Letters - 3 June 2022
From Lebanon to Quaker outreach
Lebanon
It may be of interest to those who have recently become interested in the Quaker school in Lebanon (as has Sarah Barrett who has written in the Friend on 29 April) to learn about a book published in America, about Theophilus Waldmeier’s second major Quaker work in that country. This is the creation of ‘Asfūriyyeh hospital.
This book, ‘Asfūriyyeh – A history of madness, modernity, and war in the Middle East by Joelle M Abi-Rached, is the first volume in MIT Press’s new Culture and Psychiatry series. My son acquired a copy which he has given me.
Although I have had close connection with the Friends school in Brummana, and other Quaker work there for sixty years, I had never known the details about the creation of the hospital. I did visit it occasionally, and knew some staff there. I knew, of course, that it had had a major impact on the region well over a hundred years ago, on the treatment of the mentally ill.
The hospital was rebuilt south of Beirut just before the war began in 1975, and finally destroyed when the Israelis invaded Lebanon in 1982. It has never been re-established or functioned again.
I have found this a fascinating account – a history well worth reading.
Jocelyn M Campbell
Penal affairs
My wife used to be a member of a prison independent monitoring board. We still get the journal of the Association of Members of Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs). In a recent issue, Rod Morgan, a distinguished criminal justice professional and now professor, reminded readers of a statement which Winston Churchill as home secretary made to parliament in July 1910.
‘The mood and temper of the public in regard to the treatment of crime and criminals is one of the most unfailing tests of the civilisation of any country. A calm and dispassionate recognition of the rights of the accused against the State, and even of convicted criminals against the State, a constant heart-searching by all charged with the duty of punishment, a desire and eagerness to rehabilitate in the world of industry all those who have paid their dues in the hard coinage of punishment, tireless efforts towards the discovery of curative and regenerating processes, and an unfaltering faith that there is a treasure, if you can only find it, in the heart of every man – these are the symbols which in the treatment of crime and criminals mark and measure the stored-up strength of a nation, and are the sign and proof of the living virtue in it.’
His influence dramatically cut imprisonment for petty offences – numbers inside for non-payment of fines for drunkenness, over a decade, fell from 62,000 to 1,600.
I wish more Friends would join IMBs. They report on prison regimes, while prison chaplains are more concerned with individual inmates. But a duty of IMB members is to receive complaints or representations from prisoners directly and with no editing or intervention by officials. They also attend disciplinary hearings. In extreme cases they have the right to contact ministers. To apply: imb.org.uk.
Richard Seebohm
Decisions and dealing
You may know that a small group of Quakers has been tasked to review how we hold our Yearly Meetings and Yearly Meeting Gatherings (YM/YMG). Thank you if you have already responded to our request for feedback. We have now also been asked to look at how British Quakers make decisions and deal with important business between Yearly Meetings. Currently Meeting for Sufferings takes ‘general care of matters affecting Britain Yearly Meeting and, in the intervals between Yearly Meetings, the making of decisions and the issuing of statements in the name of Britain Yearly Meeting’ (Quaker faith & practice, 7.02
We are not reviewing the role of trustees, but it may be helpful to remember that Britain Yearly Meeting trustees are ‘responsible to the Yearly Meeting for the right stewardship of its work, assets and property’ Qf&p 8.17) Fuller details of the current responsibilities of trustees and Meeting for Sufferings (MfS) are explained in Quaker faith & practice. We want to know what Friends across all of our worshipping communities need of a Meeting for Worship for Business that deals with matters as required between sessions of Yearly Meeting. We want to consult as widely as possible to find out what is important for Quakers in Britain as part of a simple, inclusive and sustainable structure.
We need your thoughts and ideas. We welcome individual responses or those from Meetings. Please send responses by post to the YM(G)/MfS review group at Friends House, or (better) via email to reviewgroup@quaker.org.uk to arrive on or before 15 July 2022. You might like to comment on some or all of: What such a body (or bodies) should deal with? Who should be on the body – only representatives or should it be open to all? How, where, and how often such a body should meet? Please feel free to comment on other issues relevant to our work. We look forward to your responses.
Keith Walton
Member of YM/YMG and MfS review group
Medical personnel
I am not in unity with the view that The Mount School betrayed those who took the stand as conscientious objectors during the war by hosting the army to talk to its pupils about a career in military medicine (20 May). I feel that those who suffer physical and psychological harm whilst serving in the armed forces are in a very real sense victims of war, as are their families. It is therefore my view that serving as a medic in the forces may well be consistent with our Peace Testimony. Why should we not trust that pupils at The Mount have the capacity to discern whether such an option is right for them and that their discernment may be assisted by hearing what the army has to say about the role of the army medic?
During both world wars some Friends went to prison for refusing to fight. Others served in the Friends Ambulance Unit. Some gave alternative service in agriculture or forestry. Some Friends joined the armed services because, although they detested war, they could not see how fascism could be defeated by nonviolence. They sacrificed their conscientious objection to war for conscientious reasons. The Peace Testimony is not a rule to walk by. It is a light to guide us and therefore different views of what it requires of us can rightly be taken. We may have strong views about the requirements of the Peace Testimony for ourselves, but I feel we should take care to respect the position of others whose interpretation may be different to our own.
Richard Pashley
Staying at Woodbrooke
I too should like to plead bed, breakfast – and dinner – at Woodbrooke (20 May).
A former student took me there for lunch in 1975 and I hoped ever after to go back, which I did, and stayed a few nights, some forty years later; I did so from time to time until 2020. I was then attending my Local Meeting and reading deeply about the Society of Friends, of which I became a member last year. Staying quietly at Woodbrooke, using the library, enjoying the grounds, walking into Bournville, going to Meeting locally have meant more to me than I can say or indeed perhaps yet fully know. I long to go again.
Stephen Deas
Quaker outreach
What does a notice outside a Quaker Meeting house say? Maybe more than our name and times of worship? In my travels I have found some themes this year: the gentle spiritual outreach of Oxford Quaker Meeting; the green campaigning of Come to Good Quaker Meeting.
Every notice outside a Quaker building can reach out – inviting in different ways the local community to visit the Quaker community – and says that the Quaker community cares and is worthwhile visiting. Quakers reaching out is something worth perusing as much as possible.
David Rugby
