Letters - 16 February 2024
From Medicines shortage to Dichotomies of membership
Medicines shortage
The current medicines shortage in the UK is unsatisfactory, unfair and, for some people, unsafe. Among others, patients needing hormone replacement therapy, oral antidiabetics, antiepileptics and some cancer treatments have increasingly found their medication unavailable. Over 100 drugs are reported to have ‘out of stock’ problems, double the number at this time last year.
One effect might be to wake us up to the importance of regular medication supply. Last autumn I spent two months researching that question in East Africa. Stock-outs there are pervasive, in urban as well as rural health facilities and across the government, private and NGO sectors.
The experience was sobering. At one hospital in central Tanzania, twenty-four out of 107 items ordered in one month were out of stock at the wholesalers. In Uganda, one important drug had been out of stock for nearly two years.
The problem is compounded by the rapid growth of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer. Many health systems are not resourced to tackle that because the focus for many years has understandably been on infectious diseases (especially malaria, TB, HIV, and of course Covid-19), but also because of a lack of funding and organisational capacity. This leads to greatly reduced life expectancy and enormous social injustice.
Joseph Rowntree famously said we need to understand the underlying causes of social injustice. My tiny attempt to do that recommends relatively minor policy adjustment in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda and targeted investment by the private sector, which could make a huge difference. The research report is available at www.abhi.org.uk/resource-hub/file/17375.
I would also ask all of us to think about the millions who suffer poor healthcare in Africa and consider which charities there we might be able to support. The scenes I witnessed will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Jeremy Holmes
Money
I keep in touch with the world and try to maintain a modest Quaker witness by homing in on information and on groups of kindred spirits such as the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA), the Quaker Truth & Integrity Group, Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs, Faith in Europe, together with the Friend, the Guardian – and other publications that fewer Friends (perhaps) care to support.
My problem arises from the fact that most of these have historically had a set subscription rate. To take an example, QCEA used to have a set annual fee for associate members, who would receive print copies of the Around Europe newsletter plus invitations and other benefits. Now more and more newsletters are online with no print or postage costs, nor a need to maintain up-to-date addresses or to send payment reminders. For Quaker bodies, some financial support can be maintained, I hope, by looking to Meetings rather than individuals, leading either to planned donations or to weekly collections. (I hope we all install contactless devices!)
More to the point, Woodbrooke in particular no longer offers residential services to those joining courses. Instead we are asked to pay as led, since there are still costs that have to be met. As a not-instinctively-generous pensioner I find this baffling.
I think we may be losing out on support, and that there is something to be worked out in all of this.
Richard Seebohm
History of Woodbrooke
The original house is a Grade II-listed Georgian manor house and was built within seventy acres of open countryside just south of Birmingham. For seventy-three years, it was a family home. Many wonderful people have lived here, worked here or studied and enjoyed the grounds, been on a personal holiday or retreat.
Built around 1830, Woodbrooke was originally the home of Josiah Mason and his wife, Anne. Josiah Mason was an industrialist and philanthropist. He founded Mason Science College in 1875, which later became the University of Birmingham.
Josiah Mason went into a business partnership with George Elkington. Josiah Mason sold Woodbrooke to George Elkington in 1839, who lived here with his wife Mary and seven children and three servants. Their eldest son, Frederick, continued to live there. George Elkington owned an electroplating company. Stained-glass windows are in St Mary’s Church, Selly Oak, in memory of George Elkington and his two wives; George had contributed towards the construction of this church.
In 1881, Frederick Elkington sold Woodbrooke to George Cadbury. Before moving to Woodbrooke, George Cadbury lived at 32 George Road in Edgbaston, directly opposite the Edgbaston Meeting House. George moved to Woodbrooke in 1881 and lived there until 1894, then he moved to the Manor House in Northfield.
John Wilhelm Rowntree convinced George Cadbury to allow Woodbrooke to be used for summer schools. The first students arrived in 1903, to receive instruction in faith, social and economic questions, philosophy. Woodbrooke building and grounds became known as Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. And was so, for 120 years.
For many people, being at Woodbrooke has been an important part of their spiritual development. Time spent at Woodbrooke, for whatever reason, was significant and inspiring.
There is a group called Friends of Woodbrooke, meaning the building and the grounds. It is for people to share photos and memories: www.facebook.com/groups/1446017146335914.
Margaret Scorey
Listening
As my ninetieth year looms, I find contemporary language increasingly difficult to understand and I am very sorry to say that I have a particular problem with Sarah Dodgson’s letter (2 February).
I completely endorse her main point about the patient listening to the spirit but am puzzled by other expressions. For example, what is the syndrome to which she refers? What is a gendered space? What is the alternative political and religious framework? And what does alt-right mean? What are the ‘phobic stories of potential violence’ which have left our Meeting completely untouched?
I am not so obtuse as not to realise that all this has something to do with sex, and some of my own grandchildren have questioned their gender, so I am aware of current issues. However, our Meetings for Worship are joined by a transgender woman and a devoted male couple, all of whom are dear and warmly accepted friends.
I don’t know if Karen Armstrong counts as ‘modern alt-right theology’ but I like her passage: ‘Augustine was not a linguist. He knew no Hebrew and could not have encountered Jewish midrash, but he had come to the same conclusion as Hillel and Akiba. Any interpretation of scripture that spread hatred and dissension was illegitimate; all exegesis must be guided by the principle of charity.’
Dorothy Woolley
Dichotomies of membership
When I was fourteen at a Catholic school we used to have mass every Wednesday.
The school took a quota of Church of England (C of E) kids.Once a C of E friend asked me if he could come to mass. I said yes. He sat with me through the mass until a teacher who noticed him told him to leave.
The C of E kids used to have free time while us Catholics had to attend mass, I told the teacher if my friend couldn’t stay at mass then neither would I. He was sent to his free time session, I was sent to the headmaster’s office to receive the cane.
When I first started attending Quaker Meetings in the early 1980s as an attender I was uncomfortable with the attender/member dichotomy and from the start did not discriminate between them.
When I became a member of the Society in the 2000s I felt the dichotomy even more acutely. I surrendered my membership some ten-plus years ago and so now I am an attender again.
Forty years on and still the same dichotomy carries on and still I feel uncomfortable with it.
Gerard Bane
Comments
The difference between members and attenders has been eroded in recent decades.
There was a time when attenders needed the permission of the clerk in order to attend their local meeting’s business meeting. Attenders would not normally have been appointed as clerks, assistant clerks, elders or pastoral friends. Those times are long gone. Many will say “so much the better”, on the basis that we should be moving towards greater inclusivity and diversity. I take a different view. If attenders have the same responsibilities as members the meaning of membership is eroded. There is less and less incentive for attenders to apply for membership.
Does this matter? I believe it does. Traditionally, our system of membership meant that only those found to be committed to the fundamentals of Quakerism as set out in Quaker faith and practice (11.01)following discernment by their area meetings would be considered for positions of responsibility. When attenders are appointed no such discernment by area meetings has occurred. The Friend appointed may or may not be committed to the fundamentals of Quakerism. We can end up with office holders not really understanding the faith perspective upon which our form of worship is based and therefore not being able to uphold the right holding of meeting for worship or meeting for worship for business.
I hope that the traditional distinction between attenders and members will endure.
By Richard Pashley on 18th February 2024 - 18:36
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