'We are hoping for encouragement and inspiration...' Photo: zhrefch / flickr CC.
In troubled times…
Barbara Forbes offers words of encouragement
My heart sank recently when I read a short newspaper report that the parliament of Kosovo had agreed to form an army. However, at the same time, I was aware that I would have overlooked this report a few years ago, before I visited Kosovo and made friends with people there, and before I also met people from Serbia.
Like many others, I find it easier to become engaged with political realities in other parts of the world if I have visited, or know people who live there, or who have come to our country seeking sanctuary. At present, the all-consuming nature of the Brexit drama makes it all too easy to overlook what is happening elsewhere.
In the case of the UK, we have, I think, been made brutally aware of the lie underpinning any impression we might have had that this is a united country. The referendum result made it acceptable for people to say out loud what in the past they only uttered in private, and some of that is very ugly indeed. We have seen a rise in hate crimes and the government appears to be testing how far it can take the ‘hostile environment’. At the same time, those of us who have made friends beyond our borders, and are fortunate enough to be able to feel at home across the continent of Europe, have had to realise that, for many people, such travel is a distant dream while they struggle with the ever-tightening screw of austerity and have their situation exacerbated by callous and unfeeling government decisions.
In the case of Kosovo, my visit there was under the auspices of Church and Peace, the ecumenical European network of peace churches and church-related peace groups and individuals. Church and Peace – whose origins date back seventy years but was formally founded as an association in 1978 by a coalition of Quakers, Mennonites, Church of the Brethren and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation – is a mosaic made up of members whose concerns range from refugee accompaniment through political lobbying to peacebuilding in areas of overt conflict. There are around fifty corporate members, including the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship and Christian CND in the UK; the Centre for the Study of Religion, Politics and Society in Novi Sad; Friends House Moscow; German, French and Swiss Quaker Yearly Meetings and Friends World Committee for Consultation Europe and Middle East Section (FWCC EMES); and an independent evangelical church in Pristina – which is why we held our international conference in Kosovo in 2015. For the people in this war-torn region, the meeting there was a beacon of light, giving hope that Kosovans, Serbs, Albanians, Croatians and Bosnians could come together in their desire to work for a peaceful future.
Here in Britain, we are not ‘war-torn’, but I fear there is a real threat of violence erupting on our streets over the course of the next year – either following a postponement of our departure from the EU, or resulting from chaotic circumstances if we leave with no deal. As Quakers and peace activists, we need to be preparing to help heal the divisions that are fracturing our society. Some models for this will be discussed at the Church and Peace meeting taking place in Birmingham on 23 February, where we will be hearing from people who live and work on the edge of society, or who have brought together communities at the opposite ends of the Brexit spectrum. There will also be discussion on interfaith work on climate change, an appeal for the creation of a ‘Churches of Sanctuary’ network, and a preview of the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s new workshop on ‘Everyday Civil Courage’.
We are hoping for encouragement and inspiration from this event, which is open to all.
Further information: www.church-and-peace.org
