Letters - 25 August 2023
From Hope to Menwith Hill
Hope
I was pleased to see the warm responses to Paul Hodgkin’s honest and moving article (30 June). I’ve struggled with the idea of ‘hope’ for many years, so his reflections really resonated for me.
There is just one word I would like to add to his prescription of ‘lamentation, joy and courage’, and that is persistence. As Rebecca Solnit has commented, it is all too easy for many of us to despair when our campaigns fail to change anything, or only bring about some small difference, or when things actually go backwards.
Taking part in the one-year Woodbrooke/Quaker Peace & Social Witness course, Exploring Faith and Climate Justice (EFCJ), I had the opportunity to hear many voices of indigenous people and other activists around the world, and their approach was that they never, ever give up. That made a deep impression on me. We too must never give up trying to build a better world. But we need to focus on the struggle, not on the outcome – which we may never see. Every small step takes us in the right direction; to give way to acedia (or accidie) is to abandon those courageous, joyful people around the world instead of standing and working alongside them.
By the way, the rich and useful resources from the EFCJ course will remain on the Britain Yearly Meeting website for years to come: www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/climate-economic-justice/exploring-faith-and-climate-justice. I would encourage Friends to take time to explore them.
Stevie Krayer
Questions to ask
Thank you, Oliver Mueller (14 July), for asking the question: can we be peacebuilders and still hold on to overly simplistic Western narratives such as that of a completely unprovoked invasion by a madman in Moscow who simply wants to build an empire?
While the ‘Zelensky the goodie and Putin the baddie’ narratives remain dominant in the media, we ought to ask more questions like this and whether our positions serve polarisation, instead of trying to understand all sides, thereby beginning the process of conflict resolution.
After all both Russians and their Ukrainian brothers and sisters are paying the human cost of this war.
Dora Bek
Menwith Hill
It was good to see the news item ‘Friends mark MH Declaration of Independence’ (11 August). This event, which has been held annually on 4 July, always attracts some local people and musical groups, as well as well-informed and respected speakers.
York Area Meeting currently supports a Meeting for Worship outside the Menwith Hill base. It is held on the first Saturday every other month (February, April, June, August, October, December) from 2-3pm. Friends are very welcome to join us. Please contact me through the email quakergillycharters@gmail.com if you wish to attend.
Gilly Charters
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