Letters - 05 April 2024
From Trustees’ remit to A personal take on Gaza
Trustees’ remit
In response to the letter by Richard Pashley (22 March), and any others the Friend may have received since on this topic, may I invite readers to consult chapter 8 of the current edition of Quaker faith & practice, in particular 8.17.
Marisa Johnson
Clerk to Britain Yearly Meeting trustees
Boarding schools
There was some correspondence in the Friend a few years ago about boarding schools. I want to bring up the subject again. I think we suffer in this country (among the upper and upper-middle classes) from negative attitudes to children. These are inherited from the Victorians. This is not about idealising children, but rather valuing and respecting them. Deliberately separating children from their parents is a shocking act of violence.
There are three points I want to make. First, teenagers are not mini-adults, they are still children until the age of eighteen. They grow and mature very slowly. This is especially true of boys. They need parents or foster parents to guide them. This is a human rights issue. They need parents to discuss values with and sometimes to rebel against. This puts a big responsibility on parents – and, of course, parenting is not easy.
Second, I am no longer surprised by the level of denial about this issue. It is normalised but it is not healthy. We all need balance between freedom and some level of control.
Third, I am a member of an organisation called Boarding School Survivors – Support. We are calling for an end to boarding for under-sixteens. I would like the Religious Society of Friends to take a lead on this at Bootham and Sibford schools. We would all be healthier and happier – and hopefully more emotionally intelligent as a result.
Henry Lawson
Neurodivergence
I just want to say how I loved the cover of 15 March. It makes me smile every time I look at it, and I’ve stuck it up on the wall.
Such wise words of Sylvia Clare on neurodivergence. ‘Those of you who find us difficult, may not have thought about how difficult we find you.’ As someone in my sixties, just realising how neurodivergence explains so many of my life’s struggles, past and present, and how the exhaustion of years of working hard to fit in/masking, (at school, work, Quakers and so on) has most likely been a large contributing factor to my current experience of being mostly housebound with ME/chronic fatigue (suggests my GP).
I can’t go on not being who I really am. If I can’t get to a Meeting house, or sit still indoors with other people for an hour, it’s just too difficult for me, sensory overwhelm.
Is there still a place for me within Quakers? Maybe. I hope so.
My Meeting is holding an outdoor Meeting for Worship once a month in summer. There’s the online worshipping communities of Woodbrooke, and the online meetings of neurodivergent Friends. These are places where I can feel accepted as I am, and not feel like I am difficult.
Maureen Rowcliffe-Quarry
‘Completely new publication’
Quaker faith & practice is currently undergoing revision because (and I quote) ‘Britain Yearly Meeting decided in 2018 that Quaker faith & practice needs updating. This is not just a revision of the current text. We are creating a completely new publication.’
Two draft samples have been published for comment. First, ‘Nominations’, and, second, ‘The Meaning of Marriage’.
The deadline for comment was 3 May, 2023. How many Friends were aware of this? I don’t remember it in Quake, for instance.
The committee say they have consulted with Friends through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Padlet. Has anyone ever considered how many of us never use these?
The system seems to be overly online-centric, convoluted and somewhat daunting to anyone offering a contribution.
I am also concerned that the ‘completely new publication’ may perhaps be coloured by an increasingly secular and ‘political correctness’, which may water down the inspiration and message we seek in God, the light, the spirit, however we describe it in our Meetings for Worship.
Vaughan Hill
A heavy responsibility
An open letter to Quaker Life Central Committee: Friends, you have a responsibility which I believe you shirk. A heavy responsibility, held only by you. A responsibility existential for our Society. I refer not to you as individuals, but to the committee to which you belong.
Do not obligingly accept the group norms you inherit. A glory of our gospel order is the refreshing of committees every three years. Be aware of the past but bring in new ideas and correct the errors that grow with time.
Your responsibility is to ensure our religious society continues to be a religious society. ‘Religious’ as understood by other faiths and denominations. And as understood when Britain Yearly Meeting was established to support the Religious Society of Friends. And as understood when Quaker faith & practice was revised in the 1990s.
We mostly do good works and keep to our testimonies but these are the outcome of our form of religion, not its purpose. All our testimonies grew from the form of religion to which we commit ourselves. Leave good works to Quaker Peace & Social Witness.
What might you be doing? Leading discussions on such topics as the Quaker concept of God, the relevance today of Jesus’ teaching and example, or what we can learn from other faiths and churches.Quakers worldwide, just how truthful should we be (must we read all the terms and conditions or do without the software)? Quaker history, Barclay’s Apology. Are we theists? Is humanism ‘religious’? If someone came to Meeting carrying an offensive weapon, should we let them in? Does the Spirit exist/work or are we deluding ourselves? Joining Churches Together and weeks of Christian unity. And so on.
You should be elders’ main support; you could send them an inspiring monthly bulletin. Your job is religion, not mere spirituality. We depend on you.
Stephen Petter
A personal take on Gaza
Keith Braithwaite (23 February) gives his personal take on Gaza. Unfortunately, what happened on 7 October is not quite as he describes or as we are encouraged by Israel’s allies to believe.
Hamas said on 10 October that in the six to eight hours it took for the Israel Defense Forces to react to the Al Qassam operation, hundreds of people streamed across the fence and chaos ensued. There are videos of Al Qassam fighters coming across the Fence and attacking military targets at dawn, and there are videos of random groups and individuals in civilian clothes running through the breeches later in the day, looting, beating and killing people and taking hostages. Hamas was never in control of these hostages and had to find them during the last ceasefire. They have continuously explained this and other actors have confirmed it.
The problem is listening only to what Israel says and taking its claims as proven fact while ignoring what Hamas says. Hundreds of civilians were killed on 7 October, not thousands. What is needed is an independent investigation to get the facts and then for the guilty to be held responsible. Murdering tens of thousands of innocent civilians, and starving others, is to answer a crime with a much greater one.
As for the twenty years of rocket bombardments, this has to be seen in the context of a territory and people besieged, lacking the freedom to fish their own seas, trade, have access to drinkable water, and many other things the rest of us take for granted.
I am no fan of Hamas, but as Keith Braithwaite makes a comparison with Yasser Arafat it’s worth remembering that Israel encouraged and funded Hamas precisely to undermine the Palestine Liberation Organisation and posit the view that there was no partner for peace. Even-handedness is a fine stance but not at the expense of clearly evidenced truth.
Sue Beardon
Editor’s note
In our 1 March issue we attributed an article on the Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network (‘A welcome change’) to Michael Bartlet. In fact, he penned only the quote ‘Refugees are the human face of international injustice’. The rest of the piece was by Fred Ashmore of Kingston Meeting. We apologise for the mix-up.
Comments
I find Susan Beardon’s response to Keith Braithwaite’s article on Gaza difficult.
Her attempt to separate the terrorists who carried out the October 7 Pogrom from Hamas, because they weren’t wearing uniform, is disingenuous.
I am becoming familiar with Quakers and Quaker organisations acting as apologists for Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli citizens. But to criticise Israel for Gaza’s lack of potable water when it is Hamas that uses the water pipes as rocket launchers, pipes provided as aid.
Finally her assertion that Israel funded Hamas is misleading. Israel allowed a rise in work permits from Gazans for 2,000-3,000 to nearly 20,000 in under four years, hoping a rise in affluence would bring greater stability. Similalrly they allowed cash from Qatar to enter Gaza.
By Ol Rappaport on 4th April 2024 - 11:42
Richard Pashley (22-3-24) BYM Trustees should ensure that BYM should comply with charity legislation with Marisa Johnson’s reply (5-4-24) please read Quaker Faith and Practice esp 8.17 - what does the charity commission say? Gov.uk has a page “The essential trustee” what you need to know. There is an illustration “The Governance Jigsaw” “the essential trustee (CC3) whose contents supports Richard’s proposal. However, the introduction “Charity trustees are the people who share ultimate responsibility for governing a charity and directing how it is managed and run” supports Marisa’s proposal. Neither Richard or Marisa reflect on the role of our professional officers. The charity commissioners note that charities are very variable in size and financial responsibilities (wealth) so that the range of governance responsibilities between employed professional and volunteers has to be proportionate with the professional being more important in bigger organisations for example see the governance structure of Quaker Social Action charity. Quaker Faith and Practice reads as if Quakers have two top management decision making committees with no visual accountability structure illustrated. Our professional team are hidden. The Friend has pointed out the secrecy of our bodies - very secret within a secret society of Quakers with our Trustees being the less transparent. Quakers need clarity and simplicity holistically for all our Quakers.
Finances need simplification too -The charity commission website records over £90M reserves for Quakers in Britain and over £50M reserves in other Quaker bodies. An area meeting has minuted the risk of loss because of lack of professional oversight of these millions of pounds in small rich Quaker bodies –qualified volunteers do not exist. A strategic concentration of our reserves with professional oversight reduces risk and frees up marginal monies of millions. (For example, £6M to save Woodbrooke if we want, or to every meeting refurbishing its premises 50-50 matched funding).
Since the Covid pandemic, its more popular for a charity to ask for an external review of a large charities governance to give resilience, effectiveness and growth (Quakers want to go Woosh) is popular and several commercial and charitable organisations are available to assist. Quakers in Britain this would be a good first step to take, informing every other siloed review we are currently under taking. thank you best wishes David Fish Rugby local Quaker meeting.
By davidfishcf@msn.com on 10th April 2024 - 13:12
I am grateful for David’s comments. I feel that the boundary between trustees and members of an organisation’s paid professional management team is not always straightforward. It can be complex.
I hope that any discussion about this issue will be informed by Chapter 8 of QFP, as Marisa Johnson suggests.
In Friendship
By Richard Pashley on 10th April 2024 - 15:43
Thank you to Richard Pashley for your follow up. Years have gone by with our two or three parallel leadership slowing Quaker sustainability. Quaker development workers have been a success. Alternative pathways for Quaker membership and Our faith in the future and Woosh ... never taken forward clearly. I reported my views to Friends house ... told not relevant with so many separate groups reforming separate issues. I reported our ineffective administration including our financial risk to Companies House but couldn’t make a strong enough case for a response. The letters in The Friend highlighting our parallel leaderships leading to disharmony, and the appeal to give more time to spiritual nurture (David Harries 2021) are more frequent. What can be done. Could a motion be tabled at this year’s yearly meeting to ask for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations to review our governance holistically? It’s not just our governance structure but “Organisational Purpose; Integrity; Decision-making, risk and control; Board effectiveness; Equality Diversity and Inclusion and Openness and Accountability”. Am expert holistic report to give Quakers quality professional thoughts to sustain and go whoosh. I will write to the Yearly Meeting Agenda committee next week and copy in The Friend. Thank you again Richard. and The Friend. best wishes David Fish Rugby local Quaker meeting
By davidfishcf@msn.com on 10th April 2024 - 17:24
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