Lecture on Quaker testimonies in ‘turbulent times’
Helen Vale, of the Namibia Quaker Community, delivered the Richard Gush Memorial Lecture
A former Friends House employee suggested two more Quaker testimonies in a far-ranging lecture she gave to Southern Africa Yearly Meeting. Helen Vale, of the Namibia Quaker Community, delivered the Richard Gush Memorial Lecture on 21 April entitled ‘Re-envisioning the Quaker Testimonies in turbulent times: seeking from the silence’.
In the lecture Helen Vale, who worked for Quaker Peace and Service for six years, suggested two more testimonies of gratitude and creativity. She considered ‘the four concepts of faith in action, the inner light, silence and stillness’ and spoke about the links between Quaker testimonies and the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), which she introduced with two other Quakers in Namibia in collaboration with the PEACE Centre in Windhoek.
She said: ‘For me [the AVP concept of] “Transforming Power” can be equated to “the inner light” and “that of God or the divine in every person’’ in Quaker belief.’ She described ‘Transforming Power’ as the idea ‘that it is the inner power that each of us has to transform a situation from negative to positive. Each of us has an inner potential to transform our attitudes and behaviour. This is where a conflict, whether physical or emotional, can be changed, healed, “transformed”.’
The lecture was illustrated with pictures from the Quaker Tapestry and interwoven with quotations from twelve previous Richard Gush lectures. Richard Gush was a carpenter and builder, one of the 1820 British settlers who, in 1834, courageously mediated a peaceful resolution between the Xhosa and the settlers.
