Christmas narrative
Rebecca Hardy’s article, ‘Behind every man’, published in the Christmas edition, provided me with a wonderful challenge when she asked the question: what does Christmas celebrate? For some, it might indeed be a celebration of ‘motherhood’, a ‘babyfest’, or even a ‘midwifery for pensioners’ narrative – but both Mary and Jesus are silent about their presence in this rich narrative.
While they are both ‘stage centre’, they remain as passive figures. But without them, I would suggest that there would be no Christmas narrative. For me they are absolutely essential to any understanding of this narrative.
I wonder if they are there to provide us with a glimpse of the mystery and wonder of creation/incarnation – thereby allowing us, too, to experience, and then embody, that ‘inn-sight’, as we leave the stable, knowing that everything has changed?
As I have pondered further, I find myself drawn to two thoughts:
Is the Christmas narrative a timely reminder that we all need, in the words of Eckhart of Tolle, ‘to tend to the birth in us’?
Is the Christmas narrative a timely reminder that we all need to prepare, respond and be changed by something very new, and to embrace and embody it in our lives?
As a spiritual director/companion, I often have the privilege to come alongside those seeking answers to spiritual questions/hunger, which cannot easily be named or even owned – and find myself acting as a ‘midwife’ as we journey together. In that role, I find myself asking questions of the Christmas narrative:
How do you know that you are spiritually hungry/pregnant?
Who is the angel who brought you to a flash of awareness of this state?
How have you responded?
Do you have/need an ‘Elizabeth’ in your life to turn to as you take the first steps on your new journey? Where might you find ‘Elizabeth’?
And on a corporate level, I would be asking our Local and Area Meetings, British Yearly Meeting and related committees and trustees:
As Quakers, are we being called to be midwives of the new order as we consider the future of Quakerism?
How best can we discern, and then safely deliver, this new order and thereby co-operate with the mystery of creation and incarnation?
Heather Kent
Changing family law
May I suggest to your readers that the Quakers are well-placed to lead the charge on changing
family law for the better so as to comply with the Quaker Testimonies?
It is generally agreed that current family law is the primary mechanism for breaking them.
I suggest that an arrangement that is equal over time between both parents is the way forward.
WF Summers
Language and dialogue
In the 15 November Friend, Jennifer Bell has written a wonderfully clear, honest appraisal of the importance of how we use language.
Language can be used to deceive, obfuscate or to genuinely tell the truth of a matter. In an earlier edition Ann M Jones had in the same vein outlined clearly truthful matters.
So it was with sadness that I learned that language had been obfuscated, when the Inter-Faith Community of Muslim, Jews, Catholics and others had been threatened with arrest, at their carol service at Christmastime.
Church of Ireland priest Helen Bennett and Diane Nelson of Jews for Justice spoke about having to end abruptly their outdoor Christmas carol service, or face arrest, on the basis that they could upset the community.
I am still mystified as to how the police have been given these powers of arrest of elderly people seeking peace and a coming together in solidarity and in community.
Every blessing and peace for this coming year.
Miriam Ryan
Our sustained future
New Year’s Eve: a wonderful Discovering Quakers Meeting for Worship on Zoom with ministry around the Meeting for Worship. Ministry: how an online worshiper was rejected to join Quakers formally because the Area Meeting visitors could not meet the person in person.
How sad. Quakers in Britain are both a faith group and a charity.
As a faith group Britain Yearly Meeting(s) asks Quakers to be as welcoming as possible – to be as accessible as possible – and isn’t this the opposite?
As a Quaker charity framework this shows judgement in the process to join Quakers formally invented and imposed by our hierarchy. No reference to Quaker faith & practice detail.
Quakers need to care both for our existing subscribers and new subscribers equally. In our sustained future, today’s new subscribers will be ‘the active’ of our future.
David Fish
Donations and staff
Following the report of the December session of Meeting for Sufferings (20 December) about donations from Friends, it has stimulated me to write to say that my wife and myself, having no dependents and approaching the end of life, had decided to leave the residue of our reasonably-sized estates to Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM).
But events during the last year or so have led us to change from BYM to Medicine Sans Frontiers and Greenpeace. Why? We have become more and more concerned about what is happening at Friends House. During the last year we have seen advertisements for: a governance manager for BYM trustees and Meeting for Sufferings; a governance manager team lead (is this the position advertised in January 2024?); a governance and development coordinator; a governance and projects coordinator; a church governance advisor; an engagement and faith-in-action lead (a key role in helping to build a spirit-led inclusive community); and the latest, a workplace equity coordinator (a reflective and innovative diversity practitioner to coordinate our work on issues of equality and diversity).
We are beginning to wonder what is the purpose of Friends House staff? It seems more like a self-help society.
When contributions were asked for from us members to the discussion about the proposed restructuring, I asked for a breakdown of the roles currently fulfilled at Friends House. The answer I received was that it is not possible for that information to be collected. Really?
Eric Walker
Editor’s note: We asked BYM if someone would like to comment on Eric’s letter, and Paul Parker, recording clerk, said: ‘The purpose of our staff is to deliver the work that Friends at Yearly Meeting, Meeting for Sufferings, and central committees ask to be done. One of our key tasks is “sustaining church and faith”, and an important way we do that is by providing professional support to the Friends who give service through taking on governance roles.
‘At our last Yearly Meeting, Friends agreed to major changes in our central governance structures. These staff have supported that decision-making process and will help clerks and committees to put them into practice.
‘Another area of work is “putting faith into action”. We know that many Quaker Meetings want to work for change in the world. Our faith in action team works to support them with that.
‘In 2017, 2021 and again in 2024, Friends at Yearly Meeting made significant commitments to anti-racism, trans inclusion and becoming a more diverse community. We provide support to many Quaker Meetings and other groups who are working on this. That commitment must mean we want to be a beacon of good practice with our own staff too.
‘This organisation exists to deliver the work discerned by Friends. It can only deliver this work thanks to the continuing financial support of Quakers and Quaker Meetings. No one else will pay for work like this. I urge Friends to continue to support our work and thank all those contribute who generously each year.’
Comments
W F Summers wrote (17th January) that ‘It is generally agreed that current family law is the primary mechanism for breaking them.’ When I come across the phrase ‘generally accepted’ I always want to ask, ‘generally accepted by whom?’ and ‘on what evidence?’. Family law is far from perfect and the family courts especially so, but these are not the primary cause; that must lie with the parties involved before the law is invoked.
Family courts have difficult tasks to perform when the parties have different, perhaps irreconcilable, perspectives, with little hard evidence on which the courts can base their judgements. An arrangement equal over time between both parents is an ideal, but there are other considerations including the practicalities. However, the most important consideration must be the welfare of the children, and when there is evidence of violence or other abuse that must override the preferences of the parents and perhaps the expressed wishes of a child.
By DavidHitchin on 2025 01 16
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