Interfaith at YMG

An interfaith session at YMG challenges Quakers to live out their testimonies

Friends have received a challenge to live out their testimonies from an unexpected source – a panel consisting entirely of non-Quakers.  Around 120 Quakers squeezed into a small room for an event at Yearly Meeting Gathering looking at other faiths’ approach to sustainability. As the room became packed, other Friends were turned away at the door.

There was laughter when the chair, Robin Bennett, said a local Christian from Canterbury had politely told the organisers that he was unable to attend. ‘His name was Rowan Williams,’ he added.

The session had been organised by the Quaker Committee on Christian and Interfaith Relations (QCCIR).

‘I want to thank God for what he has given through Quakers,’ said Sam Hine of the Bruderhof Community, a group of over 200 radical Christians based a few miles from Canterbury. Inspired by Anabaptism and the teachings of Jesus, they share their property in common and seek to live sustainable lives.

Sam described climate change as only a symptom of greed. He insisted that Jesus’ way ‘is completely incompatible with capitalism’ and ‘with western Christianity and its false gospel that wealth is a blessing’.

Chris Sands of the Salvation Army contrasted Quakers with his own faith group, the ‘noisiest religious denomination’. He said, ‘This planet has everything we need. We’re the worst possible managers of it.’

Jewish environmentalist Philip Rosenberg encouraged Friends to look at the Big Green Jewish Website. Taking this year as the ‘Year of the Bagel’, his campaign is asking Jews to consider the ethical questions behind where their food comes from. ‘Being Jews, we start with food,’ he joked. Next year will focus on transport, with the ‘Year of the Bicycle’.

Unitarian minister David Usher got the audience laughing. ‘I feel completely at home here,’ he said, adding that he could easily be at a Unitarian gathering as there were ‘people walking round with this kind of vague well-meaning earnestness’.

DH Ratnaprabh of the West London Buddhist Centre suggested that environmental concerns should lead to different ways of living, rather than guilt or judgementalism. Arthur Weinberg of the Canterbury Baha’is said: ‘The earth is one country and mankind its citizens’.

After six speakers there was little time for questions, despite many Friends keen to ask them. ‘I thought it was amazing, very vibrant,’ said one Friend as she asked how Quakers could work alongside others on sustainability. Another urged faith groups to work together to tackle the ‘big companies that rule the world’.

There was applause when a Friend asked, ‘Do you agree that a sustainable future needs to include and hear more of the voices of women, and how do you feel about finding yourself on an all-male panel?’ Both the Baha’i and Salvation Army speakers quickly emphasised their religions’ belief in gender equality.

But it was Sam from the Bruderhof who attracted the most questions. The next morning, a Friend ministered about the Bruderhof prior to the Yearly Meeting session on economic justice. He pointed out that the community’s 200 members share eight vehicles. ‘They are doing what we are talking about,’ he said.

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