deeplinks, says the King letter d’être and meaning and purpose. could be a page out of the handbook of the British Elizabeth M Angas online intelligence unit dubbed the Joint Threat Blackheath Meeting, London Research Intelligence Group – a group whose mission is to ‘destroy, deny, degrade [and] disrupt enemies by Harvey Gillman’s series on key words in Quakerism discrediting them’. cannot fail to impress. When complete would it be ‘These are not far-fetched ideas,’ she says. ‘They possible for these to be printed in booklet form? I can are the reality of what happens when the surveillance imagine no more helpful addition to those already on state is allowed to grow out of control, and the full offer for newcomers to our Meetings, and indeed for King letter, as well as current intelligence community more ‘seasoned’ Members, for discussion groups and practices, illustrate that reality richly.’ private pondering. The intelligence services clearly need better Ruth Pilkington oversight. Jersey Meeting, Channel Islands Mary K Marshall Hitchin Meeting, Hertfordshire Ed: Thank you. This is planned. Holding in the Light Elders and equality I fully agree with Michael Hennessey (21 November) Felicity Cox (14 November) quotes Jenny Routledge: in relation to intercessory prayer. However, for me, ‘Elders are the ones who remind us that we are all ‘holding in the light’ is not about intercession. It elders.’ Harvey Gillman, in the same edition, writing on is, rather, something like: consciously and actively ‘elder’ in his series on the meanings of words, says: ‘The holding people or situations in my mind and in my danger… is that a given role can become a power base.’ heart, and in the power of that which is the Presence I Do Friends like the word ‘democracy’? Does it mean feel whenever I think about it – and which is there all that we all have a say on any given issue? the time anyway, even when I’m forgetting about it. After our Friday midday half-hour worship, we Jane Taylor eat together and then have a talk/discussion. On Lancaster Meeting, Lancashire Friday 14 November we had Dave Bullard of Norwich Meeting telling us about his Free School for twenty- Membership three, eleven to sixteen-year-olds, boys (mainly) Membership is a must. Applicants can only become who are excluded from normal school. I caught the members when they have been through a careful visit word ‘democracy’. They all sit round, pupils and staff by at least two members of the Area Meeting (usually intermingled, and each one’s say is valued. It works. and elder or overseer) so their application can be put Does eldership in your Meeting feel like that? to Area Meeting. Attenders go through no such screen. Jill Allum Members have duties not laid on attenders. They [email protected] should regularly attend Meeting for Business; they should fill Meeting offices; they must contribute to the Security services need better oversight Meeting; and, above all, they should accept and not As a teenager in the 1970s starting to take more than a question being eldered.

8 the Friend, 5 December 2014 [email protected]

The elders from time to time ask members to somehow line up with ‘The Shard’, ‘The Gherkin’ and correct some misbehaviour. A member is under a duty other buildings titled as ‘The’ something or other. not just to listen, but to accept and cease offending. An More importantly, it confuses the spiritual attender has none of these duties. If the elders elder experience of Friends with a material object. It seems him, he can walk off. as absurd as calling a state-of-the-art elevator, ‘The A regular attender will, of course, feel like Christ’! I have heard the Buddhist master Lin Chi contributing to Meeting costs and accepting offices if quoted on issues of iconoclasm: ‘If you meet the asked. Over time attenders learn to feel at home. Buddha on the road, kill him!’ I wonder, also, what Membership is strictly and carefully recorded, and would say? distinguished in lists. Attendership, for a number of Matt Grant reasons, is a very loose term. In my experience, most Cheadle Hulme Meeting, Greater Manchester Meetings count their attenders at about double the truth. Oversight committees should keep the attenders’ Wait until Wednesday lists up to date. One great help for many Meetings is to Giles Barrow’s articles on education (31 October and 7 photo everybody and put the photos and the names on November) raise serious and testing concerns and calls the wall. It becomes easy then to say ‘that face is now for action, which will be at some cost to those who feel unfamiliar’. There is no disgrace in being taken off the moved. attenders’ list: often people move and don’t think to say. It might be worth adding one more: consider how Good discipline requires we keep these boundaries. many young people are brought into contact with the Keith Wedmore Society through educational initiatives. The answer San Francisco Meeting, USA is very few, unless we can accept the work done, in the Society’s name, in seven independent schools in Corporate fiddlesticks England. There are probably more children who learn From an advert in the Friend of 14 November: about Quakerism through these fee-charging schools ‘We are looking for someone to support and grow our than are reached by all the Local Meetings in the member engagement strategy with Quaker Meetings country. The children shouldn’t be blamed because throughout Britain. Working with colleagues you will their parents sent them to an independent school. deliver strategies to promote Quakers’ participation in, They might just be the future for the Religious Society and contributions to, our central work.’ of Friends. Will candidates attracted by this invitation really be So, perhaps the encouragement to visit schools ‘in sympathy with Quaker values’? should include these awkward places, too – you’re Stephen Prosser certainly welcome to see what profound effect Quaker Acomb Meeting, North Yorkshire values have on our students at Bootham, and I know my fellow heads would share my view. The Light Jonathan Taylor, head We must appreciate the skylight in the Large Meeting Bootham School, York House. The ancients used to worship the Sun, because if the Sun didn’t exist, we would not exist. In essentials unity, The presence of the oceans around the planet give in non-essentials liberty, rise to the sun evaporating water, which comes down as rain. The crops would not grow and we would be in all things charity. starving, if we existed at all. Nick Bagnall Blue Idol Meeting, West Sussex The Friend welcomes your views. Please keep letters short (about 250 words) and include your full postal address, even when sending emails. Please As someone relatively new to Friends, after a spiritual specify whether you wish for your postal or email search lasting some years, I remember well the joy I address or Meeting name to be used with your felt on visiting Friends’ House for the first time. The name, otherwise we will print your post address or adventurous redevelopment of the Large Meeting House email address. Letters are published at the editor’s is something I am looking forward to seeing first hand. discretion and may be edited. Write to: the Friend, However, I continue to have this nagging feeling that 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ or email the marketing of it as ‘The Light’ smacks of following [email protected] the patterns of the world. It seems to go against Remember if you are online that you can also comment on all articles at www.thefriend.org the principle of plain speech, instead attempting to

the Friend, 5 December 2014 9 Framework for action

Vision for our future

Roger Seal, of the Long Term Framework Working Group, writes about preparing for the future

ost of us are more comfortable, and understand In order to elicit the fullest responses, the Group has and express what we believe more easily, with devised a set of questions that are intended to open images than with theological abstractions, hearts and minds, with an assurance that all will be Mhence the well known and loved phrase ‘…not a notion listened to and heeded. but a way’ early in the Advices & queries. That refers to Christianity but it, surely, applies equally to Quakerism. These questions, set within a longer covering letter and accompanied by guidance notes, are even now An image itself has dynamic power, and it leads on circulating throughout the Yearly Meeting. The Group to other images as we learn and experience more. Not has trialled versions of the questions in various settings that any image is complete and definitive of what lies in the last few months, including at Yearly Meeting behind it – images are no more than temporary and Gathering, but the final forms are as follows: provisional – but it can reveal an aspect of what would otherwise elude us. • What is distinctive about Quaker work and witness, to us and to others? Planning for the future • What is your vision of the ministry that your So it was that, when Meeting for Sufferings a year or Local Meeting and Quakers in Britain are called so ago recognised that the Yearly Meeting would need to, now and in the future? something to follow A framework for action 2009- 2014 to help us all plan and prepare for the future, • What are we led to do together? they slipped into the same imagery, a framework, to convey something of what they had in mind. They • How could Quaker structures and networks help appointed and resourced a Long Term Framework Quakers in Britain to flourish? Working Group to carry the matter forward; then set it to work, with encouragement to think creatively and to Images with powerful meaning deliver an outcome. The Group trusts that Friends will receive and consider The Group has been busy, recognising that their the questions positively and creatively, carefully and prime purpose at this early stage is to consult and prayerfully. Much depends on their responses. The collate as wide a range of beliefs and concerns in Group is keen to hear from anyone, but of course as possible. What they hope to discernment from within a group of Friends who have deliver, eventually, will not be their own leadings but studied and prayed together is particularly welcome. a distillation of what they hear from today’s Quakers. The deadline for responses is the end of January 2015.

10 the Friend, 5 December 2014 A framework gives shape and support, but it can also be seen as rigid and constricting Photo: Rebecca Siegel / flickr CC. Siegel / flickr Photo: Rebecca

Alongside the questions, the Group has been greatly A critical issue is to ensure that the document exercised about image(s): what image(s) are most apt for facilitates and encourages dialogue between local their work? They have naturally considered ‘framework’ Quaker work, Meeting for Sufferings and the centrally itself. A framework gives shape and support, but it can managed work to achieve greater cooperation across also be seen as rigid and constricting: does our Yearly the country and to avoid disconnected, piecemeal Meeting need a framework first and foremost in order activity. to be most itself and to discover what it might become? Alternatively, the Group has considered ‘(the) way Working together ahead’. ‘Way’ speaks of a journey, progress, exploration, but travelling without a roadmap, guidelines or a target Finally, what prompts this whole exercise? Perhaps can easily lead to wandering aimlessly or getting lost. there was once a time when Friends undertook simply Another suggestion that has been offered is ‘Cherish what they felt individually moved to do and it all and Change’. The Group would welcome suggestions of miraculously came together with no kind of planning images with powerful meaning for Friends. or management; but, even if there were such a time, it has long gone. Moving forward Clearly, nowadays, the Yearly Meeting has its own The Group recognises that there will be a wide variety of corporate life to maintain and nourish, and tasks responses, and that what Friends unite on is likely to be and obligations to fulfil, regarded by many Friends ‘woolly’. Some Friends have found the ‘Mode of working’ as God-given. To achieve all this calls, inevitably, for section and the appendix of A framework for action planning and management, to deploy both human 2009-2014 more helpful than the body of the document. and financial resources effectively and ethically. Every Friend participating in Quaker work – and that The final document will need to be flexible and open- encompasses many of us – should benefit if we can ended. There will be new discernment as we move share our Quaker identity, our vision and how we can forward over the next five years and the document needs work together. to inform strategic planning for centrally managed work. The Yearly Meeting trustees may well want specific guidance from Meeting for Sufferings to discern Roger is a member of the Long Term Framework and prioritise their use of both human and financial Working Group. resources. It is important that the document is set in the broader context of ‘the Quaker way’. For further information: www.quaker.org.uk/way-ahead

the Friend, 5 December 2014 11 Words

Christianity

Harvey Gillman concludes his series on words and their meaning

The Religious Society of Friends is rooted in and the nature of Jesus; and in Jesus’ lifetime the word Christianity and has always found inspiration Christian was not used at all. The later creeds of the in the life and teachings of Jesus. How do you church were a way that the political authorities tried to interpret your faith in the light of this heritage? impose uniformity on Christendom. Outside the church, How does Jesus speak to you today? no salvation, is a particularly powerful headline in a world fearful of damnation. Perhaps the Quaker phrase Advices & queries 4 ‘humble learners in the school of Christ’ comes closest to the way we have tried, over the years, to give our hen I was a child I sometimes got annoyed distinctive interpretation of what a Christian may be. that so many people used the word Christian as a synonym for good. We must be honest, however. There are a number W of Friends who, in all sincerity, cannot use the word Politicians talk of Christian values. I often wonder to describe themselves. In his A sociological analysis of what these are and how they differ from values of the theology of Quakers: The silent revolution, Ben Pink loving and caring – and whether Christian history has Dandelion concluded that British Quakers were broadly actually shown these values in practice. Going online post-Christian. He wrote: ‘Of my survey sample, fifty- to get definitions of the word Christian is a depressing one per cent self-identified as Christian. Seventy-two experience. The desire for excommunication remains per cent claimed they believed in God, and thirty-nine prevalent. So much seems like tribal sloganising. On per cent said that Jesus was an important figure in their the other hand, I have heard the theologian Matthew spiritual lives.’ This is not simply a matter of theist/ Fox talk of ‘the cosmic Christ’ as being another name nontheist debate. There are those for whom Spirit will for the goddess. not be defined by any particular story.

When I wrote A Light that is Shining and was The question behind all these articles is: how helpful considering how to describe Quakers as a Christian and illuminating are these words in your own life society, Roger Wilson wrote that for some Friends, and in your communication with others? For me, the irrespective of all definitions of the word, Christian was introduction to Advices & queries comes close to a the only word they could use. The word reverberates Quaker understanding of Christianity. It talks of ‘the with emotional intensity for them. It describes the guidance of the universal spirit of Christ, witnessed rootedness of Friends in the turning to the Inner Christ, to in the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.’ This the only one, according to George Fox, that could speak universal spirit then is in, but not restricted to, an to his condition. A nontheist fellow member of Brighton inspired and inspiring teacher who lived two thousand Meeting calls herself a Christian because she believes in years ago. We are all called to be witnesses, bearers the ethical teachings of Jesus, though many respondents of testimony, christs – that is messiahs – anointed for to an online attempt at a definition demand that it is particular purposes in the world. the teachings of Jesus and a belief in his unique divinity that define a Christian. Again, I must pose my question: If this way of speaking feels alien to you, then you who owns the copyright of the word? In the early church must find your own words. Our path is one of lived there were a number of contrasting beliefs about the role testimony, not creedal definition.

12 the Friend, 5 December 2014 Words as sacraments

ooking at the stained glass window beyond the They are not just settings for public meetings. They are prepared altar, waiting for the choir to process places designed so that quiet undistracted worship may in for the requiem mass and considering how take place. The pulpit and the altar are in the hearts LFriends do these things very differently, an idea stuck of the individual worshipper. Like our buildings, our me with great force. Words may be our sacraments, language needs to reflect this openness, this universality offering a glimpse of the beyond: channels, not vessels; and this discovery of the divine in the here and now. a glimpse, not a definition. A sacrament is an outer reality channelling an inner grace. Religious language I have struggled in this series of articles to make does not hold reality; it is a channel that allows us, at its sense of some key words used by Friends and others to best, to behold it at a deeper level. describe this discovery. I am well aware of how divisive language may be. The first of these articles brought Friends do not use the sacraments of the church, the issue to the fore in two letters: one criticising my though the two accepted by many Protestant churches use of language as going against Quaker plainness; – baptism and communion – have been used by Friends the other in praise of my plea for a more imaginative historically in a metaphorical sense. Traditionally, use of language. I apologise for those passages which Friends wrote of being baptised by Spirit and our have not been clear enough. Sometimes I have actually Meetings for Worship are our communion. Since the been thinking aloud, discovering ideas which had not beginning of the twentieth century, Quakers have occurred to me before. I recognise this is risky. spoken of the sacramentality of daily life. We are not restricted to sacraments prescribed by hierarchies, My basic plea is for Friends to go beyond the negative, dogmas and interpretations of Scripture and so we can to experiment with more affirmative ways of expressing move towards a universal appreciation of Spirit in all ourselves. Some people have not liked the way our things. This can be mirrored by the language we use. It testimony against war has become a testimony to peace. is not that we need or do not need particular religious But when we speak to other people of our work in the language, but that whatever language we do use when world, those we address have every right to counter: talking of our journeys needs to convey that sense of the ‘Yes, you are against this and against that, but what ‘something else’ of the spiritual life. are you in favour of?’ Enquirers come to Friends, glad to put down some of the burdens of their previous To illustrate this, let me take a parallel form of religious lives, but then they say, ‘We are no longer communication – architecture. Quaker Meeting houses refugees. We are tired of looking backwards. We want are plain. They do not have stained glass, altars or the to settle among you. We want to look forward. What do pulpits. They lack the grand beauty of cathedrals and you have to offer that is positive?’ the Victorian heaviness of some other places of worship. However, many do have an aesthetic which is very What do we have to answer? What is the good news pleasing visually. They can be both imaginative and our lives proclaim? functional. At their best, they convey to the worshipper and the visitor that they are not just a neutral place. Harvey is a member of Brighton Meeting.

the Friend, 5 December 2014 13 Report Voices of the great war

Helen Snelson considers the benefits of teaching peace education through historical drama

he Grünheide-York Partnership exists to build context to arrive at their own judgements. There is greater understanding between German and no group think; this is peace education, not peace British young people, both across national and indoctrination. Tacross state-independent school divides. Established Most of the characters were new to the students. We in 2009, the partnership is between The Mount and studied diverse voices: German, British and Russian, Millthorpe Schools in York, and Philipp-Melanchthon and shared them between us. Our fighting voices Gymnasium near Berlin. It provides students with included a British woman who fought in Serbia, a chance to meet and enjoy each other’s company Bismarck, a Russian pilot princess and Rudyard while working on annual projects with a historical Kipling with his son Jack. Once they had researched theme. We don’t shy away from big topics, such as the stories and beliefs of their characters, each group ‘Why Europe?’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice: in search of had to decide how they were going to present their national identity’. In 2014 our newly completed project voices as simple staged drama on location in the centre has been ‘Voices of the Great War’. of York. These projects are effective peace education. Firstly, The peaceful voices chose to station themselves they are effective because we ‘do’ together. The projects outside Friargate Meeting House. Bertha von are demanding, fast-paced and require students Suttner’s ghost spoke to a child about her hopes and to engage fully. This rapidly breaks down barriers fears for peace. Meanwhile, Siegfried Sassoon read between students from different schools and cultures. his Declaration and a narrator set his protest in its Doing alongside each other rapidly takes us beyond historical context. The socialist Arthur Gardiner’s nationality, fears passed on by older generations and tribunal was recreated from the transcripts, and a background to who we are as people. The doing of the tired, but still faithful, Arnold Rowntree MP restated project and the developing of skills connected with the Quaker in 1918 as he faced the communicating, planning and delivering projects loss of his parliamentary seat, in part as a result of his build confidence and are as much a part of learning to pacifism. be peacemakers as the content of the topics we choose. Other locations were the York Castle area, the Confident young people are more likely to reach out Railway Memorial and outside York Minster. The and engage with others. student who recreated the voice of Arthur Boldison Of course, the content of our projects is also part found his name on the Railway Memorial and had of peace education. This year our project groups, a huge sense of connection. Arthur was a local York consisting of thirty-five students, formed in the UK man who was killed by a shell in the second week of and Germany in September and began research on a the battle of the Somme. His story is in some ways variety of people who represented different voices of just another soldier story, but for her he is now also the 1914-1918 period. We focused on four types of human. Thinking and feeling, that sums up our voices: fighting, peaceful, silenced and reflective. From aim. One without the other will not create the sort kaiser Wilhelm II to Bertha von Suttner and Rudyard of education project that encourages our students Kipling to York munitions worker, Mary Carter. It to be well-informed, passionate and compassionate would be historically flawed to have focused just on peacemakers themselves. the minority peaceful voices. Students who are able and interested to participate in such projects enjoy Helen is a member of Acomb Meeting and head of engaging with the rich diversity of perspectives that history at The Mount School. The project was helped are found in societies. We encourage them to examine by funding from UK-German Connection. For further source material as evidence and set it in its historical information: www.mountschoolyork.co.uk

14 the Friend, 5 December 2014 Poetry

Hide and seek

We sit round the silence listening to space, concentrating; our thoughts circle the quiet centre of the room. A faint movement far within the darkness, a cry: there, in the pile of books? or in the vase of flowers? the sun’s flash on a gull, high over the sea. Light fills the room, floods, dries again. The far passage of clouds beyond what the mind cannot grasp, slipping, losing control. Nothing will come of it.

To tackle the problem (heartbeat, itch, uncomfortable chair) just close your mind and wait, the clock ticks on, for the end. Look up and there at the centre, between us all in a glint of sunlight the tear drops on the vase.

Charles Hadfield Newton Abbot Meeting

the Friend, 5 December 2014 15 a look at the Quaker world [email protected]

Camels in the catalogues

Fascinating photographs from the archive of the Friends Emergency and War Victims Relief Committee have been given some tender loving care during a recent cataloguing project. The images show aspects of relief work carried out across Europe and Russia during and after world war one. The relief work was undertaken by the Friends Meeting Yearly The Photos: © 2014 Society of the Religious Friends in Britain. (Quakers) Camel and horse team pull a supply cart, Buzuluk Emergency and War Victims Relief Committee and warehouse circa 1921-22. its predecessors, the Friends War Victims Relief Committee and the Friends Emergency Committee. Lisa McQuillan, deputy archivist at Friends House some marvellous shots of camels drawing carts full of library, shared ‘some intriguing highlights’ with Eye. food and medical supplies – horses were in very short ‘Among the photographs of conditions in famine- supply.’ hit Russia in 1921-1922, some of them harrowing, are The fifteen-month project, led by project archivist Jane Kirby and funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, has seen over 100 volumes and 100 boxes, including a huge number of photographs, listed and described on the library’s online catalogue: (http:// bit.ly/LibraryFEWVRC). Visitors to Friends House can currently view some of the striking images, along with archive material and museum objects, in a display in the library and ground floor corridor. However, Friends from further afield can also explore this historical record, Lisa explained: ‘if you can’t make it to Friends House, “World War I centenary: responding with compassion” is an accompanying online exhibition featuring highlights from the collection (www.quaker.org.uk/WWI- Camel and tractor, Russian famine relief work circa 1921-22. Responding-with-compassion).’ The plot thickens Comfort Well done eagle-eyed readers – is writing the testimony to the Jenny and Laurie Andrews you have risen to the occasion and life of Margaret Le Mare and the alerted Eye to a Quaker comment Sibford Gower Friends’ mysterious picture was hers. that appeared in the Guardian’s Meeting house (‘Calling all sleuths’, ‘She died in March, aged 107, interview with actor Jim Broadbent Eye – 21 November) has been and now we ask, did Margaret have on 27 November. identified! a link with Pickering Meeting? He talks about his parents, Several Friends swiftly spotted Elaine asked at Meeting on Sunday who were pacifists who ran a that the photo is none other than and no one can shed any light on repertory theatre out of a converted that of Pickering Meeting in this, but they did trawl through the Lincolnshire church, and mentions Yorkshire. However, the picture’s visitors books for some forty years. his time at the Quaker boarding Pickering connection has puzzled ‘It could, of course, be that all school Leighton Park. Sibford Gower Friends. those in the know are also no He adds: ‘Quakers are bright and Zoë Connor explains: ‘I had a longer with us… However, does clever people. I mean, of course, call from Elaine Rock and we had anyone now know why Margaret I’m not religious. But if I were, that a chat about it because this has all Le Mare had a picture of Pickering is where I would go for my spiritual come about because Judith Weeks Meeting house in her possession?’ comfort.’

16 the Friend, 5 December 2014 5 Dec 2/12/14 15:14 Page 5

Friends&Meetings Natalie LERNER 24 November. Wife Deaths of Laurence, mother of David, Edwin, Laying down meeting Martin, Richard, and grandmother. David APLIN 28 November. Member Aged 90. No flowers please, donations NEEDHAM MARKET LM The last of Swindon Meeting. Aged 85. Funeral to Save the Children. Memorial Meeting for Worship will be held at 11.15am, Thursday 11 December at Meeting at Lewes Friends Meeting 10.30am Sunday 28 December, Room Swindon Crematorium, Kingsdown House, 2pm Friday 12 December, to 4, Christchurch Halls (URC Hall), Road. Enquiries to Rachel Brockbanks which all Natalie’s friends are welcome. High Street, IP6 8AP, followed by 01793 719017 or mob. 07931 700799. shared lunch. All welcome. Enquiries Michael Medhurst: 01473 257649, Alistair MILNER 29 November. [email protected] Phyllis GIBSON 15 November. Husband of Beryl, father of Guy. Member of Huntingdon Meeting, for- Member of Perth Meeting (East merly of Cotteridge, Oxford, Scotland AM), formerly of Leeds AM. Diary Cambridge, Chester and King's Lynn Aged 69. Memorial Meeting in Meetings. Aged 98. For further details Yorkshire to be arranged in the spring. contact [email protected] or Enquiries: [email protected]. 10 JANUARY 2015, QUAKER 01480 454807. AFRICA INTEREST GROUP Priory Rooms, QMH, 40 Bull Street, Veronica HALLETT 28 November in Joan ROBSON (née Caley) 27 October. Birmingham. 10am for 10.30 to 4pm. Adbolton Nursing Home, Nottingham. Wife of Bryce, mother of Wendy and Refreshments/lunch available. All wel- Wife of Graham, mother of Alison and Bridget. Member of Newcastle upon come, to network and learn about Isabel, grandmother of Dylan, Evie Tyne Meeting, formerly Assistant Quaker witness in Africa. Contact: and Idris. Member of Nottingham Warden at Glenthorne. Aged 83. A [email protected] Meeting, formerly of Cardiff Meeting. Memorial Meeting to celebrate Joan’s Aged 79. Funeral 12.30 Monday life will be held at Newcastle upon 13-15 MARCH 2015 "ROOTS, 8 December, , Tyne Meeting House at 2pm, Saturday SHOOTS AND FRUITS” Quaker Arts Clarendon Street, Nottingham, fol- 17 January, followed by tea. All are Network residential weekend at lowed by lunch. A memorial meeting very welcome. to explore and will also take place in Cardiff Meeting deepen our Quaker experience in 2015. Enquiries: Isabel Cartwright, through the arts. Details/bookings: [email protected] or Changes to meeting www.quakerarts.net or call Caroline 07977163626. Coode 0191 212 0801. BRECON QUAKER MEETING Diana HYNARD (née Heath) From Sunday 11 January Brecon WORDS AGAINST WAR 24 November in hospital. Member of Friends will hold Meeting for Worship THROUGH THE AGES Sevenoaks Meeting, formerly of at The Old Museum, Glamorgan A poetry recital by Jane Lapotaire, Sutton, Toronto, Chapel Hill and Street, Brecon LD3 7DW at 10.30am 7pm Saturday 13 December at Bethesda Meetings. Aged 88. Funeral on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Sundays each Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House, 12.45pm, Friday 12 December at month. Enquiries: 01550 720150 / 59 Wandsworth High Street, London Tunbridge Wells Crematorium. [email protected] SW18 2PT. Retiring collection towards Meeting House funds. Enquiries: [email protected] Friends & Meeting notices For details of how to place a notice on this page, please see the Organising an event? Tell information box on page 18 overleaf. everyone with a Diary notice!

Working for a just world where people put people first Stephen Lloyd memorial fund We would like to thank everyone who has donated to Quaker Social Action in the memory of Stephen Lloyd. We were deeply moved by the decision of Stephen’s family to ask that friends and colleagues support our work. Those who knew Stephen have shared so many kind words and memories of a man with a profound belief in social justice. Stephen was committed to putting Quaker values into action and this will guide us as we use these generous and significant contributions. www.quakersocialaction.com Registered charity no. 1069157.

the Friend, 5 December 2014 17 5 Dec 2/12/14 15:14 Page 6

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