BBC echoes Quaker Week theme
‘Every one of us has a choice. Do we seek to nurture the seed within us which leads us to love our neighbour? Or do we harden our hearts so that the seed perishes on rocky ground?’
The BBC Daily Service explored the concept of ‘Love Your Neighbour’ last week, echoing the theme of Quaker Week and World Quaker Day.
Tim Gee, general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), presented the Radio 4 Extra show on 30 September. The other presenters were Cherry Vann, leader of the Anglican Church in Wales; theologian Angela Tilby; choir leader Heavilyn Ohene-Akrasi; and Stephen Cottrell, archbishop of York who was standing in as Church of England primate. Britain Yearly Meeting sent congratulations to the new primate Sarah Mullally, after she was appointed archbishop of Canterbury last week, the first woman to hold the position.
‘Today almost all of the world religions have a version of the rule “love your neighbour as yourself”, sometimes called the Golden Rule,’ said Tim. ‘But it also seems to be true that war is also very old, to be found almost anywhere with empires and kings. Then, as now, people have misused religion as a tool of war and injustice.’
‘Every one of us has a choice,’ he added. ‘Do we seek to nurture the seed within us which leads us to love our neighbour? Or do we harden our hearts so that the seed perishes on rocky ground?’
The theme for Quaker Week was chosen to counter bitter divisions in society. ‘Racism, xenophobia, war, and genocide are all tragic failures to love our neighbours. If we are serious about our values, we must live them,’ Paul Parker, recording clerk for Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), said. ‘In a time when religious values are often distorted or repurposed for division, Quakers offer a different message: that the principle of Love is written in every human heart.’
A statement from Churches Together in England (CTE) said: ‘Christian words and symbols must never be co-opted to support the messages that breed hostility towards others.’
