Letters - 21 February 2025
From trans liberation to an Ubuntu prayer
Trans liberation
I am concerned about what appears to be a growing anti-trans sentiment among Friends. In the 7 February edition a YouTube channel called ‘Quakerology’ was promoted. This channel platforms transphobic ideas which should not align with Quaker ideals.
Biological sex is more complicated than a male/female binary decided by chromosomes. There are a number of different biological characteristics that can influence a person’s sex beyond chromosomes. More importantly, there are also intersex variations where a person is born with biological sex characteristics of both male and female. It is also possible to change some biological sex characteristics as is the case for many trans people.
Gender is a social construct that includes how a person perceives their identity and how the world views them. It is often interwoven with a person’s biological sex. Variation in gender can be seen in many cultures across history, and we still have so much yet to learn. Our language around sex and gender is still evolving as we come to appreciate the diversity in our human identities.
In line with our commitments to equality and justice, we should lovingly embrace our trans, intersex and non-binary friends and strive for a world that provides them with full liberation.
I understand that there are concerns regarding how this might impact on women’s rights. But I would argue that trans rights only strengthen the foundational elements of feminist theory: challenging biological essentialism and campaigning for an in-depth understanding of the harm of misogyny. Trans and non-binary people are living proof of the incompatibility of biological essentialism with the human experience.
Additionally, achieving a world where all individuals are equal regardless of sex or gender is a world without misogyny.
To my trans, intersex and non-binary friends: you are loved and valued for who you are.
Wren Argent
Carers
In Meeting, a Friend spoke of the staff working at Friends House. He spoke of them as carers, caring for our Society of Friends. They work very hard
Enforced cuts in Covid left huge gaps. For example: did you know we no longer have anyone to support our prison chaplains in their important and challenging work? Filling the holes is not easy, this Friend had ‘burnt out’ and resigned. So scarred by negative attitudes he had not been able to return to Meeting for Worship for fourteen months. He called out: ‘Who cares for the carers?’
Friends, our staff need our love and our prayers, not petty brickbats.
Hold our carers in the Light and celebrate their work.
Mary Penny
The futility of war
The futility of war is once again becoming plain to see. The waste of human lives and natural resources on armed conflict between the two largest neighbours in Europe is in many ways completely illegal and the fighting must stop.
The effect of the conflict reaches far beyond the battlefields on the ground with many Ukrainian towns and cities suffering missile attacks on a regular basis.
The defenders have a right to defend but the aggressor had no right to attack. A political system made rigid by lockdown and grown heavy with militarisation, provoked by terrorism and threatened by a much larger expansion far to the south. An overspill, an accident of protocol.
Then a refusal to give in, a calm, concerted even considerate effort to politely repel maintained now for over two years, with success. The aggressor is stuck in his own accident of fate, in his own racist diatribe and introverted conceit. The conflict is costing too much money, too many men, it’s just a question of when the words can be eaten, the face saved and removed from so many channels.
The old industry will be gone, along with the hopelessly bad housing and the zero sum outlook; some will return to rebuild but it will be different. Circular communities with green spaces, arts centres and workshops, carbon neutral industries, clean public transport and safe employment for all. This is possible but first the fighting must stop.
Martin May
Spiritual accompaniment?
Recently I noticed some Quakers were discussing ‘spiritual accompaniment’ (for example, in the current Friends Quarterly). That sounds interesting, I thought, knowing nothing about the concept. As I read more, however, I became increasingly dismayed.
The idea seems to be an alternative to counselling, with the accompanier being a specific person who is trained to help with one’s inner journey to oneself and God. The accompaniment is essentially a formal relationship, set up on request, with an agreed pattern of meetings and acknowledged boundaries. It appears that if a real friendship develops between the two people involved in this arrangement, it undermines and brings to an end the ‘spiritual accompaniment’.
People using accompaniment write of discovering who they are and how they relate to God. The concept seems to be a solely inwardly-directed process, lacking in contact with the outside world. The only example I found with outwardly-directed relevance was a Woodbrooke programme which offers accompaniment to Quakers engaged in social action. Even that has apparently attracted only moderate demand.
The whole idea made me very sad. What I love about Quakers is the feeling that we are Friends who can talk to each other and lovingly support each other. I like the historical name: The Religious Society of Friends. Have we really nowadays lost our sense of community to such an extent that we need to formally organise ‘spiritual accompaniment’?
Sheila Taylor
A bit of quiet time
A bit of quiet time, alone or together, seems to make it easier to get things in perspective.
Just being still for a while seems to have the effect of quietening, but also sharpening, the mind.
A bit of quiet time, just being, seems to make it easier to know what needs most attention.
Just being quiet for a while seems to be a good way to come to terms with whatever’s just happened.
A bit of quiet time, doing nothing, seems to make it easier to see what is actually going on, easier to read the situation.
Having some productive quiet time doesn’t seem to require any particular posture, or effort.
Just being quiet for a while seems to be an acquired taste which, once acquired, becomes a pleasure.
Doing nothing for a while seems to be different from a mindfulness practice or meditation technique – it’s doing nothing, nothing at all.
A bit of quiet time, just being, seems to be a good way to step out of role for a while, and rest.
The best time for having some effective quiet time seems to be between two activities.
Doing nothing for a while seems to be like having a second home, a place to retreat to at any time of the day.
Having some time to be seems to make it easier to accept the way things are, providing firm ground for a next step.
A bit of quiet time, doing nothing, seems to have an enlivening effect on the body. A bit of quiet time, alone or together, seems to be a good way to get clear on what needs facing. Having some time to be seems to enable fresh possibilities to come to mind.
Actively doing nothing, just being still, seems to make it easier for a life-changing insight to occur.
Doing nothing, just existing, seems to evoke a kinship with everything else in existence. Doing nothing for a while seems to enable thoughts to subside and the light of awareness to come into view.
Mike Turton
Ubuntu prayer
Ubuntu.
I am because you are…
…the still small voice…
…the inner light…
…the teacher within…
…divine…
…God.
I am because you are.
Ubuntu
A prayer given in ministry at a First Day Meeting for Worship.
Bill Shaw
Comments
“Biological sex is more complicated than a male/female binary decided by chromosomes.”
Biological sex determines our medical and our reproductive histories through life. Also in the wider animal and plant kingdoms.
We cannot change our sex.
Only biological females can bear children.
Intersex characteristics are very rare. In all my long life, I have only encountered two people, one with possible Klinefelter Syndrome and one with Turner syndrome - the former undisputed male and the latter female (as the syndrome only affects females).
“Gender” used to mean the same as “sex”. Synonyms.
Has “gender” become a “Humpty Dumpty” word, meaning whatever the speaker or writer thinks it means?
We are committed to truth and integrity. This should apply to language. Words should be used carefully.
By DavidH on 22nd February 2025 - 11:31
Please login to add a comment
