Letters - 12 April 2024
From Message and experience to Delight
Message and experience
I’m grateful for Gerard Bane’s questions about our Religious Society’s apparent decline (29 March). Of course, this decline is relatively local, and we might learn from that. In my experience, the lack of a clear Quaker message – one about God and our experience of being guided and gathered, rather than about our goodness or history – can make our Meetings less welcoming.
I hope our Meetings are broad places, with room for creation’s full variety. Yet we cannot include people without something to include them in. I wonder if we are willing to be open enough with each other about our faith, speaking vulnerably and personally about how the Spirit is moving in our lives.
I wonder if we feel we have good news to offer those who are not comfortable. When I need help from a power greater than myself, and from others attending to that power, ‘come to Meeting and we will question all your convictions’ does not provide much solace.
The early Friends yielded their own agendas and came to know a life and power that transformed them and gave shape to their communities. Their message was that Jesus, this transforming life, had come to teach us directly, bringing us into a unity that is not made by human hands. These Friends carried this message all over the world, and many found themselves changed and joined together. In this year of reflection on George Fox’s life, might that message and experience turn the world upside down again?
Matt Rosen
‘What canst thou say?’
There has been some discussion recently about what the Peace Testimony means and how best to understand it. Frankly, I don’t care about the ‘peace testimony’, let alone debates about its interpretation. Instead, I will make bold to rephrase George Fox and ask: ‘You will say the peace testimony saith this, and the interpreters say this, but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of Light and has thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?’
I am compelled to say the obvious. As a child of the Light, I cannot take ‘a side’ in the Gaza conflict if it is the side of Hamas; and I will confidently ‘attack’ the perspective of anyone who thinks they can excuse or justify Hamas and remain an advocate of peace.
I have listened to courageous and heartfelt peacebuilders in Israel and Palestine and have learned from them that taking sides only perpetuates this bloody conflict. We can passionately and actively oppose the devastation and injustices perpetrated by both Hamas and the Israeli state without choosing one over the other. Instead, we can choose life; we can pursue justice; we can seek peace.
Abby Press Adorney
Vegetarianism
I can sympathise with Pete Duckworth’s letter (22 March) about the imperative for vegetarianism as my wife and I changed from a meat diet many years ago, after watching a horrific television programme about the treatment of farmed animals. This early conversion had its problems as the vegetarian alternative was very limited. One pub landlord told us he would go out and cut the grass.
However, Pete Duckworth’s letter had one unfortunate comparison when he stated that such animal cruelty was ‘the equivalent of the slavery issue in the nineteenth century’.
That is a ridiculous comparison. There are rules and regulations governing the treatment of farmed animals. I am not aware that slavery was offered the same protection. The passage of enslaved people from Africa to the USA was much longer and potentially fatal compared to even the longest of journeys undergone by farmed animals.
I am sure Pete has seen those incredible illustrations of how people were packed together in slave ships. I would be very surprised if he could find any animal situations to compare with this.
Richard Stewart
Quaker ‘Question Time’
On the evening of 28 March, Norwich Local Meeting hosted a public pre-election ‘Question Time’. Invitations were sent to the main political parties, asking them to provide a local general election candidate from either one of the Norwich constituencies, to answer questions from the audience on peace and on the environment. The Meeting was to be held in a Quakerly fashion, as a sharing of views, rather than as a debate. The speakers received information about avoiding criticism of other panel members or anyone else, who was not present in the room.
Three candidates turned up. The Conservative representative was prevented from coming because of another meeting, but we had representatives of the Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
The evening was a real joy. We heard sincere answers to searching questions and the three speakers expressed agreement about many issues and complimented each other on the way they had spoken about food poverty, international diplomacy, contact with the ‘left-behind’ and many other topics. After the meeting, several members of the audience came up to congratulate the speakers and to say how refreshing it had been to hear politicians working together to solve problems.
The speakers’ reaction was that they had really enjoyed the evening and had found it much more relaxing than the usual kind of hustings. The Labour speaker was Clive Lewis, the MP for Norwich South. He said that Quakers were missing a trick. They should be holding ‘Question Times’ like this in Meeting houses all over the country. We should also be contacting the BBC to ask whether they would find a suitable Meeting house to hold a TV ‘Question Time’ using Quaker rules. He even offered to take part in the programme!
I encourage all Meetings to consider holding a Quaker ‘Question Time’ before the general election. You will enjoy it.
Liz Hoffbauer
Salter Lecture 2024
Quaker Socialist Society (QSS) has been criticised and challenged for inviting Jeremy Corbyn to co-present the Salter Lecture 2024 at the time of Yearly Meeting (YM) to speak about war and peace.
I thank QSS for bringing his name forward, and am shocked to read that QSS members have been asked to ‘consider the risks identified both to peacebuilding work in Israel and Palestine and to relationships within Britain Yearly Meeting’.
Jeremy Corbyn is not the risk. The misrepresentation that has accompanied his political footsteps over the last several years has been generated to serve those forces that seek to silence him because he sheds light in their dark places. He has a track record going back decades on his approach to war and peace that sits well alongside our own Peace Testimony.
What is at risk at this critical time is the flame, the historical energy that enables Quakers to stand with the persecuted staring their oppressive powerful forces in the face with courage, love and grace.
On a practical note, if it is considered that there would be a risk of harm to people, whether they be staff or others, this does clearly need to be taken seriously because we have a duty of care to everyone and we can do this by finding ways to manage any risk rather than removing a motivating speaker from the YM agenda.
Sheila Mosley
Deep sadness
I feel such deep sadness that Jeremy Corbyn has been turned down to speak at this year’s Salter Lecture.
The early Christians would rather be thrown to the lions than put a pinch of incense on the altar to Caesar. How pitiful it is that we have finally joined the ‘Lions Club’ ourselves.
Christopher Goodchild
Delight
I want to express my delight in the Friend from last week (15 March). The contrast and treasure of ideas give me so much joy.
It’s so good to read that a scientist, Pim van Lommel, also recognises that we are enfolded in pure unconditional love, however hard we find it to believe.
Ruth Kettle-Frisby gives a very clear understanding of why peace is so complicated. And neurodiverse people have a lot to offer.
I can only congratulate you in bringing these ideas together.
Nan Dower
