Letters - 19 August 2016
From worship to times and seasons
Worship
The reflection by Craig Barnett (5 August) is a welcome call. It is a challenge for us to put aside our own needs and thoughts and, instead, gather together with an open mind and a readiness to experience something from a source outside ourselves. Craig’s suggestions require us to be disciplined and to demonstrate that same discipline to newcomers to the Society. Elders, too, are expected to show a strong sense of responsibility in this regard. This is extremely challenging to us all and requires a depth of honesty in our worship.
There must be very few Friends who have not experienced the extraordinary presence in a Meeting for Worship and heard ministry, often short and simple, that emanates from this. I hope we can have the courage to take this discipline into our lives.
Jane Faulkner
No Trident
Thanks for your excellent and accurate report in the Friend (22 July) of Friends’ contribution to the anti-Trident protests in Parliament Square on 18 July.
I just want to make one correction: I did say that were a nuclear bomb to be detonated over the Houses of Parliament, up to 200 million people would be within range: I should have said 200 thousand. But I also said – accurately – that in the event of even a ‘small scale’ nuclear war in which maybe 100 Hiroshima-sized bombs were detonated over cities and other installations, up to two billion people could starve to death over the following decade through massive global crop failures because so much soot and dust would be raised and obscure the sun for years. Many, if not most, of these truly awful deaths would be among citizens of countries far away from the combating nations.
This analysis is based on well-researched studies by internationally renowned climate scientists and on the known climatic effects of volcanic eruptions, for which references can be given to any enquirers.
Frank Boulton
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