Letters - 02 August 2024

Political weather changes

How refreshing is the sunshine of a warm smile when compared with the hate-filled hail of slander from the alternative. Kamala Harris offers a better prospect than Donald Trump any day.

Alexander Hopkinson-Woolley

Systems

I was reflecting recently on how useful ‘Systems thinking’ has been in my life. It’s a way of analysing things, a ‘big-picture’ approach. I’m originally a Systems-trained social worker, and I later studied Systems as part of an Open University degree.

I used Systems methodology regularly while I was working as an information analyst for the ambulance service.

The basic definition of a system is a set of components connected for a purpose. Components don’t have to be things, they can also be processes and activities. Pictures and diagrams are used to understand how the components of a system interact, and where improvements can be made.

Pretty much anything can be viewed as a system. It works best with human-made systems, but can also be applied to natural systems like the climate and biological organisms.

Human-made systems include things like machines, the built environment, transport systems, industries, food production, utilities, health and education systems, governments, armies, even religions – anything that humans create or organise.

In Systems thinking, a revealing question to ask about a system, component or process is to ask: ‘What is it for?’ – in other words, ‘What is its purpose?’

So looking at Quakers as an organisation, you could ask: ‘What is Quakers for?’ Or looking at silent worship as a process, you could ask: ‘What is silent worship for?’

I’m not suggesting there is a single answer to these questions, but I think they are worth asking. 

Martin Coyle

Bandying words

It was heartening to know that Quakers have finally responded to Munther Isaac’s Christmas 2023 sermon ‘Christ in the Rubble’, but disconcerting to infer from comments by Marisa Johnson, clerk of British Yearly Meeting, that she thinks people are mistaken in ‘bandying about’ words such as ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’. 

‘Bandying about’ seems a highly inappropriate term to use in this context and I would urge our clerk to carefully read in detail the considered and lengthy judgements from 26 January and 19 July – and indeed the openly genocidal declarations by some Israeli spokespersons (https://www.commondreams.org/n...)

Her argument is that these words trigger visceral emotional responses. No, Friend, it is not the words that do this, it is what we witness unfolding before our horrified gaze. 

To me, Marisa’s stance is not one of principled Quaker neutrality; rather it supports a consistent Israeli narrative of denial. Instead of such prevarication, honest speaking of truth to power is necessary if there is to be, ultimately, any hope for the states of both Palestine and Israel.

As Nidžara Ahmetašević, genocide survivor, tells us, ‘By using proper terminology and calling things what they are, we seek accountability and demand the prosecution of perpetrators. More importantly, we show respect for the victims and survivors (https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/6/2/it-is-not-ethnic-cleansing-it-is-genocide).

Nicola Grove

Meeting for Worship

My article of 17 May on the introduction of Zoom into Meeting for Worship has stimulated a range of responses in your letters pages. I would like to reaffirm that I believe that remote accessing by means of systems such as Zoom has a great deal to offer any organisation, religious or secular.

My concern is that a system which was introduced in haste as a measure of necessity during the pandemic rapidly became an option of choice with little or no examination or discernment as to its long-term consequences. This year’s Britain Yearly Meeting offers little opportunity for enquiry into this fundamental feature of Quaker life and Quaker worship.

The expression ‘in-person’ has been challenged on the grounds that worshippers on Zoom are just as ‘in-person’ as those in the Meeting house, albeit in-person somewhere else. I hope this objection will not be used to foreclose sincere and constructive dialogue towards a solution which satisfies everyone.

If we are to be fastidious about semantics, our current use of the term ‘blended’ is contrary to most contemporary usage, as an internet search will reveal. ‘Blended’ is generally used to denote meetings which include asynchronous content – in other words, sourced at different times. A meeting with online attendees which is synchronous is normally referred to as a ‘hybrid’ meeting.

One possible way out of this troubling impasse is for Meetings which offer only ‘blended’ or ‘hybrid’ Meeting for Worship on Sunday to also provide an in-person Meeting for Worship on another day of the week. 

This should be at the customary interval (weekly) and at the usual time (mid-morning). This would, I believe, do much to allay the feelings of concern which are apparent from some of your correspondents.

Clive Ashwin

Prison officers

In his letter (12 July) Gerard Bane lists things which prisoners should have freedom from and includes prison officer on inmate violence, allegations of which are very low. 

He omits mentioning prisoner violence on prison officers, which is at such a level as to contribute greatly to the high turnover of prison officers for some of whom there are only weeks between being recruited and resigning. 

Many prison officers go through the gate of their prison in the morning in fear of being assaulted or injured while protecting a prisoner being attacked by another prisoner or gang of prisoners. 

It should be noted that restraint of a threatening or assaulting prisoner is legitimate and does not constitute violence.

Neil Johnson

Turning to the light

In his article (5 July) Tony D’Souza describes George Fox’s process ‘of being tuned to the light and being transformed by it’. 

For me the best form of spiritual practice that comes close to what Fox taught is a simple, open or objectless awareness meditation or practice such as ‘Centering Prayer’. 

This type of practice not only teaches us to go beyond the mental activity of the mind, ‘to be open to the presence of the sacred, ultimate reality or god’, but also naturally carries out the cleansing/transformation process as described by early Friends. 

Some Friends are turning to the Centering Prayer as their personal spiritual practice and as an opening into Meeting for Worship. Centering Prayer practice has been shared on courses at Woodbrooke and is also being offered over a weekend at Glenthorne (27-29 September) if you’d like to find out more. 

Kev Ceney

QCOP

I so agree with Peter Bolwell (12 July). People’s knee-jerk reactions to Quaker Concern Over Population (QCOP) too often dismiss its aims as middle-class patronising. 

When my late husband innocently proposed QCOP as a worthy charity for our then Meeting to collect for, we were horrified by the strength of hostile reaction this provoked. I am sorry to learn this is still the case.

Rosamond Reavell

That of God in everyone

Fleeing persecution

That of God in everyone

Fleeing wars and natural disaster

That of God in everyone

Denied asylum and refuge

That of God in everyone

Criminalised and handcuffed 

That of God in everyone 

Rounded up and put into detention centres

That of God in everyone 

Deported to unsafe lands 

That of God in everyone 

No human is illegal

That of God in everyone 

Welcoming the stranger 

for thereby some have entertained angels

That of God in everyoneGerard Bane