Letters - 6 November 2020
From Becoming a Quaker to Three sentences
Becoming a Quaker
I was about seventy when I discovered Quakers.
When I was a child I didn’t go to Sunday school as my sensitive sister had been told the bad bits (hellfire and damnation). There was no way my mother would risk inflicting that on my brother and me. A good friend at school welcomed us to his wedding to a Quaker some years later. Alas for both him and her, music is more important than quiet sitting. They left Quakerism to join the church of England.
When I married, my partner was Catholic so I had to agree that I would not prevent my children, if we had any, from going to church. The reality was that our two girls preferred to play football on Sundays.
I went to Jesus Lane Meeting House in Cambridge for the University of the Third Age music club. I wondered about the Quaker ideas. I like new ideas.
I started to attend and to learn about Quaker thoughts and found it quiet, common sense.
Having got this far, I applied to become a member. Pat from Jesus Lane and a man from Hartington Grove came to meet me at my home. We exchanged many views and were very positive. Off they went to make my case at the Area Meeting after which I heard nothing, and I wondered.
I thought maybe I’d said something wrong. A couple of weeks later, I approached Pat and asked her what was wrong with my application.
She questioned: ‘What was wrong? Didn’t you get the email welcoming you in?’ She was very apologetic. It seems that confusion had given the clerk the wrong email address.
A discovery I have made in recent years is that I believe I am autistic in a very positive way. I also believe that my father was autistic in the same special way. However, in those days they didn’t know about it.
I have been able to see ‘outside the box’ in many ways which has made me a very comfortable seventy-five-year-old.
An interesting talk on autism can be found at www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000m5lh.
The happy ending to this story is that I am a very contented Quaker thinking outside the box.
Glyn Phillips
Not costing the earth
Thank you, George Penaluna (23 October), for reminding us about the power in our pockets.
We can all use our money, whether we have a little or a lot, to promote our commitment to equality and to peace, and to care for God’s continuing creation.
In our day-to-day spending, we can choose shops and products that align with our testimonies. There are lots of helpful resources. The Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility programme ‘Money Makes Change’ offers sessions for Friends and their Meetings.
Many of us contribute to pensions. Do we know where the funds are invested? We can ask our pension trustees, and perhaps support the film-maker Richard Curtis’ campaign ‘Make My Money Matter’. More and more funds are avoiding fossil fuels, for example. In our pensions and our investments we can choose a positive selection of funds which match our interests and concerns. Again, ethical investment managers advertise in the Friend.
Last week was ‘Good Money Week’ – let’s try to have a good money lifetime.
Peter Speirs
Veganism
Following Julie Hinman’s letter (16 October) Friends might be interested to know that we will be considering ‘Should we all become vegan?’ at the Woking Debate on Saturday 7 November on Zoom from 11am to 12.30pm. A farmer, a nutritional therapist, a World Wildlife Fund environmental manager and a campaigner for Viva will introduce the topic.
The Woking Debates were started by Woking Action for Peace and Woking Quakers to consider peace and social issues.
For more information please contact me at keithsc_2000@yahoo.com.
Keith Scott
UN good news all round
On 24 October 2020 the United Nations Association-UK London and South East Region held a virtual conference ‘What next for the UN? Building a More Secure World’. The date was to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the official opening of the United Nations. Reports were received from workshops exploring different global insecurities, and the UN’s ‘Together First’ campaign’s report The Case for UN Civil Society Champion was launched.
As the inevitably ‘state-centred’ UN gets increasingly bypassed by the multipolar world of digital tech companies and multinational industries (like pharmaceuticals) and even small NGOs with good local knowledge, it risks becoming irrelevant. The proceedings were recorded and are available on www.WhatNext4UN.org. It was no coincidence that the same day saw the fiftieth UN member state ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This commits ratifying states not to develop, test, produce, assist, acquire, possess, stockpile, use, or threaten use of nuclear weapons.
The fiftieth ratification makes the treaty part of international law.
Of course, none of the current nuclear-armed states (China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the UK or the US) will disarm soon, but the TPNW adds legal pressure and provides a safe way for nuclear-armed states to disarm.
Furthermore, ending the abuse of power by rich nations, alleviation of poverty of resources – energy, environmental, physical, and spiritual and mental health – and boosting secure access to richly diverse social traditions globally, could achieve a world free not just of nuclear weapons but of all militarism.
Frank Boulton
Plurality of belief
In these Covid days of helping to prevent the spread of infection through avoiding the multiple handling of objects, I am pleased that Bibles and copies of Quaker faith & practice have disappeared from the seats of my local Meeting house. Aside from infection control, the moving around to get to these books, aimlessly flicking through pages, and vocal ministry reliant on the written words of others, these things I find a distraction from maintaining inward attention during our waiting worship.
Furthermore, with the plurality of belief among Friends, it seems odd that Bibles are put out anyway. I have often heard Friends criticise the violence within scripture, even during ministry, and we may be better served by hearing of personal experiences of the Spirit within our contributions.
Matthew Callow
Wrappers!
I use wrappers to cover food in the fridge when I can’t use a china bowl. Or for a packed lunch for socially-distanced meetings. When they’re falling apart I put them in my food waste (which is burned for fuel).
Sarah Early
It sounds to me as though Diana Lampen’s compost heap is not getting hot enough to deal with her wrappers (9 October). I have seen wrappers mixed with warm water turn into drinkable white ‘milk’.
Anne Atkinson-Clark
Spiritual (lucky) dip
Dip into Quaker faith & practice and share Friends’ lived experiences of the Light.
Q uestions answered
F aith illuminated
P ossibilites explored
Live adventurously and open the book…
Vivien Whitaker
Three sentences
Three sentences stood out in Kate McNally’s Thought for the Week (23 October). ‘The mystical nature of Quakerism means that my experience may not be yours. But I believe that the roots of Quakerism are not in the steeplehouses and the hierarchies of Christianity. I believe that those roots are in the man who taught us to love one another. It’s that simple and that difficult.’ Any chance of a new entry in the revised Quaker faith & practice?
Chris Rose
