Letters - 18 October 2013
From disinvestment to the Fair Penny Campaign
Disinvestment
The decision by Quakers in Britain to disinvest in fossil fuels is welcome, but, as the press statement mentions, at the moment we all rely on fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels is a result of consumer actions as well as producer pressure. Many Friends recognise we need to do more as consumers of fossil fuels as well as investors in their production.
Following Minute 36 committing Quakers to becoming a low carbon society, Meetings were asked, on a given timescale, to respond to the Climate impact calculator for Quaker Meetings. The response to this was not very complete. On the companion Climate impact calculator for individuals, I do not recall any request for a specific response. Nor have I seen any support for Friends seeking to use this – the calculator on its own does need supporting explanations.
Hopefully, this decision on disinvestment will spur on more action in the area of reducing consumption.
Martin Quick
Quaker faith & practice revision
Before considering the format, any future Revision Committee must ask an underlying question: ‘To whom is the book primarily addressed?’ The last Committee considered this carefully and concluded that it was first and foremost a book for Friends, enabling us to understand our faith and recognising that our church government is an integral part of that faith. Outreach seemed – implicitly – to require a different approach. We may need a clearer historical perspective, perhaps because we are now a different community, with a larger proportion of recently convinced Friends. I do not, however, believe that is an adequate reason for claiming that the purpose of the book has changed; I think very careful discernment would be needed before we could say the book is not primarily for Friends. And ‘Book of Discipline’ would, in that case, surely be an inappropriate title, although it is clearly part of our historical perspective!
The format will become clear when the next Revision Committee has discerned the audience and considered the wide variety of modern publication options, one book or two, red or blue? It will then become part of a bigger picture. I would worry if we were to assume that outreach is the primary focus: we need a compilation of the wisdom and spiritual experience that underpins our faith and our identity as a spiritual community and that expresses it for ourselves. This includes our understanding that our church government is an essential part of this identity and cannot be treated in isolation.
Janet Quilley
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