Letters - 06 April 2018
From faith and harmony to gender and identity
Faith and harmony
I offer this response to Cap Kaylor (23 and 30 March). I think of Jesus as one of my ancestors. He was essentially Jewish in the same way as I consider myself. The Light that he brought to the world, the Light that early Friends recognised and current Friends can experience today, was not about any distant salvation but a here and now establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. It is a fully present realisation of the basic commandment of compassion to love our neighbours as ourselves. It is a love that bears all, a love that listens, a love that cares simultaneously for myself and for the person who stands beside me, whatever I am and whoever he or she is.
Such an establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth through the practice of compassion is still our aim, imperfect though we may be. That is my faith, and your faith is not compromised if I differ from you. Indeed, the harmony of our work together depends on our differences.
Anthony Gimpel
Suffering of animals
I was pleased to see the article about the work of the Quaker Arts Network (QAN) with Collateral Damage (9 March). However, I was disappointed that no mention was made of the universal suffering of animals as collateral damage in human conflict. Companion animals may be killed or wounded, abandoned and left to die; farm animals injured or confined in barns, unable to forage for themselves, or be milked or tended, and zoo and circus animals stay locked in cages slowly starving to death.
Purple poppies are worn in remembrance of these true innocents, and handmade purple poppies were contributed to the peace poppy exhibition QAN created last year, which also included other artwork relating to animals in war.
Julie Hinman
Early Friends and education
I was a bit shocked to read in the letter from David Correa-Hunt (23 March) that ‘early Friends… seem initially to have had a contempt for education’.
In fact, George Fox, Thomas Lawson, John Bellers and William Penn were all extremely interested in education and had far-seeing ideas about it. There are many passages in their writings extolling the value of education. What they did object to was the type of university education that in those days was said to qualify a man to be a priest, and which was based on the classics.
Early Friends emphasised the need to treat children well and encourage them to develop their talents, rather than punishing them. Subjects emphasised were religion, especially the Bible; ethical conduct; practical subject; the whole of nature, and ‘whatsoever things were civil and useful in the creation’.
George Fox ‘advised the setting up of a school’ for boys, and also a school at Shacklewell for ‘girls and young maidens’. William Penn, in particular, devoted a section of one of his books to the value of education, especially in practical subjects, but also the study of nature, in which he saw God’s work. He thought that more knowledge of nature would prevent people from abusing it. This is particularly relevant today.
Anne Adams
Waking up to privilege
Whilst reading Nim Njuguna’s article entitled ‘Race, racism and marginalisation’ (23 March) I remembered an experience I had many years ago.
I was sitting in a large theatre in Germany, watching a preview performance of the opera Manon, when it suddenly occurred to me that I was totally surrounded by Germans and that I was probably the only English person present. I suddenly felt very vulnerable and fearful, and noticed my heart racing.
My next thought was: ‘Thank goodness I am not a person of colour.’ I would then stand out very much and feel even more vulnerable because, until I opened my mouth, nobody would know I wasn’t German. I felt safe.
Thank you, Nim, for your article reminding me of this experience in Germany; the reminder has helped me understand a little of your ongoing everyday life experience. I am not sure where I stand on the ‘five mindsets’, but I am certainly now more aware of my thinking from the ‘reality of [my] white privilege’.
Thank you for waking me up.
Jo Fisher
Young people and Quakers
There is an opportunity for every Meeting house in the country to have on their table in the centre of the Meeting not just our familiar red Quaker faith & practice but a new faith and practice book sitting alongside it, written by young people and speaking directly to the teenage condition.
I also think Meeting houses need to all be aligned in unity with sustainability issues, growing and serving their own organic vegetarian food.
These are ideals that young people who may be drawn to Quakers are already spiritually engaged with.
Rumi, the thirteenth century Islamic scholar, theologian and poet, said: ‘There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen.’ The teenage years are a time of questioning and searching for identity and ideals.
Quakers hold a unique and liberal position in campaigning against the military, on peace activism and environmental issues, and even hold a Nobel Peace Prize that many young people recognise and respect.
We live in a post-modernist society, but for young people there has never been a greater need for them to find a voice and meaning. Quakers can be that voice, but unfortunately don’t do themselves any favours by having endless layers of tedious meetings, which with the invention of the internet we can now be free from.
Let’s not wait for Meeting houses to close down because they cannot attract young people. Let’s make these changes now and celebrate our unique voice within our truly Quaker tradition of dissent and speaking truth to power.
Sarah Sheard
Quaker numbers
If we are to reverse the fall in our numbers and start to grow again we must, first, stop talking (some of us) as if we are doomed. We are not. We are very active in important work, in the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) and placements abroad, and also in some of our Area Meetings. There are keen young people coming up.
Second, we should put emphasis on membership as opposed to mere attendance. Our members have specifically pledged their service and financial contribution.
Third, we should define ‘attender’ in some way that limits its meaning. Then we can properly appreciate those who actually come regularly and those who voluntarily offer help.
Elaine Miles
Dancing with God
I just got home from Woodbrooke, after the Equipping for Ministry residential, and picked up the pile of mail on the doormat, including the Friend (30 March). I had to smile when I saw what it said on the cover: ‘Dancing with God’.
It was a continuation of a lunchtime conversation in the Woodbrooke dining room earlier, as our final session had ended with some of us dancing and singing: ‘You shall go out with joy, and be let forth with peace, and the mountains and the hills will break forth before you. There’ll be shouts of joy and all the trees of the fields will clap, will clap their hands.’
Was that dancing with God?
An earlier experience in the week on our quiet day had included, for me, a session of 5Rhythms dance – that to me was truly dancing with God. Expressing with my body the joys and frustrations of life was a real healing experience – by the end the weight had lifted from my shoulders and left me with a real sense of peace.
It seemed to link in with the session we did with Maud Grainger on Joanna Macy’s Active Hope – the cycle of gratitude, honouring our pain, seeing with new eyes and then going forth.
Maybe dance is not for everyone, but I have been very grateful for the opportunities to dance with Friends and God.
Maureen Rowcliffe-Quarry
Gender and identity
Abigail Maxwell’s article on identity (23 February) reminded me that early in the 1950s, training as an occupational therapist, a consultant from a London hospital during a lecture said: ‘Male to female is a line and we can be anywhere along it. So, variations and confusion are normal and will occur.’
It has always seemed natural that people in the middle can feel confused and have difficulty in where and who they really want to be.
‘Black and white’ is too simple and there are many variations. So it is with gender.
Enid Carpenter
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