the friend · the friend independent quaker journalism since 1843 16 october 2020 | volume 178, no...

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16 October 2020 | £2.00the Friend

‘We are so closely joined it feels as if we are holding hands.’A portrait of a Meeting house in the pandemic

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the FriendINDEPENDENT QUAKER JOURNALISM SINCE 1843

16 October 2020 | Volume 178, No 42www.thefriend.org

NewsThe Retreat, Woodbrooke, and more

Letters

Talking shopA community venture

Thought for the weekInconvenient truth

Worth the candleA Meeting house in the pandemic

Waiting roomA life of exploration and discovery

Flat outEvidence and conspiracy

Light readingQuaker links to Hinduism

ReviewBible and Ecology

ReviewChoosing Life

ReviewConspiracy

ReviewThe Book of Trespass

Poem Ground Zero

Friends & Meetings

4Rebecca Hardy

6

8 Robert Ashton

9Piers Maddox

10Peter Blaker

11Michael Wright

12Barbara Mark

13Om Patil

14Frank Regan

15David Zarembka

16Helen Porter

17Tony Tucker

18Jonathan Wooding

19

Death is not an end, but a beginning.William Littleboy, 1917

Quaker faith & practice 21.54

4 the Friend 16 October 2020

The Retreat announces major expansionThe Quaker mental health provider The Retreat has announced a major expansion of its range of services and digital technologies in response to the Covid-19 crisis. With demand for mental health support expected to soar as a result of the pandemic, the two-hundred-year-old Quaker institution made the announcement after undertaking a major strategic review.

According to a statement: ‘The Retreat’s clinical teams have used the lockdown period to develop a pioneering approach to carrying out virtual online assessments for adults and children who may have autism.’ Since the start of the outbreak, it has also been providing mental health services to support GPs in North Yorkshire.

Dr Kim Bevan, chief officer for Clinical Services, said: ‘We were already in the process of redesigning our care models before Covid-19 hit but the pandemic

has acted as a catalyst to speed up the next phase of our evolution. The Retreat has a long history of innovation dating back to the eighteenth century, so we have embraced having to think differently about how therapy and diagnostic assessments can continue amid social distancing rules, including developing new remote clinical techniques and re-thinking how we use our estate.’

Plans are also being drawn up to move towards ‘community-focused services’, online and in person, and away from location-based delivery. The institute also intends to provide ‘enhanced psychological therapy, assessment and diagnostic services for autism and ADHD’. In addition, there will be a wider range of services for children and young people in a repurposed facility in Strensall, subject to planning permission.

The Retreat delivery model will be expanded to other parts of the country and it will work

with higher education to advance mental health research. The review follows the closure of in-patient services in January 2019.

Friend casts doubt on peat plansA Quaker and bioregional expert has raised doubts about the Scottish government’s plans for peat restoration, as speculation rises that pledges to ban peat-burning across the UK are being stalled. Government advisors signalled it would outlaw the environmentally damaging practice of burning peat bogs in January 2020 but since then rumours have emerged that the plans have been put on hold in a further nod to the practice of grouse shooting. Campaigners have long opposed the practice of burning peat bogs to encourage new heather shoots, which is a source of food for grouse.

Writing in the Central Edinburgh newsletter Terrace Talk, Quaker Ed Tyler and senior tutor in the Permaculture Association says he is concerned about the mismanagement of peat. With nearly three-

quarters of Scotland covered in either shallow or deep peat, he says, ‘Scotland’s peatlands have such huge scope for carbon sequestration!’

The problem is that ‘much peat in our blanket bogs is now severely degraded. Causes include overgrazing and trampling, draining, repeat burning – and the planting of trees.’

He is also concerned that the Scottish government’s current push to plant trees and invest in peatland restoration may cause similar degradation unless managed correctly.

Working with a team of bioregional practitioners, the Quaker is also producing a series of maps for the Clyde region to help identify work needed for the climate crisis. The most important benefit of the project, he said, will be ‘to provide a policy/planning/action framework for tackling the joint Climate and Ecological Emergency. Through this work everyone living in the Clyde region can get to know the amazing suite of resources there and how they have been managed/mismanaged

[email protected]

WORDS

‘A top-down system… is not fit for… tackling the

Climate Emergency.’

Scottish Friend Ed Tyler and senior tutor in the Permaculture Association.

Photo courtesy of The Retreat..

the Friend 16 October 2020 5

throughout history: fisheries, timber, fresh/drinking water, soil, coal, clean air, to name a few.’

‘We will identify what resources are in trouble... Bioregioning thinking considers that the people living and working in the area are best placed to understand and manage these resources sustainably.’

Ed Tyler added that the team is already engaging with academics at various Scottish universities and hope to influence policy makers. ‘A wholly centralised, top-down system of governance is not fit for purpose in tackling the Climate and Ecological Emergency.’

Woodbrooke consults over cutsThe Quaker study centre Woodbrooke has said it is exploring ways of reducing costs as it grapples with the ‘huge economic impact’ of the Covid-19 pandemic since March. In a statement released on 5 October it says that they are ‘working with staff ’ and there will be ‘further updates once this period of consultation has concluded’.

The statement from Ingrid Greenhow, clerk to trustees, and Sandra Berry, director, says: ‘Although the core work of the charity has evolved, and Woodbrooke learning is now reaching more people than ever before through our online programme, the activities such as conferences and bed and breakfast have been suspended for much of the year. There is little sign of demand for these in the next six months, compounded by new Covid precautions and a

reduction in government financial support.’

It adds that the newly expanded online learning is ‘bringing in income, both directly and through donations… But these are challenging times’. The statement ends: ‘We very much appreciate all the support and upholding during this difficult time.’

British think white people most impacted by climate crisisBlack British Christians are more engaged with the issue of climate breakdown than the public at large, according to a new survey which shows that a significant chunk of British people mistakenly think white people are most impacted by the emergency. The Savanta ComRes poll, commissioned by the charity Christian Aid for Black History Month, revealed that twice as many British adults think that white people across the world are the most vulnerable ethnic group to the negative impacts of climate change (thirty-one per cent) than black people (fifteen per cent). This is despite the fact that the most impacted regions are in poorer countries in the global south.

Gretchen Castle, general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), said some of the findings were ‘concerning’. She told the Friend: ‘The sustainability programme of FWCC focuses in part on educating us in Britain just how much Friends from the global south are adversely affected by climate change. It is an effort to motivate us to

make different lifestyle choices. So [this] data… is concerning. People in Africa and the Philippines and India have suffered over past decades, while people in the US and Europe have been arguing over whether climate change exists. More recently the effects of climate change are more evident in most parts of the world, [and] people are more willing to see how devastating it is for themselves and across the world. From this study it seems people have it exactly the wrong way around, and that black people in the world have suffered the effects of climate change due to the behaviours and resource-spending of the rest of the world. We continue to have a lot to learn.’

The survey also shows that two thirds (sixty-six per cent) of black British Christians feel they know at least a fair amount about climate change, compared to half (forty-nine per cent) of the British public. Meanwhile, black Christians who were born in a country more vulnerable to climate change are more likely than those born in the UK or born in a less vulnerable country to say they know at least a fair amount about climate change (seventy-five per cent versus sixty-five per

cent versus sixty-four per cent respectively).

Black Christians also come out as being twice as likely as the general public to make lifestyle changes to reduce their carbon footprint – such as taking eco-friendly forms of travel (eighteen per cent versus nine per cent), installing solar panels (eight per cent versus four per cent) or buying an electric car (eight per cent versus four per cent) – or engage in campaigns or protests. More than half of black Christians (fifty-one per cent) don’t think the climate movement is racially diverse enough, compared to thirty-three per cent of the British public as a whole.

Chine McDonald, Christian Aid’s head of public engagement, said: ‘It is shocking that the British public don’t realise that it is black and brown people around the world that are bearing the brunt of it.

‘At its core, climate change is a story of racial inequality with the nations of the rich, largely white, global north creating a crisis which is causing suffering most acutely felt in the global south.’ She said the findings ‘challenge the perception that concerns around climate change are largely the preserve of white people’.

NUMBERS

43The percentage of UK psychiatrists who saw an

increase in urgent and emergency cases following lockdown, according to a survey by the Royal

College of Psychiatrists in May.


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Letters

The Friend welcomes your views,to [email protected]. Pleasekeep letters short. We particularly welcome contributions from children, written or illustrated.

Please include your full postal address, even when sending emails, along with your Meeting name or other Quaker affiliation.In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.

Ethical veganism The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vegetarianism and Veganism event in September addressed veganism in the workplace. An interesting legal case was presented by the lawyer who represented the vegan and zoologist Jordi Casamitjana at an employment tribunal. Briefly, Jordi claimed unfair dismissal. He discovered that his employer was investing contributions to his pension fund in companies which tested on animals. After notifying them, without liitle result, he found a way of separating his payments from the companies to which he objected and explained how others could do the same.

The importance of the case is in the judgement that ethical veganism is protected under the Equal Rights Act 2010 in the same way as other religions or philosophical beliefs. This must go beyond a viewpoint or dietary preference, to contain a moral imperative at its heart. The judge said he had no hesitation in deciding that ethical veganism in this case fulfilled the necessary tests.

Although a tribunal is not binding, it is persuasive and employers will be concerned to heed this judgement as the

number of vegans increases. It will also affect other areas. Like early Quakers, vegans are sometimes seen as ‘troublemakers’ (and not necessarily angelic) or at least an irritation.

Friends House has made great progress in terms of the catering facilities. But does this case raise concerns about where for instance our contributions to Britain Yearly Meeting are invested, or to whom we rent our premises, or whether there are vegan soaps in the toilets? It would be a good discussion point.Julie HinmanSussex West Area Meeting

‘Extreme political stances’The government has recently issued guidance to schools which instructs them not to use resources from organisations that take extreme political stances. Such stances are held to include a desire to end capitalism or the endorsement of illegal activities or the failure to condemn such activities carried out in pursuit of a cause.

Such guidance could easily be made to apply to the Society, as well as to, for example, Extinction Rebellion. It is illiberal, authoritarian and, indeed, dangerously extremist in its implications. Considering all that we now know of the damage that capitalism has inflicted on the planet, the educational system needs to be able to draw freely on a critique of it.

I hope that Friends, individually and corporately, will take this up with their MP or with the government and seek to get the guidance amended or withdrawn. Jonathan DaleCentral Manchester Meeting

Anonymous contributors George Cadbury was a great man as the excellent article about him by Paul Vallely makes clear (2 October). There’s a startling omission, however, on


the accompanying photograph. George, his wife and five grandchildren are mentioned but there’s an eighth figure in the picture. This lady – unnamed, anonymous, unacknowledged – is it Nanny?

Nannies were an essential adjunct to the wealthy classes’ success. They sacrificed themselves to service, often with no prospect of marriage and a family of their own, they dedicated themselves to the children of the rich. When these children grew to a certain age Nanny often moved on to service elsewhere or returned home to look after her elderly parents or to a solitary ‘spinsterhood’.

I have no doubt the Cadbury Nanny was well looked after and much loved. She looks content and no doubt took pride in her invaluable contribution to this remarkable family.

Servants are often invisible and unnamed. In the extant gospels, probably all composed by men (at least in their final form), no name is given to the Syrophoenician woman who needed help (Mark 7:26), the Samaritan woman from whom Jesus begged a drink (John 4:7), the woman who poured expensive ointment over Jesus (Matthew 26:7), the woman caught in an act of adultery (John 8:3) and the haemorrhaging woman forced into anonymity by taboo (Matthew 9:20).

It’s quite salutary picking out the unnamed. Who was accompanying Cleopas on the road to Emmaus? His wife? A servant? The men, on the other hand, are often named, like all the twelve disciples even though the deeds of the majority of them are not remarked upon or considered worth remembering. Presently we are uncovering the contribution that those of African origin have made to our culture, to our success and our heritage. This is part of the process of creating a truly inclusive society, of acknowledging and treasuring an enormous number of the hitherto

unacknowledged, the invisible and unnamed who have enriched us.

The tomb of the unknown soldier, deliberately unnamed, commemorates the anonymous who died in war; similarly millions of unnamed men and women have contributed to our peace, and many have played a crucial part in our gospels (be they fictitious or not). They are our ‘good news’ stories.John P Butler North Wales Area Meeting

Our charitable statusDavid Heathfield (18 September) asks: ‘Is it right for us to claim Gift Aid since we are thereby obliging our fellow citizens to contribute to our funds and support work that we want done but which they do not? Some enterprises are granted charity status and subsequently may enjoy favourable tax rules.’ I agree with these and all the other points made – in particular, how our benefitting from Gift Aid is at the cost of ‘the loss to the Exchequer’.

Many of my humanist, atheist, and irreligious, non-Quaker friends, especially those who work in the public and voluntary sectors, tend to admire the ‘good works’ they see undertaken by the Religious Society of Friends. They don’t see us as ‘a charity’ – they take it that our charitable endeavours are motivated by our religious beliefs and ‘for the advancement of religion’, just as described in Quaker faith & practice (Qf&p) 15.12.

Some non-Quakers are also aware of the relevance of our Testimonies, such as those to Social Justice, Equality and Truth, in putting into practice our ‘charitable purposes’ (Qf&p 15.13). But, as we’re a religious organisation, we’re not seen as coming within the same categorisations that generally define non-religious organisations as ‘charities’.

At present, our Quaker

charitable work is, in effect, being supported by those members of the public who are taxpayers – whether they like it or not and whether they are aware of it or not: they simply have no say in the matter. How can we continue to justify this state of affairs – ethically?

David Heathfield hopes that Meeting for Sufferings will reconsider our relationship with the charity sector. I hope so too.Audrey Chamberlain Hampshire and the Islands Area Meeting

One timeless principleThank you very much for informing us of the historical origins of a universal basic income (UBI, 25 September).

Sadly, experience prevents us from being confident that (even after compelling pilots) this idea’s time will have come. For example, the Milners observed of UBI in 1918: ‘Nor does it involve any disorganisation of existing systems.’

This is no longer true and many jobs operate those systems. Further, 1918 may have been before serious governmental commitment to ‘full’ employment (whatever that may mean in coming generations of artificial intelligence). UBI may, in future, erode that governmental commitment (such as it has ever been).

Yet there is at least one timeless principle in the Milners’ proposal: ‘No one should be driven by the threat of destitution into accepting work which is underpaid, unhealthy or even dangerous’.

Until UBI is adopted, our present system of social security needs to be reformed to comply with that principle. And there may have been no more urgent time for implementing that principle than during the remainder of the present pandemic. Harry BaxterAddress supplied

Talking shop: Robert Ashton on a community venture

‘The village shop closed years ago, and there was nowhere for people to meet.’

Irecently visited a community-owned shop and café in Little Plumstead, on the day that it started trading. ‘The Walled Garden’ is a work in progress. A café and shop are already open where locals and visitors can enjoy coffee, cake and conversation. The business sits between a primary school and parish church; 300 new homes are being built in the grounds of the hall that once stood here.

The village shop here closed a few years ago and, although the housing development has open space, there was nowhere for people to meet. To visit a post office or buy anything meant a ten-mile round trip. When I first visited the place, more than thirty years ago, it was a facility where people with learning disabilities lived together, cultivated the walled garden, and engaged in a variety of activities with a team of occupational therapists. It closed in the late 1990s and was derelict for years. But one part of the facility is now a medium secure unit. It houses young

men who have been referred by the criminal justice system. They need intensive psychiatric support rather than a spell in prison. This unit is the reason the community shop and café came into being.

I’ve long been fascinated by people who stand out from –

or more often are pushed out from – the crowd. So when I found myself speaking at Norwich Cathedral alongside a forensic psychiatrist from the unit, I had to ask if he could arrange a tour for me.

I learned that the biggest challenge the unit faced was in finding meaningful opportunities for the young men to experience work and other life skills, such as shopping. There was nothing close by, and poor public transport made travel to nearby Norwich almost impossible.

As a social entrepreneur I knew about the Plunkett Foundation, which helps community groups set up shops. I suggested we set about building support for one right there. My reasoning was that this would provide meaningful opportunities for work experience, right on the unit’s doorstep. Equally important was the fact that it would help local people to see the unit’s service users more positively.

We recruited a steering group, made up of local residents and staff from the secure unit. Over three years they raised money and commissioned the building. Already three service users have applied to become volunteers. Later, more will be able to work in the Walled Garden.

I’ve suggested research to measure the positive impact of this new source of work experience. It has already given the service users hope. If it allows some to be released sooner than they might otherwise be, then there will be a significant cost saving to the state. If we can quantify that saving, then a case can be made for investment in similar projects, which can benefit service users and local people alike and that has to be good. n

Robert is from Norwich Meeting.

‘A shop would provide meaningful opportunities for work.’

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Thought for the week: Piers Maddox sees inconvenient truth

‘We can play a ‘goodness’ game – make token gestures to impress, and profess love and goodwill for all – but how real is it?’

There’s a space between theism and nontheism that is important to explore.

Early Quakers witnessed the breakdown of village-based community, with enclosures driving the landless into towns. Merchants cheated, and you doffed your cap to your rich masters. It was the

beginning of capitalist society. Those Friends felt the Spirit of Truth (an inner guide to ‘rightness’), which they identified with Jesus. To deny it would have been blasphemy. It was something real, inside, an essence behind the biblical words – but they knew you didn’t have to be Christian to feel it.

Our world is very different now, but that instinct was good. Fakery and injustice are with us still, perhaps more than before. The rich and the poor know their role but, for the middle classes, part exploiter part exploited, things are more confused. We can play a ‘goodness’ game – make token gestures to impress, and profess love and goodwill for all – but how real is it?

Meanwhile the eco-crisis pricks our bubble of delusion. Capitalism is unsustainable. We know it can’t go on, that we should end exploitation and war and live as one people one planet. But how do we justify our eco-footprint exactly? We’re at the mercy of the rich. Will those with the power and wealth see sense? And when they do, will there still be room for us?

We seek pleasure to distract us from our helplessness. Pope Francis has spoken of a virus of narcissistic spirituality. Shall we watch as the train crash unfolds? Should we pray for the rich western empire to fall to its knees and repent? What’s the salvation we need? Are we even bothered? If we are, we should decide what we want, and then act. We need two things. First, principles of ecological and economic justice – a little global ecosocialism. Second, we need awakened people to organise and act. But it has to be real, not greenwash and gestures. Transformation – perhaps revolution.

The history of monotheism isn’t great. It has a tendency to intolerance and is compliant to authority. Modern scholarship views the Jesus stories as fiction. Some think that’s disillusioning but, as early Quakers used to say, it’s the spirit not the scripture that counts.

What prompts people to self-sacrifice? Or to act for something beyond self at personal cost? There’s a choice each of us makes. The impulse to ‘rightness’, when embraced, is irrepressible. It’s challenging and uncomfortable at times, but it also comes with a feeling of contentment, like having a compass or a trusty mountain guide at your side (or a shepherd if you prefer). There’s a sense of connection with others working for a better world, part of a global striving for the future we need. It’s not done with the expectation of reward in heaven or even earthly hope of success, but simply because it’s the right thing to do – the way of life, the only thing of value you can do, to be a Friend of Truth. The alternative is fakery. n

Piers is from Totnes Meeting. Pho

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Worth the candle: Peter Blaker gives a portrait of a Meeting house in the pandemic

‘We are so closely joined it feels as if we are holding hands.’

As with everything else in the pandemic, our Meeting house shut down. Weeks went by in empty darkness with the doors closed and locked. The first sign of life reemerging was when a day care unit, for people with additional needs, asked if they could use our space. They provided vital support

for users and their families under lockdown. We worked out a risk assessment and were glad to welcome them and to feel that we were offering a supportive hand. The building served them well, they said, wrapping itself around them just as it has embraced us in deep and close stillness.

As rigorous protocols were established, Meetings resumed – but with much reduced attendance, as Friends who fell into vulnerable categories sensibly continued to shield. Some things have changed, of course. All hard surfaces are disinfected. The garden door is opened to allow ventilation.

Books are not put out, as they are likely to be handled by more than one person. A candle is set on the table – a candle instead of flowers, to recognise the fact we share a flame on behalf of those who cannot attend in person, and for those who have lost loved ones to Covid. Five chairs

are put in a distanced circle. Soft cushions are taken off them and set aside. Somehow the circular shape feels more inclusive, more connected than the rectangle we are used to.

Everything looks simple and bare.Everything feels Quakerly.Friends are welcomed at the door. ‘Have you shown any

signs of Covid? Please remember to sterilise your hands. It’s so good to see you.’ No one shakes hands, so a ‘namaste’ greeting has become our accustomed welcome.

Meetings have fallen into silence. Everyone feels the strangeness of masks, as well as the social distancing, yet we are so closely joined it feels as if we are holding hands. No one speaks, even Advices & queries is rarely read. The sense of sharing our thoughts and reflections in a time of duress is so strong that words are not needed.

The candle flickers and glows.The changes are small, but the Meeting feels simple,

honest, akin to the Meetings early Quakers may have experienced. Things we do ‘because we have always done them’ are set aside. There isn’t room.

Absent friends are held in our hearts. The spaces where they sat feel empty, and weigh on us. There is a sense that the Meeting is held on their behalf.

The cleaning process is repeated in the empty building.I gather up my things and look around. Our beautiful,

ancient Meeting house, with its dark honey brown panels and rows of benches used by generations of Quakers, is working its spell once more. Only some of us can attend at the moment, but nobody is apart in spirit. n

Peter is from Wellington Meeting.

‘Things we do “because we have always done them” are set aside. There isn’t room.’

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Waiting room: following a cancer diagnosis, Michael Wright reflects on a life of exploration and discovery

‘I prepare for death with a relaxed acceptance.’

I grew up in a household that was strongly opposed to religious faith. As a teenager I was a troublesome presence in RE lessons. At sixteen I became so confident that I could demolish this house of cards that I set out on a personal programme of research to do so. Then, out of the blue, I had an extraordinary experience. I was overwhelmed by feelings of elation, of joy, of peace, a thrilling feeling of having

been taken over by a power beyond myself. I thought the Hound of Heaven had caught up with me.

Within three years I was accepted for ordination in the Church of England. During that time I had another extraordinary experience walking across a parade ground during a lightning storm. I thought that every step I took could be my last. Such was my faith at that time I was elated to be about to discover life beyond death.

For nearly forty years as a priest and hospice chaplain, I ministered to many people as they approached death. I supported bereaved relatives and friends, including some who had remarkable experiences of their loved ones.

I have been through the whole gamut of scepticism, belief, puzzlement, acceptance of mystery, and hearing things I couldn’t explain. I have now come to live comfortably with mystery, with wondering and with not knowing. I accept that it is as natural to die as it is to be born. I am now in the ‘waiting room’, having recently been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Sixty years or so of loyalty to much of the teaching of Jesus, formed by the disciplines of the Anglican and Quaker traditions, I prepare for death with a relaxed acceptance. Words from ‘A song of the living’ by Amelia Josephine Burr express what I feel: ‘Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die’, apart from the sorrow of leaving family and friends much sooner than I had hoped to. I am grateful for the opportunity to prepare for it, and not be taken without warning.

I no longer share the hope of eternal life which empowered early Friends, but being Quaker has been an enormous support for me. I have not been able in my later years to subscribe to many of the classic doctrines of the Christian faith, but I am glad our tradition is open to those of us who are continuing exploration and discovery.

In many ways I feel I have been Quaker all my adult life. When I began my training for the Anglican ministry in 1957 I encountered the Quaker Meeting there. The copy of Advices & queries they gave me shaped my ministry as an Anglican for the next forty years, until I came to find I no longer shared the beliefs or the outlook of the Church of England. I have felt at home among Friends, and I am grateful that I can be buried among Friends in the Quaker burial ground in Middlesbrough.

The wisdom, the openness, the acceptance, vision and support of Friends have made an immense difference to my life. I have been changed more in my twenty Quaker years than I was in my forty Anglican years. I offer my warmest thanks to all the Friends I have encountered who have welcomed, encouraged, challenged and supported me. n

Michael is from Middlesbrough Meeting. Pho

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Flat out: Barbara Mark on evidence and conspiracy

‘The underlying problem is one of trust rather than physics.’

We live in this world and must face up to things going on in it. Quakers are not known for shying away. So what do we think about those who believe the earth is flat?

Let me go into this a bit more, using an article

from Physics World in July. I am interested in the subject as one aspect – extreme maybe – of our society’s growing lack of trust in science, knowledge and maybe even wisdom.

The International Flat Earth Research Society has an annual conference with more than 600 attendees. Several psychologists assure us these people are genuine in their beliefs. Their numbers have grown since the early 2000s, when the internet became a vehicle to share ideas. YouTube videos present numerous arguments that give what Asheley Landrum, a psychologist from Texas Tech University, calls

‘an illusion of fluency’. Some religious fundamentalists are also spreading these beliefs.

Conspiracy theories have reduced people’s ability to judge what is true and what is not true. Individuals seem little bothered about the evidence – it does not move them. The

underlying problem is one of trust rather than physics. The only way through this unmovable reality is to get to know people and discuss alternatives.

I am asking us to consider this as a religious group. So often religion has been called into question because it has no basis in science. In this case, why are we any different from those who believe the earth is flat? The one thing we all do have, I suspect, is a greater understanding of what it is like to base our beliefs on things beyond this world and its facts. So maybe we have more empathy with flat earthers than a physicist? But anyone who has travelled round the world will know it is round. There is actually, in this case, no getting away from it.

Other ‘facts’ may be more difficult to prove wrong, or right. It is a sad reality that there are no truths any more. Our whole world has been turned upside down by fake news, twisted science and manipulated data.

We have, though, as a society of Friends, a Light to follow. A deep goodness to believe in. A connectedness with eternality. We now have scientific proof that we can experience this. In this magazine in September, Carole Sutton told us about clinical psychologists who are uncovering two different subsystems in the brain – a cognitive one and a relational one. The complexity of the interconnections means, as yet, they cannot be mapped, but it ‘offers a way of understanding spirituality which makes it integral to the experience of being human’. As Patrick Casement also said in the Friend last month, ‘we need to acknowledge that there really could be more in life that we can know, or understand’. n

Barbara is from Ludlow Meeting.

‘As Friends, we have a Light to follow. A deep goodness to believe in.’

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Light reading: Om Patil on Quaker links to Hinduism

‘The moment that got me into Quaker theology wasn’t some feeling of being one with God.’

‘Oats and pacifism.’ For about fourteen years of my life, that’s all ‘Quaker’ meant. Not a great starting place for a kid about to matriculate at a Quaker high school. My definition of Quakerism changed soon enough, to

‘oats, pacifism, and sitting in silence’. Just kidding.Honestly though, the moment that got me into

Quaker theology wasn’t some feeling of being one with God, or finally understanding why I existed. Rather, it was a simple connection I made while I was sitting at my laptop: ‘Hey, this idea of “the inner light” sounds awfully like Ātman – Hinduism’s first principle’.

This realisation sent me down a rabbit hole of essays, articles and poorly-translated texts. But I’ll start way back with the Rigveda and the Avesta, two holy books that were most likely influenced by Proto-Indo-European religion. The two books are actually representative of a great schism between followers of that original religion: Devá, the Sanskrit word for God, means Devil in Avestan. The Vedic religion evolved into early Hinduism, and the Avestan religion evolved into Zoroastrianism. I’m sure there’s a treasure trove of information that discusses the ideas that Quakerism draws from Zoroastrianic thought, but I’d like to focus on how the Rigveda diverges from Zoroastrianism, and how some of those ideas lead into Quaker thought.

Rigvedic verse 10.97.11 mentions this idea of Ātman, an inner light inside every person, likened to the sun. Inner Light. How then, did these ideas make their way to the Levant? It’s speculated that Plato traveled to Persia and Iran. While there, it’s very possible he was influenced by Vedic ideas. Plato’s theory of forms clearly shares ideas with the Vedic concept of Maya, for example. But the clearest line between Ātman and the Greeks lies in Plato’s ‘pneuma’ theory. That’s pneuma translated as ‘ruach’ in the Hebrew Bible – Spirit. This intelligent spirit was imagined as a substance akin to a current of air, or breath, but also possessed the quality of warmth. It was immanent in the universe as God, and in humans as the soul. At the time of Jesus’ ministry, such philosophy was incredibly popular; thus, when the Bible discusses the Holy Spirit, we must keep in mind that the Greek version considered the Spirit to also be life-giving. Therefore, John 1:9, the passage which discusses the inner light, can be read as the light being the life-giving force.

Of course, that’s not to say that Quakerism is a just a subsect of Christianity. But Quakerism is clearly a tradition that is rooted in Judeo-Christian ideas – and those ideas were influenced by the Vedas.

All this serves as a testament to the ideas themselves. Whether we are Hindu, Zoroastrians, Christians, or Buddhists, the idea of an Inner light is something that holds true everywhere. n

Om is from Moorestown Friends School, USA. A d

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Bible and Ecology:Rediscovering the Community of Creation, by Richard Bauckham

Review by Frank Regan

Richard Bauckham, a former professor of New Testament Studies, invites us to rediscover our membership of the Community of Creation. This community is larger than the community of humankind. It consists of many species, some extinct, others recently born.

Our author asks how we should read the Bible in an age of ecological disaster. Writers in the early church counselled that, to know God, we must read the Bible alongside the book of nature. Today it is critical.

Bauckham hopes that good science and good theology might combine to produce a more humble, less hubristic relationship with nature and the environment. Until recently only the green movements had sensitivity for what that relationship should be. Our culture and civilisation have been rooted in a spirit of domination. Our artefacts, our structures and our living spaces all point to a civilisation built on a complete ignorance of our kinship with nature. We have plundered and destroyed. There are signs that nature is giving out, its resiliency exhausted.

Where, when did we lose the plot? The book brings us back to the Renaissance. The author says that ‘Renaissance Man’ [sic] forgot his creatureliness. A new humanism exalted humans in an attempt to free us from our submission to nature, with its whimsical spontaneity, unpredictability and wild exuberance. The human became a god and we forgot how embedded in nature we are; how interdependent with other creatures.

Our author wants us to learn to read the scriptures with a renewed optic, through new lenses. He takes as an example Psalm 104. The God of Psalm 104 is the extravagantly generous giver of all good things. God’s works are manifold in their diversity, both on land and in the sea. God cares for the creation. God’s gifts are of the breath of life; water; food; habitat; and joy for which God provides wine to gladden the heart.

Our globalised world has been obeying a metanarrative founded on materialism, consumerism and ‘technolatry’. Rapid economic exchange, destruction of natural environments and globalised commerce guide our economic model.

Bauckman also introduces us to Colossians 1:15-20 as the basis of a new metanarrative, which he calls ‘cosmic christology’. This christology confronts human beings, created a little lower than the angels, with a creation they have plunged into chaos, infected with poisonous waste and condemned to accelerating death. Colossians brings us the good news of Christ the first-born of creation in whom all of creation is made and in which all of creation is reconciled and brought to fullness. In his humanity Christ is the image of the invisible God. In his reading of the text the author illustrates that what happened to Christ in microcosm is what happens to the whole universe in macrocosm.

One could pray this book as well as mine it for its biblical wisdom. It is a splendid contribution to the spirituality and theology of Christian environmentalism. n

Frank is from Newton Abbot Meeting.


Choosing Life: My father’s journey in film from Hollywood to Hiroshima, by Leslie A Sussan

Review by David Zarembka

I should say up front: Leslie Sussan and I are both members of Bethesda Meeting in Maryland, USA. She has been working on this book about her father, Herb Sussan, for thirty years.

In 1946, after world war two, Herb, who had trained as a cinematographer, joined a strategic bombing survey crew to record the results of the atomic bombings in Nagasaki

and Hiroshima. As soon as he arrived he understood that something appalling had happened, and that he must make a record of the results – especially the ongoing suffering of those affected. The US government, however, decided that the gruesome footage should not be shown to the public, classifying it top secret. Herb was to spend decades arguing for its release.

In 1987, Leslie decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and meet the survivors he had filmed more than forty years before. This book recounts her understanding of Herb’s experiences, and her quest to

understand what he saw. Rather than a top-down

academic history, this book is a Studs Terkel-style history of average people and how the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki affected an individual, his family and the Japanese people he photographed. A lawyer by profession, Leslie had to unlearn the ‘legalese’ with which she

was familiar to engage with a full range of experiences, stories, ambiguities, unknowns, and emotions. She has admirably succeeded. The book is full of emotion and I teared up a number of times.

There are many detailed descriptions here of the atomic bombs and what they did to their victims. The horror of nuclear weapons is effectively realised; Choosing Life carries a gut emotional level of disgust.

The book is multi-layered, as real life always is. It includes Leslie’s difficult childhood and rebellion, and her attempts to understand her father. She covers living in, and adjusting to, a foreign culture, as well as the raising of her own child, Kendra, while in Japan.

One significant aspect is the revelation of the lack of bitterness that the Japanese people had about the war and the atomic bombing. But while Leslie and her father are almost unknown in the United States, they have both been treated as celebrities in Japan.

This book has come out at the right time. The world has just realised that atomic bombs did not protect anyone from Covid-19, and that the resources spent on them would be better used to make the world a better, healthier place for everyone. Choosing Life provides an emotional context to the campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons. It is much needed, and a must read. n

David is from Bethesda Meeting (Maryland, USA).

‘The horror of nuclear weapons is effectively realised; Choosing Life carries a gut emotional level of disgust.’


Conspiracy, directed by Frank PiersonReview by Helen Porter

I recently plucked up courage to watch this film, which I have had on my shelves since I bought it in a charity shop a couple of years ago. It is a hard watch but essential viewing, increasingly so with the resurgence of fascism in the world.

There is no violence in the film. Instead it is devoted entirely to a chillingly ‘civilised’ (for the most part) discussion. In January 1942 the SS summoned the military and civilian leaders

of the Third Reich to a two-hour meeting at the Wannsee, Berlin, and there they agreed upon the Final Solution to ‘the Jewish problem’.

The drama consists of the interaction between those who are entirely ruthless and those few who are, relatively, repulsed by the logical conclusion; but all of them work from the premise that they are deciding the fate of an ‘inferior species’. The script is not invented. It comes from the only surviving copy of the SS minutes of the proceedings.

What sent me to the film was a book I had just read – the autobiography of the Czech pianist and harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková (One Hundred Miracles: a memoir of music and survival). She spent many of her teenage years in three different concentration camps during the Holocaust. Alongside the unimaginable horrors she describes, there is one almost equally shocking scene where she is between Auschwitz and Belsen but working as slave labour, rebuilding bomb-damaged Hamburg. After fainting she is carried to the manager’s office, where he expressed his surprise: ‘That looks like a human! She really is a human child!’ – such a measure of how people had been indoctrinated to think Jews were beneath human.

I struggled, and failed, to find ‘that of God’ in the men in that meeting (several of whom were released after the war and lived ‘normal’ lives for decades after). Our duty now is to not turn away from what is happening in our own time. While the most obvious parallel might be the Uighurs in ‘re-education’ camps in China, in Europe we have our own alarm bells to hear – the rise of the AFD in Germany, Vox in Spain, Chega in Portugal; the removal of judges in Hungary (indeed the attacks on the judiciary here – ‘Enemies of the People’?); the treatment of homosexuals as lesser citizens in much of eastern Europe; the demonisation of Muslims; the official, and officially encouraged, hostility to migrants. One of the suggestions in the recent Home Office brainstorm on ways of solving ‘the migrant problem’ was that we should install a wave machine in the Channel, to beat back the cockleshell craft of those desperate enough to attempt the crossing. Indeed we have a ‘clandestine channel threat commander’. Extinction Rebellion has been threatened with classification as an ‘organised crime’ group. And the government’s latest guidance on school curricula requires schools to not use resources from any organisation that has advocated abolishing capitalism.

I would like to see a viewing of Conspiracy on every A-Level history syllabus. I would recommend it to every film club. And for Quakers to do what we have always done – to keep our eyes wide open to what is happening. n

Helen is from Montgomery Meeting.


The Book of Trespass:Crossing the lines that divide us, by Nick Hayes

Review by Tony TuckerNick Hayes’ fascinating

and provocative book is a tearing away of much of the pretence of British history. A nation’s view of itself is rarely realistic and in our case the fabrications are literally set in stone. The great houses and estates of the land are, if we

care to look, testimony to our iniquities. The author trespasses through some of those great

estates. He steps through or over the walls, gates and fences that say ‘keep out’, transgressing the dividing lines between normative rules of private ownership. Landowners argue that, with footpaths now established, there is a healthy balance between property rights and the public rights of access. Hayes points out that only eight per cent of England is available to us.

Downton Abbey, it appears, was not only built of bricks and mortar but also the suffering of the enslaved people who built the fortunes. Ironically, when abolition came, Hayes argues it was the icing on the cake for the plantation owners since the ‘compensation’ granted to them – amounting in today’s terms to at least £87 billion – enabled them to purchase even more of these vast estates. They appropriated not only the lives of enslaved people in the Caribbean but the living and livelihoods of the people of this island, whose smallholdings, farms, rights to pasture and forage were swept away by the enclosures movement.

The Land of Hope and Glory it seems, for much of its history, was a criminal enterprise run by the aristocracy – robed in entitlement but a Mafia nevertheless. Hayes makes a telling point when he states that ‘Nationalism suits the landowning classes because it gives people a sense of ownership when they own nothing at all’.

This book is a timely reminder of the entrenched and increasing inequality in our society, since half of the nation’s wealth is land-based. When the Jubilee Line was built at a cost to the taxpayer of £3.4 billion, land values within a thousand yards of the line rose by an estimated £13 billion. As a society we reaped none of the benefit.

The author covers not just slavery and land-grab but the rights of migrants, travellers (those inveterate ‘trespassers’), the despoiling of peat moors, even the efforts of groups attempting to save urban trees. It is a compendium of knowledge and insight as well as powerful testimony to the ills of our society.

It is also a book to enjoy. Hayes is articulate and passionate. We walk with him through beautiful countryside. He writes with a loving eye of the nature that surrounds him and the book is beautifully illustrated with his own wood engravings. I would put it into the hand of every young person, perhaps as a set text in their last year of schooling, and, who knows, the result may be that, perhaps within a decade or so, we might find ourselves living in a more just, equitable, honest and green and pleasant land. n

Tony is from Warrington Meeting.


Poem: Ground zero

Jonathan WoodingRain is all mist without fall, and mottled with grey motions, the sky.There’s a sea-roar in that fruitless sycamore,

and eucalyptus leads the cheer, throwingjackdaws in streaming perichoresisabout a pale, unblooded sky.

The stars are outshone by this grey earth – not a trace of last week’s meteor-shower – and the sun’s moonish alteration eclipsed too

by this scallop-shell of cloud cover.One says zero is our maximum – why not? – imperishable, irreducible – no question.

We would not hear God’s silencewere our noise here below with meaning.Never not need to pray – unquenchable

instinct; heart, soul, strengthand mind, building a meeting-house from open airand poetry without words.

Jonathan is from Totnes Meeting.

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ANNUAL QUAKER BUSINESS CONFERENCE 2020 ‘MakingValues Visible’. Explore new ethical challenges, post-Covid 19.On Zoom: Friday 6 and Saturday7 November. Free to register.Info at www.qandb.org or [email protected]

QUAKER SOUTH ASIA INTEREST GROUP AGM Saturday 24 October, 10.30am - 3pm. Open to all with an interest in South Asia. Main speaker from Jai Jagat 2020 UK. Zoom link either online or phone from Martin Schweiger: [email protected] or 0113 440 0736.

Webinar, Saturday 7 November, 4–5pmLuton & Leighton AM invites Friends across Britain Yearly Meeting to join our discussion with Dr Stefanie Green, a practising GP in Canada and provider of MedicalAssistance in Dying. Focussing on the approach doctors may take with patients considering an assisted death, we hope to deepen our understanding and help discernment of a Quaker view on the sensitive issue of legally assisted death.To register please email: [email protected]

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Good Money Week24–30 October 2020

Ethical ConsumerIs your bank or buildingsociety an ethical Best Buy?This issue of Ethical Consumerhas an authoritative review of theethical credentials of our banks,building societies and other fi nancial companies. How does your bank compare? Are theyfunding fossil fuels? Is it time toswitch? Cost £4.25.

One item £1.50 p&p,Two or more UK post free!Email your order with your nameand address to [email protected] pay by bank transfer (bank details supplied on ordering).Or send a cheque payable to‘The Friend’ to: George Penaluna,The Friend, 54a Main Street, Cononley, Keighley BD20 8LL.

Philanthropy:From Aristotle to ZuckerbergPaul Vallely. Anecdote andscholarly insight take us ‘from theancient Greeks to today’s high-tech geeks’ with an original look at the history of philanthropy.Highly engaging and meticulouslyresearched... ultimately pointing to how philanthropy can redis-cover its soul. £30. H/B, Blooms-bury, September 2020.

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DeathsIsobel (Judy) EAVES 8 October surrounded by family. Sister of Joan Waterfall. Aunt to many. Member of Bridport Meeting, formerly of Bristol. Aged 89.

Memorial meetingsElizabeth (Lizzie) LLOYD-PHILIPPSA programmed memorial meeting to celebrate Lizzie’s life will be held at 3pm on Wednesday 28 October via Zoom. For details and joining instructions, please email Stuart Morton ([email protected]) by 26 October latest.

MIDDAY WORSHIP IN THE CITYRunning again with social distancing and masks. Bunhill Fields MeetingHouse, Banner St, London EC1Y 8QQ,� ird Wednesdays 21 October,18 November and 16 December.MfW 12.45-1.15pm. Visitors welcome.Enquiries: [email protected]

Sheila Anne HAGUE (née Pollard) 30 September at home with family. Wife to Peter. Mother of Charlotte, Jeremy, Matthew, William and Sally. Grandmother to Alicia, Ben, Eliza, Georgia, Harvey, Joe, Oliver, Sarah and Tom. Member of Cambridge Jesus Lane Meeting, formerly Huntingdon Meeting, and Quaker Socialist Society. Aged 83. Family burial at Barton Glebe Woodland Burial Ground. Memorial meeting when it becomes possible again. Enquiries to Peter: [email protected]

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SWARTHMORE LECTURES WANTEDQuaker researcher seeks any surplus copies of pre-1980 Swarthmore Lectures (or com-plete sets) which Friends, or Meetings, may be willing to part with: reasonable price negotiable; may be able to collect. Please contact Hugh Jones: [email protected] or 01273 739145.

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the friend · the friend independent quaker journalism since 1843 16 october 2020 | volume 178, no...

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