Letters - 16 December 2022
From Fighting talk to Struggling
Fighting talk
I welcome Don Rowe’s call (25 November) for a review of chapter 24 of Quaker faith & practice to take account of the reality of recent conflicts. I recollect that there was a call some years ago for a restatement of our Peace Testimony.
Since the UN was founded in 1945 there have been many initiatives to promote the peaceful resolution of conflicts, sometimes involving military forces.
Many soldiers have lost their lives in these missions and I have been pleased to commemorate this by attending our local service of remembrance on behalf of the United Nations Association.
Quaker faith & practice does include references to many different ways of expressing support for our Peace Testimony both by personal witness and by corporate action in the fields of relief of suffering, reconciliation, disarmament, and building the institutions of peace.
The dilemmas of the pacifist stand are also acknowledged, so I think that applicants for membership should not feel that absolute pacifism is a requirement for membership.
However, I do not think that the only practical response to Russian aggression against Ukraine was a military one. There were negotiations between the parties before the invasion, which failed, but I believe that a greater willingness by Ukraine and NATO to address Russian concerns, including the rights of Russian speakers in the East of Ukraine, could have produced an agreement.
Surely the consequences of this war for all parties have been far worse than the problems that caused it. This has also been true of many other recent conflicts, such as in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria where attempts to resolve the conflict by military means have made it worse.
The major powers need to be more willing to put their resources into peacebuilding initiatives to address the causes of conflict.
This has been the emphasis of the peacebuilding work supported by Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), particularly in East Africa, and the QPSW strategy places a priority on peacebuilding based on the lessons learned from success there.
Our political leaders also need to learn these lessons.
Trevor Evans
Collections
Before Covid, our Meeting had a cash collection every Sunday. The last time I sponsored one (in fact for Quaker Council for European Affairs) we collected £200. Then we met by Zoom, now blended.
We have been asking Friends to make their own donation to whatever charity is chosen for each month. Thus we have no knowledge of how much is paid in, and I can’t believe that as many Friends contribute. Of course, handling the cash was clunky.
Our local Russian Orthodox church had collected £400 in cash, for Ukraine and not for Putin, but this (perhaps in misunderstanding) was stolen.
Now they have a contactless terminal, open to worshippers and visitors. I think it is frankly irresponsible of Friends not to go down the same road.
I gather that responsibility has to fall on Area Meetings because trusteeship is for them rather than Local Meetings. I gather also that Friends House has left the matter to AMs on the grounds that some may prefer different approaches. Surely it would help to have central advice, and perhaps centrally-negotiated terms and conditions, which individual Area Meetings could opt in or out of at will.
Richard Seebohm
Critical thinking
After Meeting for Worship some of us were discussing the way that so much of the population seems to be swayed by a few distorted influences, misled by inaccurate information.
It seemed to us that the basic fault lay with education, especially with the current trend to reduce cultural subjects like music and foreign languages.
The idea occurred to us that the time might be approaching when it might be advisable to consider trying to set up a Quaker university or college, as a beacon of unbiased information and critical thinking.
Peace studies would of course be included and language study would encompass the understanding of other cultures. Science would exemplify the approach of that admirable organisation, Scientists for Global Responsibility. Geography would enlighten students on exploitation and ethical economics. Friends can expand the possibilities for themselves.
If a few women could initiate university education for women in the nineteenth century, by founding Girton College, is it possible, or desirable, for this to become reality?
Dorothy Woolley
Poppies
To Brian Hodkinson, who talks about whether to wear white poppies or red (25 November), I say: ‘Both!’ For years I’ve worn them together, and for the last three years St Neots Meeting has laid a mixed red and white poppy wreath at the town’s war memorial during the Remembrance ceremony.
To remember all victims of war at the same time – both military and civilian – expresses how we are one family, and human suffering is the same whoever we are.
I feel to compartmentalise red and white can be divisive and does not encourage dialogue between those of differing views.
Many helpful and challenging conversations have resulted from my two poppies worn side by side, with questions, reflections, and explorations of their meaning.
Certainly there has been an openness to what the white poppy means from military personnel both serving and retired, and those in society who would normally ignore the white poppy or deride it.
This year the Royal British Legion issued an official statement supporting and welcoming poppies of all colours. This is progress, surely? A growing understanding and appreciation of the need to embrace wider interpretations of remembering victims of war.
During the current period of Remembrance we have a wide, ready-made audience. With the white poppy now accepted in a way it never has been before, our message can take a more central place, with greater potential for outreach.
Let’s use this opportunity to raise its profile, and encourage questioning and debate.
If peacemaking requires we work for unity, reconciliation and the need to see each person as of equal value, let’s practice that – allow red and white poppies to grow side by side.
Christine Green
Music together
Friends have been making music together each February for over thirty years at our weekends of choral and chamber music. Participants have described the events as an opportunity to express our spiritual life through music. They are always very special, and something to look forward to through the winter months.
Our next weekend will be held at High Leigh from 17-19 February, 2023. For more info, contact us at: quakermusicnetwork@gmail.com.
Jackie Fowler
Struggling
My trans friends are really struggling at the moment. They have many difficulties to negotiate, just trying to live their lives, all against the menacing background of a press and government hostile to their rights. I hope they don’t read the Friend, because then they may have read Robbie Spence’s letter (9 December), voicing support for the transphobic organisations LGB Alliance and Transgender Trend.
In 2021, Quakers in Britain declared: ‘With glad hearts we acknowledge and affirm the trans and gender diverse Friends in our Quaker communities, and express appreciation for the contribution and gifts that they bring to our meetings, which are communities made up of people with a diverse range of gender expressions.’ This means that support for organisations that deny the truth of trans people’s experience has no place in our Society. I hope the Friend will decline to publish such letters in the future.
Mark Russ
Comments
re Struggling: Mark Russ
I have had trans friends, colleagues and congregants since 1970, indeed my accountant is a transgender woman. But my heart was gladdened by BYM’s decision to remove Mermaids from their list of ‘useful organisations’.
It is widely recognised that some young people who are struggling with their identities in time will come out as gay or lesbian. However Mermaids has an established history of encouraging any confused young person that their ‘brain is in the wrong body’ and guide them towards gender reassignment. Initially through puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones (which they name euphemistically as gender-affirming hormones) This medication has drastic, irreversible and long-term consequences to the person’s health.
Mermaids also encourage young people to undergo surgery to be ‘their authentic selves’ which can involve castration or breast removal, amongst other procedures that are effectively genital mutilation.
Two of my three female cousins rebelled in puberty. One wanted a hysterectomy, and the other cross-dressed. Happily this was in the early Sixties and there were no pharmaceutical or surgical options available. They both went on to marry and have children, happily. I blanche at what could have happened had they been referred to Mermaids.
To describe LGB Alliance as transphobic is hugely misleading. They campaign for ‘tomboys’ to be accepted as women, and ‘effeminate’ men to be accepted as men; and very importantly: safe space for biological women.
Transgender Trend calls for ‘evidence-based healthcare for children and young people suffering gender dysphoria and for factual, science-based teaching in schools.’
Some transgender activists are quick to label anyone who disagrees with them as transphobic. As a retired child protection officer I regard LGB Alliance and Transgender Trend as simply showing due diligence in protecting children from irreversible lifelong harm.
By Ol Rappaport on 15th December 2022 - 11:23
I have a lot of respect for Mark Russ. But I agree with Ol Rappaport on the need for great care and sensitivity (and hope and optimism, indeed) as regards with children who show signs of gender dysphoria. Moreover, being FOR women (feminism) does not eqaute with transphobia.
By DavidH on 18th December 2022 - 14:14
I have been an attender since 2016 and in membership since 2021. I am on the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team of my local meeting. I am also gender critical. I know Stephanie Davies-Arai, the founder and director of Transgender Trend, and I admire her work. Our Friend Mark Russ appears to be saying that there should be no place for me in the Religious Society of Friends.
By Timothy Pitt-Payne on 6th September 2023 - 16:50
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