5 July 2013 £1.70 the Friend · 2014. 8. 5. · the Friend, 5 July 2013 3 Thought for the Week A statue of Robert Owen, visionary mill-owner and father of cooperation, stands outside

discover the contemporary quaker waythe Friend

5 July 2013 £1.70

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the Friend independent quaker Journalism since 1843

Cover image: Photo: Das Smith / flickr CC

Contents VoL 171 no 27

3 Thought for the Week: The cooperative vision Nick Matthews

4-5 News

6 Inspired by the past Caroline Westgate

7 Money is debt: a vicious circle George Penaluna

8-9 Letters

10-11 A good death Caroline Humphries

12-13 Live adventurously Hilary Gullen

14 Prayer John Anderson

15 The peace pilgrimage Maura Brown

16 q-eye: a look at the Quaker world

17 Friends & Meetings

the Friend, 5 July 2013

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The International Day of Cooperatives is on 6 July.

From left to right: Philip Austin, coordinator of the Northern Friends Peace Board, with William Guadie, grandson of Norman Guadie of Great Ayton Meeting, who was one of the sixteen conscientious objectors imprisoned in Richmond Castle in 1916, and Marjorie Gaudie, also of Great Ayton Meeting, who is the daughter-in-law of Norman Gaudie.

Photo: Michael Wright.See page 5.

the Friend, 5 July 2013 3

Thought for the Week

A statue of Robert Owen, visionary mill-owner and father of cooperation, stands outside the Co-operative Bank in Manchester. His experiment at New Lanark, of providing housing for the workers and education for their children, had a huge impact. It inspired modern

comprehensive education, the cooperative movement, trade unionism and even the garden cities movement. Interestingly, Owen credited Quaker John Bellers’ (1654-1725) work of 1695 ‘Colleges of Industry’ as one of his influences.

It was the turn of the twentieth century before the Cadburys created Bournville or the Rowntrees New Earswick. New Lanark is less well known. Threatened with collapse in 1812, it was rescued by Quaker investors, including the chemical manufacturer William Allen.

Owen, the atheist, had a troubled relationship with the Quakers. However, individual Friends stuck by him and, after he left in 1825, the Quaker Walker family took control of the business. While no democrat, Owen was enlightened for his time. He was a paternalist who rigidly controlled his workers. Many Quakers in business had similar attitudes to their work force. We see Quaker businesses, today, through rose coloured spectacles. Some had very poor industrial relations. Quakers Bryant and May formed the matchmaking business of the same name. It was the scene, in 1888, of one of the most infamous strikes in British history. The matchgirls struck for better conditions and security from the dreadful effects of white phosphorous. Louise Raw, in Strike a Light, describes William Bryant as a true Victorian villain: greedy, hypocritical, callous and deceitful.

The fact is, over time some Quaker businesses became the same as other businesses. Quaker enterprises had grown because in the early days of capitalism good ethics was good business. In James Walvin’s phrase: ‘their produce was sound, their prices fair, their services honest, their word good and their agreements honourable’. Business practices were underpinned as much by Quaker sociology as by good business sense. These businesses were undone by changes in that very sociology. Family businesses could not guarantee ethical behaviour across the generations. Of course, there was, and is, an alternative. Quaker Ernest Bader showed the way in 1951 when, as his biographer Susanna Hoe says, ‘he gave his company away’. Sixty-odd years later the Scott Bader Commonwealth still exists and is still owned by its workers.

The cooperative model is the business option that should appeal to democratic Friends today. Be they worker co-ops or consumer co-ops – if we have money to invest and business to transact we should, as far as possible, do it cooperatively. Cooperative values, the famous Rochdale principles, are as close to Quaker values as any modern business model. However, for cooperatives to work you need cooperators and participation. Friends should not only invest in and buy from cooperatives but become active members as well.

For a while, with attacks on cooperative and mutual businesses during the height of the boom, it looked like the co-op movement, too, would exist only in the history books. Despite demutualisation and other threats, the movement is growing again in exciting new areas like energy and telecoms. We should support it – not out of charity but out of solidarity. We should embrace the cooperative movement as our economic home.

Nick Matthews Rugby Meeting

Nick is the director of the Heart of England Co-operative Society and of Co-operatives UK

The cooperative vision

4 the Friend, 5 July 2013

News

SWARTHMOOR HALL is experimenting with a two hour Meeting for Worship.

The sixteenth century Hall is welcoming local Friends and newcomers to join in the extended worship sessions monthly through the summer. The idea came from seeing how visitors feel more connected to early Quakers and their experience of the Light.

Eleven people attended the first extended worship held on Thursday 27 June. Some stayed for the whole two hours and others joined part way through, including those who came for the final half hour of worship, which is held weekly.

Friends commented that it felt immediately different, with a greater sense of integration with everyday life. The abiding sense of the Meeting was described as ‘love for others’

Lee Marlow, a member of the Swarthmoor Hall

committee, said that ‘by waiting in the spirit of worship for two hours we hope to deepen our awareness of the Light in our midst.’

Early Friends met for much longer periods of worship than we are used to. The two-hour worship will echo the practices of the founding Friends, such as George Fox, who used the Hall as a headquarters.

Alexander Parker, an early Quaker preacher and author, wrote in his 1660 Epistle to Friends that ‘In such a Meeting, where the presence and power of God is felt, there will be an unwillingness to part asunder, being ready to say in yourselves,“it is good to be here”; and this is the purpose and end of all words and writings – to bring people to the eternal living Word.’

The initiative builds on existing outreach work at Swarthmoor. Short, optional, Meetings for Worship are offered to visitors so they can experience the Quaker way.

Connecting with early Friends

THE FIFTIETH GROuP of ecumenical accompaniers to visit Palestine and Israel have been confirmed by Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW).

Eight new volunteers on the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) have been signed up for the second half of 2013.

A group will be going out in August. The others will go in November and will form the fiftieth group to be sent by EAPPI.

The aim of the programme, QPSW state, is to provide ‘a protective presence to vulnerable communities, to monitor and report on human rights abuses, to support the nonviolent resistance of Israeli and Palestinian peace groups, to stand in solidarity with those struggling to end the occupation and to engage in advocacy to end it.’

Fiftieth EAPPI group confirmed

THE JOSEPH ROWNTREE FOuNDATION has highlighted the severe impact that rising living costs are having on low income households.

A recently published report reveals that state benefits provide for less than half of what the public considers an ‘adequate’ income.

The research set out to identify what the public think is enough money to live on. A single person in Britain needs £16,850 a year before tax to afford a basic but acceptable standard of living. Couples with two children need at least £19,400 each.

Participants in the study were clear that a minimum living standard should provide for more than mere

survival. One older woman taking part in the research summed up this view: ‘Food and shelter keeps you alive, it doesn’t make you live.’

The research describes how the cost of household goods and services is rising faster than the official rate of inflation.

Both working-age and out-of-work benefits are failing to keep up with the increased costs of everyday living.

Families with children are particularly feeling the squeeze. Earnings needed to make ends meet have risen by over five per cent, at a time when average earnings have been flat.

Feeling the pinch

EVENTS HAVE BEEN HELD across the country to celebrate Cooperatives Fortnight from 22 June to 6 July.

Lectures, workshops, food and drink tasting, live music performances, film screenings and visits to local cooperatives were held to raise awareness.

Co-operatives uK, the national trade association for cooperative business, recently announced the winners of the Co-operative Awards 2013. The awards recognise the excellence, innovation and impact of cooperatives and mutuals across the country.

The Co-operative of the Year Award went to Midlands Co-operative Society. It employs more than 7,000 staff and had a profit of £24.3m in 2012/13.

Cooperatives Fortnight


[email protected]

THE PEACE WITNESS of sixteen conscientious objectors who were imprisoned in Richmond Castle in 1916 was remembered on Sunday 30 June by British Quakers.

A group of Friends visited the cells where the men were imprisoned and also held an open-air Meeting for Worship in the castle grounds.

The event was organised by the Northern Friends Peace Board. It was one of a number of events to celebrate the centenary of the organisation. These included a thirty-five-mile walk of witness from Richmond Castle to Menwith Hill – a walk linking two significant sites of peace witness

that span the first hundred years of the Board.

Among Friends at the event on Sunday was Marjorie Gaudie of Great Ayton Quaker Meeting.

Marjorie is the daughter-in-law of Norman Gaudie, of Great Ayton Meeting, who was one of the sixteen conscientious objectors imprisoned in the castle in 1916.

RAJAGOPAL PV, the inspirational leader of Ekta Parishad (united Forum) in India, has decided to step down from his role in the movement.

The sixty-five-year-old leader has had a close connection with Quakers in Britain and gave a powerful presentation at the Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) conference in Swanwick in August 2010.

Quakers have supported events organised by Rajagopal in villages in India and also participated in the large scale marches of Janadesh in 2007 and Jansatyagraha in 2012. Rajagopal explained, in a letter entitled ‘Back to the

villages’ written to his supporters in Europe, that in the future he will concentrate on nonviolence training.

He writes: ‘After Jansatyagraha 2012, Ekta Parishad has taken a new direction that we call “back to villages”. Each activist will be required to now go back to villages to strengthen the community organisation and also work at improving the local economy. They can use many years of their experience in this action with fresh energy and I will continue to support them in their efforts.’

Stuart Morton, of Central England Area Meeting, is convenor of the Quaker South Asia Interest

Group. He explained: ‘Rajagopal’s great love remains the nonviolent empowerment of the “younger generation” which, from my observation in India over an eight year period, seems to include fourteen to thirty-eight year olds! Building on work in progress he aims to “develop two centres for imparting training in nonviolence”.

‘Resisting and opposing the market oriented and greed centred globalisation process through nonviolent methods is a huge challenge,’ Stuart added. ‘I think we have the responsibility to support and guide the process in whatever way we can. Ekta Parishad’s website is www.ektaparishad.com.’

reported by Caroline Humphries and Ian Kirk-Smith

Rajagopal steps back

Quaker tribute to Richmond sixteen

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In marking the centenary of the Northern Friends Peace Board we wanted to use the

inspiration of the past to take us on into the future of peace-making.

With these words Jenny Hartland welcomed the eighty-five Friends who had gathered for the day in York Friargate Meeting House, on

15 June, to mark the founding of the Board in 1913. She explained that the lives of past members of

the Board and the organisation’s extensive archive have inspired the production of a variety of materials illustrating its history: an exhibition (available in various formats), booklet, research papers, a calendar, postcards, tea towels and candles. A thought-provoking pack of material, which includes a specially written play, is also available and will be sent to every Local Meeting in the Board’s area.

Keynote speakers for the day were Paul Rogers, professor of Peace Studies at Bradford university, and Hannah Brock, of War Resisters International (WRI). Paul gave a wide-ranging and deeply thoughtful analysis of the chances for peace in our troubled world. He pinpointed the likely drivers of conflict in the next thirty years: economic injustice, climate disruption, the mounting frustration of the marginalised and our continued reliance on the blunt instrument of militarism to put the lid, temporarily, on these complex problems.

Though the difficulties are serious, we have not yet run out of time, he said. Our role is to take stock of the threats we face and then to become ‘prophets of the possible’ in advocating peaceful change. Huge transitions – like the agricultural and industrial

revolutions – have been made in the past, and we now face a similar challenge: how to build a just world in which we can live sustainably.

Prophetic witness was also a theme in Hannah Brock’s address. When conscientious objectors (COs) refuse to participate in military service, she said, they don’t just refuse to kill. By their stance they actively affirm life and prophesy the possibility of a peaceful future.

Hannah outlined how the hardships faced by COs in the first world war are mirrored in the treatment meted out today to COs from Turkey to Colombia, and from Finland to Eritrea. WRI supports them, as well as those serving soldiers in the uK who develop CO attitudes after signing-up. In addition, WRI challenges the whole concept of militarism and the way in which it builds a culture favourable to recruitment. The increased presence of the military in civilian life powerfully contributes to the normalising of war through cadet forces, computer games, fashion, parades and memorials. Charities like ‘Help for Heroes’ do not encourage us to question why lives were lost or injuries sustained in the first place.

The afternoon was taken up by workshops on a wide variety of themes: Syria; skills for peace work; oil, peace and conflict; Scottish independence and nuclear weapons; the culture of militarism; marking the centenary of the outbreak of the first world war. Enough to keep the Northern Friends Peace Board fully occupied for the next hundred years!

Caroline is a member of Northumbria Area Meeting.

Details of material and centenary-related activities can be found on NFPB’s website at http://nfpb.org.uk/

Report

Inspired by the past

Caroline Westgate reports on the centenary conference of the Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB)

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The Fox Report on borrowing highlights the tragic personal and societal problems caused by excessive borrowing. As Patrick Chalmers

reminds us, ninety-seven per cent of the money in circulation was created by commercial banks lending it into existence in the form of credit.

under the current system, if the levels of borrowing and debt in the economy are reduced an absolute consequence is that there will be less money in the economy.

The coalition government, with misplaced confidence, asserted that lower interest rates would stimulate private businesses to grow, so creating new jobs to replace the ones the government was taking away by cutting public spending. This growth hasn’t happened.

As the coalition government seems exclusively concerned with reducing the deficit and cutting government debt, this causes a reduction in the amount of money in the economy, which causes economic slowdown and usually a recession. In order to mitigate against this, the chancellor is working very hard to compensate for his reduction of money in the economy by artificially creating more money (the policy of ‘quantitative easing’) and by encouraging individuals and companies to borrow more themselves (thus replacing government debt with private debt).

Quantitative easing, because it is based on manipulating the government bond market and reducing the returns for investors in government bonds, has also caused annuity rates to fall significantly for those taking their pensions recently.

The objective of encouraging more private debt is being achieved through economic policies such as ‘Funding for Lending’, which has also contributed to the fall in savings interest rates, and ‘Help to Buy’, which will help to push house prices up even further.

Without the growth in the economy that would have been generated by companies expanding, and with the

government trying to cut public spending, money got even tighter. Some of those with little or no income saw their safety nets removed and resorted to unsecured loans, credit card debt and payday lenders to tide them over. Those with more income (and usually secure jobs) have been able to pay-off more of their mortgages with the help of low interest rates, thus removing more money from the economy, which then needs to be replaced by somebody else borrowing… a very vicious circle.

Is there a solution? Positive Money suggests the abolition of the existing system of reserve banking, which is the creation of money in the form of debt by commercial lenders, to be replaced by new methods of money creation, such as the government ‘spending’ money into the economy through infrastructure and social projects. Their director, Ben Dyson, uses the example of quantitative easing, where the Bank of England created money and pushed it into the financial economy. If the money created by quantitative easing had been spent into the real economy instead (by the government buying goods and services), it would have achieved more positive effects without creating more debt.

The wholesale transformation of the way money is created, as proposed by Positive Money, sounds very appealing. But, it seems to be based on starting with a clean sheet of paper and living in an ideal world. In reality, we have a very messy sheet of paper and a pretty imperfect world.

The system does need reform. For every pound in your pocket, ninety-seven pence is someone else’s debt on which they are having to pay interest. This results in the terrible situations described by Deborah Padfield in her article in the current issue of the Friends Quarterly. It has to change.

George is a member of Craven & Keighley Area Meeting.

Opinion

Money is debt: a vicious circle

George Penaluna reminds us that most of our money is someone else’s debt


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

Speaking truth to powerIn view of the articles by Mairead Maguire, which were an eye-opener to me (6 and 13 June), and the articles by Peter Emerson (7 June) and Jan Arriens (7 June), and the letters from David Bartlett (7 June) and John Lampen (14 June), I wonder if it isn’t time for Meeting for Sufferings to face up to the world we are living in and ‘speak truth to power’.

In other words, to tell the government that Syria and Lebanon want to be left alone to sort out their own problems without interference from outside powers and interests: tell them that they would like to negotiate themselves for the sale of their oil reserves, which both Lebanon and Syria have.

Meeting for Sufferings should also point out to the country that we no longer have a parliament (a place where matters are discussed) but a highly privileged debating society, where the time is spent scoring points off each other. We need to get back to consensus politics, as mentioned by Peter Emerson, operated in a building with an interior similar to the Scottish parliament.

Joan Goddard Brigflatts Meeting, Cumbria

Yearly MeetingI shared many of the reservations about Yearly Meeting expressed by Jan Arriens (7 June). The theme of these three consecutive YMs is intended to be ‘What it means to be a Quaker today’, which I have assumed, perhaps wrongly, to be part of a process for renewing or energising Quakers in Britain. I was expecting that we would be addressing some difficult questions of Quaker belief and practice but, from reading the minutes, I do not get the feeling that Friends addressed such questions. Of course, it might be difficult for us to reach unity on some issues, but, surely, that is what our process of discernment is intended to enable us to do. As Jan says, we have difficulty in allocating enough time to difficult issues, but that should not prevent us trying.

Coincidentally, in the following week’s edition (14 June), Peter Emerson put forward a process called consensus voting for allowing a genuine consensus to emerge where there are a wide range of policy options. The process requires all concerned to be involved in generating the options and then a debating and preference voting process is carried out to search for the option which attracts the greatest support.

I am a great supporter of our Quaker discernment process but this does not mean that I think it cannot be improved. I think that we should be sufficiently open to new ideas to be willing to consider whether we can learn from others about making difficult decisions.

Trevor EvansHarpenden Meeting, Hertfordshire

I am grateful for the thoughts of Jan Arriens and Janet Quilley (14 June) on Yearly Meeting (YM).

I love YM and have been to most sessions of nearly every YM since I came to Friends. This is the first time that I have deliberately skipped some sessions.

Yes, the meeting was superbly and lightly clerked and carefully organised; yes, we did need to consider trust and understanding – but surely not for the whole weekend? I hope we will not leave our consideration of the wider world to our residential Meetings. Otherwise, I begin to wonder what we are here for.

From past YMs I remember powerful individual sessions on homelessness, on being a people of God and on Israel/Palestine. And I miss the inspiration of those well-placed readings of Testimonies to the Grace of God in individual lives. I was unable to get into my first choice of the preparation meetings. The meetings were a good idea, but need some tweaking, perhaps.

It seems to me that a lot of the passion and energy of YM is to be found in the special interest groups and I wonder whether more time could be found for them. We seem to accept that Friends have to make painful choices; maybe we should be paying attention instead to what it is that Friends are looking for. In our group on asylum and indefinite detention, for instance, more time would have enabled Friends not only to share a little of their activities, but perhaps to move towards some sort of concerted action.

Jennifer KavanaghWestminster Meeting, London

Out of the mouths of babesRoland Carn’s mention of the youngster ‘spontaneously’ singing at Yearly Meeting deserves expansion (21 June). Our young Friend was in the gallery during all-age Meeting for Worship, and we were sitting in the gallery opposite. A few Friends had spoken, mostly adults telling stories that they thought might convey some significant message to young children.

Our Friend was clearly moved to speak and, following good Quaker discipline, came to the front of the gallery, and stood up to be called.

However, she was not called on the first attempt, perhaps due to her diminutive stature, so patiently waited and tried again. This time she was called by the clerk and received the microphone. In a very clear and steady voice she ministered to us: ‘I love you all’, she said ‘and I would like to sing Baa Baa Blacksheep’, which she then did, after which she gave the microphone back and returned to her seat.

We found it a most moving and Quakerly episode, carried out with such poise and self-confidence, giving us the message of love which is the core of our faith.

Jean & Brian WardropChelmsford Local Meeting, Essex

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The Friend welcomes your views. Please keep letters short (about 250 words) and include your full postal address, even when sending emails. Please specify whether you wish for your postal or email address or Meeting name to be used with your name, otherwise we will print your post address or email address. Letters are published at the editor’s discretion and may be edited. Write to: the Friend, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ or email [email protected] if you are online that you can also comment on all articles at www.thefriend.org

In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty,

in all things charity.

CreedHaving successfully managed without a creed for three centuries it would surely be unfortunate if we were now required to accept a ‘non-credo’.

David Correa-Hunt (21 June) objects to Yearly Meeting references to ‘God’s love for us’ as being at variance with the concepts of ‘most Friends today who have grown out of the concept of “Almighty-God-out- there” and conceive rather of an indwelling entity “that of God in everyone”.’ I am quite sure that early Friends believed both and, although I wouldn’t presume to know what ‘most Friends today’ think or believe, I would be very surprised if there are not a great many of us who still do that.

I, personally, have no problem in accepting the reality of a God, not living ‘in’ or ‘above’ the sky but pervading the universe, in whom, as saint Paul says, we live and move and have our being, and with whom we can communicate in prayer and contemplation – that God has given each of us an ‘indwelling entity’ that saint John refers to in his gospel as ‘the True Light’. Furthermore, I believe, as George Fox and early Friends certainly believed, that that true light was personified some 2,000 years ago in Jesus Christ who, by his teaching and example, revealed to us God’s loving nature.

Ernest HallClacton-on-Sea Meeting, Essex

Bridges or wallsI enjoy my conversations with David Boulton, but I do not wish to engage in a long dialogue in the columns of the Friend. However, I should like to make one observation concerning his letter (28 June).

Does the use of ‘theist’, ‘atheist’, or even ‘nontheist’ actually make for the clear communication he seeks? Or do they oversimplify our exchanges with others? I am often asked what the difference between atheist and nontheist is – even, or especially, when people have read definitions! Even those calling themselves theists may be defining the word ‘God’ in a way I do not understand or share. In my first enquirers’ gathering, many years ago, I was asked: ‘Could an atheist join Friends?’ My reply was: ‘Tell me about the God you don’t believe in. I may not believe in it either.’ Are words real bridges or walls to hide behind?

David and I are both looking for ‘personal integrity’. It is precisely for this reason that, on the whole, I do not find these words useful – unless they are the fruit of a deep exchange when we are prepared to hear each other beyond words. Words are like the pilgrim’s backpack. They are useful for carrying what we may need for this part of the journey, but they slow the journey down when we put too much weight on them.

Harvey GillmanBrighton Meeting, East Sussex

LanguageI am grateful for the reflections of Thomas Swain (7 June) and particularly for his challenge relating to our traditional use of certain forms of language.

In recent years I have been saddened to hear or read arguments among Friends about the use of language. Quaker tradition has always centred on the importance of experience, not the stumbling way we seek to define it. What I wish to hear is that Friends can affirm that they have encountered a renewing and transforming Presence in our Meetings that empowers us to serve our suffering world. Can Friends do this?

The words we choose to express what we have experienced will inevitably vary and will remain deeply personal. Friends have always acknowledged and respected this fact.

Traditionally, we have also used in our public statements certain words such as God, the Holy Spirit and Christ confident in the knowledge that, for us, they have been cleansed of their doctrinal meanings. They are simply pointers, references to the reality of experience that lies behind them.

If there are those who insist on a single and exclusive meaning for such terms, then that is their personal affair. Quakers have long ago exorcised these words of such rigid interpretation. Because of this we can use them freely and without fear.

Peter D LeemingKendal & Sedbergh Area Meeting


… being sentenced to a form of torture…forced to live longer than they want,

when they haven’t got the quality of life

This was one reflection from a Friend recently in a discussion on assisted dying. The subject of death and dying is of growing importance to Friends, as

the impact of an ageing population is increasingly felt. Quentin Fowler shared his concern about assisted

dying at a Special Interest Group at Britain Yearly Meeting, which was held in late May at Friends House in London. He and Judy Kessler described their consultation with Friends across Leeds Area Meeting. They are now seeking to gather wider views and test whether this should be an issue for national Quaker discernment.

The concern arose in response to the BBC drama A Short Stay in Switzerland. It is based on the true story of Anne Turner, a doctor who discovered she had an illness that was likely to lead to a drawn-out, painful death and sought an assisted suicide in Zurich. Friends were challenged to consider: should we be able to die at home, at the time of our own choosing and in the company of friends and family, without fear of prosecution?

The concern was accepted by Leeds Area Meeting in autumn 2010, and a working party was set up. It heard people’s experiences of family and friends dying, preparations that Friends had made for their own deaths and actions people take out of desperation to bring about a speedier death. It looked at the legal and

regulatory framework in other countries – Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (the ‘Benelux’ countries), which allow voluntary euthanasia; Switzerland, which allows assisted suicide; and the states of Washington, Oregon and Montana in the uSA, which allow self-administration of life-ending medication.

On 12 May 2012 the group organised a conference in Leeds on Death and Dying that was attended by one hundred people. Speakers included Jan Bernheim, professor of End of Life Care Research in Brussels, and professor Emily Jackson, a member of the British Medical Association Medical Ethics Committee. Quentin was subsequently involved with a theatre group that put on performances of the play Whose Life is it Anyway towards the end of 2012.

This year the group has organised six Threshing Meetings, at five Local Meetings, to explore the Quaker view of a good death. These aimed to hear the full breadth of views, through worship sharing, and understand the reasons behind those views. The group is working through the responses to the consultation. They are now keen to get the issue of assisted dying onto the agenda for Britain Yearly Meeting. Quaker Life Central Committee has already expressed an interest in considering it.

Consultation

The rest of the Special Interest Group was given over to hearing responses from Friends in the audience. A wide variety of views emerged.

Witness

A good death

Caroline Humphries reports on a developing concern – towards a Quaker view on assisted dying


Friends pointed to the unitarian resolution passed in April 2013, which states that:

1. Any individual who faces an intolerable existence because of a debilitating and/or incurable physical condition should have the right to seek support for the termination of their life in a painless and dignified manner; and

2. Legislation should respect their choice and allow them compassionate assistance in achieving such a death without fear of the prosecution of anyone involved.

Friends talked movingly about family, friends and loved ones whose quality of life has been impaired through severe ill health or terminal illness, who ‘would rather die’. One relative felt unable to take his own life because ‘if I botch it, life will be even worse’. A retired paediatrician talked about the difficulties she and colleagues faced from pro-life staff who would oppose withdrawing life support to children even when hope was gone. She urged greater protections for GPs who help patients die at home.

A Friend spoke of her experience with ME and how this has worsened over time. While it isn’t unbearable at present, she would want to have the option for the future. She invited Friends to consider whether making assisted dying available to those with terminal illness would go far enough. On the other hand, if this change to the law was secured it might build an opportunity to push for further changes later.

Others raised dissenting voices. One Friend urged us to focus on improving palliative and end of life care services before turning our attention to lobbying for assisted dying – to meet the needs of the majority before those of the few. The middle classes have better access to hospice care and this was recognised as inequitable. Only around thirty-five per cent of hospice funding comes from the NHS, with the remainder being raised locally. Quaker action in these areas may be helpful too.

Safeguards

One Friend raised the criticism that ‘people might bump off their old relatives… to get their money sooner rather than later’. Another Friend explained that she was a member of a Disability Forum who are very worried ‘because, especially, people with mental health issues find it very difficult to take on board that they won’t just be shoved out of the way’.

Friends acknowledged that any legalisation on assisted dying would have to be regulated. It would be critical to have robust safeguards in place to ensure it was ‘the will of the person concerned’. The principle

of consent is key, which makes it difficult to extend to people with mental health conditions such as dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Evidence from the Benelux countries shows that there has been no increase in the requests for euthanasia since the law came into force, with requests staying stable at around two per cent of people diagnosed with a terminal illness. Quentin also noted that countries that had legalised assisted dying had also taken steps to strengthen their end of life care services and are now recognised as offering some of the best hospice facilities worldwide.

Friends from Leeds submitted evidence to the independent Commission on Assisted Dying chaired by Charles Falconer, the Labour peer. This proposed a legal framework in 2012 that would permit people diagnosed with less than a year to live to seek an assisted suicide if they met strict eligibility criteria. A Bill based on these proposals is currently before the House of Lords.

A Quaker perspective

Friends discussed how assisted dying fits with our perspective as Quakers. One Friend felt that it goes against our Peace Testimony. Would a Quaker focus on this issue give ‘the wrong signal in a time when vulnerable people are under attack’? Another Friend asked ‘where is God in this’? Our discernment should be led by love rather than fear. A Friend challenged us to question whether we want the option of assisted dying ‘because I fear the person I might become’? The end of our lives may bring opportunities for growth through accepting disability and death. Are we imposing ‘our will instead of God’s will’?

Conversely, is life ‘a loan or a gift’? A Friend talked about how choosing to die can be the last empowering action a person in pain can take, and assisting them can be ‘the greatest act of love’ that can be given.

Friends reflected that it is helpful to challenge the taboo so that people talk about death and dying and explore the issues. Bedford Friends have held a meeting about aging and are planning another about dying. The issues are explored by the Quaker Concern Around Dying and Death group. Northumbria Area Meeting is hosting a talk. Leeds Quakers recommended the process they have been through and urged more dialogue. Judy Kessler emphasised that the important thing is ‘the building of community by talking about things that are so vital to us’. She also urged Friends of all beliefs to make their views known during the passage of the Falconer Bill through parliament.

Caroline is an attender at Westminster Meeting.


This has always been my favourite advice, possibly because I never was an adventurous person – far too cautious and scared to take any

risks. It seemed like a bit of a far-away dream, living adventurously… something other people did.

Then, one day, I realised I was deep into a comfortable rut. I was sleepwalking through life, not facing any challenges and not making any proper decisions. I didn’t need to – everything was ticking along just fine.

It wasn’t enough though. The prospect of continuing my pleasant but routine life for the foreseeable future started to become alarming. One day, walking to work at the grey office block, in a grey, concreted suburb of London, on a grey day, with drizzle blowing half heartedly in my face, I looked at all the other commuters’ drab expressions and realised that life must have more to offer than this. What are we all doing?

Dreaming of travelling

I started dreaming of travelling, inspired by a young friend who took off some years ago and is still circumnavigating the globe. When I had said to her, wistfully, ‘I wish I could do something like that’ she replied, ‘Why don’t you?’ It was a comment that stayed with me.

Gradually, the dream started to take shape and it started to feel like a leading. I realised early on that I needed to look for volunteer opportunities, rather than backpacking or holidaying. I had a feeling that things

would fall into place and, with lots of research on the internet, there was a clunking sound as, one by one, placements slotted into a year plan.

By now, friends were commenting on how brave I was, but it had stopped feeling brave, more something I really had to do. In fact, it got to the point where it would have taken more bravery to stay in the rut. That rut had started to look pretty deep and scary.

Crunch points

The first crunch point came when I had to hand in my notice at work. Although I was taking a formal

‘career break’ there was no guarantee of a job on my return and it was made very clear that I was, in effect, resigning.

The second crunch point came when I realised that to fund my year out I would

need to rent my house. This involved clearing out everything and making a decision on every object in my possession, whether I needed it enough to make it worth storing for the duration. The local charity shops filled up with my books, CDs, clothes, kitchen utensils and loads of other things that once seemed so necessary and now had become redundant. A strange thing happened as I started unloading my material belongings: I felt a lightness of being.

Good feelings

It was all starting to feel right. The last major possession to let go of was my car. I had been very fond of my

Feature

Live adventurously

Hilary Gullen writes about choosing the ‘road less taken’

When choices arise, do you take the way that offers the fullest opportunity for the use of your gifts

in the service of God and the community? Advices & Queries 27

I looked at all the other commuters’ drab expressions and realised that life

must have more to offer than this.


car and I thought life without wheels was going to be difficult. Again, I was pleasantly surprised how not having to worry about garage bills, insurance and so on felt a relief.

Another thing was starting to happen around me. Friends and family were being extremely supportive. I was being offered help in many forms, accommodation between journeys and offers to store suitcases of necessary items for future placements. I was frequently moved by the enthusiasm, love and support I was given. The adventure started to feel like it was just something I needed to do, and now I was walking along a clearly defined pathway.

Organising everything had felt, at some points, like climbing a mountain. A day or so before I left I had the feeling that I was standing at the top, waiting for the wind to catch my wings.

Moment of truth

Eventually, I got on the plane and buckled myself in for take off. It was a moment that I had imagined many times in the previous months. I have always loved the point when the wheels leave the runway, ‘slipping the surly bonds of Earth’.

I am now three weeks into my first placement, as ‘Friend in Residence’ at a Quaker centre in California. It was such a good decision to come. I am meeting wonderful people and visiting amazing places. My next placements are with the Iona Community, a teaching position in the south of France and, in the new year, volunteering with a charity in Malawi.

Live adventurously. It is good advice.

Hilary is a member of Kingston Meeting.

Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.Henry David Thoreau

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain

The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. Eleanor Roosevelt

Pho

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A day or so before I left I had the feeling that I was standing at the top, waiting for the wind to catch my wings.


My wife is the kindest person I know. As a little girl she would worry about and pray for all the people in the world for whom no one

else was praying. What an onerous burden for tender shoulders! Yet it is understandable enough: the world is full of pain that we would ease if we could and most likely all thoughtful Christians will have, at one time, struggled with this problem.

We pray, but the pain continues: road traffic fatalities, deaths from cancer and malaria – prayer does not alter the statistics. Indeed, if it did there would be no statistics: for then, for instance, cancer survival rates would not depend on grading, staging and available treatment but go up and down depending on the effectiveness of our prayerful efforts.

It is very natural and human when faced by something like cancer to pray for survival. But prayer will not alter the statistics – it follows, to me, that praying for our, or a loved one’s survival, is to pray that someone else takes our or the loved one’s place in the cohort of the doomed. Prayer for such personally favourable physical outcomes, taking this

interpretation, seems, at best, selfish and, at the worst, blasphemous – can we really ask God to condemn another to something we find so unspeakably horrifying?

In the Lord’s Prayer we pray for a closer walk with God, for gratitude, forgiveness and to be ‘delivered from evil’ – nothing here about personally favourable physical outcomes. To be brief, what I wish to say is best expressed in the words of the beautifully named unitarian hymnodist, Love Maria Willis.

Father, hear the prayer we offer;Not for ease that prayer shall be,But for strength that we may everLive our lives courageously.

Now that’s something we can all pray for ourselves without fear of depriving another of similar good fortune.

John is a member of Taunton Meting.

Reflection

Prayer

John Anderson shares some personal thoughts on the nature of prayer

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They had set off walking from Iona on 14 May and were due in Riding Mill at lunchtime on Tuesday 18 June. The parish hall was to be full

at lunchtime and I was down to provide somewhere for an indefinite number of walkers to eat their lunch. It was all at rather short notice. So, I suggested my house and garden in Station Close – one of the streets of small houses. I was told on Sunday evening that there would be ‘about seven’.

On Monday the figure was ‘about fifteen’ but by Tuesday at 9am, at the blessing service at Hexham Abbey crypt, it had become ‘about thirty’!

The owner of the one village shop, Bobby, knew there were problems and he offered to make sandwiches – brown bread only, of course, and mainly vegetarian, and all a gift from him! So, by Tuesday morning he was embarking on enough for fifteen, then an extra ten when the mobile phone told me there’d be ‘about twenty-five’. I was also given fifteen lovely homemade rice-crispy, nut and raisin biscuits and a friend from Hexham brought a huge salad.

By the time the pilgrims left, after a couple of hours resting in the sun on our little back lawn, and having taken in lots of liquid and enough food (I hope), all that was left was a tiny bit of salad, half a meat-pie (bought at the last minute), and half a bottle of lime cordial. They all seemed well satisfied and very cheerful.

I’m glad to say they then left to walk from Newcastle to Durham Cathedral and beyond. What happened in Riding Mill was all part of the Justice and Peace Pilgrimage from Iona to Westminster. The Pilgrimage is expressing an ecumenically agreed objection to maintaining Trident as a so-called ‘defence’ system. The system results in a disregard for the poverty and suffering in Britain – poverty and suffering that could be partly alleviated by the £100 billion of our taxes that will be spent on refurbishing Trident.

I had wondered whether this was too tiny an effort to have any effect, but the pilgrims are very proactive in their encounters with anyone they meet. As days go by I meet a surprising number of friends and neighbours who have either seen the pilgrims at my house or met them on their walk. All have been deeply impressed by their commitment, and their cheerfulness and positive outlook. They are expressing what so

many here have been feeling for a good while.

Hearts and minds have been won by their courage in ‘standing up and being counted’ in order to encourage others to do the same. May their numbers and influence increase as they move southwards. Let us be with them in spirit, if it is not possible to join them in body.

Maura is a member of Hexham Meeting

For further information: www.justpeacepilgrimage.com or www.facebook.com/justpeacepilgrimage

Reflection

The peace pilgrimage

Maura Brown meets the pilgrims walking from Iona to London

All have been deeply impressed by their commitment, and

their cheerfulness and positive outlook

16

[email protected]


a look at the Quaker world

MELANIE JAMESON, of Malvern Meeting, got in touch with Eye after an unusual diversion during a recent visit to Marazion Meeting. She writes:

‘I was surprised to find that Friends were being “shushed” and re-directed away from the usual path that leads to the kitchen/lobby area. Instead, we were urged to enter by the other door, which opened on to a gathering Meeting for Worship. What had caused this diversion?

‘The answer proved to be a grey fluffball that revealed itself as a baby seagull, planted firmly in front of the usual entrance and guarded by protective parents who were poised to defend their young.

‘Settled in this charming old Meeting house with the distant sound of crashing waves (Marazion is located opposite St Michael’s Mount), I reflected that a small being, standing its ground, can make a significant difference.’

FRIENDS OF ALL AGES came together at Cambridge Jesus Lane Meeting on 9 June to tell an inspiring tale.

Dressed in period costumes, they performed a play about the children of Reading Meeting in 1665; children who continued to hold Meeting for Worship after their parents had been jailed.

Small but significant

The children’s tale

After the adults (above) are jailed, the children hold

Meeting on sunday

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Sue

Bro

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.

they are dispersed by the local sheriff

‘ROGER CARR may be wondering if the Religious Society of Friends is his nemesis,’ pondered a reader, in a recent missive to Eye.

‘As chairman of Cadbury, he drew criticism from Quakers when he sold the company to Kraft. As the current head of the CBI, he insists that tax avoidance is not a “moral” issue. Amongst his fiercest critics is Richard Murphy of the

Tax Justice Network… a Quaker. ‘Now he has been revealed

as the next chair of the arms company BAE Systems. At least seven Quakers were among the protesters at BAE’s last AGM, one of whom was physically removed from the building after challenging arms sales to Bahrain. A similar response is likely to greet Roger when he takes the chair for the

first time.‘Is Roger wondering what

motivates Quakers to dog him wherever he goes? Perhaps Friends House should send him some introductory leaflets. Then again, Quaker testimony to light and truth is being acted in front of him all the time. What better introduction can anyone have to Quakerism than that?’

Dogged by Quakers

‘Speaking truth to power. That was what the Quakers said, he’d had to arrest a few in the eighties, peaceniks, yakking on about “direct action” and Cruise missiles. For people who worshipped in silence they seemed to talk a lot.’

From Started early, took my dogby Kate Atkinson

Peaceniks


Friends&MeetingsDiaryDeaths

Memorial meeting

Changes of address

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Changes of clerk

Brian Gordon AWTY 24 June, peace-fully. Member of Skipton Meeting,formerly of Forest Hill Meeting.Aged 88. Funeral 2.20pm Monday22 July, Waltonwrays Crematorium,Skipton. Memorial Meeting 2.30pmSaturday 27 July, Skipton FMH.Enquiries 01282 864058.

BUNHILL FIELDS FRIENDSMEETING HOUSE Banner Street,London EC1,Wednesday 17 Julyand the third Wednesday of everymonth, 12.45 - 1.15pm, meeting forworship followed by a light sharedlunch.

Changes to meeting

BLUE IDOL LM From July toDecember Meeting for Worship willbe held at Thakeham Village Hall,Storrington Road, Thakeham, eachSunday at 10.30 while extensiverenovations take place at the BlueIdol. Enquiries: Chris Knott 01798872596; www.blueidol.org.uk

CorrectionJohn HIGHFIELD was an attenderat Liverpool Meeting, not inmembership, as stated in theannouncement in 21 June issue.

C Gerard WAKEMAN A MemorialMeeting to give thanks for Gerard'slife will be held at 12 noon, Saturday20 July, Friargate Meeting House,York YO1 9RL. Friends welcome.RSVP Cath 0115 960 3624.

QUAKER AFRICA INTERESTGROUP 10.30am-4.30pm, Saturday21 September at The Priory Rooms,Bull Street, Birmingham B4 6AF. Allwelcome. RSVP, book lunch (£2.25)and ask directions: Marieke [email protected] ortelephone 01865 557807.

Sue FLEMONS has moved to:13 Walker Close, Hanwell, LondonW7 3NB. Tel. 020 3638 6112.

MONKSEATON MEETING,WHITLEY BAY Visiting northeastcoast? Worship at our 18th Centuryseaside meeting house. 11am eachSunday with children’s meeting.Beach picnic/shared lunch each firstSunday. 23 Front Street,Monkseaton NE25 8AQ.www.northumbriaquakers.org.uk/pages/monkseatonquakers.htm

STROUD LM From July, Meetingfor Worship: first and third Sunday10.30am, The Exchange, Brick Row,Stroud GL5 1DF (wheelchair acces-sible). Second Sunday 10.30am TheOld Rectory, Walkley Hill, Rod-borough GL5 3YT. Fourth Sunday10.30am various venues followed byshared lunch. Fifth Sunday time/location variable. All enquiries:Frank Bonner 01453 763603 or SueBarrance 01453 750529. ThirdSundays, Meeting for Worship alsoat 11am Lucifer Lodge, Whiteway,GL6 7ER followed by finger foods.Enquiries Michael Grendon 01285821456.

STROUD LM From 1 July, co-clerks:Frank Bonner 01453 763603, [email protected] and SueBarrance 01453 750529, [email protected]

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GlenthorneQuaker CentreSPECIAL INTERESTHOLIDAYSFriday 6 - Sunday 8 SeptemberHarmony Singingwith David Burbidge £188

Friday 13 - Sunday 15 SeptemberCompassionate Communicationwith Sarah Ludford £200

Friday 27 - Sunday 29 SeptemberOpenings to Prayerwith Janet Scott £155

Friday 4 - Sunday 6 OctoberExperiment with Lightwith Margaret Bradshaw, AngelaGreenwood and Alan Holmes £190

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QuakerManchester

PrideInvitation

A time to celebrate, a time to remember50 years of Quaker concern for gay equality

Sunday 25 August: 12.30 – 5pmMount Street Meeting House, Manchester M2 5NS

You are invited to an afternoon of sharing, celebration and worship.50 years since Towards a Quaker View of Sex,40 years of Friends Homosexual Fellowship!

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J U S T I C E a meditatio seminar

Please join us on this exploration of the spiritual dimension of justice

Tuesday 9 July: HOW CAN WE BE JUST IN ALL WE DO?Baroness Helena Kennedy, Richard Cogswell QC, Sean Hagan IMF,Lord Andrew Phillips

Wednesday 10 July: INTERIORITY ON THE INSIDE - Focuses on prisonsLord Paul Myners CBE, James Bishop, Sam Settle, Alison Waterhouse

The Seminar will be held in London and chaired by Fr Laurence Freeman OSBOne day £50, both days £80. Concessions/bursaries available.

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5 July 2013 £1.70 the Friend · 2014. 8. 5. · the Friend, 5 July 2013 3 Thought for the Week A statue of Robert Owen, visionary mill-owner and father of cooperation, stands outside