Letters - 28 February 2014
From forgiveness on the River Kwai to the QPSW peaceworker budget
Forgiveness on the River Kwai
It was a real pleasure to read John Lampen’s feature about Bill Allchin and his experience of reconciliation with Nayasa Takashi bringing his memory alive (7 February).
Bill was a valuable addition to Winchester Meeting and was surprised to find how quietly active members were.
As a psychologist he helped many distressed teenagers pull their lives together. He was our Meeting’s representative on Churches Together until he felt that his long-term homosexual partnership was a stumbling block.
He stood as a prospective Labour candidate in a most unrewarding constituency, which gave him a platform to put over challenging ideas. When Winchester Cathedral invited him to give the sermon on the ‘victory over Japan’ memorial event, the long nave was packed and his sermon was most impressive.
It is important when we revise Quaker faith & practice that we have contributions from recent Friends who have quietly kept our vision alive.
Andrew Rutter
Reading John Lampen’s moving reflection on the reconciliation initiative taken at the Kwai Bridge brings to mind an incident during my visit to the area.
When our coach party reassembled, after visiting the cemetery mentioned in the article, I noticed that a young couple (early twenties) were very upset. ‘Family?’ I asked. ‘No,’ they replied. ‘It’s just that so many of them were younger than we are.’
Harry Holloway
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