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Nurturing Quaker community, each issue offers a space for Friends to share their concerns, and to support each other in faith and witness.
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There is that of God in everyone. Therefore, there is that of God in Donald J Trump.
Quakerism, as an experiential faith, changes over time. Friends around the world have evolved differently, so Quakers today are very diverse, with different worship styles and theologies. But we all share the same roots – the teachings of early Friends. We all share the same Quaker values and testimony, and a recognition that Quakerism is about how we live our lives in the world, not just ‘what we do on Sunday’.
I’ve been wondering about the nature of the destructive energy that lies behind Donald Trump’s violence, and in particular the vehemence of his attack on nature, the climate and the Earth. Of course, some of this is driven by politics, populism, capitalism – whatever. But while this might explain the policy, it does not, for me, explain the vindictiveness and self-harming stupidity. After all, right-wing authoritarians are not inevitably against nature: Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian and Nazism had deep roots in the German ‘purity of nature’ movement.
Fifty-five Friends, from Shetland to the Borders, joined Quakers in Scotland online in March. The business was wide-ranging too!
‘All power is one in source and end… Years and distances, stars and candles, water and wind and wizardry, the craft in a man’s hand and the wisdom in a tree’s root… My name, and yours, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water… all are syllables of the great word that is very slowly spoken by the shining stars. There is no other power. No other name.’
Gently, as if walking on soft grass,
faint, shy, faces as of waning moons,
you process into the stable of my mind,
each bearing a particular gift, no not gold,
incense, or even (as for death) a jar of myrrh.
(I have no illusions of a peculiar birth).
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Written by and for Friends on the bench
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