Eye - 25 November 2011
From bankers on the beeb to a Brit bound for Rwanda
Bankers on the Beeb
Is the most sued man in British history a secret supporter of Quakers? Ian Hislop, the editor of Private Eye, presented a programme this week that cast a very favourable light on the Religious Society of Friends.
Ian Hislop: When Bankers Were Good was broadcast on Tuesday evening on BBC2 and is currently available on BBC iPlayer.
In the film Ian Hislop recalled an age when the wealth of bankers, rather than being an end in itself, was the cause of some soul-searching concerning the moral purpose of money. He also praised the Victorian philanthropists, such as the Quaker Gurney family, who used their wealth to create a better society. In an interview in the Radio Times, he said: ‘Nearly everyone knows of Elizabeth Fry, but they don’t know she was able to do reform because her brothers were stonkingly rich bankers’.
He tells the story of some bankers in the film and also confronts an inescapable fact that links several of them – religion: ‘There’s no getting away from it, however unpopular it may be, that in at least three of the cases I mentioned the religious obligation is why they did it. The Quakers were very moral. One young man wrote in his diary, “Am I becoming corrupt just by being a banker?” And the girls worried if they were being frivolous by spending a lot of money on clothes. You had to do something with your money and you had to earn it honestly too.’
In November 2008 Ian Hislop also presented a Channel 4 documentary on conscientious objectors, Not Forgotten: The Men Who Wouldn’t Fight, in which he featured the work of Quakers in a very positive light.
Rwanda bound
People in Britain have a perception of Rwanda – but how close is this to the reality of life there? Jane Dawson, from London West Area Meeting, will have an opportunity to find out. She has been invited to the Yearly Meeting in Rwanda where she will be hearing from Quakers there and talking to them about the life of Britain Yearly Meeting.
She says: ‘Hosted initially by Friends in Kigali, my programme will include visiting Quakers in remote, rural areas. I expect to get a flavour of Rwandan life, for Quakers and others, in a country emerging from the devastation of genocide and civil war. I’ll be taking part in Yearly Meeting, with the help of a translator, visiting Quaker schools and seeing for myself church projects which tackle issues of food security.’
‘The small, but vibrant, Yearly Meeting has only 4,000-5,000 members, but its membership is growing. I want to find out what draws Rwandans to join the ‘Quaker Church’, asking questions such as: What role have Friends played in healing a country ravaged by war? Is there a unique Rwandan Quaker voice?’
Jane, who is delighted to have the opportunity to make the trip, says: ‘It is going to be different from life here at so many levels: socially, culturally, politically and spiritually. I am really looking forward to the experience’.
‘The impression I get’, she says, ‘is that Quakerism in the country has benefited from the disillusion that many people felt about other churches. Some churches were associated, in different ways, with the conflict. Some people were looking for a more liberal space and, because of this, were attracted by Quakerism – but it is a very different kind of Quakerism from that practised in Britain’.
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