‘The Wales We Want’ Photo: A 'word' map of Wales
‘Our testimonies are the values by which we can measure the possibilities for change.’
In June, Meeting of Friends in Wales (MFW) met by Zoom. Peter Hussey presented
Since our last meeting, a decision had been taken to write to all the peoples of the USA following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The letter said that Welsh Quakers share their brokenness and stand with them in the Light. Clerks received several replies, including a detailed minute from Sierra-Cascades Yearly Meeting.
Following a flurry of reports and business we moved on to the substantive item: ‘The Wales We Want’, which I had been asked to present. I had made a presentation in February in which I spoke of the lack of awareness about Wales in other parts of the UK, and also how Welsh Quakers were invisible to many inside Wales.
The Welsh government has been innovative, with brilliant legislation like the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This tests government action against the wellbeing of its population. This is groundbreaking, but is little appreciated. I suggested that we needed to support our government and to find a voice for ourselves.
Since our last meeting we had gone into lockdown. In the resulting silence, air quality improved, birds sang, and dolphins were seen in Venice. Awareness spread that any recovery should be conducted on a new basis – the Green New Deal and Build Back Better were two expressions of that. The Observer published a cartoon in which ‘The Old Order’ was represented by an old oak felled by the storm of Covid-19. A young couple with a shovel is wondering whether help should go to Richard Branson or to tackle climate change. ‘Tough one,’ says the girl. But it makes us consider what change we would like to see. We Quakers have a particular tool to make that discernment. Our testimonies are the values by which we can measure the possibilities. I felt that a further document was needed, one which began to specify ‘the Wales we Want’.
The clerks had invited me to follow up my February presentation so I produced a new paper. One Friend defined it as a manifesto. But it is not a political manifesto, it is a spiritual one. Politics is the art of the possible and much of what the paper proposed would be seen as not possible. But our first loyalty, as Advice 35 says, is to what we refer to as God’s purposes. We demand that, for example, our country must not have training grounds or research facilities that practice and develop the practicalities of war. The UK government reserves powers over defence, so even if the Welsh government were moved to make changes they would be blocked. Quakers, however, still find it unacceptable to live in a country involved in war.
The Welsh government has now issued a consultation on ‘Our Future Wales: post-Covid-19 reconstruction’, inviting the public to send in their ideas for a post-Covid Wales. We were doing the right thing at the right time!
The meeting divided into breakout rooms to discuss the paper. The final version will be forwarded to the Senedd Cymru (Welsh parliament). It is an innovative legislature that is demonstrating how to build a nation centered on the wellbeing of its people. Quakers in Wales are making their views clear on how that should be done.
