Letters - 18 August 2023
From Woodbrooke to Food waste
Woodbrooke
I view the coming closure of Woodbrooke with a sinking feeling. Not because I shall miss the conferences and courses, informative and enjoyable as those have been over the years, nor the washing up of the cooking utensils, which I seemed to do on every visit in the 1980s, but the small gatherings which occurred over meals and coffee.
Like Rufus Jones, ‘I pin my hopes to quiet processes and small circles, in which vital and transforming events take place’ (Quaker faith & practice 24.56).
Those international meetings were always the highlights of my visits and I can see no replacement on the horizon.
John H Hall
The status of trans people
I find Neil Crabtree’s list of charismatic ‘asexual’ prophets surprising (4 August).
There is no record of Jesus’ sexuality. However it has been argued that Jesus was married, but that this was so unremarkable nobody bothered to record it.
As a friend recently said ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’.
Muhammad fathered many children, though no sons survived him, and of course he founded the Hashemite dynasty which rules to this day in Jordan.
Gautama Siddhartha (the Buddha) is said to have lived a life of indulgence until confronted by sickness and death. He then pursued a life of brutal asceticism before finally discovering the Middle Way and achieving Enlightenment.
So he may have followed a life of celibacy in his later years but not before a life of sexual indulgence.
Hitler’s sexuality expressed itself bizarrely, and rumours abound. What is certain is that two of the women who were closest to him both attempted suicide, his half-niece Angela Geli successfully.
Eva Braun too attempted suicide early in their relationship but survived.
Having lost family in the Holocaust, ‘charismatic asexual prophet’ is not a description that would have occurred to me. Psychotic murdering monster comes closer.
Ol Rappaport
I was astonished, not to say appalled by the fact that in the letters page (4 August) there was a sentence that listed as charismatic ‘asexua’ prophets in our history and managed to put Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha and Hitler into the same sentence, arguably ascribing to all of them the words ‘charismatic prophet’.
Am I the only one who feels shocked and deeply offended by this? It is, surely, offensive to refer to Hitler as a prophet of any kind. Or to align him with any one of the three others in the list.
I don’t entirely understand how this one got past the editorial delete button. This is way beyond bad taste.
Martina Weitsch
Neil Crabtree raises important issues about trans identity (4 August). I have to say that I think it would have been better if Neil had done so without commenting on Muhammad.
We live in a multicultural world and therefore we need to be aware of how our comments may affect those beyond the boundary of our own community.
Richard Pashley
Outreach?
In a coffee shop, I had got into conversation with a couple. The topic was charitable giving, and the need to be sure that our donations were well used by the recipients of our donations.
I said that I usually only gave to local charities that I knew about personally; then I added that, being a Quaker, I tended to give to Quaker charities too. ‘Oh, do you go to the Meeting house in the town and do many people go there?’
I said that we were usually about forty or so on a Sunday, with others on Zoom. She showed interest, but I didn’t push it!
Is this ‘outreach’? Personally, I think so.
Jane Taylor
A happy coincidence
In March of this year, I posted in the Quaker Support for Climate Action WhatsApp group an offer of a spare bed in my flat in Ealing for any Quaker coming to London in April for The Big One Extinction Rebellion protest.
The offer was taken up by Ralph, who lives in Birmingham.
At the end of July, my son and I travelled up to Whitby in North Yorkshire and stayed for four nights at the Corner Guesthouse, which we had found online.
We enjoyed our stay, hosted by Simon and Jen.
On departure, I left a copy of the Friend in our room’s wastepaper bin.
Jen’s father is a Quaker and so when she next spoke to him on the phone, she mentioned our visit. Jen’s father is Ralph!
A remarkable and happy coincidence came to light because I left a copy of the Friend in a waste paper bin!
James Priestman
Nominations
Nominations revision: my first feedback is praise for our history and poetry.
My second feedback is ‘what Quakers achieve with nominations’ from first principles – a process of volunteering that is sustaining, diverse and inclusive, not overwhelming for Quaker bodies, simplicity.
Quaker faith & practice should be a practical blueprint of processes for Quakers to follow.
Nominations should include ‘step one’, our current nominations process. ‘Step two’, if ‘step one’ fails, set up a search group.
If ‘step two’ fails, ‘step three’: an open advert in the Meeting or other Quaker body – see many adverts in the Friend.
Simplicity nominations might be successive ‘task and finish groups’ appointed by Business Meeting, not ‘another’ three-year committee.
In 2023 would ‘step three’ be the option that gives most diversity and inclusion?
Nominations need to remind Quakers of institutionalised consequences from any process. See a letter in the Friend (10 March) by an anonymous reader.
It is a shocking experience when a Quaker Meeting is not a ‘safe place’, and it isn’t limited to conflicts over work.
Most Quakers are ‘old, white, heterosexual and married’. The ‘old’ age demographic on its own is particularly prone to the prejudices that give rise to bullying.
Newcomers outside of the usual Quaker demographic are not necessarily welcomed by the established groups and, inevitably, cliques emerge within Meetings.
These are very important words for thought.
Finally, generally ‘volunteering’ is replacing ‘serving’ in 2023.
David Fish
Food waste
Friends concerned about food waste might like to hear of an excellent organisation called Oddbox.
Every other Saturday night there arrives on our doorstep a box of fruit and vegetables rescued from what supermarkets consider unsuitable to sell.
The produce is always in good condition though perhaps a bit too big or small, or too much has been produced, or occasionally there are odd shapes.
So far this year they have saved roughly 35,724 tonnes and aim to have rescued 90,000 tonnes by 2026.
They deliver at night, when the roads are quiet, to save fuel and hope to use more electric vehicles.
One can choose the appropriate size of box and refuse what one doesn’t want each time an order is made online. Our box for two people costs £15.98 for two weeks.
One doesn’t know what will be coming but it’s interesting to fit recipes to what comes, sometimes new things which lead to adventurous meals.
They always send a recipe and have others on their website, which is oddbox.co.uk.
The only drawback is that one needs a suitable place for the box to be left. They take the empty box back too if one doesn’t want to recycle it.
We have never received anything inedible; it’s always good stuff.
Dorothy Woolley
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