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discover the contemporary quaker waythe Friend
20 November 2015 £1.90
Positive money
2 the Friend, 20 November 2015
the Friend 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ Tel: 020 7663 1010 Fax: 020 7663 1182 www.thefriend.orgEditor: Ian Kirk-Smith [email protected] • Sub-editor: Trish Carn [email protected] • Production and office manager: Elinor Smallman
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Cover image: Money.Photo: Tristan Martin / flickr CC See pages 6 and 10-11.
CoNTENTS VoL 173 No 47
3 Thought for the Week: The other Ian Kirk-Smith
4-5 News6 A living wage Alan Sealy
7 Friends in Wales Martin Morley
8-9 Letters10-11 Positive money Sue Holden
12-13 From the archive: … in a broken world Compiled by Janet Scott
14 Surrendering to the Light Shanthini Cawson
15 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world16 Friends & Meetings
Are you alert to practices here and throughout the world which discriminate against people on the basis of who or what they are or because of their beliefs?
Bear witness to the humanity of all people, including those who break society’s conventions or its laws. Try to discern new growing points in social and economic life. Seek to understand the causes of injustice, social unrest and fear.
Are you working to bring about a just and compassionate society which allows everyone to develop their capacities and fosters the desire to serve?
Quaker faith & practice 1.02.33
3the Friend, 20 November 2015
Thought for the Week
David Bleakley’s father worked in the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast and once put rivets into the hull of the Titanic. His son followed in his footsteps and did an apprenticeship in the ‘yard’. Their family home was a small terrace house
in working class East Belfast. Then, in his twenties, David Bleakley left the shipyard to study economics at Ruskin College, Oxford.
In Oxford he became friends with an academic who was also from East Belfast. C S Lewis, however, lived ‘up the hill’ in the fresher air of a leafy middle-class neighbourhood. Despite their different backgrounds and paths to Oxford, both shared a curiosity for the world, a dry Ulster sense of humour and a faith.
David Bleakley went on to become a politician, representing the Northern Ireland Labour Party. He hated sectarianism. It was a cancer in society. However, in the early seventies his tolerant position, advocating a politics of cross-community cooperation, was swept away by parties playing the ‘orange’ or ‘green’ card. Bombs and murders were happening almost daily in Ulster. People were afraid. David Bleakley’s political career stopped, almost overnight, and he became a teacher at Methodist College Belfast. I was one of his first students.
Sectarianism, he believed, was based on fear: fear of ‘the other’. In Northern Ireland this meant the fear between Protestants and Catholics. Fear, he taught us, was mostly based on ignorance. People who feared ‘the other’ generally knew very little about them. They were often educated apart, lived apart and grew up apart. In this vacuum of ignorance, fear thrives. Stereotyping thrives. Bigotry thrives. Sectarianism thrives. Racism thrives.
Ignorance could only be confronted through understanding and knowledge. If people knew and understood more about each other, then they would not fear ‘the other’ to the same degree. They may disagree on matters of politics and religion, for example, but they would understand each other at a human level. People, when they connect on a human level, usually find some ‘common ground’. Some people sometimes act badly, very badly, but they are not representative of their group. People are basically good.
David Bleakley went on a position in the World Council of Churches. He worked tirelessly to promote a better understanding between different denominations within Christianity and between different faith groups. This week is Inter Faith Week. The aim is to promote understanding, cooperation and good relations between organisations and persons of different faiths in Britain. Many Quakers are involved in promoting interfaith work.
In the wake of the events in Paris on Friday 13 November, the bombing of the Russian A321 airliner, the massacre at Garissa University in Kenya, the bombing in Beirut, and other dreadful atrocities, it is a time, while condemning evil, to confront ignorance and promote understanding. It is also a time to remember the good in people.
Thousands have been queuing patiently to give blood in France this week. Where there is tragedy and suffering, the writer Fred Rogers once said: ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’
The other
Ian Kirk-Smitheditor, The Friend
4 the Friend, 20 November 2015
News
WOODBROOKE TUTOR Ben Pink Dandelion will discuss Pendle Hill on a forthcoming edition of BBC Radio 4’s Open Country.
Ben joins presenter Helen Mark on a visit to the Lancashire hill to discuss George Fox’s 1652 ascent and his vision of a ‘great people to be gathered’, which heralded the start of Quakerism. The Pendle Hill edition of Open Country will be broadcast on 26 November.
Pendle Hill on network radio
NORTHFIELD ECOCENTRE, a Central England Area Meeting project, has announced a new half-day training course on fuel poverty.
Community workers will be taught how to help their clients manage fuel bills. The course will cover issues such as energy saving, understanding running costs, and dealing with condensation and damp.
The sessions will be delivered by Phil Beardmore, an expert in fuel poverty and energy efficiency.
Fuel poverty training launchedNEARLY FIFTY PILGRIMS left London on 13 November to walk 200 miles to Paris to witness for action on climate change.
When they reach Paris, the pilgrims will call on world leaders to agree a fair, ambitious and binding climate deal at the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place from 30 November to 11 December.
The pilgrims were blessed before they left at a service at St Martin-in-the-Fields. Nicholas Holtam, the bishop of Salisbury, said:
‘We walk in solidarity for climate justice for the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. We are all aware of the impact of climate change and we cannot be the first generation to knowingly turn away from our responsibilities to protect the planet.’
Among the pilgrims who left London was Maud Grainger, Faith in Action tutor at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
Pilgrims set off for Paris
YOUNG FRIENDS from Penrith Meeting will walk from Penrith to Carlisle to raise money for relief in refugee camps.
The twenty-three-mile-long walk takes place on 22 November. Participants will raise money for the Carlisle One World Centre which, through an initiative called Calais Action Carlisle, will support refugees over the coming winter.
The money raised will help cover the cost of transporting donated tents and sleeping bags to the camps and to
support the volunteers going there to help.
Young Friends Rosalind Weir, Sophie Austin and Jamie Hartley said: ‘Our walk is only a fraction of the walk undertaken by the refugees, but as we travel we hope to reflect on their current plight, and that our hard work can make a small difference.’
The walkers will take The Miller’s Way, which was created as a tribute to nineteenth-century Quaker Jonathan Dodgson Carr, who walked from Kendal to Carlisle in 1831.
Young Friends highlight refugee crisis
BBC RADIO 4 has postponed its Sunday Worship Prisons Week broadcast, recorded at HMP Long Lartin. The broadcast was scheduled for 15 November, but postponed following the recent tragic events in Paris. The programme was to feature a contribution from a Quaker chaplain. The BBC hopes to broadcast the programme in the new year.
Broadcast postponed
CAMPAIGNERS gathered in London on 16 November to show solidary with activists who are resisting an arms fair in Wellington, New Zealand.
They met at the New Zealand High Commission, in the Haymarket, to stand in solidarity with Peace Action Wellington and others saying no to the arms trade in their city.
Arms fair action
‘LIvING WELL TOGETHER’ is one of the key themes for Inter Faith Week 2015, which takes place from 15 to 21 November.
The chairs and co-chairs of the organisers, the Inter Faith Network, released a statement following the attacks in Paris on 13 November.
In the statement, they said of Inter Faith Week 2015: ‘The events that the Week will see are a reminder of the reality and the importance of a positive coexistence.’
They added: ‘Tackling tough issues is part of this and on the agenda are those such as extremism, freedom of expression and responding to social ills such as poverty. Inter faith discussion and engagement does not just focus on easy issues; it is not just the province of those who agree. It is a challenging and vital process that needs, increasingly, to be part of the common discourse of our society.’
Inter Faith Week 2015
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND white poppies were sold in 2015, reflecting an upward trend in sales.
Jan Melichar of the Peace Pledge Union, which sells the poppies, told the Friend that the organisation will discuss later this year whether to increase production for 2016.
White poppy sales increase
5
[email protected] by Tara Craig
the Friend, 20 November 2015
THE LIBRARY at Friends House has lent four photographs to the victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood.
The photos will appear in the exhibition ‘On Their Own: Britain’s Child Migrants’. The exhibition tells the story of the estimated 100,000 children forced to emigrate to Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries between 1869 and 1970. Charities, government and religious organisations ran the schemes and claimed to offer the children a better life.
The Library’s photographs were taken by Horace Warner, who was the superintendent of the Sunday school at the Bedford Institute Association. They show children helped by the Institute, and highlight the extreme poverty that Friends were working to alleviate in the East End of London.
The exhibition is a collaboration between the Australian National Maritime Museum, National Museums Liverpool and the v&A Museum of Childhood.
Quaker photos on show at V&A
© R
elig
ious
Soc
iety
of
Frie
nds
(Qua
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ain.
MEMBERS OF LANCASTER Meeting’s Living Wage Project Group met their member of parliament on 13 November.
Ann Morgan and Caro Kelly spent an hour with Cat Smith, the Labour MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, and shadow minister for women and equalities. They spoke to her about the Quaker national Living Wage Campaign and their local action.
‘Our meeting was really an exchange of information and a discussion of the issues. We shared stories we had heard when witnessing, as did she from her constituents,’ Ann explained.
‘Cat is keen to keep in touch and has asked to be updated on our campaign. She is a Living Wage employer and we have encouraged her to seek accreditation,’ she added.
Living wage campaign
MEDICAL STAFF, arms control experts, peacebuilders and front-line humanitarian workers were among participants at Medact’s ‘Health Through Peace’ conference held at Friends House on 13 and 14 November.
Several hundred people heard the opening lecture from Paul Rogers, of the Bradford School of Peace Studies and the Oxford Research Group. He spoke about ‘War, violence and conflict: global trends 1945-2015’. Paul focused on the period between 1945 and 2045, which he referred to as ‘the century on the edge’. He questioned whether, two-thirds of the way through this ‘century’, cold war lessons have been learned
and sufficient wisdom gained ‘to learn to live within our worldwide limits’.
Conference and workshop sessions covered a broad range of topics. Many of these were particularly timely, such as the session on ‘New weapons and remote warfare’ and that on ‘Supporting refugees in the UK’.
Participants were also offered sessions on ‘Unpicking nuclear deterrence theory’, ‘Climate change and conflict’, and ‘Assessing the health impacts of war and conflict’, among other topics.
The Health Through Peace Lecture was delivered by activist and former UK climate envoy John Ashton and former South
African MP Andrew Feinstein. They discussed the state of global security, with a particular focus on how the health community can respond to war, militarisation and ecological collapse.
Frank Boulton, one of the organisers, said: ‘The central point is that in an ever increasingly uncertain world, fuelled by climate change, resource depletion, widening poverty gap, increasing population and much wider com-munications through the internet and social media (to which the educated but under-employed developing societies are particularly prone), war, including nuclear war, will become more likely and destructive.’
Medact conference highlights peace issues
Ann Morgan and Caro Kelly with their MP, Cat Smith, shadow secretary for Women and Equalities.
Pho
to: E
rica
Lew
is.
6 the Friend, 20 November 2015
At a meeting held in London on 2 November Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, announced the new London rate for the
Citizens UK Living Wage. It is £9.40 an hour – up from £9.15. Outside London it is £8.25 an hour. It was previously £7.85 an hour. This is voluntary and independently calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, and is recalculated every year based on the cost of living. It does not adjust the calculation on the potential adverse impact on numbers of jobs. Implicitly, the profitability of a business should not depend on the penury of the workforce.
This compares with the National Minimum Wage, which is currently £6.70 for adults over twenty-one, £5.30 for eighteen- to twenty-year-olds, £3.87 for sixteen- to seventeen-year-olds and £3.30 for apprentices. There is no premium for anyone working in London. There are three obvious significant differences:
• TheNationalMinimumWageis28.7percentlowerthan the new Living Wage in London and works out at £94.50 less per week based on a thirty-five-hour week – £4,914 annualised.
• ThecurrentleveloftheNationalMinimumWageis 18.8 per cent lower than the rate for the Living Wage outside London and works out at £54.25 less per week based on a thirty-five-hour week – £2,821 annualised.
• TheNationalMinimumWagecontinuestodiscriminate on age. The government has accepted the principle that workers doing the same job should be paid at the same rate. No discrimination is accepted on the basis of gender or colour but discrimination on the basis of age is accepted and is enshrined in the differentials in both the National Minimum Wage and the government’s ‘national living wage’ to be introduced next April moves the goalposts to twenty-five.
There are obvious loopholes, which some employers will no doubt take advantage of to avoid the statutory increases in National Minimum Wage levels. A reduction of contracted hours by thirty minutes per day would wipe out the effect of the pay rise. In addition, there may be a strategic decision to mitigate the effect
of the increased rate by reshuffling the workforce and employing more workers under twenty-five.
Neil Jameson, director of Citizens UK, has said: ‘Where are some of the UK’s biggest names on the issue of low pay? Companies such as BT, EDF and even John Lewis have yet to accredit, despite others in their sectors leading the way and showing it is possible. Life on less than the Living Wage is better described as survival; when living becomes the challenge of trying to exist from one payday to the next, what room does that leave for family life, for faith or for learning? That’s why today we are launching the Living Wage People’s Movement with thousands more local people getting involved and championing the Living Wage as the right way to reward staff.’
Even George Osborne’s announcement of a new national living wage payable to workers aged twenty-five and above from 1 April 2016 will still leave a very significant differential with Citizens UK Living Wage levels. It has not been effective in countering the heavy criticisms of the £12 billion planned cuts to the welfare budget. The key problem the government faces is that employers are effectively seeing state benefits as an indirect subsidy on their labour overhead. The government is now attempting to reduce that subsidy and labour is between a rock and a hard place.
If the government genuinely wants to reduce poverty it needs to set the Minimum Wage rate at the level proposed by Citizens UK for a Living Wage – with a significant premium for London – and enforce it effectively. If the government is brave enough to follow this strategy, there should be an increase in wages and salaries, some improvement in consumer confidence and spending, a mitigating impact on government expenditure on benefits and, perhaps, an increase in levels of unemployment. However, it is absolutely certain that the corporate sector will predict the penalty of very heavy job losses and the government will continue to bury its head in the sand.
There are no risk-free strategies – there seldom, if ever, are! One thing is certain, if the government pursues its current strategies the level of poverty will increase – particularly in London – and it will lose support.
Alan is a member of Harrow Meeting.
A living wage
Alan Sealy believes workers are now between a rock and a hard place
Opinion
7the Friend, 20 November 2015
We set off early for Welshpool: it is a two-hour drive from Bethesda, and we needed to be there in good time. Wales is a beautiful
country and the journey is an important part of the day. It took us through the mountains of Snowdonia, past ravishing autumnal trees and over bright and bare moors.
Meeting of Friends in Wales, which was held at Welshpool on Saturday 24 October, had a very full and wide-ranging agenda. In the morning we heard reports from Meeting for Sufferings, Quaker Life, and about the Quaker presence at the National Eisteddfod. We heard, also, about a thought-provoking workshop on ‘A vision for Wales’. The afternoon was mainly given over to an illustrated talk by Naseer Arafat, a Palestinian architect: ‘A Tour to Palestine Under Occupation’.
The flavour of Meeting for Friends in Wales is distinctly different from Area Meeting. It is more centred on outward affairs, especially with the Welsh Assembly, and is developing a strong relationship with Cŷtun (Churches Together in Wales). A theme that ran through several items was the need for Friends to seek out and work with people and organisations with shared aims, in order to avoid constantly re-inventing the wheel.
The most substantive item in the morning was the report of the ‘vision for Wales’ workshop, which was attended by about thirty Friends, including Gethin Rhys of Cŷtun, Elizabeth Allen of General Meeting for Scotland, and Jessica Metheringham, parliamentary engagement officer for Britain Yearly Meeting. It was valuable to have perspectives from outside Wales. It was noted that where Meetings engage with politics they could become more vibrant.
A great deal of the work of Meeting of Friends in Wales happens between Meetings, with the above workshop as a case in point, and also at other specifically Welsh events. Cynthia Rowland described, very graphically, the difficulties and the ultimate satisfaction of arranging for the Quaker presence at the National Eisteddfod in an area where there are few Welsh speakers.
An important concern raised during the Meeting was the increasing militarisation of society, especially
in schools. Mid Wales Area Meeting have addressed this by instigating a programme of peace education in schools for years two to seven covering basic conflict resolution, handling anger, cooperation and peer mediation. At present this initiative is a six-week, one hour per week programme.
Naseer Arafat is a Palestinian architect who has made a detailed photographic study of the occupation. His talk in the afternoon, ‘A Tour to Palestine Under Occupation’, was given in a very matter of fact but moving way. It told of a country that has never known peace in recent times. I’m seventy-one now and have never experienced a war zone. Naseer described the lives of a generation that have known little else. By intercutting images of people going about their everyday routines as best they can, with maps that showed the ever-greater fragmentation of Israel and Palestine into an increasingly complex web of disjointed parts, he gave a feeling of the hopelessness and senselessness of the situation. Pervading all was the infamous wall that snaked round and through communities: dividing and separating. ‘To exist is to resist’ was a slogan in one of the images. May we learn from others’ stories. May we act upon them so that justice and peace may prevail and resistance is no longer necessary, because the full humanity of each is acknowledged.
Following the talk, another report highlighted other work by Friends in Wales. It concerned the Wales for Peace project and Cymru’n Cofio, the Welsh Assembly government’s official world war one remembrance committee. The Birmingham Quaker ‘Faith and Action’ exhibition had greatly impressed Cymru’n Cofio, and it is hoped that it can be recreated in a ‘Wales-centred’ version with a translation, additionally highlighting Friends’ war, and peace-related work to the present. It was made clear that Cymru’n Cofio would be financing this. The Meeting warmly embraced this initiative.
The journey home illustrated how one shouldn’t be a slave to the ‘sat nav’. One false turning and I found that I had added thirty minutes to the drive home.
Martin is a member of North Wales Area Meeting.
Report
Friends in Wales
Martin Morley reports on a recent Meeting of Friends in Wales
8
All views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Friend
the Friend, 20 November 2015
LettersHealth through peaceWhile an audience of over 700 in ‘the Light’ at Friends House last Friday, 13 November, were learning about the depth of greed and corruption behind the international arms trade, hundreds were being maimed and killed, in Paris and elsewhere, by the products of that trade.
Fear, global deprivation, denial of justice, and preservation of ‘the rich’ merely accelerate the fire of this roaring trade: but Friends, we must be brave and stay true to our testimony of denying all outward forms of fightings.
We have to respond to the proponents of revenge by emphasising that the growing spiral of violence can only be broken by peace and reconciliation, however hard these may be to achieve.
These are not naïve hopes: any progress will be difficult and bound occasionally to falter, but would, ultimately, lead to a more stable security than we have at present, making it more likely that humankind, in its amazing diversity, will survive in a truly meaningful way.
Frank BoultonSouthampton Meeting, Hampshire
‘Our faith in the future’ Is something missing? I have just read the new – beautifully illustrated – leaflet and chapter 23 of Quaker faith & practice in quick succession – the latter as part of our re-reading Quaker faith & practice project. The new leaflet is fine as far as it goes but I felt something was missing. On re-reading chapter 23 I found it: the inspiration and challenge of the life and teaching of Jesus. That has been a recurrent source of strength and empowerment for Quakers over the centuries. Our witness for truth and justice is rooted there. May we not forget that!
David L SaundersCaprice, Clubbs Lane, Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk NR23 1DP
White poppiesAs the season of Remembrance-tide draws to a conclusion, I commend General Meeting for Scotland for their initiative in sending a white poppy to each member of the Scottish assembly and to Scottish MPs at Westminster (30 October). I hope they have been wearing them, though not many have been in evidence on television news programmes.
I must take issue with the convenor of their parliamentary liaison function group, who suggests that acts of remembrance in some way ‘glorify war’. If this has been her experience or perception she has been most unfortunate. To the best of my recollection, all of those I have attended or been involved in arranging
over sixty years have been sincere expressions of gratitude to those who have made the supreme sacrifice. They have shown concern to assist those who still bear the mental or physical scars of war and always concluded with a personal and community rededication to work for peace and justice for all people.
More recently, they have also included a commemoration of ‘the innocent victims of oppression, violence and war’. As the revered tomb of the ‘unknown warrior’ rests just inside Westminster Abbey, just outside is the memorial to these innocent victims with the watchword ‘Remember’ and the inscription from the biblical book of Lamentations: ‘Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?’
I believe this message is significant to everyone, whether received, ignored or rejected. War is messy and an acknowledgement of failure in international relationships. No sane person could ever glorify it.
John MorleyKettering Meeting, Northamptonshire
The worst of human failuresThe moving poem by George Evans in David Lockyer’s reflection (6 November) has its antecedent in Wilfred Owen’s ‘Strange Meeting’, 1918:
I am the enemy you killed, my friend.I knew you in this dark: for so you frownedYesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.I parried: but my hands were loath and cold.Let us sleep now…George’s words, like those of Wilfred Owen, will
outlast the offence felt by those whose remembrance is only partial.
Anthony WilsonLichfield Meeting, Staffordshire
PrisonerA prisoner, writing about how much his contact with Friends has helped him, wonders how different it might be outside the walls: ‘Would attenders still be accepting of me… us… as they are here?’ (13 November).
I am afraid there is no guarantee of acceptance.Another prisoner, a sex offender, for whom I
coordinate a support group of five dedicated Quakers, was on the verge of being released. He had been a member for over seven years and was the mainstay of the prison’s Quaker Meeting. Having no family ties, he wanted to live in a town close to us but which also had a Quaker Meeting. The area safeguarding officer and I followed procedural advice from Friends House. It was explained to representatives of the Meeting in question that four members of the support group were active and experienced in Circles of Support and Accountability and would, for as long as the Meeting considered it necessary, take it in turns to always
9the Friend, 20 November 2015
The Friend welcomes your views.
Do keep letters short (maximum 250 words).
Please include your full postal address, even when sending emails, and specify whether you wish for your postal or email address or Meeting name to be used with your name.
Letters are published at the editor’s discretion and may be edited.
In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty,
in all things charity.
accompany him. Even so, it was clear from the initial contacts that he
would not be welcome. For a man, who has turned his life around and
personifies the power of Quakerism, to be rejected in this way is cruel beyond words. In his support group, there is hurt and incomprehension and, speaking for myself, after thirty-five years as a member, I am not at all sure where I stand now.
Name and address supplied
Outrage in ParisPeople are still reeling from the terrorist attacks on Paris, and life in Europe may not be the same again as security will undoubtedly be higher. People’s sense of safety will feel compromised, especially in capital cities. ‘9/11’ and ‘7/7’ are still within memory. Now this outrage will likely be dubbed ‘13/11’ unless the Americans describe it as 11/13. The horror of 13 November is very much a black Friday in many people’s minds.
It could be that Europe, used to peace since world war two, has been lulled into a false sense of security. One country that understands the full threat of Islamic terror, where I worked for ten years, is Israel. It is surrounded by Islamic states, many of whom have issued threats on Israel’s annihilation as a democratic state. I witnessed suicide bombs at close range and could fully understand the security measures taken to protect innocent citizens from impossible to predict attacks, although the world seemed to expect Israel to remain with its hands tied.
Now the spectre of terror appears to be on our own doorsteps. The talk from France seems to be of high security and even ‘war’. Why is Israel criticised for doing the same? As Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, put it: ‘We live in a tough neighbourhood.’ Europe may not live in a ‘tough neighbourhood’ but, with the latest migrant crisis, mostly from Islamic countries, we may find that that neighbourhood is slowly but surely moving to us – we may even need advice from Jerusalem.
Colin NevinBangor, Northern Ireland
Men in shedsIs there any Friend out there who is involved in the development of this very fascinating self-help initiative among the men of the UK?
Having just read The Men’s Sheds Movement by Barry Golding and, hopefully myself being part of a local launch in Bourton-on-the-Water, I would be glad to hear from anyone with experience of a Shed.
Small or large, they provide a meeting and work place for older men who might enjoy the
companionship of fellow ‘make-do or menders’, a chance to chat and have a cup of tea. Founded in Australia in the 1990s, it has become an international movement proving a lifeline for many men who find other social groups and clubs unattractive.
Friends would find the idea much in line with our ideas of simplicity, equality and welcome.
If you have not heard of it yet, a search for ‘Men in Sheds’ on Google will tell you all about it.
Howard [email protected]
Power cutsI read Peter Juler’s letter ‘Power Cuts’ (30 October) with interest. He invites further suggestions for illuminating the non-daylight hours. I live in rural Cornwall, where there are no street lights. I carry a wind-up/dynamo torch in my car at all times, and another one in my coat pocket in winter; this ensures I never come to my torch and find the battery flat. These torches are available in different shapes and sizes from various manufacturers (no product placement here). You will find them in the outdoor pursuit retailers and in the sections of magazines, journals and websites that sell slightly ‘unusual’ or ‘different’ things. I also have a long strip-light-type torch (with a hook on one end and a magnet on the other). It is rechargeable from the mains and from the car’s twelve-volt outlet. I bought this in a builders’ merchant.
Wind-up/dynamo head torches are also available as are dynamo radios, which may be a useful resource during a powercut.
Richard HallidaySt Austell Meeting, Cornwall
10 the Friend, 20 November 2015
We were at a Quaker conference on economic justice, sitting in home groups and discussing the world’s economic problems, when my
neighbour turned to me and whispered in my ear: ‘You realise that the problems we are discussing result from the fact that ninety-seven per cent of all our money is created by private profit-seeking banks as debt.’
At first, I couldn’t take in what he was saying. Money creation had never been mentioned to me before. It had certainly never come up at any Quaker conference on economic justice that I had attended. I was rather surprised. My neighbour, having made his comment, saw my reaction to it, and then continued: ‘You don’t have to believe me, read The Grip of Death by Michael Rowbotham’.
I am not much of a reader, but discovered that the book was free on the Internet. I had a look and, after perusing the first chapter, was hooked. It was then that I discovered Positive Money: a group of young people giving their all to researching and raising awareness of the current money system, with well thought-out ideas for establishing a more stable economy. I went to the second annual Positive Money conference, trained as a Positive Money speaker and became a passionate disciple of the monetary reform campaign.
The present system of money
I am not an economist. I’m not good at dealing with statistics, graphs and percentages. However, I am a Quaker. As Quakers we are known for our involvement in promoting social justice. I became passionately concerned about the way the present system of money creation flies in the face of our Quaker testimonies to truth, peace, equality and simplicity.
I was inspired to reach out to those who are unaware of the unjust way in which money is created. I mused on the possibility of being funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) in order to take the message to Quaker Meetings around the country. I put in an application and, to my delight, was successful.
Over the last eighteen months I have done just that. JRCT gave me a grant that enabled me to visit sixteen Area Meetings over a period of eighteen months. These included North and Mid Wales, North London, Devon and Cornwall and various others in between.
Obstacles and opportunities
My full workshop ran from 11am to 3.30pm, with a lunch break in between. In the morning I offered a description of the existing money system and the problems it causes. We started with the first ten minutes of Paul Grignon’s Money as Debt video in order to introduce an historic perspective. This was followed by members of the group reading a short, ten-minute, play that I wrote, which offered a child’s perspective on money creation. The morning session finished with a twenty-minute video clip of Ben Dyson describing ‘the problem’ at an early Positive Money conference. The morning was punctuated by a couple of ‘turn to your neighbour’ slots for folk to hear their own voices.
The afternoon session took the form of a forty-five-minute slide show illustrating Positive Money’s full proposals. We then broke into small groups to address two questions. First, what are the obstacles as individuals and/or groups to get behind monetary reform? Second, what are our opportunities to get behind monetary reform?
I’ve always tried to remember that I’ve been asking
Economic justice
Positivemoney
Sue Holden writes about money creation and the need for monetary reform
11the Friend, 20 November 2015
my audience to accept in three hours something that took me six months to understand – that money is created as debt and the wider implications of this fact. I have aimed to whet the appetite for continued learning and I have always left behind material and suggestions to encourage further research.
Truth is power
Truth is power. I felt more powerful once I had been initiated into the truth behind the nigh-on fraudulent monetary system and the way it contributes to so much instability and injustice in society. To me, it is more important to spread the word about the nature of the problem than be definitive about the solution.
It has not always been easy. Since I completed my tour recently, it is difficult to evaluate the true impact. Whilst I’ve probably recruited well over 100 new supporters for Positive Money, I have received a smaller response to the questionnaire I send out three months after my visit. Sometimes I think of the tour as a small drop in a very large ocean. However, almost all who did respond have at least raised the topic with family and friends. Most have visited the Positive Money website, read further and watched video clips. Many have written to their MPs. A few have moved their money.
The series of workshops has, nevertheless, provided an opportunity to raise awareness of the wider implications of allowing money to be created as debt and the way this process counters every one of our Quaker testimonies. I think of myself as having sent out money creation awareness tendrils into various communities around the country, with the hope that some Friends, at least, might feel inspired and impassioned to pick up the baton.
I am pleased to have learned recently that members of the North London Meeting I visited are planning a bigger, more centrally placed workshop on the topic in October 2016. After my visit folk in North Wales started an ongoing group, which has taken a proposal for starting a Quaker Credit Union to Meeting for Sufferings. There is also a move towards starting a regional Positive Money group in that area. Members of another Meeting I visited are keen to take the issue of monetary reform to Sufferings. Maybe I can count the ocean drops as two!
Sue is a member of Leyburn Meeting.
Further information: http://positivemoney.org
How Money is Made/Created by Ben Dyson can be viewed at: http://bit.ly/BenDysonvideo
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12 the Friend, 20 November 2015
Towards the end of 1915 news began to filter through to Britain of terrible massacres in Armenia. The Friend recorded a disturbing
statistic on 15 October:
In the House of Lords, in course of a short debate on the Armenian massacres, Lord Bryce expressed his opinion that the report that 800,000 persons had been destroyed was probably true.
In the same edition the Friend reported correspon-dence from Alexandria on the situation in Armenia. It offered a human insight – the story of a refugee with ‘a terrible tale to tell’ of her experiences in Syria since the beginning of the war:
She was one of the civilian prisoners from Syria and Asia Minor interned at Urfa… The men were sent there from Damascus in June, the womenfolk following a few weeks later. Consequently they were in that city on August 19th, when the massacre of Armenians began. “It seems that the massacre must have been organised, for a systematic house-to-house visitation took place. All the men were shot or otherwise done to death, and the women and children were turned out of the town into the desert, where most of them starved to death.”
Immediately after the Urfa massacre the Turks began sending their female prisoners away; hence the arrival of many of those refugees in Egypt. The correspondent reports that in August a large part of the Syrian population had fled inland, and Beyrout is like a city of the dead, continually quaking under rumours of an impending bombardment by the cruisers of the Allies. The oil supply has given out and provisions are scarce.
A later report on American missions in Turkey, published on 3 December, provided more information on the unfolding tragedy:
…all these buildings now emptied, closed and sealed by Turkish authorities; the Armenian professors and instructors killed, the others scattered; the hundreds of students, girls as well as young men, carried off, many of them to a nameless fate; churches emptied; the Armenian community swept away; work at a standstill.
…bringing comfort…
Elsewhere, the broad-ranging relief work of Friends, such as the support given to interned civilians, continued to be reported in the magazine:
The representatives of the Society of Friends, Mrs. Rozelaar and Miss Rees, arrived at Boxtel early on the morning of November 6th… to meet the interned civilians from Ruhleben passing through Holland to England… After being held up for examination on the frontier for four hours, the train arrived near midnight with 108 men and 6 women. They had had nothing to eat or drink beyond what they had with them on leaving Ruhleben at 7 that morning and many were in a state of exhaustion, so that the refreshments liberally provided by the people of Boxtel put new life into them.
As well as the Friends Ambulance Service, which celebrated the completion of its first year’s work with a concert and dinner, there was a British Ambulance Unit for Italy in which some Friends served. On 19 November there was a report of their activities:
The mud has been very bad and on several of our most severe nights’ work the rain has been torrential. In the mountains with so much traffic on the roads particularly at night, and even under conditions compelling the disuse of lights, it is a wonder that we have no severe accident to relate… Our chief difficulty has been due to want of men… as there has
From the archive
…in a broken worldThe war on the Western Front, after more than a year of conflict, had reached a stalemate by the autumn of 1915. Quakers in Britain were increasingly well informed of the situation. Friends were also beginning to get more detailed information of events elsewhere in Europe.
13the Friend, 20 November 2015
been a call for day and night work without ceasing for nearly all the past week… We cannot praise too highly the spirit of the drivers and mechanics in these circumstances who have worked day and night without complaint.
Queen Alexandra Hospital
British Friends were extremely well informed of the work done in their name. A report on 12 November carried a description of the daily duties of hospital orderlies at the Queen Alexandra Hospital:
First, the patients must be wakened and either induced or assisted to wash – a task which varies in length according as the number of lying down cases is large or small. At 6 a.m. breakfast of chocolate or coffee and bread and butter is served. Thereafter, until his own breakfast time, the orderly is engaged on work of cleaning, – and how much there is in a ward to be cleaned no one who has not tried can imagine. For most of the day, in fact, he is scrubbing or sweeping, if he is not carrying meals.
Great quantities of clothes were needed for those who had lost everything. Many Friends were involved in gathering ‘bundles’ for distribution. In the 3 December edition S R Day writes from Bar-le-Duc:
One is sometimes tempted to believe that sewing-classes and working bees labour under the delusion that all the children in France were born in 1911 and are all girls, so many bales disgorge mountains of little girls’ garments! Sometimes, too, we fear that we are inculcating vanity in the young. Children jump for joy when they see the new dresses emerging from their bundles, while one wee mite of three, a fair-haired, blue-eyed, solemn creature, fitted with a knitted coat refused point-blank to take it off and marched triumphantly home in it.
Planning for Christmas
In England the Emergency Committee for Helping Aliens was in touch with over a thousand adults, mostly the wives of interned men, and about 1800 children, many of whom were suffering from hardship and poverty. As Christmas approached the Friend, on 3 December, carried an appeal by the committee for help:
Most of the homes will be sad and lonely this Christmas from the absence of the husband and father. Our Committee feels that some special kindness shown at that time would be doubly welcome…
Friends in country places might be glad to help us
with gifts of toys (dressed dolls, stuffed animals, or wooden animals which will last and be a permanent source of pleasure to the little owners). We do not want expensive things… but they should be durable and practical…
Friends in many of the London meetings are kindly planning to hold parties of the alien families in their districts, at which these presents will be distributed. About twenty Christmas trees would be an acceptable donation…
Besides these presents we very much desire to be able to give to each family an additional grant, say one shilling for an adult and sixpence for each child, to enable them to have a good dinner on Christmas Day. We hope to send out with the money a menu, worked out by an expert, showing how, for the money sent, a dinner, – meat of some sort or a rabbit, with vegetables and a pudding, can be provided at present-day prices. We hope that our men Friends will want to contribute in money towards this.
In Holland Friends had set up workshops in the refugee camps. At Ede some of the refugees were involved in planning a party. A report was carried in the edition of 24 December:
Our own workroom has been enlarged… [and] here about 60 girls are variously employed. At present great amusement is afforded by the toys which the girls are busily making for Christmas. Wonderful animals and dolls and Teddy Bears are evolved from scraps of material and waste wool and fibre. There is to be a Christmas party arranged and paid for by these girls; each girl is giving 1/2d. per week out of her wages and may bring one or perhaps two children to a tea. The collected pence will nearly, if not quite, cover the expense of the tea, and as we are hoping to make almost all the toys for these children in our workrooms, they themselves will have the happiness of giving Christmas cheer to the little ones.
And by the way…
The war, however, did not totally dominate the pages of the Friend. On 12 December a book review on The Antiquity of Man informs Friends that:
The Piltdown skull represents the oldest human remains yet found in England. “All the essential features of the brain of modern man are to be seen in the Piltdown brain-cast.”
‘From the archive’ is researched and compiled by Janet Scott. She is a member of Cambridgeshire Area Meeting.
14 the Friend, 20 November 2015
Experiment with Light
Surrendering to the Light
It is sometimes hard to imagine that eighteen years ago we were making our way from Canada to the UK looking for a more peaceful, meaningful way of
life and ended up being wardens at a Quaker Meeting house. Now, here we were going to a Quaker retreat at Shallowford House on Experiment with Light.
While being wardens we had also taken to Meeting for Worship like ducks to water. We attended nearly every Meeting for Worship for eighteen years. So, when my husband Dave and I were first introduced to Experiment with Light at our Local Meeting we recognised its potential quite quickly.
We followed Rex Ambler’s six steps religiously, and we all stayed with the programme for at least ten years, meeting once a month. It was a deeply meaningful practice for all of us, and the core group remained while others came and went. Strangely enough, I never felt the need to explore the reasons behind the practice until quite recently. Since then we have moved and have been with two other groups, each exploring slightly different methods of experimenting with the Light. When a member of the Experiment with Light Steering Group suggested that we get more involved we jumped at the opportunity. It felt right. It was time to explore the meaning behind the practice, the reasons for the practice and why it holds such appeal among Quakers and others.
It was lovely to finally meet Rex – a caring, gentle and very interesting person – who guided us throughout the weekend and gave us clear, deep insights into the practice. He is, as they say, walking the walk. According to Rex, Experiment with Light is a practice to find the truth by knowing ourselves. So, what does that mean, then, to ‘Know Oneself ’? We know that the words ‘Know Thyself ’ was inscribed in the vestibule of the temple at Delphi:
‘Apollo’s famous imperative “Know Thyself ” expresses an inner wisdom widely acknowledged in the world’s sacred traditions. Many ancient Greeks understood it as prescriptive advice, a restorative cure for mankind’s ills; others took it as a prophetic riddle to be solved. For Socrates it was both, and his life exemplified the importance of its message: “I must first know myself, as
the Delphian inscription says. To be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous… Am I a monster more complicated and swollen with passion than the serpent Typhon, or a creature of a gentler and simpler sort, to whom nature has given a diviner and lowlier destiny?’
(Phaedrus, 229-30)
To know yourself is to find the truth about oneself, says Rex, and getting to the truth through the silence and stillness, the patient waiting, the promptings of conscience. So, what does Experiment with Light really do for us? More importantly, what does it do for me? As George Fox said: ‘What canst thou say?’
Experiment with Light is a slow and steady process, and, even if nothing ‘special’ happened during meditation, I always left with an awaking of this ‘life and love and unity with other human beings’. Meeting for Worship does this, too, in a sense, but Experiment with Light had the capacity to take me even further, particularly when I allowed the Light in or was able to let more Light in.
Was I ready to face the truth about myself? Could I do it this time? These questions always emerge when one is tuned in to the practice. Early Friends used it to get closer to each other and to trust in each other enough to allow the deeper, often darker, thoughts to emerge and for the Light to dissolve these fears.
I have found this meditation especially helpful when I have had some darkness in my own life. It is uncanny how the Light dissolves these fears and then I am more able to deal with the situation. To talk about one’s darkness is very difficult and it is only really possible if there is complete trust and acceptance within a group. It actually brings people closer if they reveal something of themselves. Our own vulnerability is what makes us human and lovable. So, we should not be afraid to ‘surrender to the Light’. Rex says in his guided meditation that ‘this is a process we do well to go through again and again, so that we can continue to grow and become more like the people we are meant to be’.
Shanthini is a member of Liverpool Meeting.
Shanthini Cawson reflects on her experience
the Friend, 20 November 2015
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A STEAMING DISH, a chance phone call and the inventiveness of four foodie Friends inspired Reading Friend Lyn Wright (née Harris) to get in touch with Eye:
‘I was talking on the phone today to my daughter in Brighton and discovered that we were both about to enjoy a dish of delicious Yeowhihafo for our teas.
‘This is a dish invented during the last war by a group of Quaker women from New Barnet consisting of grated carrot, sliced onions, rolled oats (Quaker, of course!) and cheese. All cooked in
a slow oven in a mixture of tomato puree and yeast extract.
‘The name came from the first letters of the women involved: “yeo” – Yeoman, “whi” – Whiteman, “ha” – Harris (my mother) and “fo” – Ford.
‘There is a possibility that it was from Saffron Walden, not Barnet, as we lived some time with both.
‘It set me wondering if the children of any of these families are still eating Yeowhihafo, which is being passed down the generations, as it is in my family. I would love to know.’
Yeowhihafo
CHURCH BUILDINGS have been discussed in the Guardian in recent months, with both Giles Fraser and Simon Jenkins writing on the subject.
One paragraph in Simon Jenkins’ piece of 22 October, entitled ‘England’s churches can survive – but the religion will have to go’, caught the attention of Jenny and Laurie Andrews, from Essex: ‘I have on my wall a picture of a Georgian tithe-collector squeezing cash out of a protesting Quaker merchant. The tithe is to maintain the vicar in the style to which “heritage” has accustomed him, and the merchant wants none of it.’ This conjuring of the Quaker merchant is to illustrate a point regarding public ownership of Church of England properties. He goes on: ‘When the medieval church stung the nation’s taxpayers to erect grandiose buildings, it offered no exemption to unbelievers. Nor when the victorians rebuilt these churches was there any relief of tithes.
Today’s churches belong to all of us for the simple reason that all of us paid for them in the first place.’
The question of churches
ARTISTIC and adventurous Friends at Tavistock Meeting in Devon held what they hope will be the first of a new annual event in October.
Local Friend Sandy Douglas writes: ‘As part of Quaker Week (3-11 October) the Tavistock Meeting held an art exhibition to celebrate the amazing talent of our members and attenders.’
The exhibition included sculptures by Bill Cramer and David Williams, photography by Alan Ray-Jones and vic Ashton, mixed media pieces by Maggi Squire and Wendy Miller, paintings by Angela Hooper and drawings by Mary Andrews.
The exhibition, however, was not just a feast for the eyes: ‘To entice visitors through the door free cake was on offer, these cakes were particularly unusual as they had been made by the male members of our Meeting. For many this was the first time they had made a cake (living adventurously). In one case it had taken eighty-five years.
‘The cake and art were a great success, bringing a real feeling of community, and we hope that this will become an annual event.’
Community, cake and art
SOME FRIENDS’ teetotal tendencies have not always won favour, particularly not with those who have a discerning taste in tipples.
Rosalind Kaye, of Colchester Meeting, spotted evidence of this in My Dear Hugh: Letters from Richard Cobb to Hugh Trevor-Roper and others, edited by Tim Heald.
In a letter written to Hugh Trevor-Roper, dated 21 January 1989, Richard Cobb writes: ‘Yes, I do agree about the Quakers, a close-knit, dangerous community, extremely self-satisfied, and with a thing about drink.
‘I suffered under one, a very rich, very self-assured Amercian… In the summer of 1935, when I was doing some part-time work in their headquarters in the Fleischmarkt [in vienna].
‘More recently, I went over to Saffron Walden to talk to a couple about a Merton contemporary of mine… and they gave me lunch, with APPLE JUICE to wash it down: one of the worst experiences of my life… Whatever one may say about Catholics, they do give you a decent drink.’
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Friends&Meetings
Quaker Congo Partnership UKWe are seeking new trusteesThey should have experience of the Quaker business method and an interest insub Saharan Africa. Some knowledge of French, fundraising and development workwould also be valuable. QCP UK contributes funding and mentoring to projectsmanaged by Congolese Quakers, all based near Lake Tanganyika and theBurundian border. The projects include a small hospital, trauma counselling, women’s credit andclean drinking water. We work mainly by email; meeting three or four times a year in Leicester,Cambridge or Manchester.If you are interested, check our website - www.quakercongo.org - or contact HannahMorrow - [email protected] - for more information. Reg charity no. 1159781
MUSICIANS for PEACE and DISARMAMENTPresents a
CONCERT FOR PEACE7.30pm WEDNESDAY 2 DECEMBER 2015
ST JAMES’S CHURCH197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL
Wagner Siegfried-Idyll Haydn Cello 2 Schubert 3Conductor Howard Williams Soloist Joy Lisney
For details, online booking and ticket order form go towww.mana.org.uk or have a word on 020 8455 1030
Rachel E DARLINGTON3 November, peacefully at home.Widow of Deryk. Member ofBournville Meeting, formerly ofKelso and Northfield. Aged 89.Funeral at Lodge Hill Crematorium,Selly Oak, Birmingham 12 noonFriday 27 November.
Patricia HILL 9 November, peace-fully at home of cancer. Wife ofRoger, mother of Godfrey and Laura,grandmother to Finley, Isobel,Angus and Rosemary. Member ofDerby Meeting, formerly Aberdeen,Sutton Coldfield and Wimbledon.Aged 68. Funeral at MuggintonChurch, Derbyshire DE6 4PG,12 noon, Wednesday 25 November.Funeral directors:[email protected] 01332 550033 [email protected]
Patricia GILLETT (née Midgley)2 November. Widow of Roger,mother of Martin, Patrick, Donaldand Godfrey. Member of SaleMeeting. Aged 94. Funeral atAltrincham Crematorium, 3pmFriday 20 November. Memorialmeeting to be announced.
SATISH KUMAR: SOIL, SOUL,SOCIETY Working towards a moreholistic world view we can act tobring Environment, Spirituality andHumanity together... Saturday 21November 2 – 5pm. The MeditatioCentre, London EC1R [email protected] 020 7278 2070
NAMING OUR SPIRITUAL GIFTSFriday 27 - Sunday 29 November.Thomas Swain. As part preparationfor Yearly Meeting 2016! What am Isupposed to be doing? £165.Glenthorne Quaker Guest House.Grasmere. Tel: 015394 35389,Email: [email protected]
THE ART OF WORSHIP with TheKindlers. Wednesday 25 November,6.30 for 7pm start – 8.30pm.‘Needing others: hurting and helping.’Participatory worship workshop ledby Thomas Swain, Philadelphia YM.Experiencing, questioning, exploring.Friends House, Euston, London. Free.
JUST THIS DAY Silence, words andmusic. Wednesday 25 November.Join in wherever you are. Log on towww.justthisday.org at 10am to bewith us in the morning at St Martin-in-the-Fields or 6.30pm at St James'sChurch, Piccadilly in the evening.
20 Nov 17/11/15 14:20 Page 6
the Friend, 20 November 2015 17
Quaker Weekissue stillavailable!We have hadgreat feedback forour special colourQuaker Weekissue. You canstill buy them at £1 each inmultiples of 10, including UK post!Send orders with a cheque payableto The Friend to:Penny Dunn, The Friend,173 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BJ
Can we work together to give a life-changing education to young Bolivians?The “Internado” hostel, originally established by Bolivian, Irish and US Quakers,provides a safe and secure home in the town of Sorata in the Bolivian Andes forabout 20 secondary-school children. They come from surrounding villages, andwould not be able to attend school without this boarding house (see The Friend,14 August 2015). The cost of this life-changing hostel is only £300 per student peryear – but funding is an ongoing struggle in the current economic climate.
What if, say, 20 Friends or Meetings were each able to contribute £25 a month(£300 a year)? Such a “Friends of the Internado” network could provide much-needed ongoing support for this exceptional facility. We welcome inquiries, ideas, help with organisation and potentialoffers of financial support. If this special project speaks to you, we would be very glad to hear from you!
Chris Stotesbury (Wincanton Meeting): [email protected] Gabuzda (Cork Meeting): [email protected] or telephone 00 353 21 455 4702
CelebratingOur
DiversityExploring Varieties ofNontheist Experience
Sharing experiences andlearning from one another.
Engage with ways of beingand expressing ourselves
Woodbrooke QuakerStudy Centre
Birmingham B29 6LJ1–3 April 2016
Bursaries can be applied for.For more details and
Registration Form please visitwww.nontheist-quakers.org.uk
Or contactSarah Siddle,
16 Maltby Court,Darlington DL1 4DZ
NontheistFriendsNetwork
Britain Yearly Meeting
Vibrancy in MeetingsProgramme Co-ordinator Salary: £25,841 (£32,302 pro rata) subject to review. Contract FixedTerm - 3.5 Years. Hours: Part-time – 28 Hours Per Week (includingsome evenings and most weekends). Location: Flexible and TBC
We're seeking an enthusiastic, pragmatic, optimistic person toco-ordinate the Vibrancy in Meetings Pilot Programme. You will leada team of regionally based development workers to find ways ofhelping Quaker meetings get the support they need and want fromBritain Yearly Meeting, Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, otherQuaker groups and each other.
You will deliver this exciting, new pilot programme to trial a differentway of supporting Quaker communities to develop into what theywant to become. If you can say yes to these questions, we’d love youto apply:
• Can you lead a small, dispersed, national team to deliver high quality community development work, making the best use of theresources at your disposal?
• Do you have the skills to help your team prioritise their work in theways that will best enhance the life of Quaker meetings?
• Can you plan, co-ordinate and help evaluate the programme, beingclear about what needs to happen and why, and making it happenin a joyful and open way?
• Are you a good listener who is open to exciting ideas, but with theability to test and develop ideas with rigour?
• Are you sympathetic to Quaker values and committed to theconcept of developing more vibrant Quaker meetings?
• Can you work effectively with diversity and overcome barriersdiplomatically, even when things get difficult?
Closing Date: Thursday 3 December 2015 (12pm)Interviews: Monday 14 or Wednesday 16 December 2015 in Birmingham.
For further details please visit www.quaker.org.uk/jobs
Registered charity no: 1127633.
20 Nov 17/11/15 14:20 Page 7
miscellaneous
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booksQUAKERS AND ISLAM? Read the 72-pageQuaker Universalist Group pamphlet,Islam Today: A Muslim Quaker's View.£3 including postage. Detail: qug.org.uk
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the Friend, 20 November 2015 19
Quaker Peace &Social Witness
New Economy Project ManagerSalary: £22,433 per annum (£31,407 pro rata). Contract: Fixed Term – 1 Year Maternity Cover.Hours: Part Time - 25 hrs per week. Location: Friends House, Euston Road, London NW1
Frustrated by the failures of our current economic system? Want to be a driving force within amovement, building a better economic system that works for both people and planet? This is anopportunity to assume management of an exciting and ambitious project currently in its early stages.
This is a key role supporting Quakers in an exploration of a vision of what a ‘new economy’ mightlook like and in starting to take practical action that will help to turn that vision into a reality. Keyactivities will include project management, research, writing and editing, event design, delivery andnetworking with relevant organisations and local Quakers.
We are seeking a knowledgeable, flexible and enthusiastic colleague with good communication skills,a background in transition/alternative economics and experience of supporting grassroots action.
Closing date: Monday 30 November (9am). Interviews: Monday 14 & Tuesday 15 December 2015.
For further details and information on how to apply visit www.quaker.org.uk/jobs
Registered charity no: 1127633.
20 Nov 17/11/15 14:20 Page 9
EDITORIAL173 Euston RoadLondon NW1 2BJT 020 7663 1010F 020 7663 11-82E [email protected]
vol 173
No 47
ADVERTISEMENT DEPT54a Main Street
CononleyKeighley BD20 8LL
T 01535 630230E [email protected] the Friend
Hammersmith Quakers needyour help to build our newMeeting House
Hammersmith is a growing meeting.We are planning a new meeting housein a lively, residential, inner-Londonneighbourhood. We will have to vacateour current meeting house in threemonth’s time to make way for acommercial developer.
An opportunity to create a witness to sustainabilityOur new meeting house will be built to the highest standards ofenergy efficiency and sustainable materials. The design is welcomingand accessible to old and young as well as young families in thecommunity. The beautiful round meeting room will enable us to hostpublic functions as part of our community outreach. The flexiblelayout will make it possible to attract many new users.
Can you or your meeting help?We thank the many Friends and Meetings who have already so kindlyresponded to our appeal leaflet in The Friend of 28 August andrecent mailshot. Can you help us make our vision a reality?
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Donations: I want to help build a new Hammersmith Meeting House
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Address…...…………………………………………………………………......
………....….………………………………………………………………………
………....……...…………………............…Postcode………………………...
I enclose a cheque/CAF voucher for £………...…. payable toHammersmith Quakers Building Fund. Please send with this form to:Victoria Timberlake, Quaker Meeting, 11 Eyot Gardens, London W6 9TN
Please send BACS/electronic transfers as follows:Account Name: Hammersmith Quakers Building FundSort Code 08-92-99 Account Number: 65677410Please email [email protected] with the date and amount of transfer.
Please tick if we can send you a Gift Aid formPlease tick if you need a receipt Reg. charity no. 1134215.
Want to work as aWoodbrookeGardening Friend?Woodbrooke is offering a uniqueopportunity to assist GardenManager Steve Lock in developingand caring for its beautifulorganically managed gardens.
Gardening Friends usually work inthe garden for periods of two tothree months, joining a team ofstaff and volunteers on site.
We offer room, board, expenses,the opportunity to join availableshort courses free of charge anduse of Woodbrooke’s other facilities.
See the full role description anddownload an information pack at:www.woodbrooke.org.ukIf you do not have internet access,please call 0121 472 5171.
Closing date: 27 November 2015
Britain Yearly MeetingOpening and inspiringOpportunities to offer volunteer service at events withchildren and young people in 2016:
• Download information about the events and offer your serviceonline at: http://old.quaker.org.uk/cyp-volunteers-2016
or• Email [email protected] or phone 020 7663 1013 for
information and an offer of service form.
All offers of service to be returned by 30 November 2015. Thank you.
Did the articles in the'Prisons Week' issue ofthe Friend chime with your ownconcerns about the currentstate of our CJ System?
QICJ is a network of Friendsand Attenders from a widespectrum of criminal justiceinvolvement, offering mutualsupport, the opportunity toshare knowledge and toinform ourselves more fully.
We hold an AnnualConference, the next onebeing 26-28 February 2016in Leeds, with the theme'Poverty and Power - whereis our Responsibility?'
For details of the Conferenceor membership, contact:Ann Jacob (Clerk)Tel: 020 8991 0158. Email:[email protected]
Quakers inCriminal Justice
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