23 October 2015 £1.90 the Friend · 2 the Friend, 23 October 2015 the Friend independent quaker Journalism since 1843 Cover image: An autumn sunrise. Photo: Rachel Kirk-Smith. COntents

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23 October 2015 £1.90

Empathy

2 the Friend, 23 October 2015

the Friend independent quaker Journalism since 1843

Cover image: An autumn sunrise.Photo: Rachel Kirk-Smith.

COntents VOL 173 nO 43

3 Thought for the Week: Empathy Catherine Henderson

4-5 News

6 Friends of permaculture Edward Tyler

7 Quaker instructional Peter Bolwell

8-9 Letters

10-11 A democratic UK? Rebecca Fricker

12-13 The People Called Quakers Stuart Masters

14 What is a nation? Barbara Forbes

15 Cowries, currency and climate change Roy Love

16 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world

17 Friends & Meetings

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Correction:the article entitled ‘educating for Peace’ (16 October) was written by Helen Porter, of Montgomery Meeting, and not Isabel Cartwright. We apologise for the mistaken attribution.

People matter. In the end human rights are about people being treated and feeling like people who matter. We are reminded graphically of violations of human rights far away and near at hand. In ignorance or knowingly we all violate human rights. We are all involved in the exercise of power and the abuse of power.

The multitude and complexity of the problems of oppression and injustice often seem to overwhelm us. We can do something. Friends are already working in a variety of ways: through international bodies, through voluntary organisations and by personal witness. Those who can give something of their lives to human rights require our support and we can look for opportunities to help those in need around us…

Above all we must take risks for God: look around us to the people who need help; listen to those who experience oppression; engage in the mutual process of liberation.

London Yearly Meeting, 1986 Quaker faith & practice 24.49

3the Friend, 23 October 2015

Thought for the Week

These days, when I’m talking to people, I tend to bring up the subject of refugees. It’s interesting how they respond. My plumber, who makes a point of employing ex-offenders and those recovering from addiction, expressed a view that crops up a lot:

what we should be doing is ‘looking after our own kind’. But why this phrase: ‘our own kind’?

I looked ‘kind’ up in the dictionary and found ‘kindred’, ‘kinsfolk’ – our relatives, people like us, people we are kind to. An earlier meaning implies ‘what is natural’ and, therefore, right. Looking after our own kind is certainly natural, and the roots of empathy in both humans and animals are embedded in parental care. But human societies throughout the world have practised hospitality and offered sanctuary for millennia, reaching beyond family and tribe. Is this, too, ‘natural’? The primatologist Frans de Waal writes that when ‘people aid others, brain areas associated with reward are activated. Doing good feels good.’ Over the past decade neuroscientists have overturned the old view that human nature is essentially selfish. Human beings are hardwired for empathy and collaboration. How else could we ever have survived as a species?

The wave of collective empathy that followed the publication of the photos of Aylan Kurdi is an entirely natural phenomenon. A human connection was made, breaking through all the artificial barriers constructed by xenophobic language, nationalism and prejudice. In Iceland thousands of people offered to take in refugees after their government said it would take only fifty. All over Britain collections for Calais were organised and van-loads of tents, food and clothing were driven down to the coast. Roman Krznaric writes in his book Empathy: ‘When a critical mass of people join together to make the imaginative leap into the lives of others, empathy has the power to alter the contours of history.’ This may sound a little like what my mother would call ‘pie in the sky’ but, historically, empathy was crucial to the success of the campaigns for the abolition of the slave trade, for prison reform and civil rights. The energy of collective empathy can push governments towards more generous responses to refugees.

The task now is to keep these human connections open: to challenge the barriers that separate us and that make us see other people as not fully human, as ‘hordes’, a ‘swarm’, a threat to our ‘social cohesion’. In an increasingly unequal society, where we are encouraged by some politicians and newspapers to blame immigrants for everything from low pay to housing shortages, this is hard. We can also find ourselves feeling like powerless bystanders, watching across a divide. We can lose sight of the individual in the crowd. All these things break the links between us.

Jeremy Rifkin wrote in 2010 about the post-world war two change in attitudes towards groups that had been discriminated against for centuries, and about how this led to more enlightened social policies and human rights laws. He noted: ‘We are in the long end-game of including “the other”, “the alien”, “the unrecognised”.’ We need to expand our understanding of what we mean by ‘our own kind’ until it includes us all.

Empathy

Catherine Henderson

Hertford Meeting and Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network


Major refurbishment and improvements are on the way for Claridge House, the Quaker retreat centre in Dormansland, Surrey.

The work includes making all bedrooms en suite and enhancing facilities for people with disabilities. The centre will be closed for the first half of 2016, to enable all the work to be completed.

Two generous legacies and a sum from the sale of Lattendales, a similar Quaker retreat centre in the north of England which closed in 2006, have provided the funds needed for the work.

This refurbishment programme will bring Claridge House in line with other Quaker residential centres.

‘Claridge House is a wonderful retreat centre, much loved by those who spend time here,’ said the clerk of trustees, Anne Simpson. ‘Our aim is to make the centre more accessible for current users and to encourage more new visitors.’

The trustees acknowledge that there have been difficult decisions to make, in terms of staffing and postponing courses already planned for 2016.

Anne Simpson explained: ‘We have a responsibility to ensure that the legacies are well spent, so that this important retreat centre can thrive and continue to be there for future generations.’

News

ADDITIONAL OPEN places have been added for those hoping to participate in the next Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) plenary.

The plenary will take place in Peru in January 2016. The planning team stressed that the extra places will be allocated on a first come, first served, basis.

Peru: more open places released

Glebe House celebrates fifty yearsMORE THAN 100 guests gathered on 16 October to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Glebe House Community Trust.

Among those celebrating was Geoffrey Brogden, who founded the Cambridgeshire project. He gave a speech, as did Friends Sue Brock-Hollinshead and Sheila Gatiss. Peter Clarke, director of Glebe House, gave the welcome speech.

Guests heard a harpist play and enjoyed a display of work from Glebe House’s social enterprise project, ‘Turn the Other Chic’. A totem pole made by residents was also on show. The festivities

ended with a hog roast and the cutting of an anniversary cake, by Geoffrey Brogden and the newest Glebe House resident.

In the evening, staff and residents joined together for ‘Glebe’s Got Talent’.

‘It was a chance to relax and unwind after a busy day and have some fun,’ Glebe House head of business and operations Jeanette Hurworth told the Friend.

Glebe House carries out specialist work with teenage males with sexual issues, both victims and offenders. P

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Claridge House looks to the future

A DOzEN QuAKERS and a seemingly camera-shy dog walked from Boscombe Pier to Bournemouth Pier on Saturday 17 October. The ‘walk for peace’ was part of National Quaker Week and the ongoing campaign against drone warfare, Pat Yates of Bournemouth Coastal Area Meeting told the Friend.

Twelve Friends and a dog

5

[email protected] by Tara Craig

the Friend, 23 October 2015

ANN LIMB, of Milton Keynes Meeting, has been elected chair of The Scout Association uK.

She is the first woman to hold the post and is responsible, with the trustees and chief executive, for the strategic oversight of the organisation, with legal and financial accountability for its policies and activities. Ann is also responsible for the stewardship, scrutiny and safeguarding of the association’s membership, which is made up of some 547,897 adults and young people throughout the uK.

Ann told the Friend: ‘At the heart of the Scout movement is a belief in “being prepared for everyday fun and adventure” and, as a Quaker, “living adventurously” characterises my own attitude to life – so there’s

a natural synergy of core purpose between Scouts and me.’

‘The Scout values of respect, integrity, cooperation, care and exploring beliefs, attitudes and faiths align easily with my own Quaker values and our Quaker testimonies. Both Scouts and Quakers also share a focus on practical social action and concern for others and the environment.’

She added: ‘I’ve been involved in Quaker social action both locally and nationally for over twenty years now and so, for me, this wonderful opportunity to lead the Scout

Association is simply another a way of putting my Quaker beliefs into action – and offering my life skills and experience as an adult volunteer to a movement that, as a Brownie and Guide, profoundly changed my own life!’

Friend makes scouting history

Rowntree Walks go furtherTHE ROWNTREE Society has announced plans to expand its original ‘Rowntree Walk’ leaflet.

The new guide will be a twenty-page booklet containing five distinct walks in York, all of which have links to the Rowntree family.

The routes are: City Centre, Bootham and Clifton, Haxby Road, Heslington and Rowntree Park, and New Earswick. Each walk will contain

basic facts and will point users towards interesting places and details, as well as inviting them to imagine aspects of the past (where they are not immediately visible today).

The booklet will include some new features, among them the blue plaque that marks the birthplace of Joseph Rowntree (see left).

The new guide is being developed to meet growing interest in the Rowntree heritage.

DAvID AMOS, of Wandsworth Meeting, was injured last week when Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian farmers with whom he was volunteering.

David had travelled to the West Bank with other members of the Olive Harvest Trust. They hoped to provide ‘a protective presence’ during the harvest, but came under attack from armed settlers. David was hit on the head by a rock and evacuated to hospital in

Nablus, where he received five stitches. He told The Independent newspaper that the

attacking group was eight- or nine-strong, masked and carrying large rocks. He described how they fired gunshots as they approached, before beginning to throw rocks. Tensions in the area are running high with both Israelis and Palestinians having been killed in recent weeks.

London Friend injured on the West Bank

Bridget Morris (right, executive director, The Rowntree Society), Julia Unwin (CEO, Joseph Rowntree Foundation) and Peter Addyman (York Civic Trust) – unveiling the plaque at the Pavement building (today Pizza Hut) in the city centre.

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The Twelfth International Permaculture Conference was held at Friends House, Euston, on 8 and 9 September. I am both a Quaker and a

permaculturist, so when I heard where the conference was being held I put myself down to do a presentation.

Laurie Michaelis, of Living Witness, and I gave a talk to about one hundred delegates. We explained how both Quakers and permaculturists have a firm ethical foundation to everything they do. Whilst there were several Quakers in the audience, we pitched it to the permaculturists, concentrating on what Quakers believe and how their beliefs and practices chime in with permaculture.

Permaculture was devised in the mid 1970s by two Australian ecologists – Bill Mollison and David Holmgren – and combines ethics, ecological principles and design strategies to create healthy, productive and nonpolluting sustainable settlements. Permaculture:

• draws on indigenous knowledge and wisdom, as well as modern science and technology;

• takes nature as the best model of sustainable systems;

• is a practical and pragmatic approach that draws together tools and methodologies from diverse disciplines, crafts and professions;

• is now a global multicultural network operating in over 135 countries; and

• is one hundred per cent solution focused.

Have you heard of Transition? Many Local Meetings are affiliated to Transition groups or are acting as hubs for these groups. Well, Transition is a permaculture design! Rob Hopkins, who started the whole thing off, was a permaculture teacher and attended the conference, where he explained how permaculture continues to be an inspiration for him.

I started out as a Quaker twenty-five years ago, after looking for a community that allowed for individual expressions of spiritual journeying. Quakers offered

me a home. A couple of years later I discovered permaculture as a practical way of sharing my love of botany, gardening and ecology.

Dry academic approaches to the natural world are necessary, to be sure, but for me they were nothing like the buzz I got from setting up and working on community gardens, allotments, tree nurseries and nature areas. As well as having a practical focus, permaculture has its own accredited education programmes, which I have been teaching on for many years.

The two practices – Quakerism and permaculture – are a perfect fit in my life because one is grounded in practical solutions while the other gives a spiritual dimension and a focus on right relationship, which approaches issues affecting communities in deep and connecting ways.

Now, which of the statements above fits which practice? Surely, the first is permaculture and the second Quaker? Well, maybe, maybe not, as I discovered that both statements can be true for both practices. Cross-pollination of ideas fertilises in both directions.

During and after the conference (it was followed by a convergence event in Epping Forest) I met many people who had been to the talk or heard about it. Some, like me, were both Quakers and permaculturists, and, like me, the two worked – and continue to work – well together. Others were not Quakers, but curious nevertheless. One worked with a permaculturist who was also a Quaker, and as a result of the talk she said that she would now go along to Meeting. Another – from Costa Rica – explained how she had worked at a Peace Centre that had been set up by Quakers fleeing the vietnam war draft. Yet another – from Columbia – explained that in her country everyone knew about Quakers: from the brand of oats!

Edward is a member of Argyll Meeting.

Report

Friends of permacultureEdward Tyler writes about the links between Quakerism and the permaculture movement P

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This is the account of an initiative that was undertaken at Hastings Meeting in Sussex to ensure that our attenders are informed about the

fundamental ideas that underpin Quakerism. It was an issue that had been bugging me for some time.

The problem was that we had no methodical mechanism for ensuring that newcomers were instructed in the basics of Quaker principles, heritage and tradition. By and large, we just trusted to luck and hoped that they would somehow pick it up as they went along! We did try a few times to hold ‘Attenders’ Days’, but these were always unsatisfactory because only a small minority of the people we particularly wanted to come were ever there. Quakers are, after all, notoriously busy people, and it is almost impossible to find a date when everybody will be free.

I began wondering what the alternatives might be, as I felt that this really was an important issue. I was particularly stung into action upon reading the passage in Ben Pink Dandelion’s 2014 Swarthmore Lecture, Open for Transformation, about the importance of conveying to people that Quakerism meant something specific and was not something we all just make up for ourselves, completely empty of any intrinsic content. So, with the approval of the local elders, I devised a plan.

It was clear to me that, in this instance, Mohammed would have to go to the mountain. Since all our attenders had email addresses, this was going to be much easier – and cheaper – than it would have been if I had to rely on the post. I began to draw up a series of ‘lessons’ about the basics of Quakerism with a view

to sending these out, one at a time, to our regular attenders. I began with one on the historical origins of Quakerism, followed by a couple on the fundamental principles that underlie the whole Quaker idea, then four – one on each of the major testimonies in turn. I finished off with one on Meeting for Worship with a ‘recommended reading list’ for those who wanted to explore further.

I set myself strict guidelines to follow: each instalment would be no longer than the amount that would fit on one side of A4 paper, in order to avoid overwhelming the readers with too much information at a time. This was to prove harder than I initially expected but I stuck to it rigorously and, indeed, it was in the end a good discipline for me to be strict with myself, since my temptation is always to go on too long and into too much detail. I decided to leave an interval of a fortnight between each mailing so as to give the recipients time to digest each one properly before being confronted with the next (bearing in mind, as I said, that they are all busy people). I encouraged people to feed back any comments or queries and tried to make it clear that nothing I wrote was in any way ‘authoritative’ but that I was at least able to give a view ‘from the inside’ and, hopefully, an accurate and informed one.

The experiment, I believe, was worth the effort. Feedback has been positive and, I think I can say, looking back, ‘mission accomplished’.

Peter is a member of Hastings Meeting.

Talking point

Quaker instructional

Peter Bolwell reflects on a project that addressed a problem faced by many Meetings – informing attenders of the basic ideas of Quakerism

8

Letters All views expressed are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Friend


White poppies This will be the third year that Witney Friends have laid a mixed wreath of red and white poppies on the war memorial during the morning civic ceremony on Remembrance Day.

We have asked the Royal British Legion (RBL) for permission and have bought the red poppy wreath from them each time. A Witney Friend has then intermixed about sixteen white poppies with the red ones and securely attached them from behind.

The RBL have been very cooperative and friendly and last year Quakers were included in the official programme and will be again this year. Our experience has been very similar to that of Martin Biggs in his letter last week (16 October).

Frederick Noakes is named on the Witney war memorial. He was a Sibford scholar from a Quaker family and died, aged twenty-five, while serving in the air force during the second world war. It feels right that we should honour the sacrifice and courage of all those who died while at the same time giving the clear white poppy message: ‘War No More’. The writing on the legend, chosen by another Witney Friend, is a quote by Albert Einstein: ‘Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved through understanding.’

It seems as if the time may be right for many of us to work harmoniously with the Royal British Legion to promote this message.

Mahalla MasonWitney Meeting, Oxfordshire

The refusal by the Royal British Legion (RBL) to allow Harrogate Quakers to lay a wreath of white poppies during their Remembrance Day service/parade (16 October) is not surprising. veterans For Peace uK (vFP uK) has been similarly rebuffed and three years ago conducted an unauthorised ceremony to lay a wreath of white poppies at the London Cenotaph after the main parade. We have continued with our own ceremony each year under the banner ‘Never Again’ – the original Armistice Day slogan.

vFP uK will once again be laying a wreath of white poppies at the London Cenotaph, meeting in Whitehall Place at 1.30pm, to move off at 2pm. Supporters are very welcome and more details can be found on the vFP uK website. unlike the RBL, which restricts its ceremony to remembering British and Commonwealth military, we will be commemorating all victims of war from all sides, both military and civilian. vFP uK members do not wear military regalia or medals and dissociate themselves from ceremonies which aid recruitment by glorifying war and conferring hero status on the military casualties of war.

John BourtonAcomb Meeting, York (and VFP member)

Bridport Meeting has been selling white poppies for some years now. With the help of several sympathetic local shopkeepers, we have had them available in the town as well as from individual Friends and the Meeting house. Our sales go up year by year. We also possess a uN flag. One of its ‘outings’ each year is to join the annual procession along the main street to the remembrance ceremony outside the parish church. Other peace-minded people join in. It is not a Quaker event, but rather our presence showing uN support. We wear red and white poppies together, to show we look back and grieve for past suffering and look forward in hope for future peace. A couple of years ago we asked if we could add a wreath to all the others. This request was accepted and a small wreath, with both red and white poppies and a suitable message, was laid alongside the rest. We expect that this practice will continue and that more outlets for poppy sales will be found.

Audrey Urry Bridport Meeting, Dorset

ThankfulnessG Gordon Steel (16 October) raises the question of God’s ‘responsibility’ for the tragedies of life and rightly says this is an ancient dilemma which will not go away. My own response is that if there is a God who is somehow involved in natural disasters and large-scale human evils then this is in some dimension which we can never grasp intellectually (see Quaker faith & practice 26.57). I also feel that death is not the worst thing that can happen to me – indeed, I expect it to be a blessing.

When I was a teenager, my uncle gave me Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey, a novel I immediately loved and have read several times. The author explores the same problem and, though he gives us no firm conclusions, I always closed the book with a feeling that life is not totally random and meaningless.

John Lampen [email protected]

Zero hoursI am concerned to read and hear very sharp criticism of Quaker employment practice in the current dispute arising from the dismissal of ‘hospitality’ staff previously employed on zero hours contracts at Friends House.

This criticism is being aired on social media worldwide and has drawn in concern from well beyond British Friends. Despite a statement made on behalf of Britain Yearly Meeting (29 January), an impression is growing that unethical practice is being covered up and a purely strategic, adversarial attitude taken by the closed ranks of senior management towards lower paid and vulnerable workers. Rightly, we are being held to the moral standards we publicly profess and, in particular, to our testimonies to equality and integrity.


[email protected]

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.

If there have been errors of judgement or unethical treatment of staff for any reason, please can this be fully acknowledged, apologies offered and every effort made to repair the damage done to individuals and the reputation of the Religious Society of Friends?

Resorting to or defending costly and acrimonious litigation to further this dispute is surely the least desirable path for anyone involved.

under the present government the legal playing field is sloping increasingly in favour of wealth and power, reducing the capacity of organised labour to defend the rights of the least powerful. The need for Quakers to be transparent and equitable in their own employment practices is surely stronger than ever.

Simon ColbeckWatford Meeting, Hertfordshire

End of Life MattersOne needs to accept death and make every provision for it (11 September), such as making a will and telling kin where it is. I also recommend a funeral plan so that it is all arranged and paid for with power of attorney and/or shared knowledge of all your finance and other information as appropriate.

Having seen to all that, it shows consideration for others if you exercise and have a balanced diet, have outward interests, visibly enjoy yourself and continue to give, for you probably have no idea when death will actually happen.

Elaine MilesJordans Meeting, Buckinghamshire

AfterwordsEvery Local Meeting will have its own experience of and response to the use of Afterwords (14 and 21 August and 4 September). However, I am concerned that recent comments in the Friend may put Meetings off even trying the experiment.

For our Local Meeting, and having spoken to others in our Area Meeting, I can say that Afterwords provide a thoughtful transition from Meeting for Worship to the more informal chat over coffee. We have had some thought-provoking ‘not quite ministry’ that has led to some meaningful discussion, still in the spirit of worship, or perhaps just quiet appreciation. Attenders, in particular, have commented that they value this, but we all, with several years experience of it, appreciate this period after worship.

Helen PorterMid-Wales Area Meeting

Nontheist forumI was filing the Friend recently and came across, again, Frank McManus’ letter (25 September) about nontheist Christian faith. For me, it simply makes sense that

this little planet and its contents are, along with the other wonders of space, the product of design. To me, it is nonsense to suggest otherwise. I may, of course, be wrong. Science itself shows us that we don’t know everything. In fact, scientists seem to say that the more we know, the more we don’t.

I have only one problem. It is that God is said to be interested in me as an individual. That goes against my human capabilities of reason and perception. In other words, it becomes a matter of faith. But so what? I know that from time-to-time during my life something has guided me and, for all I know, keeps watch over me all the time. What you want to call it, I, personally, don’t care because I don’t know. I just believe, and throughout my life science has confirmed my beliefs, not contradicted them. So, that’s OK, then! Isn’t it?

Now, I can get on with trying (and failing) to live like a good Quaker – whatever that means!

Don AtkinsonHarpenden Meeting, Hertfordshire

Support for refugeesSome thirty-six years ago my family and I climbed on our bicycles and pedalled off to our Local Meeting house for the first time. It was a journey that was to change all our lives. Over the years there have been many events and many changes, marches and demonstrations for CND or the peace movement and, of course, opposing the war against Iraq. I am, therefore, surprised and disappointed at the lack of public demonstrations against the apparent enmity towards these struggling families, desperately trying to reach Europe and the uK. Where are the Quaker marches in support of these thousands who have lost everything? Certainly, I am not aware of any locally.

Avis JenkinsBedford Meeting, Bedfordshire


So, is this the start of a situation that endswith me being thrown out of a plane and

disappeared from my son’s life?

This was, perhaps, not the most rational thought at 10pm on a Sunday evening, when hanging washing to dry, but it was enough to make me

briefly consider the need to stop contacting my MP and council officials and stop using Twitter to express my political beliefs.

The cause of this anxiety was the opinion of a senior serving general, which was expressed in The Sunday Times and published on 20 September, that ‘direct action’ would be taken by the armed forces to stop a potential Jeremy Corbyn government downgrading the forces.

Is my fear really misplaced?

My fear may seem extreme to many people. Don’t we live in the democratic uK? We have rights. Nobody is going to ‘disappear’ you for supporting a legal political party or contacting your MP about issues you care about. But is my fear really misplaced? There is plenty of evidence, outlined in academic texts and a 2006 ITv1 documentary, to suggest that there was an MI5 and military plot against the left-wing prime minister Harold Wilson in the 1970s. He was subject to smears of being an IRA sympathiser and communist – all of which Jeremy Corbyn faces today in increasingly hysterical headlines about his ‘Mao bike’ and false allegations that he gave money to IRA bombers.

The uK also has a government publicly committed to ‘scrapping’ the Human Rights Act and withdrawing from the European Court of Human Rights. Our

schools are, as documented by Quakers in the 2015 documentary The Unseen March, becoming increasingly militarised with the Department for Education’s ‘Troops to Teachers’ scheme and the government’s pledge of £50 million to create cadet forces in 500 state schools to be prioritised in less affluent areas.

Counter-terrorism legislation

We are also subject to counter-terrorism legislation that allows indefinite detention and which, as Liberty argues, contains a: ‘dangerously broad definition of “terrorism”, which applies to action taken to advance any “political, religious, racial or ideological” cause designed to influence the government of any country or international organisation or to intimidate any member of the public anywhere in the world.’

We also know that the intelligence services monitor people whose worldview differs from theirs. Who, following Edward Snowden’s revelations about global surveillance programmes, honestly believes that their email, telephone, or even post, is private? As the daughter of a trade union activist, I know the authorities watched my father carefully in the 1980s. So, as Nirvana sang in the 1990s: ‘Just because you’re paranoid don’t mean they’re not after you’. Although I might be considered slightly paranoid, I can probably safely assume that my wider family’s left-wing activities, combined with my personal political affiliations and membership of the Religious Society of Friends, mean that I could at some point be considered a potential enemy of the state.

But still – I live in the uK and the chances of a coup seem remote to most people. As the Independent reported on 20 September: ‘The right-wing Tory MEP

A democratic uK?

Rebecca Fricker writes about a concern

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Daniel Hannan described the general as an “idiot”. “We’re not Bolivia for God’s sake.”’ However, we know military coups happen all over the world and the impact of these on dissidents, their families, the wider population, and the establishment itself, can never be underestimated.

The military coup in Chile

An interest in the recent history of Chile was sparked by a love of the novels of Isabel Allende. I was eventually able to visit the country in 2005 and visited Santiago’s La Moneda Palace, where the democratically elected Marxist prime minister, Salvador Allende, died in 1973 following a military coup. The military junta that ruled from 1973 to 1990 under Augusto Pinochet is known to have persecuted and murdered thousands of supporters of Allende.

The Monument to the Disappeared in the Cementerio General de Santiago is a sobering place and all I could think about as I read the long list of names was the horror that they, and their families and friends, had experienced. While visiting Buenos Aires on the same trip we chanced upon the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo marching in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, as they have been since 1977, to protest at the disappearance of their children and grandchildren during the ‘Dirty War’.

A chilling read

So, perhaps my fear following a senior serving general’s threat is not so far-fetched? I emailed my book club the following day to ask for the name of a book we had read several years ago and, in response, my friend declared that ‘thinking about it still makes me shudder’. A State of Denmark was written in 1970 by Derek Raymond. The book is about an England ruled by a dictator and his persecution of a journalist. It is a very chilling read – the complicity and compliance of the establishment, media and wider population to the dictator’s argument that everything is being done to protect their security is entirely plausible. The paragraphs in the book which really stayed with me concern the punishment given to the

Quakers – they are sent to clear the minefields established by Scotland and Wales to protect their borders!

I tried to discern the right way forward for me. Keep acting locally but stop trying to influence politicians? Turn my Twitter feed into a pure cake and rake fest and lose the politics? Cancel my subscription to The Guardian? My faith would not allow it. Instead, the next day I posted a Tweet asking if the establishment were a threat to democracy and I have become more political in my posting. Previously, I had been avoiding emailing my MP about issues relating to education; I am a school governor and had been cautious about alerting her to this fact. That week I contacted her about the threat to remove free lunches for infants, highlighting my experience of the policy as a school governor. My fear, and subsequent decision not to give in to it, had given me the strength to keep speaking truth to power.

Following conscience

Out of curiosity, I contacted several Quakers who appear regularly in print, blogs and on Twitter, to ask how their faith or beliefs give them the courage to speak out at potential personal cost. Jill Segger (writer, journalist and associate director of the Ekklesia think-tank) stated: ‘I know when I must speak up in the same way as I know when I must get to my feet in Meeting for Worship. It is a prompting which, if I ignore or shrink from it, will leave me with a sense of having betrayed something entrusted to me. So long as ongoing discernment tells me that it is the prompting of love as well as of truth, I can know that all shall be well, whatever the apparent cost.’

I had decided to follow my conscience and, in the same week I made that decision, I read the following sentence in Michael Arditti’s The Breath of Night, which I took as a sign I am on the right path: ‘I follow my conscience; which is not the same as having an opinion. To listen to one’s conscience is to hear the authentic voice of God’.

Rebecca is a member of Epping Meeting.

Further information: @RebeccaFricker

We are subject to… a ‘dangerously broad definition of “terrorism”, which applies to action taken to advance any “political, religious, racial or ideological” cause designed to influence the government of any country or international organisation or to intimidate any

member of the public anywhere in the world.’


We are persecuted for our beliefs – Quakers have been persecuted by all governments and every so-called Christian group ever since we first emerged as a people of God. These things have been done to us, not because we have wronged or harmed anyone or broken the law, but because we refuse to follow the ways of the established church. We don’t believe that people should take money for preaching the Gospel and we will not pay tithes in order to fund this. Both the prophets and Christ condemned such practices. We no longer have any need for paid human priests because, for those who obey him, Christ is the only eternal High Priest and the source of our salvation. It is because of our obedience to the commandments of Christ that we have suffered persecution. For example, Jesus teaches that no one should swear oaths and that all people are equally humble before God. We are persecuted when we refuse to swear oaths and when we refuse to bow down before other human beings.

We want you to understand us – We do not wish to offend the current government and, as far as we know, you have not acted against us. However, we need to explain ourselves to you because we’re not convinced that you really understand who we are and we are worried that you might believe the false allegations other people make about us. It is because of our obedience to the commandments of Christ, not because we are traitors, that we will not swear oaths. We want to make it clear that our intentions are honest and truthful. We are a peaceable people and we will be loyal to you as long as you do God’s will and do not persecute people because of their beliefs. We don’t want any special favours, but we do want the freedom to do God’s will and be true to our consciences as freeborn Englishmen.

We follow the way of Jesus – We urge you in God’s presence not to persecute people for their beliefs,

Quaker history

The People Called Quakers

Stuart Masters continues his series on early Quaker tracts and pamphlets. This week he considers an early tract by Margaret Fell.

Margaret Fell (1614-1702) was one of the most important leaders of the early Quaker movement. She became known as the ‘Mother of Quakerism’, which indicates the vital role she played in practical organisation and in the

formation of Quaker ideas. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Margaret Fell acted as the movement’s principal political lobbyist, arguing for religious toleration and trying to secure the release of imprisoned Friends. She met with Charles II on more than one occasion and wrote to him many times. Written in 1660, her tract A Declaration and an Information from Us, the People of God Called Quakers was the first Quaker ‘peace declaration’, predating the more famous declaration by a number of months. Below is a summary of its key points:


as those in power have done in the past. Please pay attention to what we tell you, so that you are not ignorant about our beliefs and our ways. We want everyone to enjoy peace and experience new life in Christ Jesus. He is the truth, the way and the life for all people and, therefore, the source of their salvation. This is something we have experienced ourselves and we want everyone to benefit from this too. We are living in the new covenant where God writes his law on our hearts and teaches us himself. We are the children of the Lord, so we will never oppress anyone. However, for living in this way, we face suffering and persecution ourselves.

We criticise false religion, not you – Our main criticisms have always been aimed at those priests and leaders within the church who profess Christ as Lord but do not really possess his living Spirit. They distract people by encouraging them to focus on human ideas and the letter of scripture, rather than on God’s direct teaching within them. Before anyone can worship God authentically, they must first know the Spirit of God working within them. The priests and the leaders of the church have supported all the governments of the past and have tried to use them to further their own ends. They are only really interested in their own status and power. Their conduct reveals their true nature. Although we forgive them for the injustices they have perpetrated against us, they have shown themselves to be deceivers and false teachers.

We are a peaceable people – We are a people who seek to live in peace, love and unity with all people and we want everyone else to do the same. We reject

violence and war, which is caused by the inward lusts and desires that make people want to own and control things. We love all people and are concerned for their wellbeing. We do what we do because we are concerned for people’s souls. Like Jesus, we have been attacked, ridiculed and persecuted for this. Jesus suffered and, because we are his people, we suffer too. We are committed to living the way of Jesus and, if necessary, are willing to suffer and die for this. We are engaged in a spiritual struggle, so we have no need for physical weapons. We have shown that we are willing to endure attacks and persecution without fighting back.

A warning about persecution – Now that you are in power, we caution you to act justly and with mercy and to prevent the persecution of innocent people. If you do this, you will succeed and prosper. Our desire is to enjoy freedom and liberty of conscience and we expect you to safeguard this for us, as the king has previously promised. We ask you to protect us from hateful and envious people who wish to attack us, spoil our possessions and imprison us, simply because we don’t agree with them. They accuse us of being thieves, murderers and traitors, but we are not. We are not the enemy of anyone. We reject all acts of treason, treachery and dishonesty. We will never be involved in plotting against you and we will never use violence. Instead, we are a truthful and honest people. We wish you well and proclaim our commitment to peace, love and unity. If it becomes necessary, thousands of us are willing to suffer and die for these principles. We trust that you will not end up with innocent blood on your hands by believing those who spread lies and untruths about us.

Margaret Fell’s tract seeks to reassure Charles II and Parliament that although Quakers have been branded as potentially violent traitors in reality they are a people of God who follow the way of Jesus and reject all violence and dishonesty. She points out that the King’s opponents persecuted Friends during the Commonwealth period and that they are mainly interested in matters of religion and spirituality, rather than politics. However, this reassuring message is also accompanied by clear warnings.

Margaret Fell implies that, ultimately, Quakers must give their first loyalty to divine authority, rather than human authority, and that they are willing to die for their beliefs. She also offers a thinly veiled warning to the powers about the dangers of persecuting God’s people: the wellbeing of their souls may be in jeopardy.

Stuart is senior programme leader at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.

The original tract can be found in the Earlham School of Religion’s Digital Quaker Collection: http://esr.earlham.edu/dqc/


Faith in action

According to Leonardo Emberti Gialloretti of the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome, a nation is an entity which carves out as much territory

for itself as it can, thus bringing division and despair to groups which had hitherto lived, with minimal friction, alongside and intertwined with each other.

Leonardo gave this thought to the recent gathering of Church and Peace in Kosovo, in the heart of the Balkans. It is a region, we were told, that has ‘too much history’. Different peoples, he went on, have different interpretations of the same events – and every people’s story has to do with sorrow. Sorrow is engraved on the heart of the Balkan people, as it is on many communities all around the world; and the only way to heal this sorrow is through dialogue.

Dialogue is at the heart of the mission of Church and Peace, which is a European ecumenical network of churches, organisations and individuals who wish to renew continually their commitment to living as members of a peace church. As well as enabling networking and mutual support between its members, Church and Peace has contributed to the thinking of the World Council of Churches and has recently been a major influence in the German Protestant Church’s decision to examine what it would mean to be a ‘church of a just peace’.

It is not easy being a network whose members are so scattered, and the annual meetings are an important landmark in the calendar. This time, the network had been invited to Kosovo by one of its newest members, the evangelical protestant Fellowship of the Lord’s People – a small church in a country where ninety-five per cent of the population come from a Muslim background and where the other five per cent is mainly shared between Roman Catholics and Serbian Orthodox. Nevertheless, this little church has been welcomed by the other faiths into their midst and we were able to meet representatives of all the other religious communities in the country – including one of only fifty Jews.

The recent violent history of Kosovo means that everyone over twenty has vivid memories of war, death and destruction. Much of the country was destroyed, and whole villages are being rebuilt. The country is under uN administration and is protected by KFOR troops (NATO’s Kosovo Force) – something which is unobtrusive until, for example, you have to go through a NATO checkpoint before proceeding to a famous and beautiful medieval Serbian Orthodox monastery, which needs protection because of its policy of sheltering people from all ethnicities during periods of conflict.

Standing on the site of the battle of Kosovo in 1389, we learned that this was the spot where Slobodan Milosevic’s 1989 speech signalled the disintegration of Yugoslavia; every year crowds still come to make nationalist pro-Serbian speeches. Although the church leaders are engaged in continual dialogue, it was not clear how influential they are amongst the general public, nor what is the level of religious observance in the different communities. We learned that tension is increasing. During our visit some MPs in parliament threw tear gas at each other while debating a proposal to give greater control to Serbs in those areas where they are in the majority. Two days after our departure one of those MPs was arrested, leading to street riots, though calm was quickly restored.

Here in the West, we can only guess at the importance to our Balkan friends of the support and solidarity they experience by being part of this network. uK support for Church and Peace has dwindled over the last decades, and there is now a desire to reestablish its presence. To this end, a day event will be held in autumn next year, at which Friends will be welcome.

Barbara is a member of Central England Area Meeting and was recently appointed to the Administrative Committee of Church and Peace.

Further information: [email protected]

What is a nation?

Barbara Forbes reports on a recent ecumenical gathering in Kosovo


Cowries, currencies and climate change

On my desk is a sea shell, a tiger cowrie, no more than three inches long, from the island of Tarawa in the Central Pacific, found while

beachcombing some thirty-six years ago. It has attractively dappled colouring on its back, is pristine white around the lips underneath, and has a natural sheen to its overall surface which creates in the whole a natural sculpture, having a beauty exceeding any human artefact. The original resident would have had no awareness of how the attractiveness of its protective shell, intended by nature as camouflage, would lead to a cataclysmic threat to its own survival as a species and to that of those who coveted it for themselves.

Cowrie shells come in a variety of sizes, colours and patterns. Their convenience in portability and durability, combined with their desirability as decorative objects, led inevitably to their use as forms of currency and stores of wealth in the early days of trade. As commerce expanded this simple specie form of currency became increasingly impractical and gave way to more sophisticated versions based on gold and silver and eventually to the fiat money backed only by government promises that we know today. From this there followed the emergence of banks and their power to create money by lending out a portion of their clients’ deposits. Running through all this is the common thread of desire for ornament and possessions. This same motivation sparked and fuelled the industrial revolution, which has led to the world in which we live today, a world where that drive for material acquisition and, it must be said, improved

welfare for many, has led to global warming through its all-consuming dependency on carbon based fuel.

What of the tiger cowrie today and the beach where it was found? Tarawa is the capital island of Kiribati, the Gilbert Islands of colonial times. It is a slender coral atoll enclosing a sheltered lagoon ringed with coconut palms while the outer edges are protected from the great swell of the Pacific Ocean by a steep underwater coral reef. In 1979 the highest point was 12ft above sea level. It is now even lower and subject to increased storm surges. Global warming is raising the level of the ocean, steadily reducing the fragile land area and contaminating the fresh water lens beneath. The prospect of abandoning their homeland looms over the people of Kiribati, themselves virtually innocent of the causes. The cowrie shells, too, are under threat as the live coral on which their inhabitants feed dies off in the rising temperatures. What has happened? Is it the Genesis story all over again, except that this time we are destroying paradise itself? Or is it a second flood? Are humans a flawed cosmic experiment? Or does it reveal that our imperfections demand humility, and challenge us to greater empathy and compassion towards each other and between nations, and to face the coming ecological transformation in peaceful cooperation rather than conflict, inspired, as Quakers always have been, by the holiness of all creation and our common humanity.

Roy is a member of York Area Meeting.

Roy Love offers a history of the world in a single object

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FRIENDS from Bakewell Meeting enjoyed their fifteenth annual residential weekend in September.

Local Friend Alison Gray took part in this year’s gathering at Ilam Hall Youth Hostel, near Dovedale.

She told Eye: ‘The Peak District is well supplied with youth hostels and over the years we have visited most of them, delighting in the fact that we do not have to travel far to find stunning scenery and good company.

‘This year the theme of our all-age event was “Simplicity”, and we ended our weekend with worship outside, where the falling leaves contributed to the ministry of “trusting, letting go and moving on”.’

Scenic simplicity

STREET AND WELLS Friends went to a fair as part of their Quaker Week activities.

Kevin Redpath told Eye that Quakers in Somerset set out a stall at the One World Fair at Wells Town Hall on 18 October. It was ‘a very successful day of outreach, meeting new enquirers and old Friends’.

The Fair, which hosted thirty organisations this year, was organised to mark One World Week – an awareness raising week founded in 1978 by the World Development Movement. They describe their origins as stemming from ‘a desire that, for one week in every year, the churches should draw the attention of their communities to the fact that the world consists of one human race which shares one planet in which all may enjoy fullness of life’.

Success at Somerset stall ‘IT IS ALWAYS FASCINATING to turn up references to Quakers in

unexpected places,’ writes Roy Payne, of Ludlow Meeting.He went on to tell Eye the tale of Thomas Bewick (1753-1828), a

renowned engraver and early naturalist who wrote and illustrated A History of British Birds.

Roy happened across an intriguing passage in reading Thomas Bewick’s autobiography, My Life, penned during a brief sojourn in London:

‘There is another sect growing into great importance as a religious society and that is the Quakers… They have many excellent rules laid down by which they regulate their conduct in life, and with all their peculiarities, their simplicity of manners command the respect of the thinking part of mankind.

‘They have, it is true, been characterised as “English Jews” by some, and others have said of them that they are not now a religious society, like the Methodists – “they are an aristocratical [sic] civil community; a trading company, and a set of respectable, industrious economical, money getting disciplinarians; who possess no more practical religion than the members of the Church of England”.

‘This may no doubt be the opinion of some, but I could never form such a one, of at least the great majority of them, for they appear to me to deserve a better character. I wish, indeed, to see them leave off a part of their puritanical appearance and some other stiffnesses in their deportment.

‘Were all men Quakers, I think the world would have a very sombre appearance, but this is balanced by their keeping their word, by their detestation of war and by their constant endeavours to live in peace with all men.’

Respectable peculiarities

Diary

Deaths

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Meeting up

“ETTY” American actress SusanStein returns late January to performher moving play and discussionabout the spiritual journey of DutchJewess and diarist Etty Hillesum,murdered in Auschwitz. Meetingsinterested in performances contact:[email protected]

Friends&Meetings

QUAKER SOUTH ASIA INTERESTGROUP Saturday 24 October10.30am-4.30pm at Selly OakFriends Meeting House,Birmingham: Presentations, lunch,networking. Please let StuartMorton know you are coming:[email protected](0121 472 5305).

Friends & MeetingsPersonal entries (births, marriages,deaths, anniversaries, changes ofaddress, etc.) charged at £22.80 incl.vat for up to 35 words and includes acopy of the magazine. Meeting andcharity notices (changes of clerk, newwardens, changes to meeting, diary,etc.) £19 zero rated for vat. Max. 35words. 3 Diary or Meeting up entries£45.60 (£38 if zero rated); 6 entries£81 (£67.50 zero rated). Noticesshould preferably be prepaid. Chequespayable to ‘The Friend’. Deadlineusually Monday morning.Entries are accepted at the editor’sdiscretion in a standard house style.A gentle discipline will be exerted tomaintain a simplicity of style andwording that excludes terms ofendearment and words of tribute. Askfor a copy of our Guidelines.The Friend, 54a Main Street,Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LLT 01535 630230. E [email protected]

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

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NontheistFriendsNetwork

A LONG SHOT, PERHAPS, is therea male Friend out there who isintelligent, caring, politically mindedand keen gardener, aged maybe40-50? I'm an attractive intelligentQuaker, hard working woman withlots to offer. Please reply to Box 973c/o The Friend Advertisement Dept.

THREATS TO PEACE - WHAT CANWE DO? Regional Gathering,7 November, Liverpool Meeting House,School Lane L1 3BT. With staff fromBradford University Peace Studies.10am - 4pm, lunch provided. Details(including bookings for children) Lisa0151 709 6957.([email protected])

CONCERNED ABOUT REFUGEES?Come to the meeting of the QuakerAsylum and Refugee Network(QARN) on Saturday 31 October,11am to 4pm at Oxford FriendsMeeting House, St Giles, OX1 3LW.All welcome.

JORDANS QUAKER CENTREFriday 13 November, MindfulnessRetreat Day with Reinhard Kowalski10am to 4pm. £35 or what you canafford. Booking essential: Call 01494876594 or visit:www.jordansquakercentre.orgHP9 2SN.

Christopher LAKE 26 July.Member of Aylesbury Meeting.Aged 95. A Memorial Meeting will beheld at 11am Saturday 21 Novemberat Aylesbury Meeting Housefollowed by shared lunch.All welcome.

Joan LAWTON 13 October,peacefully in hospital. Widow ofKenneth. Aged 93. Funeral 1.30pmFriday 30 October at Jordans QuakerCentre, HP9 2SN. Memorial serviceat Hathersage Methodist church inNovember (tba). Enquiries Martin(son) 0114 274 8284.

Keep in touch......always remember to putyour family announce-ments in the Friend!

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Britain Yearly Meeting

Turning the TideProgramme Co-ordinatorSalary: £25,125pa (£31,407 pro rata). Contract: one year fixed termHours: 28 hrs pw. Location: Friends House, Euston Rd, London

Join a small and dynamic team inspired by the power of non-violence to make big changes. We work with campaigners andactivists, grassroots people who are actively working for positivechange in the world.

We’re seeking a talented, enthusiastic person to co-ordinateTurning the Tide and the nonviolence training and educationprogramme of Quaker Peace & Social Witness.

• Can you demonstrate your sympathy with Quaker testimonyto love, truth and justice?

• Do you have solid training experience? Knowledge ofpopular education methods?

• Are you committed to nonviolence? And do you have anunderstanding of the role nonviolence plays in social change?

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Britain Yearly MeetingOutreach Development OfficerSalary: £30,797 pa. Contract: Full Time, Fixed Term – 2 Years.Hours: 35 hours per week. Location: Friends House, Euston Road, London NW1

An exciting opportunity has arisen to work with Friends and Meetings to support andencourage them in their outreach, manage the delivery of Quaker Week, as well as arange of other key outreach projects and to oversee the development and distributionof our leaflets and resources to resource and enable Quaker outreach work.

We are seeking an enthusiastic individual with a thorough knowledge of and sympathywith the aims and values of the Religious Society of Friends. The successful applicantwill have excellent communication, facilitation, presentation and administrative skills andbe able to make a creative and imaginative contribution to the work of the Outreach team.

Closing date: 30 October 2015 (5pm). Interviews: 11 November 2015.

For further details and information on how to apply visit www.quaker.org.uk/jobs

Registered charity no: 1127633.

Cape Town Quaker Peace CentreUK Committee Convenor/TreasurerThe Quaker Peace Centre works in the poorest parts of Cape Town,mainly in schools (http://www.qpc.org.za). The Committee (http://www.qpccommittee.wordpress.com),which raises funds for the work of the Centre amongst Friends in Britain and Ireland, is now seekingone or two people to take over as voluntary Convenor and/or Treasurer, working from home.

This service needs commitment to supporting peacebuilding work, some knowledge of South Africa (orwillingness to visit) and familiarity with Quaker ways of working.

For an information pack and/or an informal chat contact the current Convenor, Carole Rakodi:[email protected] or 02920 514701. Expressions of interest by 15 November 2015 please.

Trustee roles availableWe are passionate about releasing people from the expectations others have about disability. We offer love, care, freedom and opportunity allowing profoundly disabled people to get more from life.

Could you help support and develop our work by being a Trustee?We are based near Lewes, East Sussex, so ideally you will be living inLondon or the South East. For more information please call our CEOJonathan Spencer on 01273 400752 or email [email protected]

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23 October 2015 £1.90 the Friend · 2 the Friend, 23 October 2015 the Friend independent quaker Journalism since 1843 Cover image: An autumn sunrise. Photo: Rachel Kirk-Smith. COntents