Title page of Peace Testimony Photo: Courtesy the Library of the Religious Society of Friends
What canst we say?
Peace education for the twenty-first century
George Fox stood on Pendle Hill in 1652 and had the vision that would be fundamental to our existence: ‘from the top of this hill the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered’. Three years earlier the people had executed the king for treason. A great, bloody civil war, pitting brother against brother, son against father, had drawn to a close. Of the men who were Quakers in the years following the civil war, perhaps about a third had served as soldiers, including some who became prominent in the new movement, such as James Nayler. These men saw their efforts come to naught, their hopes and passions destroyed, and their dream of an earthbound utopia of justice and fairness and equality crumble into dust – first by the actions of the lord protector, and then by the restored king, Charles II. Women who had hoped and prayed for something better, as they endured the loss of sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, suffered rape and famine, knew from experience that they could not rely on armies to keep them safe, nor victory to ensure success.
