‘Quakers in the region are sparse but spirited.’ Photo: courtesy of Estonian World
Making waves: Tim Gee visits Friends bordering Russia and Ukraine
‘The work the Central European Gathering is supporting is extraordinary’
When I close my eyes, to sleep, rest or pray, I find my mind going to Central Europe – in particular to a ship docked in Estonia’s principal port, where 2,000 Ukrainians, mostly women and children, wait to work out what’s next for them.
It wasn’t that the conditions were bad. It was clean, there was a playroom for the children, free food, free medicines and professional support to access the social system and to help find employment and accommodation.
It’s more that it brought home to me, powerfully and symbolically, the long, tense wait that millions of people now face as they hope and pray for an end to the war in their home country.
I had spent the last week in a small delegation to the countries in Central Europe described by NATO as its ‘Eastern Flank’. There, upwards of 375,000 soldiers stand ‘pre-positioned’ for war. This is also a humanitarian frontline, which countless people have escaped to or through.
Quakers in the region are sparse but spirited, and thanks to the generosity of Friends and others around the world donating money, a group nominated from the Central European Gathering has been able to distribute funds to places and projects where they know it will make a difference.
As well as helping refugees though, Friends are interested in root causes, which in this case is the war in Ukraine. Some in western Europe and North America have questioned whether our Peace Testimony still stands in such a context – questions I carried with me in my heart.
To my reading, the Peace Testimony is not a condemnation of all people who seek to defend themselves through use of arms in any situation, but is rather an affirmation that our vocation as Friends is to be peacemakers. We profoundly seek that ‘others’ feet may walk in the same’, as Margaret Fell put it.
In his 1993 Swarthmore Lecture, Sydney Bailey succinctly summarised Friends’ Peace Testimony as: one, the refusal to kill; two, relief of suffering; and three, responding to the call to be peacemakers by building the institutions of peace and removing the causes of war. I saw every one of these being manifested in Central Europe, and write this in the hope that Friends elsewhere will strengthen them.
Firstly, on the refusal to kill. There are no Quakers that I know of engaged in fighting in this war. But some have certainly come under pressure to join armies, and at least one has been supported by Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) to access an alternative form of service.
The second part is relief of suffering. In Warsaw we met Friends who described feeling strengthened by Quaker Meetings for Worship. The community has helped with sign-language translation, to provide pro-bono legal support, and to distribute handmade toys made by Friends in North America. In Krakow, we met staff from a charity that assists refugee families with special needs to access the support they need. They had used Quaker funds on language classes and the notarised translations that are necessary for the Polish authorities. In Estonia, Friends have been helping by distributing essentials to newcomers, providing access to free activities like ice-skating, and, in cooperation with others, establishing new institutions to welcome people, including a school.
We also heard some tragic stories. These highlighted fixable problems in European governmental systems for welcoming newcomers, leading to a specific and measurable list of advocacy tasks. This has been shared with the Quaker Council for European Affairs. Another set of sad stories concerned relations between newly-arrived, traumatised Ukrainians, and ethnic Russians living in the border countries.
Friends in Tallinn anticipated this, and are already working with an established psychotherapeutic drama organisation, to organise local-level ‘encounter’ sessions promoting intercultural understanding. The hope is that this could be replicated along the lines of the Alternatives to Violence Project elsewhere. On a small scale at least, this is part of building institutions of peace.
On a larger scale, global Quaker peace institutions are oriented towards the United Nations. But in its current state the UN is limited in its ability to facilitate peace. Direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have also broken down. Grassroots Friends have asked us to do what we can to encourage conversations about shared security between the states in the region. Ultimately, they seek a settlement that meets each country’s needs.
We can, and should, also carry on talking about other root causes, including the role of fossil fuels both in the fighting itself and in the economic war that accompanies it. Likewise, interpretations of Christianity used to justify aggression need to be assertively questioned, while voices for peace are lifted up.
In this spirit it’s worth quoting the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organisations, which in February of this year declared: ‘The only pious way to correct mutual difficulties and contradictions is through dialogue. We invite you to such a peacemaking.’
There are military routes to an end to the fighting, but all would result in avoidable death. Quakers may be unusual in how consistently we have held to Jesus’ teachings of peace, but we are by no means alone in our concern for a just peace and a negotiated settlement.
After visiting the refugee boat in Tallinn I was taken by my hosts to a nearby Ukrainian church. So much good was happening there, including culturally-relevant craft activities to help people process what was happening. It is a community of support and of prayer. As we were hearing about this, and being shown the fruits of the various projects, a mother and daughter entered the room. They wanted to use the chapel. They had just found out that their husband and father had been killed. As we continued on our way, I felt I carried some of their grief with me.
There are about six Friends in Estonia, four in Latvia, even fewer in Lithuania, and a few more in Poland and the other Central European states. Proportionate to their size, the work the Central European Gathering is supporting is extraordinary. I am sure that further funds would do more good to that end.
I went asking questions about our Peace Testimony. I returned sure that it is needed now as much as ever. How it manifests here is still emerging. What is certain is that our vocation is to make peace.
Tim Gee is the general secretary of the FWCC. To help support Quakers in Central Europe, visit www.fwccemes.org.
Comments
I had been trying unsuccessfully to explain to a very dear Polish friend what this ‘Meeting’ was I went to every Sunday. Her English is still growing, but luckily Białystok Friends came to my aid. Living so close to the Belarus border has been an difficult experience for them.
They worship at 11:30 CET in the first Sunday each month, which coincides with my local Meeting. I feel I can worship in two places at once.
https://www.facebook.com/Kwakrzy-Quakers-Białystok-Online-1679498318968030
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By Ol Rappaport on 22nd September 2022 - 15:10
So good to read an account of the war in Ukraine that doesn’t agonise about our delay in enabling so-called military “solutions”, but instead states clearly the obligations we have as Quakers to follow the difficult path of peace through opposing all use of outward weapons, humanitarian initiatives for those on all sides for those most affected by the war and steps towards building a peaceful future for all by helping to rebuild the social infrastructure and repair the damage caused to everyone in the conflict zone, regardless of which side they are seen as belonging to.
By David Bale on 16th February 2023 - 20:39
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