Editorial

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
Jun 012012
 


Mark Johnson. June Coordinating Editor.

Most Christians celebrate May 27 as Pentecost, remembering the event when those disciples of Jesus – frightened, disoriented, and uncertain – were dramatically inspired by the Holy Spirit to leave their refuge and proclaim the Good News to the world. The Book of Acts describes this event as like the rush of a violent wind, filling the entire house in which the disciples were hiding. And then flame, like tongues of fire, rested above each, filling them, we are told, with the Holy Spirit (Acts2:1-4).

For many this is one of the seminal moments in the birth of the early Church, an event that expresses the utter reliance of the fledgling community upon the initiative of God. It was only within the impetus of the Spirit’s momentum that the disciples overcame their fear, their self-preoccupation, and the small world of the room into which they had fled.

The narrative of Acts continues to tell us that the Spirit’s filling  each of those gathered enabled them to speak in other languages, with the disciples not only proclaiming the Gospel in diverse dialects but many of those assembled outside, hearing the Gospel proclaimed in their own diversity.

From this early stage in the life of the Church diversity is its character and context. The Gospel cannot be contained within one privileged language, one grammar, within uniformity or cultural dominance. It is the Spirit which breaks down barriers that artificially divide and constrain.

Every language, with its rules, its vocabulary and grammatical limits, conditionally frames people’s experience of the world. If the Gospel was proclaimed in one privileged language we would then, as people of faith, have only one privileged view of it and our relationship to the world.

Pentecost explodes this grammatical primacy. Instead, many languages were given authority to proclaim, and legitimacy to receive. One Gospel diffuses through many understandings. This Good News cannot be contained by one vehicle only, by one privileged way of speaking.

The Spirit moves to proclaim in diverse ways. Friends may hear this message in the actions of those who work for justice just as powerfully as those in works of ministry. Some speak the Spirit in ways of friendship simply by their presence at our Meetings. In response to the same inspiration there is no one single way of Friending.

Quakers do not worship a text, a law, a creed, or a formula. God did not speak through a narrative or static word, instead, as we are told by the Gospel according to John, through a living Word; Word which is not ours, but which enlivens our words. Pentecost reinforces this. One privileged language cannot capture the Gospel. It is a plethora of lives which speak and live the Gospel, including but ultimately beyond mere words and concepts.

It is a Living Word which enables our lives to speak.

Pentecost reminds us that listening to the language of others leads us to appreciate that there is no monopoly on the Light. The Inward Light speaks to us wherever and whoever we are, not as others would have us be. It calls us to integrity, and leads us out of our safe, closed rooms so to let our lives speak with that of others beyond the closed doors of selfishness and fear.

Many of the articles in this issue of Australian Friend reinforce such a focus. We at the Australian Friend thank all of our contributing authors for helping to create such a rich and diverse issue. There are several articles which let us listen to the many voices and languages at this year’s FWCC conference held in Kenya. They are small soundings into the diversity of our Society of Friends, and the tensions of diversity. Another article takes us back to the voices of the Middle Ages, showing that voices of the long past still have much to say to us here and now. There are poetic voices, and voices of exhortation, voices from the past, and voices of spiritual experimentation.

Australian Friend invites participation in a virtual retreat on Quakerly inquiry, an opportunity to listen to voices of spiritual experimentation across Australia, and develop strategies and skills for living experimentally. The article on Living Systems gives the substance of the retreat, and there are details about how to participate in the Quakerly Inquiry supplement to this issue at http://australianfriend.org/qi/

In the spirit of many languages and voices the theme for the September issue of Australian Friend will be “What is a Quaker Voice?” Please consider how this ‘voice’ manifests in the diverse range of activities and presences that Quakers undertake, and too in the diversity of both so called ‘programmed’ and ‘unprogrammed’ communities of faith. Is there something distinct about a Quaker voice, or not at all? From actions for peace, to earthcare, prayer, ecumenism, ministry, development aid, to politics, creativity, theology, to education, to evangelisation, scholarly endeavours, and spirituality; what is a Quaker voice in any of these diverse endeavours which we undertake? What is it to simply be Quaker in society and family? Please consider contributing to this special issue. Feel free to contact the editors with ideas or requests for help.

The Australian Friend draws your attention to a special feature in this edition. It is part one of a two part work on the thought and contribution of the Quaker theologian Robert Barclay. Our Friend Paul Copeland provides us with a significant opportunity to engage with a too often neglected voice of Quaker Tradition.

This is the second issue of Australian Friend since Australia Yearly Meeting decided we should go online, and our Editors will review our progress so far. We welcome your comments, critiques and suggestions on how the publication is attending to the building up of Yearly Meeting. Perhaps there are topics that you might like to see covered that as yet have not been addressed. Or perhaps you might like to see a different format, or have experienced technical problems. Whatever your comment or suggestion please feel free to contact Australian Friend at editor@australianfriend.org , or use the contact form provided on the Australian Friend website.

May our diverse lives speak.

Fortieth Anniversary of The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, January 26, 2012

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 302012
 
 Roger Keyes, South Australia Regional Meeting.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, adjacent to Old Parliament House in Canberra, achieved the milestone of 40 years in the political landscape. Erected on 27 January 1972 by Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Bertie Williams (known as  Kevin Johnson) and Tony Koorie, the Tent Embassy has iconic political status and has inspired, educated and informed Aboriginal people and others from Australia and overseas. The first protest on the site was by Wiradjuri men, Jimmy Clements and John Noble, at the opening of Parliament House in 1927.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was re-established in 1992 and has been permanently occupied ever since. The sacred Fire for Peace and Justice in the centre of the site has been tended since being first made by Arabunna Elder Kevin Buzzacott and lit by Paul Coe Wiradjuri in 1998.

I went to Canberra not knowing what to expect. The website said there would be camping facilities, and we would self-cater. I purchased a one-person tent, self-inflating mattress and some cans of stew, and hoped there would be water and Porta-loos on site. I took the Greyhound coach overnight to Canberra and got breakfast after the cafe opened at 6:30 am. There were no showers in the National Capital’s Bus Station.

After 9:30 am I saw quite a number of Aboriginal people and supporters at the rendezvous not far away. I was glad to put my kit aboard a vehicle to be taken to the camp site. I was very tired, but glad to be asked to carry one of the Embassy banners. I spoke with Les Malezer (co-chair of National Congress of First Nations for QLD), and Congress members Brian Butler (SA) and Dennis Eggington (WA), who is the brother of Robert Eggington of Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation who with his wife Selina spoke to us at YM in Perth of their work in the area of Youth suicide.

The March was non-violent and peaceful, which mainstream media neglected to report. Marchers expressed frustration and anger at 224 years of illegal and violent foreign occupation. The theme of the march was a call for the recognition of the dignity and sovereignty of the First Nations of this land. There was much anger expressed at the theft of resources and the alienation of the People from their Land.

As we approached Capital Hill it was decided by the marshals that we would divert our course to the Embassy opposite Old Parliament House then visit the present Parliament House. This was incident free and after a short stay we turned back to the Embassy. By this time I was feeling pretty worn, not having brought water, and after my less than perfect night’s sleep.

When we arrived at the Embassy hundreds of tents had been erected, some quite extensive. Most were small one- or two-person tents whose occupants relied on catering for at what might be called a ‘food hall under canvas’. The small number of volunteers were kept very busy with cooking, cleaning, dish washing, garbage and recycling tasks, watering the Porta-loos and so on. I had brought my own supplies. My ‘next-door-neighbour’ had had an Esky with bacon and eggs, so at her insistence, I fared a little better than I might have with only my tins.

I spent a good deal of time talking with Whitefella supporters, and trying to decide whether to attend the celebration. I felt that this might be something at which Whitefellas had no real place. Over the past 224 years we have so readily believed that we know what to do and how to do it. In the end I responded to the invitation that had been generously extended, but I was nevertheless reticent to do more than stand with the First Nations’ appeal for respect for their sovereignty. I had learnt this at Hindmarsh Island Bridge when Ngarrindjeri elders invited us to ‘stand with’ them. Problems arise when terms like ‘help’ or ‘advise’ gain currency. White supremacy is the underlying assumption but what was called for was respectful acknowledgement of First Nations’ Sovereignty.

There were numerous musical and rhetorical expressions of this aspiration from the main stage. I did not hear some of this as there was discussion in small groups and so much going on. There was much discussion on the second day, Friday 27 January, the actual birthday of the Tent Embassy, in the Big Tent. At one point a clear call was made by one, and agreed to by a number of the Nations’ elders, for a National Council of Elders without Federal or State Government involvement. Many among the First Nations see the newly created Congress, which is under the auspices of the government, as not sufficiently independent and self-determining. I felt increasingly uncomfortable sitting among the people in the tent, because I felt that Whitefellas presence might be frustrating or embarrassing to those who wanted to speak out strongly against our interference in Aboriginal life.

Other elders called for caution, patient waiting until they caught up with those who had been able to re-establish their cultures, their connection to Country, and their languages. There were many different aspirations. It was felt, I believe, that a Council of elders from around the Nations, away from the Federal Minister, might well address the problems being faced in the Big Tent.

At length there was a request that non-Aboriginal people should leave the gathering, so that First Nations people could feel freer to make their statements.

On the same day an incident at the Lobby Restaurant Cafe was portrayed by mainstream media as violent. I was not nearby, but I am assured that there was no violent protest; nobody was in any danger. Federal Police have laid no charges. Burning a flag by young people was not good public relations and regrettable. That is not the first time that the Australian flag has been maltreated, and it was symbolic, not causing actual harm.

I was frustrated that the mainstream media did not cover the celebration as a whole, with meaningful interviews with people attending the corroboree. This could have brought the basic soundness of the whole event into the light and informed Australian people of good things that happen in the Aboriginal community.

I was also disappointed (but not surprised) at media response to the frustration of some of the people at the now notorious cafe rendezvous between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Why do we not understand that Aboriginal protesters become impatient when our leaders are insensitive to injustice? What a great opportunity they neglected when they failed to go down to the Embassy and sit down with the Elders.

The Tent Embassy has survived police brutality, politicians’ ridicule and general popular ignorance. My hope is that there will come a day when there is no need for the First Nations to have an Embassy in their own land.

For more information visit the Aboriginal Tent Embassy web site  and 40th Anniversary pages. For positive media stories visit New Matilda.

 

Robert Barclay : Who He Was and Why He Matters. Part 1.

 1206 June 2012, Issue  4 Responses »
May 302012
 


Paul Copeland, NSW Regional Meeting.

If one were to start talking of Robert Barclay many modern Quakers may wonder whom he actually was. While George Fox and William Penn are now noted for their role in early Quakerism, Barclay goes relatively unnoticed. I feel this is because of two factors. First, many of Fox’s and Penn’s best known quotes are pithy and brief. The same cannot be said for Barclay’s; he certainly was prone to prolixity in the grand way of many of his contemporary writers. Some of his writings have one sentence per page, with lots of semi-colons creating a very dense sentence. This makes for challenging reading and the language of the day adds to the cognitive load. Second his content is theologically dense, the work of a Quaker theologian, and many of today’s Quakers seem uninterested in this aspect of Quakerism.

Robert Barclay was born in 1648 and died in 1690, aged a relatively young 42, although not uncommon in the 17th century, by today’s standards this is quite young; he died as a result of fever. Barclay was from a noble Scottish family, his father David Barclay was a soldier and fought for Sweden in the Thirty Years War, and was later a Colonel of the Royalist army in the English Civil war. His father was the subject of Whittier’s poem Barclay of Ury, while his mother Catherine was a third cousin to Charles I.

Robert Barclay was brought up with a Calvinist background, of this Barclay himself says, “My first education from my infancy up fell amongst the strictest sort of Calvanists”1. At an early age though Barclay was sent to Scots Theological College in Paris, which was a Roman Catholic Institution, where his uncle was the Rector. Of the Catholic influence on him Barclay said:

“… and my tender years and immature capacity not being able to withstand and resist the insinuations that were used to proselite me to that way, I became quickly defiled with the pollutions therof”

This rather flowery prose is typical of Barclay’s writings. At the request of his dying mother his father brought him back to Scotland, where Robert deliberately chose not to join with any religious establishment.

In 1665 his father was imprisoned for having held office under the Commonwealth. Here David Barclay was sharing a cell with Quaker John Swinton, who convinced him to the Quaker way. Robert was brought to Quakerism through his father and he joined the Society in either late 1666 or early 1667. His experiences of Meeting for Worship obviously had a profound impact on him. The following words that Barclay used to describe his experience with the Quaker Meeting for Worship are well known and we shall repeat them here:

“For, when I came into the silent assemblies of God’s people, I felt a secret power among them, which touched my heart; and as I gave way unto it I found the evil weakening in me and the good raised up; and so I became thus knit and united unto them, hungering more and more after the increase of this power and life whereby I might feel myself perfectly redeemed; and indeed this is the surest way to become a Christian; to whom afterwards the knowledge and understanding of principles will not be wanting, but will grow up so much as is needful as the natural fruit of this good root, and such a knowledge will not be barren nor unfruitful.”2

Barclay’s father remained in prison for four years, and Robert was sent back to the estate at Ury. He continued to study widely and in 1670 he married Christian Molleson in Aberdeen, it was the first Quaker wedding in Aberdeen and it led to public disturbances. The next six years leading up to the publication of the Apology saw him travelling in the ministry and answering controversies. In 1676 the Apology for the True Christian Divinity was published in Latin.

In 1682 twelve Quakers under the auspices of Penn established East New Jersey, Barclay was made non-resident governor and this role involved him in a lot of administration. The constitution of this province strongly reflected Quakers views of tolerance. In 1686 his father died and the role of managing the Ury estate fell to him. The last years of his life were spent mainly in quest work amongst friends in Scotland.

Barclay’s Publications

Barclay’s great gifts to Quakerism are his prolific writings that attempt to justify Quakerism to the Christian critics of the day. Barclay’s first well known publication was A Catechism and Confession of Faith published in 1673. In it Barclay uses the Bible as a reference to support the current practices of Quakerism. It covered a range of topics from the knowledge of God, Faith, Resurrection, Worship and many more. Here is a brief extract from Chapter 6 on Faith, Justification and Works.

CHAP. VI.

Concerning Faith, Justification and Works.

Question. What is Faith?

A. Faith is the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen [Heb. 11:1].

Q. Is Faith of absolute Necessity?

A. Without Faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him [Heb. 11:6].

Q. Are we justified by Faith?

A. Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by Faith [Gal. 3:24].

Q. What is the Nature of this Faith that availeth to Justification?

A. For in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing, nor Uncircumcision; but Faith which worketh by Love [Gal. 5:6].

Q. Are Works then necessary to Justification as well as Faith?

A. But wilt thou know, O Vain Man, that Faith without Works is Dead? Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar? Seest thou how Faith wrought with his Works, and by Works was Faith made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled; which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for Righteousness: He was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by Works a man is justified, and not by Faith only [James 2:20-24].

In 1674 Barclay wrote The Anarchy of the Ranters, it was published in 1676. This was then followed by his great tome: Apology for the True Christian Divinity.

The Apology

Barclay’s greatest piece of work is his Apology for the True Christian Divinity. What exactly does the Apology have to say, put simply quite a lot. Any summary of Barclay and his works cannot hope to explain all that the Apology has to say. But with reference to the text we shall let Robert Barclay do that for us. There are fourteen propositions all in the same order as the Westminster Confession. They are3:

· The First Proposition: Concerning the True Foundation of Knowledge [p. 19]

· The Second Proposition: Concerning Immediate Revelation [p. 21]

· The Third Proposition: Concerning the Scriptures [p. 62]

· The Fourth Proposition: Concerning the Condition of Man in the Fall [p. 84]

· The Fifth and Sixth Propositions: Concerning the Universal Redemption by Christ, and also the Saving and Spiritual Light wherewith every man is enlightened [p. 96]

· The Seventh Proposition: Concerning Justification [p. 167]

· The Eighth Proposition: Concerning Perfection [p. 205]

· The Ninth Proposition: Concerning Perseverance, and the Possibility of Falling from Grace [p. 223]

· The Tenth Proposition: Concerning the Ministry [p. 230]

· The Eleventh Proposition: Concerning Worship [p. 289]

· The Twelfth Proposition: Concerning Baptism [p. 343]

· The Thirteenth Proposition: Concerning the Communion, or participation of the Body and Blood of Christ [p. 373]

· The Fourteenth Proposition: Concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters purely Religious and pertaining to the Conscience [p. 407]

· The Fifteenth Proposition: Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &c. [p. 429]

Personally I have read most from the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh Propositions. Being interested in theology, I have been in discussions with Christians (often evangelicals), and as they tried to dismantle the basis of Quakerism I turned to Barclay to give me a theological justification behind my faith. The seventh proposition I found particularly rewarding as Barclay delves into the faith and works divide.

The Second Proposition: Concerning Immediate Revelation

The second proposition is important because it is the cornerstone of God providing continuing revelation. Without Proposition 2 and its assertions Ministry would not be coming from God. Let us now examine how Barclay addresses the concept of Immediate Revelation.

Seeing “no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him”; and seeing the “revelation of the Son is in and by the Spirit” (Matt. 11:27); therefore the testimony of the Spirit is that alone by which the true knowledge of God hath been, is, and can be only revealed; who as, by the moving of his own Spirit, he disposed the chaos of this world into that wonderful order wherein it was in the beginning, and created man a living soul, to rule and govern it, so, by the revelation of the same Spirit, he hath manifested himself all along unto the sons of men, both patriarchs, prophets, and apostles; which revelations of God by the Spirit, whether by outward voices and appearances, dreams, or inward objective manifestations in the heart, were of old the formal object of their faith, and remain yet so to be, since the object of the saints’ faith is the same in all ages, though held forth under divers administrations. Moreover, these divine inward revelations, which we make absolutely necessary for the building up of true faith, neither do nor can ever contradict the outward testimony of the Scriptures, or right and sound reason. Yet from hence it will not follow, that the divine revelations are to be subjected to the test, either of the outward testimony of the Scriptures, or of the natural reason of man, as to a more noble or certain rule and touchstone; for this divine revelation and inward illumination, is that which is evident and clear of itself, forcing, by its own evidence and clearness, the well-disposed understanding to assent, irresistibly moving the same thereunto, even as the common principles of natural truths do move and incline the mind to a natural assent: as, that the whole is greater than its part, that two contradictories can neither be both true, nor both false.

Barclay goes on to say:

For the better understanding then of this proposition, we do distinguish betwixt the certain knowledge of God, and the uncertain; betwixt the spiritual knowledge, and the literal; the saving heart-knowledge, and the soaring, airy head-knowledge. The last, we confess, may be divers ways obtained; but the first, by no other way than the inward immediate manifestation and revelation of God’s Spirit, shining in and upon the heart, enlightening and opening the understanding.

Barclay then lists a number of past Christians, and often quotes them to support his assertion that the Spirit is the true teacher.  He even quotes the leader of the reformation Luther:

Luther, in his book to the nobility of Germany, saith, “This is certain, that no man can make himself a doctor of the holy Scriptures, but the holy Spirit alone.” And upon the Magnificat he saith, “No man can rightly understand God, or the Word of God, unless he immediately receive it from the Holy Spirit; neither can any one receive it from the Holy Spirit, except he find it by experience in himself; and in this experience the Holy Ghost teacheth, as in his proper school; out of which school nothing is taught but mere talk.”

Barclay then condenses down the argument to five statements:

First, That there is no knowledge of the Father but by the Son.

Secondly, That there is no knowledge of the Son but by the Spirit.

Thirdly, That by the Spirit God hath always revealed himself to his children.

Fourthly, That these revelations were the formal object of the saints’ faith.

And Lastly, That the same continueth to be the object of the saints’ faith to this day.

He then sets out to argue for each statement, which then goes on for eleven pages expanding and explaining all of the points, often using scriptural references to justify his assertions.

Barclay closes the Proposition as follows:

Wait then for this in the small revelation of that pure Light which first reveals things more known; and as thou becomes fitted for it, thou shalt receive more and more, and by a living experience easily refute their ignorance, who ask, how dost thou know that thou art acted by the Spirit of God? Which will appear to thee a question no less ridiculous, than to ask one whose eyes are open, how he knows the sun shines at noon-day? And though this be the surest and most certain way to answer all objections; yet by what is above written it may appear, that the mouths of all such opposers as deny this doctrine may be shut, by unquestionable and unanswerable reasons.

The Third Proposition: Concerning the Scriptures

To get a snapshot of Barclay let us look at some of what he has to say about the Bible, i.e. the Scriptures in Barclay’s words. This is important because in Barclay’s day he was writing against Calvinism which put the Scriptures above all else.

From these revelations of the Spirit of God to the saints have proceeded the Scriptures of Truth, which contain,

I. A faithful historical account of the actings of God’s people in divers ages; with many singular and remarkable providences attending them.

II. A prophetical account of several things, whereof some are already past, and some yet to come.

III. A full and ample account of all the chief principles of the doctrine of Christ, held forth in divers precious declarations, exhortations and sentences, which, by the moving of God’s Spirit, were at several times, and upon sundry occasions, spoken and written unto some churches and their pastors.

Nevertheless, because they are only a declaration of the fountain, and not the fountain itself, therefore they are not to be esteemed the principal ground of all Truth and knowledge, nor yet the adequate primary rule of faith and manners. Yet because they give a true and faithful testimony of the first foundation, they are and may be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and certainty: for as by the inward testimony of the Spirit we do alone truly know them, so they testify, that the Spirit is that Guide by which the saints are led into all Truth; therefore, according to the Scriptures, the Spirit is the first and principal leader.4 Seeing then that we do therefore receive and believe the Scriptures because they proceeded from the Spirit, for the very same reason is the Spirit more originally and principally the rule, according to that received maxim in the schools, Propter quod unumquodque est tale, illud ipsum est magis tale: That for which a thing is such, that thing itself is more such.

Barclay then sets out a comprehensive argument through this proposition arguing why the Scriptures are secondary to the Spirit. The continual refrain is that the Spirit is the ultimate rule or lead. This is exemplified in this quote:

“yet we may not call them the principal fountain of all Truth and knowledge, nor yet the first adequate rule of faith and manners; because the principal fountain of Truth must be the Truth itself; i.e., that whose certainty and authority depends not upon another.”

Let us not make the mistake that Barclay sees a lack of value in the Scriptures at all, being a man of his day he sees them as the immediate rule after the Spirit. He articulates it as follows:

V. If it be then asked me, Whether I think hereby to render the Scriptures altogether uncertain, or useless?

I answer; Not at all. The proposition itself declares what esteem I have for them; and provided that to the Spirit from which they came be but granted that place the Scriptures themselves give it, I do freely concede to the Scriptures the second place, even whatsoever they say of themselves; which the apostle Paul chiefly mentions in two places (Rom. 15:4): “Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope”; (2 Tim. 3:15-17): “The holy Scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture given by inspiration from God, is profitable for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good work.”

Barclay sees the scriptures as we perhaps see Ministry, as the children of God being moved by the Spirit and then recording it. Remember that when Barclay wrote it was at a time when there was no question that Paul wrote all of “his” letters, including Hebrews, whereas now quite a number of Paul’s letters are assumed to be pseudonymous, which does not mean they are not from the Spirit, but they perhaps lack the authority that they did in Barclay’s time. Barclay sees the Scripture as Ministry, valuable Ministry but ministry nonetheless. A key to the Quakerism expounded by Barclay and others was that the Scriptures were but a representation of God, they were not above God, nor was spirit led Ministry.

In part 2 we shall look at propositions 6 and 7. We shall then look at the influence early Quaker George Keith had on Robert Barclay and finally we shall try to place the work of Barclay in a more modern setting.

1 Wragge, J. Phillip. (1948). The Faith of Robert Barclay.

2 Barclay, Robert, (2005) Quaker Faith and Practice

3 Page numbers refer to the printed version of Barclay’s Apology from Quaker Heritage Press.

4 John 16:13, Rom. 8:14

 

References

Britain Yearly Meeting (2005). Quaker Faith and Practice Third Edition. London. Biddles Limited.

Wragge, P (1948). The Faith of Robert Barclay.Friends Home Service Committee.

 

 

Finding Your Rainmaker

 1206 June 2012, Issue  2 Responses »
May 282012
 


Fiona Gardner. Victoria Regional Meeting.

A Chinese village is besieged by drought and unless there is rain quite soon the village will starve to death. They have tried everything they know, so they finally decide to send at great distance for the famous rainmaker. He consents to come and arrives at the village. He asks immediately to please build him a straw hut outside the village, to give him five days of food and water, and not to disturb him. The villagers do as he asks quickly. The rainmaker disappears into the hut and on the fourth day it rains just in time to save the village. The villagers go to the hut and drag the man out blinking into the light, give him his fee and pour all the gifts they can upon him. An enormous outpouring of gratitude for he had indeed saved the village. One man came to him and said how do you do it, what ceremony can you do that makes it rain? And the rainmaker said ‘Oh, you must understand, when I came to your village, I was so out of sorts inside myself that I had to put things right inside and I never got to the rainmaking ceremony.’

I first read this story in a book written by Robert Johnson many years ago and have used it several times at Meeting for Learning. Although I’ve read it many times now, I always find it moving. Last time I used it at Meeting for Learning, I felt led to explore more deeply why and what resonates for me.

The more I thought about the story the more depth and wisdom it seemed to offer both for me as an individual and for us collectively as a community and society. In many ways this is a story about seeking wholeness, understanding what happens when we remain divided from the essential aspects of ourselves. This lack of wholeness from paying attention to what is meaningful contributes to a sense of aridity or dryness, a lack of joy and richness in living, what is often named as boredom or frustration with modern life. The rainmaker in the story recognises that life somehow works better if we pay attention to soul or spirit.

People in workshops have generally also resonated with the story using it to generate their own sense of meaning. Part of what is consistent is seeing how to work with this story on a number of levels: the concrete, actual world of our physical environment and what this means; the understanding of connectedness between our inner and external worlds in relationships and reactions; and a metaphorical sense about our need for an internal ‘rainmaker’ – recognising our need for replenishing at a deeper or ‘soul’ level.

I think part of what resonates for me is simply the concrete level of the experience of drought and its impact upon the villager’s community. My own experience of this has been living through ten years of drought in rural Victoria where the impact is, of course, much less than in many other places. Even so, the metaphor of dryness had an external reality, watching the browning of paddocks until there was no growth left and trying to keep at least some small parts of the garden alive. The heat of the summers combined with the lack of rain drew the moisture out of the land to such an extent that any water poured onto it simply drained away. When the rain came, at a fundamental level, we felt replenished, rejuvenated, regenerated. It was as if we too, like the land, had had a sense of being dried up.

One of the benefits of the drought was that communities and politicians looked differently at their environments. Rural communities are often more conscious of the cycles of the seasons and of changing weather patterns. The story reminds us of the harmony and interconnectedness of all things, the need to pay attention to our environment which is part of who we are, to be more respectful of the earth and what it offers. Drought also confronts us with not being in control which is very helpful in the spiritual journey, reminding us about what really matters in our lives.

At another level, this story reminds us that how we are internally will have an impact externally on those around us as well as the environment we live in. Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of this is when we are individually tired or stressed or simply in a grumpy mood and how this affects others. We express our inner lack of well-being either consciously or unconsciously. Children learn to read the mood in their families from very young age, sensing when it is safe or not to ask for or about something. The signs can be very subtle: the slightest change in body language indicating anger, withdrawal or sadness. One of the ways of connection with what is happening internally, is to explore strong reactions to others, either positive or negative and to ask what’s theirs and what’s mine: am I seeing in the other what I can’t acknowledge in myself?

A third level of resonating with this story for me is thinking about how all of the aspects of the story represent some inner aspect of ourselves: the villagers for example could represent the need for help and support in times of dryness. The villagers are very clear about what they have already tried and what they now need to do, what the potential cost might be and how important it is to pay the price. The rainmaker – who can represent another aspect of self – is also clear about what his needs are; he requests them clearly and without fuss. The implication of the story is that if we can call on our own rainmaker to get things right internally this will have positive implications for what happens for us and in the world around us. Would we as individuals create less conflict if we spent more time in our own internal hut getting ourselves right? We could also think about this at the level of groups and nations who are internally so in conflict that they project this conflict out onto others.

If we think about the rainmaker story in this way, it is clear that we each need to work out who or what our own rainmaker represents: what is it that we need to bring about restoration, what gifts or resources or strength do we have that we can call on that will rejuvenate and restore us? Perhaps a useful question here is where you feel most wholly yourself? Sometimes people find it useful to think about where do I feel I have my greatest sense of integrity? For others it’s useful to think about where do I have that sense of being connected to all things, a sense of universality. Jung talks about the journey of our life being towards wholeness and he sees this as a religious or spiritual quest. Asking questions then about where we feel most whole where we feel more spiritually grounded or centred, helps us keep focused on this journey.

A Reunion of the Worldwide Family of Friends

 1206 June 2012, Issue  1 Response »
May 262012
 


Susan Addison, Australia Yearly Meeting. Friends gathered outside the auditorium at the World Conference of Friends. Photo: Susan Addison

Some 850 members of our worldwide family of Friends from 51 countries came together from 17 to 25 April at Kabarak University in Kenya to share food, lodgings and spiritual nourishment. Expectations were high that we would unite behind one particular project or at least deliver some prophetic message to the world at this ‘once in a generation’ World Conference.

As often happens at family reunions, our worldwide family was initially delighted and even a little overawed that we’d grown so vast and spread so far from our rural roots in England more than three centuries ago. We looked around and marvelled that our family had so many different languages, skin colours and forms of dress, and, at a deeper level, so many different customs and issues that we regard as important.

Over nine days we came to understand that the different cultures in which Quakerism has taken root have deeply influenced the terminology we use, and the ways we worship, interpret our testimonies and express our faith in action.

Kenya accounts for the largest concentration of Quakers in the world, so Kenyan Friends made up at least half the Conference registrants. From the moment of arrival at the airport in Nairobi, I felt enveloped in their hospitality and warmly welcomed. In fact, ‘Welcome’ was the standard greeting from Kenyan Friends. Conversation flowed easily once name and country of origin had been established from our badges.

Groups from each of the FWCC sections led us all, one huge assembly in a vast auditorium, in worship according to their traditions. Speakers—often Young Friends—from each Section offered powerful ministry on the conference theme, ‘Being Salt and Light: Living God’s Kingdom in a Broken World’. Four languages were in use—English, Kiswahili, French and Spanish—with interpreters providing on-the-spot translations.

For me, moments of illumination came in the ‘quiet processes’ of early morning unprogrammed worship and in the ‘small circles’ of my home group and the two ‘thread groups’ I joined. There I felt able to digest the rich ministry offered in the large gatherings.

I was reminded at the Conference that Rufus Jones wrote his well-known words—I pin my hopes to quiet processes and small circles in which vital and transforming events take place—in a letter expressing his initial hesitation about accepting the invitation to preside over meetings of the second World Conference of Friends held in the US in 1937. This much-loved quotation is preceded by In regard to the World Conference, I sincerely hope for good results, but I have become a good deal disillusioned over ‘big’ conferences and large gatherings. However, even this last comment was then followed by: But others see differently, and I respect their judgment.

At this sixth World Conference I sensed a move to find new technologies to bring us together in large gatherings in new ways. And yet my most vivid memories from the Conference are of face-to-face encounters, cheerful cooperation in the face of adversity, chance conversations and unexpected challenges. One such challenge occurred over the meal table when a Kenyan Friend struggled to define a ‘real Quaker’: ‘Some Kenyan Quakers have two wives. Are they real Quakers?’ she asked. ‘Can you be a real Quaker and drink alcohol? We’ve heard that Quakers overseas drink alcohol.’

The testimony of Rwandan Friends about the loss of family members in the genocide and the ongoing work of healing and reconciliation in their communities moved me deeply. The reason is that my personal history intersects with that dark time in their country’s history. My teenage son died peacefully from cancer at home in Australia surrounded by his family, at a time when the media was revealing stories of mass slaughter in Rwanda. Rwandan Friends told us that the perpetrators of that genocide will soon be released from prison back into the community. They spoke of the urgent need to break the cycle of hate through healing and reconciliation.

Jocelyn Burnell (Britain Yearly Meeting) in her address acknowledged not just our ‘broken world’, but our own individual brokenness. She called on all people who had been broken by loss or suffering in the auditorium to stand. Most, if not all, did so and she stood with us—a powerful demonstration of our common ground. Perhaps our admission of brokenness as individuals and as a Society is the basis of what we have to offer one another and our ‘broken world’. Australian Friends at World Conference

Home groups provided ‘small circles’ in which to ask questions, explore differences as well as similarities, and even express disappointment or outrage. Eden Grace, a US Friend resident in Kenya, facilitated mine. Her deep understanding of Quaker theology and knowledge of the Bible provided the necessary bridge between liberal, evangelical and conservative Friends. Having enjoyed the exuberance of African Quaker ‘praise and worship’, I wondered aloud in the home group whether my Quaker tradition provides a sufficient outlet for expressing joy. A Kenyan Friend balanced my uncritical enthusiasm for ‘praise and worship’ by querying whether it was sometimes entertainment, and not always directed at praising God.

In sharing stories in the home group of how we each put our faith into action, I was deeply humbled to learn of the work of Friends from countries where there is no safety net of social security benefits to catch citizens in need. One Indian Friend has felt led to provide education and an alternative future for young girls sold by their families to the temple as prostitutes. A Kenyan Friend provides food for homeless street kids in her town. The need is at their door, in their street, in their town and their response is direct.

Like many home groups, ours discussed attitudes to same-sex relationships. Recognition of committed same-sex relationships by some Yearly Meetings became an issue when rumours that an epistle from US Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Friends had been removed from the Conference noticeboard were substantiated. Liz Gates, Co-clerk of the International Planning Committee, told the whole assembly that the Committee was deeply upset at this breach of the spirit of the conference, and reminded us that we were all children of God.

Later, in our home group, a Kenyan pastor told us he could not reconcile affirmation of same-sex relationships with the exploitative relationships generated by the sex tourism industry in his country. A Canberra Friend explained how her Meeting had affirmed the committed relationship between two young men by conducting a Quaker marriage and how the men’s families had shed tears of relief that their commitment had been recognised by their spiritual community.

Divisions in our worldwide family also arose when Daniel Arap Moi, a former President of Kenya, now Kabarak University Chancellor, arrived to welcome us all. The Local Arrangements Committee members who had invited him addressed him as ‘Your Excellency’ and most Kenyans stood as he arrived and left the auditorium. After his departure, disquiet emerged that we had breached our testimony to equality by according the former president marks of worldly respect; and questions were raised about Kenyan Friends’ involvement in secular politics and the Kenyan Friends’ Church’s acceptance of favours from politicians. Plaque acknowledging former President, Daniel arap Moi's contribution to the Friends Church in Nairobi, Photo: Susan Addison

Thread groups provided another form of ‘small circles’. Our Quaker business practice, I believe, is one of the great gifts we can offer our ‘broken world’, so I attended ‘Spirit-led decision-making’. While instructing and leading us through exercises in writing minutes, Arthur Larabee (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting) ably demonstrated how a clerk works to create a gathered Meeting for Worship for Business.

In the ‘Quaker Women’ Thread Group, Kenyan women spoke of inequality of opportunity within their churches. For example, women may be clerks of Monthly Meetings, but men invariably hold the positions of Yearly Meeting clerks; and while women have been accepted as pastors for the past ten years or so, they are rarely permitted to officiate at important public events like funerals.

Again, these women were meeting needs right on their doorstep—one had accepted a widow and her children into her household when the widow could see no solution to her plight other than killing herself. When faced with discussion topics like, ‘How do you mentor young women into the life of the Society? ’I had to admit to the group that we rarely had such opportunities in Australia.

Reflecting on the Conference, I believe we found unity most clearly in living together, and joining together in song and in worship. We entered into many different forms of Quaker worship with open hearts and minds. We listened deeply to one another, engaged in robust but respectful conversation, acknowledged that our views diverged and made sincere efforts to understand each other’s viewpoint. Ronis Chapman and Michael Searle collected messages to display at the World Conference. Photo: Susan Addison

On the last morning, Jane, the Kenyan Friend in my dormitory, led us in prayer for our safe travel home. Filipino, Australian and Kenyan, we stood together while she thanked God for giving us this opportunity to live like sisters for a week.

A mood of optimism infused the final days of the Conference as the story of the group excursion to Lake Bogorio emerged—and was perhaps reshaped to meet our hopes and dreams. Apparently, officials at the entrance to the national park had tried to separate Kenyan from overseas Friends as different rates of admission applied. Friends, however, had refused to be divided, insisting ‘We are one people.’

See www.saltandlight2012.org for conference papers.

 Reference.

Quaker faith & practice: the book of Christian discipline of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain, 4th edition London, 2008.

What Gives Life? Holistic Inquiry For Living Systems.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 222012
 
Yoland Wadsworth, Victoria Regional Meeting.

Why can’t we create a world which is much more on the side of routinely ‘giving life’? And much less on the side of diminishing or damaging it?–Whether within us as individuals, or between us within groups, or within and between our Quaker Meetings, or outside them. How can we better ‘inquire our way’ to the Greater Life we seek?

This is an edited extract from the Prologue of Yoland Wadsworth’s book Building in Research and Evaluation: Human Inquiry for Living Systems (Action Research Press Hawthorn, Allen & Unwin Sydney 2010)

What would a more life-giving system look like?

It seems a very good place to start would be by stopping, stepping back and getting a bit of perspective on what kind of ‘system’ might indeed be more life-giving than the one we have. In an uncannily timely manner, a whole new way of thinking about the world and the properties of living systems appears to be emerging or ‘called forth’ from many different directions. Although still dimly perceived by many, some of it, ironically, reflects some very ancient wisdom, now converging with some breath-taking new knowledge from physics, biology, mathematics, engineering, psychology and sociology in a transdisciplinary picture that may promise to give not just hitherto elites but all of us a whole new way of thinking about ‘how we can be with each other’ and our worlds.

A way of being-and-doing that is more perennially alive, lively and life-giving—more full of promise, more reliable and more satisfying than our current ways. Indeed having the characteristics of ‘life’ itself. What a good idea!

And what would a more life-enhancing system of inquiring look like?

By taking a magnifying glass to ‘the system’, we begin to detect a vast web of energised micro-interactions between us (and everything else) including all the daily familiar highly interpersonal and environmental inquiry interactions—what we notice, pick up on, see and hear and say to each other, all our inner and outer conversations to make sense of it all, how we feel, what we conclude from our experiences, what we remember, what we think and don’t think, what we know, believe, value, expect and not expect, what we speak up about, and what we remain silent about, how we draw conclusions and reach new ones, and then calculate, decide, plan and try out the new implications: what we actually do next, and where we go, who with and why.

It is in these busy buzzing micro-inquiry actions that may be seen slowly, over time, to build up to comprise more (or less) viable exchanges and patterns for achieving our various desires or purposes—or not. Indeed ‘the system’ appears to turn out, in important ways, to comprise what seems like the highly ‘individual and personal’ in the here and now—but which gets writ larger and constituted as the patterns of social activities of groups, organisations and ‘the collective’. And these in turn get writ larger still as communities, institutions, societies, international ‘globalities’, epochs, the cosmos and history.Gazing from a distance at the staggering bee-swarms of earthly humanity, we can consider the prospects for us getting enough insight into ourselves and others to ‘build’—within the micro-relations of the human beeswarm—sufficient critical mass for more systemic mutual ‘intelligence’, wisdom and better directions. Or not.

I look at research and evaluation, its methodologies, designs and techniques in this new way, using the metaphor of the house as a way of looking at how they might better be built in to contribute to and reflect a more comprehensive life-giving dynamic emergent system. I note particularly how we all have all the capacities–the ‘gifts differing’–necessary for life-giving taking in of information, processing it and acting mindfully on it. In addition most of us show preferences for some rather than others of these capabilities, particularly where the systemic scale is larger. Overall, the human species seems to have the potential to cover the ‘whole territory’ in order to remain in less turbulent dynamic balance. But why don’t we always practise all capabilities in a more integrated and balanced way, as we could?

See Figure 1 for a diagram of the way that dynamic inquiry for living systems is depicted in the book.

emergent inquiry diagram

 

 

What is at the heart of really human services, and really human research and evaluation?

The question now moves from how we inquire to why— and the ‘For who or for what?’ that drives, or is intended to drive, all this inquiry—and why things could ever go wrong. And what a living systems approach might have to say about how research and evaluation can assist these human service purposes, in this instance, of responding or caring. How is a living human system responsive? How does it ‘take care’? And why then would it ever do harm? How do we lose our way? How do we end up displacing our goals from care to not-care? How do we move from responding in order to preserve and nurture life, to damaging and denying life? And how do we reverse or counter this unwanted systemic tendency? How might we more routinely resource the life of each, each other and all?

What do organisations that have ‘built in’ research and evaluation look like?

Finally I describe ten examples of people and organisations who have worked to build in cultures of more or less effective everyday research and evaluation in order that they might become more truly living systems, able to respond with life-enhancing purposes. I draw out from these ten exemplars and more than twenty years of their experience, the conditions that seem to have maintained more ‘hale and hearty’ human individual, group and organisational systems, ones which can recover more quickly from When Things Go Wrong. I end with some concluding words and an Annotated bibliography of concepts and methods related to living systems research and evaluation that might throw further light on the various ideas in this book. (These are available on a website LivingSystemsResearch.com)

Finally, the thinking in this book claims a much wider sphere of relevance than just the world of human services’ research, evaluation and continuous quality improvement. Its concerns and ideas go beyond those of services such as health, housing, education, community, recreation and welfare to how to contribute to a more life-giving world in general. These wider domains include all other service industries and areas of human endeavour—productive and sustainable economies, collective decision-making politics, hospitality, entertainment, the arts, architecture, information technology, engineering, law, business, design, management, government, religion and spirituality, agriculture, developing countries and the natural, grown or built environments. In doing so it also goes beyond the narrow professional areas of research and evaluation and continuous organisational improvement to all effective human inquiry and feedback systems as such.

All these comprise a much wider view of humankind’s ability, potentially, to build in better inquiry and feedback processes throughout its large living human systemicities, with a vision of doing so in aid of more viable ‘being, doing and becoming’, including by all living beings. I think the need is now urgent if we, in sufficient critical mass, are to crack the puzzle of our paradoxical species, and for the contemporary iteration, not take our place as yet another collapsed civilisation, ecosphere or worse.

Quakerly Inquiry For Living Systems

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 222012
 
Qi-Q3-smIan Hughes, Garry Duncan, Mark Johnson (New South Wales Regional Meeting), Gerard Guiton, Yoland Wadsworth (Victoria Regional Meeting).

Seeking truth has been at the heart of Quakerism since the birth of our movement. Do we bring the whole of our lives to this search? Are our Meetings fully engaged as whole living systems, or do we tolerate splits between religion and everyday life, sacred and secular, inner and outer? The Age of Enlightenment by reason and science, built upon such splits, has failed to live up to its promise. Although humans are now able to transmit information almost instantly round the world, put people on the moon and give people transplanted hearts, we face critical problems of loss of human community, overpopulation, global warming, destruction of rain forest, pollution and extinction of species, which are unintended consequences of so-called ‘progress’.

The inner and the outer

Australian Quakers seek a life-giving balance between inner spiritual practices and outer ethical actions (see 47 Backhouse Lectures, The Australian Friend March 2012). As Gerry Guiton points out, early Friends saw no essential difference between these. Both are expressions of the ‘Kingdom of God’ (Guiton, 2012). Like everyone else, Quakers are influenced by the culture we are immersed in and enact every day; a culture which can sever our inner experience from the outer world. In our Meetings for Worship we focus on inner spiritual experience and our Meetings for Worship for Business are mostly about the internal life of our Society. Many of us, as individuals, are also heavily engaged in various forms of outward action through AYM Committees, non-Quaker organisations, professional and community commitments. Should these be more fully embraced and welcomed into the life of our Local and Regional Meetings where they can contribute to a more holistic approach uniting our inner spiritual practices and outer ethical actions?

1: Acting

Direct experience of our inner selves and outer world are enmeshed and we make sense of our inner and outer experience in reflection. The first image illustrates this as two phases of inquiry: experience (E) and reflection (R). In other phases we communicate (C) our ideas and make plans with others, and act (A) on ourselves and the world. Experiencing and reflecting are inwards movements, like inhaling, while communication, planning and action are directed outwards, towards others and the world like exhaling.

This experience-reflect-communicate-act (ERCA) model is a simple way to talk about a complex reality. People engaged in action-inquiry in living systems often use something like it, such as the widely used plan-act-observe-reflect cycle in action research cycle, or the discover-dream-design-deliver appreciative inquiry cycle. The image helps us think about how we might become aware of a problem or discrepancy and then experience or observe (E) the situation, hear from people or gather information we think may be useful, and then reflect (R), interpret information, think critically, and make sense of the situation. We may conceive a new idea that we communicate (C) or develop into a plan, with others, that we may implement or experiment with action (A). We are then able to observe the outcomes of our action (E), reflect on whether this is useful or effective (R), and continue along the spiral. The real world is much more fuzzy and complex than this model, but the model is useful to remind us that all four phases should be part of our inquiry.

Image 1

2: Experiencing

We experience that we share the cycle of birth, growth, death and decay with plants and animals. In all biological systems we observe that the threshold event of birth is followed by an active, expansive phase of growth and development culminating in the threshold event of death, in turn followed by a passive, disintegrating phase of decay. Social systems are more complex and varied, but we observe and experience living system cycles in families, organisations, nations and so on. As empirical observation or as metaphor, we find this pattern of living systems cycles in very many situations. Possibly the earliest foundation of religion was about wondering what happens after death and before birth.

3: Making sense

The living systems cycle can be a way of reflecting and thinking more deeply and emergently. DNA provides a pattern for the cycle of birth, growth, flourishing, fruition and death in biological systems using a four digit code. We can use this as a metaphor for the cycle of living systems inquiry in repeated patterns or spirals of four phases (see Image 2).

Image 2

When we engage in living systems inquiry it is useful to plan the four phases in repeated cycles of experience, reflect, communicate, act then experience again and so on. In real life they tend to repeat in more complex sequences as illustrated in Image 2.

4: Communicating

John Heron (2006) discusses four ways of knowing: experiential, propositional, presentational and practical, no one of which can be successful by itself. In Western culture since the Enlightenment (about 350 years ago) propositional and presentational knowledge have been more highly valued than experiential and practical knowledge. This is another way of saying that reason, theory, and language have been dominant, while human inwards and outwards experience and practical ability became less highly regarded.

In a pragmatic rule-of-thumb, these four ways of knowing can be mapped onto the living systems inquiry cycle. They are shown in the table below together with typical inquiry questions and associated approaches to religious faith. We are suggesting this is a useful way of thinking and working. We cannot at this point in time agree about the placement of every item.

Inquiry cycle Experience (E)(observe) Reflect (R) Communicate (C)(Plan) Act (A)
Living cycle Flourishing, fruition to decay Decay to birth Birth to growth Growth to flourishing
Knowledge type Experiential
know-with		 Propositional
know-that		 Presentationalknow-as Practicalknow-how
Typical question What did I/we observe, see, hear, sense, notice, feel, experience? What can I/we learn from this experience? What sense do I/we make of this? What can I/we do with this? How can I/we communicate this in words, actions etc? What do I/we intend or plan to do? What did I/we actually do? What sensory, practical, communicative and subtle skills did I/we use?
Four spiritualities Journey of devotion Journey of unity Journey of harmony Journey of works
Faith approach Naturalism, pantheism, mysticism. Rationalism, humanism, theology. Revelation, tradition, multi- & inter-faith. Active compassion, ethical action, piety.
Quaker location Daily life Meeting for Worship Meeting for Business Committees & agencies

The four spiritualities in the fifth row are based on work by Peter Tufts Richardson, which correspond in a loose way to knowledge types. The four faith approaches in the sixth row of the table are all represented among Quakers. Each has a different main mode of inquiry or source of knowledge. Naturalists and mystics emphasise their direct outer or inner experience; rationalists and theologians emphasise reason and critical thinking; traditionalists respect revelation and authority; and faith grounded in compassion arises from the need and possibility of relieving the suffering of others. Few if any real faith approaches fit neatly into one cell, and this analysis points to differing emphases rather than discrete types; but in our Local Meeting differing approaches may come to unity in a complex whole (or not).

In the final row, we try to indicate that Quakers tend to emphasise reflection and communication (including deciding) in our Local and Regional Meetings. On the whole, we manage our corporate action through Yearly Meeting Committees (including Friend’s School Board and QSA). Our daily life experience of the world is mostly outside formal Quaker contexts.

5: Acting, experimenting

Wahroonga Local Meeting has been experimenting for more than two years with a learning circle which meets once a month to support individual friends’ answer to George Fox’s question, ‘What canst thou say?’ A similar strategy is used by Central Coast NSW Worshipping Group in collaboration with local Churches to support action on the Charter for Compassion. These meetings use a living systems inquiry process, which we find very compatible with Quaker processes.

In ‘Living Experimentally’ circles, each participant has an individual living inquiry project, and answers questions for reflection each month. These are:
Intend: What did I intend to do since the last circle? (C)
Act: What did I actually do since the last circle? (A)
Observe: What did I see, observe or experience since the last circle? (E)
Reflect: What did I or what can I, learn from this experience? (R)
Ask: What specific help or support can the Living Experimentally Circle offer to me now?
Intend: What do I intend to do before the next meeting. (C)

Similar questions could be adapted in Local or Regional Quaker Meetings to support Quakers who are engaged in ethical action to more fully live the testimonies in AYM Committees or non-Quaker organisations.

6: Sharing experience and observation

The co-authors and many others have experience of working to understand and improve the living systems of which we are part. We see an emerging cultural transformation. It has several names, and we are not in complete agreement on its qualities or attributes, we see a move away from the mechanical dualism and reductionism of the Cartesian worldview, to an experience that we are co-participants in reality. This participatory worldview is grounded in knowing that we are part of the whole, rather than separated as mind over and against matter.

Stuart Kauffman in Reinventing the Sacred (2008) reverses the reductionist’s causal arrow with a comprehensive theory of emergence and self-organization that he says ‘breaks no laws of physics’ and yet cannot be explained by them. God, he says ‘is our chosen name for the ceaseless creativity in the natural universe, biosphere and human cultures’. John Heron shows how sacred science, in a participatory worldview, can bring disciplined scientific observation to bear on spiritual and subtle entities and topics (see review of Participatory Spirituality in this issue, and download your free e-book). In her practice of inquiry, Yoland Wadsworth links living systems cycles to cycles of human inquiry and action (2010), and Ian Hughes has brought participatory inquiry and action to Quaker process and decision making. In varied settings and ways we have experienced creative and transformative aspects of a process which can be adapted to Quakerly inquiry.

We invite you to explore these themes, and consider how Quakers might adapt participatory spirituality, living systems and action inquiry into forms of Quakerly inquiry. Join us in a nation-wide networked retreat on Saturday August 4. Look for details of the program and how you can participate in this issue.

References

Guiton, G. (2012). The Early Quakers and the ‘Kingdom of God’. San Francisco: Inner Light Books.

Heron, J. (2006). Participatory Spirituality: A Farewell to Authoritarian Religion. Morrisville: Lulu Press.

Kauffman, S. (2008). Reinventing the Sacred. New York: Basic Books.

Richardson, P.T. (1996). Four Spiritualities—Expressions of Self, Expressions of Spirit: A Psychology of Contemporary Spiritual Choice. Palo Alto: Davies-Black Publishing.
Wadsworth, Y. (2010). Building in Research and Evaluation: Human Inquiry for Living Systems. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

Participatory Spirituality

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 202012
 
Ian Hughes, New South Wales Regional Meeting.
Review of Heron, J. (2006). Participatory Spirituality: A Farewell to Authoritarian Religion. Morrisville: Lulu Press.

This book, first published in 2006, remains innovative and creative. John Heron has constructed a collage of overlapping texts, each presenting a view of human spirituality as participating co-creatively in the life divine. We are invited to explore the text like a conceptual virtual reality, roaming among chapters and pages, progressively growing our comprehension of the whole. Presentations include manifesto, personal story, theology, metaphysics, epistemology, pathology, psychology, and practice.

John Heron gifts his intellectual property rights, inviting us to appropriate and adapt his ideas integrating them into our own spiritual vision. In this spirit of co-creation, I open the book at the ninth perspective to engage with ‘situational spirit’. I read that feeling the presence here and now is the root of participatory awareness, that ‘we directly sense our interconnectedness with whom and what is in our world’ (p. 42) and share presence to engage divinity in this local time and place. Heron is describing my experience of Quaker Meeting for Worship.

Heron goes on to explore the way participatory decision-making integrates autonomy, co-operation and hierarchy; how each person integrates their individual experiences and preferences; how people start to think and speak integral proposals that honour diversity-in-unity; then the co-operative phase of expressing an agreed decision. He could be describing Quaker decision making process (at least when we do it well). He writes: ‘this is a profound practice: exhilarating, liberating, and challenging participants with intermittent discomforts of ego-burning’ (p. 45).

Heron sees himself as part of a participatory turn in spiritual praxis which is an expression of an emergent participatory worldview. In my view Quakers started on our journey towards this participatory worldview more than 300 years ago when Quakers rejected spiritual authority vested in a human hierarchy. We turned from indoctrination by teachers, traditions or texts to a spiritual seeking guided towards transforming outcomes by the inner light in a gathered presence of collaborating peers. Heron describes the participatory turn away from one-sided revelation through grace or scripture towards spiritual knowing as a co-creation between person and spirit; away from individual personal salvation towards collaborative transformative action for the flourishing of human and planetary life; and a turn away from knowing that spirit as wholly transcendent to a knowledge of spirit as immanent in embodied life, transcendent in the more-than-human world, and simultaneously situated in a co-created presence between immanent and transcendent.

We started making this turn more than 300 years ago, but I don’t think we are there yet. I am not sure that John Heron has fully realised the peaceable kingdom either. This book places a welcome and challenging emphasis on co-operative inquiry to realise participatory spirituality. He calls for a holistic praxis, overcoming the dualities grounded in the enlightenment and modernism, but maybe he, and we, are still caught in a cultural and psychological split between the inner sacred realm and an outer realm of practical action. Perhaps we face a challenge to overcome this duality, bringing our ethical action for peace, social justice and earthcare and participatory spirituality into a single domain.

Click here for your electronic copy of Participatory Spirituality: A Farewell to Authoritarian Religion free to online readers of The Australian Friend.

Click here to purchase a paperback copy of Participatory Spirituality: A Farewell to Authoritarian Religion direct from the publisher. Also available from Amazon.com or ordered through your local bookstore.

Devonshire Street Meeting House, Sydney Seeking Wardens for 2012/13.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 202012
 


By Jenny Madeline, NSW Regional Meeting.

Devonshire Street Meeting House is the 2nd oldest Meeting House in use in Australia. Built in 1903, it is somewhat younger than the Adelaide Meeting House which arrived from England in 69 packages (together with 3,300 slates) in 1840.

The previous Meeting House in Sydney had been built in the Friends Burial Ground in the Devonshire Street Cemetery in 1868. The resumption of the cemetery in 1901/2 for the expansion of Central Railway Station meant that a new home had to be found. The government provided £2,000 in compensation. Sydney Friends

“felt that they had a religious duty to serve the needy, and decided that they would establish what they saw as a “mission” church in their old locality. The Surry Hills area of Sydney at that time was a depressing inner-city slum of mean streets and ramshackle old houses where, it was said, it was safe for no young woman, except perhaps a Salvation Army lass, to venture at night. Friends found that two cottages in Devonshire Street, not five minutes’ walk away from the old Burial Grounds site, were available for purchase at a cost of eight hundred pounds. Four public houses of no great repute were near neighbours….”

(Vaughan Evans, Sydney Friends: A Short History…. 1834-1982, 1982)

It was the earnest hope of Sydney Friends that “the opening of our new Meeting House may prove the occasion of much blessing to us all, and a fresh start on the part of the Society towards greater usefulness in this grand City and State” (ibid). Sydney Friends’ mission to the local population has taken various forms over the years and was most significant from the 1880s until the end of WWII.

Wardens have served the Devonshire Street Local Meeting (DSLM) since 1975 and, since the Meeting House (Friends House) was renovated in 1999, improved accommodation has been available for both the Wardens and travelling Friends (and friends and family of Friends).

The Surry Hills area has changed considerably over the years and is now a thriving, eclectic mix of largely rejuvenated private housing, some public housing, offices, cafes, restaurants, shops, clothing outlets, colleges, galleries, the award-winning Surry Hills Library, the Belvoir Theatre and, yes, still a number of “public houses”. There are two parks close by (one with a swimming pool under construction) as well as a cycle track installed by the City of Sydney Council. Friends House is just 5 minutes walk from Central Station.

Seeking Wardens for Friends House

Friends at Devonshire Street are seeking two Wardens for a 12 month period from the beginning of November, 2012.

The Wardens’ role is a voluntary one, and the Meeting supplies a semi-furnished 2-bedroom loft flat with services.

The Wardens are responsible for the general care and oversight of Friends House and there is ample opportunity for developing relationships with Friends, community and social justice groups and overnight guests. Quaker Service Australia (QSA) is based at Friends House.

The position would best suit active retirees or people in part-time employment, as some presence is required during the day to welcome guests and hall users. The Wardens are well supported by the DSLM House Committee.

The Wardens need not be Members or Attenders, but are expected to be in sympathy with Quakers, and to understand Quaker testimonies and processes.

Come and spend a year in Sydney and enjoy what inner-city living has to offer!

Further information is available from Jenny Madeline or Mary Pollard. Email: wardensearch@quakers.org.au

Applications close at the end of July 2012 and should be sent to the above email address or posted to:

House Committee

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

119 Devonshire Street

Surry Hills NSW 2010

An Open Letter on Behalf of the World’s Poor.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 202012
 


Jackie Perkins, New South Wales Regional Meeting.

In 2000, Australia agreed to play its part in global efforts to halve the number of people living in poverty by 2015. Australians can be proud that, so far, their leaders have kept this promise made in our name. This commitment has been supported by both sides of politics, as it should be. This is Australia’s promise to the world’s poor, no matter who is in Government.

Millions of Australians expect this commitment to be maintained. And millions more of those living in poverty are depending on it.

To achieve the 0.5 per cent target means that just 50 cents in every $100 of our national income will go towards our aid program. This falls short of the global target of 0.7 per cent, but it still means a lot to the world’s poor.

In an Open Letter to the Prime Minister, signed by 152 CEOs and Board chairs of development NGOs, including our own Kay de Vogel and Jackie Perkins from Quaker Service Australia, and a number of celebrities, all agreed with Andrew Hewett Executive Director of Oxfam Australia who said that ‘It is unacceptable that more than 20,000 children still die every single day due mostly to diseases that are entirely preventable.’

Geoffrey Rush, Australian of the Year and UNICEF Ambassador said ‘We have made enormous progress in the battle against poverty. Australia must not cede the commitment to aid that is held across the political spectrum. To do so will jeopardise the futures of millions of people who have been given the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty, in no small part, thanks to Australia’s foreign aid’.

QSA, although one of the smaller development agencies in Australia, recognises the significance of the global challenge and of the improvements that have and are being made, but more is needed. The money promised by the Government to be spent on aid is desperately needed, so that, along with the money so generously donated by the public, we can continue to make a difference.

In this open letter we ask the Prime Minister to recognise that we cannot balance the budget with the lives of the world’s poor, and it is up to her, and her ministers, to prove that when Australia makes a promise, we keep it!

 

This open letter was prepared by the peak body ACFID (Australian Council for International development) and was signed off by a number of development agencies and celebrities. It has been modified for publication in Australian Friend.

 

 

Wisdom: Knowing What’s Important.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 182012
 
Book coverReg Naulty, Canberra Regional Meeting.
Review of Hall, S. (2010) Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press.

Stephen S. Hall asks whether there is any real place for wisdom in our frenetic, postmodern, quasi-apocalyptic, multi-tasking, dual-income, economically challenging world.

Wisdom is an unusual quality which is difficult to define, but easy to identify. Former Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, remarked that you have only to speak to someone for twenty minutes to find out whether they have any. Wisdom is not the same as intelligence. Everyone can think of intelligent people who are not wise. Hall, who has both, writes that knowledge is fixed, impersonal, and in odd way, non-social. Wisdom, on the other hand, is profoundly social, deeply personal, adaptive and intuitive. It has an important emotional component.

Hall writes about science and society for The New York Times Magazine. He has written five other books and seems to have interviewed just about everyone in America in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience who writes about wisdom. He has done a daunting amount of reading, enlivened by meetings with kindred spirits at Fanelli`s Restaurant and Bar, New York.

Hall does not neglect the classics. What Socrates, Confucius, and Buddha have in common in their thinking about wisdom, he writes, is a concern for social justice and a code of public morality, altruism, an insistence on mastering the emotions that urge immediate sensory gratification, and a mission to share their knowledge. My major criticism of this delightful and instructive book is that, in my view, these thinkers have something else  in common. They draw on a wisdom which is higher than human. Socrates attended to an inner voice that stopped him in the middle of a speech; Confucius said that at fifty he knew the biddings of Heaven, and that at sixty he heard them with a docile ear. The Buddha believed in a metaphysical dimension to life: ‘There is, oh monks, that which is not born, not become, not made, not compounded.’

Hall enumerates different aspects of wisdom: patience, altruism, discernment, emotional calm. He realizes that love is not enough. Altruism needs a diverse suite of cognitive and emotional skills: discerning the fundamental unfairness of a situation; having the courage to defy one`s immediate self-interest; patience to wait for the rewards of a larger goal.

The book claims to move from philosophy to neuroscience, and there is a lot of neuroscience in it. But what has that got to do with qualities of wisdom like knowing what`s important and a capacity to deal with uncertainty? Hall himself puts the question: ‘does all this dense, constrained, hyper-qualified and speculative science-speak ultimately tell us anything useful about wisdom?’ But it remains unclear from the book that studying our brains will make us wiser. The description of the neural machinery throws into strong relief the distinctness of mind and brain. We know from within what it is like to evaluate, deliberate and ponder. We never notice from within the hiss and the pop of neural circuitry. I infer that it is taking place in a different reality.

Occasionally, Hall transfers a description which belongs to mind and applies it to brain, with unintended comic effect. For example, he writes of an immensely ‘astute’ molecule called dopamine ‘like a movie critic assessing, broadcasting its opinion’ (p. 48). What a smart little molecule!

The psychologists and neuroscientists Hall brings to these pages come across as intelligent, constructive, sensitive to criticism, and humane. They may save America yet. Philosophers make a splendid contribution to the book, especially Confucius. Though he spent the last ten years of his life in poverty, he is still being heard.

Quaker Responses to Violence in Kenya.

 1206 June 2012  1 Response »
May 172012
 
David Purnell, Canberra Regional Meeting.
Review of Lumb, Judy (2012) Ending Cycles of Violence: Kenya QuakeBook coverr Peacemaking Response after the 2007 Election Washington: Madera Press, Washington.

This is a fine collection of Quaker voices about violence that erupted in Kenya after the December 2007 election, and the creative ways in which Quakers responded. It is a valuable archive, as well as a vital testimony to the movement of the Spirit in a critical time and place. Judy Lumb, an American Friend from Atlanta Georgia, document the work of Friends during the post-election period as a volunteer with Friends African Great Lakes Initiative (AGLI).

Lumb writes in the preface that ‘n the peacemaking tradition of the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers initially provided humanitarian assistance to many, many internally displaced people, then began a counselling and trauma healing effort that is still ongoing. For long term peacemaking, Friends developed a peace curriculum for every educational level, from primary through secondary schools and for the training of pastors in the Friends Theological College’. With quotations from 34 Friends, the book is a lively read with valuable references and links.

Kenya has a long history of disturbances from to the British colonial legacy, over land, over the centralisation of political power, and some ethnically-based. Each election from 1992 has involved killings, burnings, and removal of people from their homes and land.

By 2007 Kenya has a stronger economy but greater inequality. Two coalition groups, led by Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki contested the election, which was mainly smooth and peaceful. Initial results favoured Odinga, but later counting led to the announcement that Kibaki had won. Violence broke out in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu and spread throughout the country. Over 1100 people were killed, and 600,000 people displaced, in the first two months of 2008.

Some Quakers caught up in the violence suffered losses in their families and communities. Corporately there was a determination to respond with care for all people who had been affected. A pastoral letter was written to the leaders of the nation expressed the Quaker peace testimony and emphasising the importance of achieving a peaceful society. It called on all Kenyan leaders to reject violence and work for a united country. A Kenyan national Quaker peace conference in January 2008 agreed on immediate action to encourage nonviolent approaches and build reconciliation within communities. An Open Letter to all Kenyans appealed for an end to violence, highlighting economic injustices, youth disempowerment, and religious and ethnic divisions. The intervention of Kofi Annan and Graca Machel helped bring about an agreement between political leader, with Kibaki as president and Odinga as prime minister.

International Quaker groups provided Humanitarian assistance throughout Kenya, with workshops on ways to deal with trauma. By allowing time for people to recover a sense of safety, then focussing on affirmation, communication and collaboration, Quakers were able to help rebuild trust across divided groups. A particular challenge was to bring together ‘perpetrators’ of the violence and provide an opportunity for them to talk about what happened. One Quaker, Getry Agizah, said ‘We had that meeting and they talked the whole day. …they were expressing their anger about their life….they talked about their rights being denied. We left the meeting understanding why Kakamega town burned’.

By now, the worst of the after-effects of violence have subsided, there is a new constitution supported by major political parties and new electoral boundaries have been drawn.

This book is a compelling account of a modern-day Quaker faith-in-action approach. It shows how Quakers, confronted by a horrifying set of events, carefully thought and prayed about how to respond. It is clear from the book that those on the receiving end valued this Spirit-led way of relating to the people involved, regardless of their background. Quakers in Kenya are now actively working to ensure that violence does not occur in the lead-up to the next election, due later this year

Quaker Networks Targeted in International Scam.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 162012
 
Susan Addison, Australia Yearly Meeting.

Friends in Australia were this week targeted by a sophisticated scam operation. It is believed that the callers used names and phone numbers readily available from the Australia Yearly Meeting and Britain Yearly Meeting websites to approach Friends for money and to cite the names of other Friends who could vouch for their bona fides. At least one Australian Friend responded to the caller’s urgent appeal for funds and sent money.

Australia Yearly Meeting Secretary Susan Addison was phoned at the start of office hours on 8 May by a caller purporting to be stranded at an airport in the Philippines. The caller used the name of a person listed on the Britain Yearly Meeting website and claimed to have been given her name by ‘Quackers’ in Britain. The names and phone numbers of several Britain Yearly Meeting employees were provided as people who could vouch for his story.

When told that she would wait to talk first with Britain Yearly Meeting (a 10-hour time difference) the caller left a voice mail message on the AYM office phone in a woman’s voice and sent an email via the AYM website purportedly from one of his referees.

The caller moved on to other names found the Australia Yearly Meeting over the next two days, now citing the Australia Yearly Meeting Secretary Susan Addison as the person who had given him their name as someone who could help.

Prominent ‘Scam alert’ warnings have been placed on the Quakers Australia website and Regional Meeting clerks have been asked to disseminate the warning. Key elements of the story are: family with Quaker connections urgently needs money to attend family funeral; money to be transferred via Western Union to an address in the Philippines. The caller has threatened to contact ‘Quackers’ in other countries.

If in doubt when a request for funds is made, Friends are advised to ask questions beyond the scope of the well rehearsed story to ascertain where the caller is a genuine Friend, or delay responding until they can check with the sources named.

The Word Was With God

 1206 June 2012  3 Responses »
May 152012
 
David Swain, New South Wales Regional Meeting. Words

It’s becoming more and more difficult to be an old-fashioned atheist.  In my salad days when I was green in theology, I knew what God was, and I could decide whether I believed in him or not. Now atheists seem to be divided into those who are best described as anti-theists, and those who call themselves nontheists.  Then on the Nontheist Quaker website somebody suggested that a better word might be meta-theist.  I expect we can now look forward to quasi-theist, neo-theist and crypto-theist.

The theologian Don Cupitt has introduced the concept of non-realism.  I think this means ‘I believe in God, but he’s not real.’  It’s all very confusing, really (or non-really).

Mathematically speaking, if you believe that monotheism is better than atheism, wouldn’t polytheism be even better?  Or perhaps we could have a compromise in sesquitheism, belief in one-and-a-half gods, or perhaps not?

Salt and Light.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 132012
 


Pradip Lamichhane, Nepal Friends Evangelical Church.

This is an edited extract from a talk given by Pradip at this year’s FWCC conference in Kenya.

When I first heard the theme of the world gathering I found it difficult to understand. After long silence and seeking I found my awareness growing and finally I knew how really important the theme is for all of us in this time and this world and for Friends. “Being Salt and Light, Friends living the Kingdom of God in a Broken World”? How good to be salt and light in this broken world.

I was sitting in front of Friends at the 2009 IPC Planning meeting, searching their faces anxiously and asking myself what this great variety of people are talking about. Finally we all agreed to choose this theme of Salt and Light. This has got so much meaning and it is a living sentence. For Quakers this is a moving sentence: for evangelicals this is a gospel sentence; for liberals this is cool. You might wonder how come this young man was there. I was a young and silent co-clerk of this gathering planning committee. Did I just say that I was a silent clerk? It is true that I was. I do not know why World Office chose me for this task, but I am thankful for it has provided me with great learning opportunities.

Let me come to the point, and let me become a theologian for a while, relating the following Gospel passages into a more familiar idiom: In Matthew 5:13-16 it says “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste Godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.” Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

In verse 13 we read, “You are the salt of the earth,” and in the Greek it is “You and you alone are the salt of the earth. Why did Jesus say that to this small group of uneducated, poor, humble, Galilean disciples? He was telling them that although the world’s population is rotting, they as believers were to function like salt in the world. Why? They alone were different from the world.

I would like to change these verses a little bit more here. Why did Jesus say such things to a small group of Friends, to a Religious Society of Friends? Are we Friends functioning like salt in the world? Are we alone different from the world? Friends are very small in number in the world if we compare ourselves with other denominations. We chose this Conference theme as “Being Salt and Light, Friends living the Kingdom of God in a Broken World” because it is the truth of all us. In Ephesians 2:3-4 we read, “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…”

We are to be in the world so that the world may benefit by our difference from the world. Therefore we must also avoid the error of being one with the world and embracing its values and ways. These warnings are applicable to us today. We all want to be materialistic and are working very hard. This is not the way, rather, we must be as different as salt is different from dead meat. We must be different from the broken world. We must be in the world but not of the world, so that the world may be helped by us.

We must be different and must glory in our difference.

Friends often ask me why I am still in Nepal as I have a valid visa for the US and UK. People spend millions to go there. I’ve tried to answer them that I am really OK here. They think I am a fool, but yet I think they are mistaken. I am happy as I am, I will try to make a difference from where I am and what I have.

I am happy to support my church as I can. I am happy that I am able to support few poor children to attend school. I am happy I that I am able to run a small NGO to support poor people. I am happy that I am able to feed my old parents. I am happy to play with my son. I am happy to give tours to Quaker friends who come to visit Nepal. I am happy doing Green IT stuff. I call this a sustainable project for mankind. Others helped me to be an IT guy, so I help others so they could help more people. It is like a gospel which keeps on spreading. I share this experience with others and encourage them to do the same-help others as you have been helped.

During my childhood and teenage years, I experienced poverty, crying every day for food so I understand that a small help can change the lives of people and bring peace and joy. Don’t think that if you are supporting one person he or she only is benefited. Rather, there will be several people who will be indirectly assisted. So let us try to make a difference together.

When Jesus said, “You alone are the salt of the earth,” this was a high compliment and great encouragement. This statement gives every Friend great dignity and self-esteem. Thus, I feel sorry for those are trying to be like the world in speech, in dress, in value, and in fashion. Only difference can assist, not similarity.

Let’s talk about how salt functions as a preservative. Now we must realize that, like salt, Christians might irritate the wound at first. Remember, Friends are not sugar; they are salt. But I say, welcome the irritation that Friends bring about. Welcome the discomfort that the salt of the earth initially creates, because salt will bring great benefit.

Salt is necessary for flavour. Without Friends and the gospel they proclaim and practice this world would be insipid. There would be no true flavour in the world. There would be no true joy in this world. The company of Friends gives flavour and joy to the world. We can prove this by examining worldly parties and such celebrations. They are boring, tasteless, and insipid. As Friends, we have the purposive function to provide flavour and taste to the world. The world is without hope. It may be our responsibility to bring hope, peace and the helping hand as we can.

Salt is white, symbolizing purity. Friends are to be in the world and yet live purely, lives of difference and enhancement. As I said before, Friends should glory in their difference. They are citizens of heaven who are living in this broken world for its benefit. As such, they must constantly resist the temptation of being like the world and must be like Christ.

Salt also was used as a fertilizer. Friends must function in a way that promotes the growth of that which is good in the world. They must oppose evil and promote good. In God’s common grace, there is much good in his world, and Friends must support and promote that which is useful to mankind.

Salt causes people to become thirsty. In the same way, Friends should cause people to thirst for peace, justice and earth-care. I don’t mean all the people of the world will do this, but those who respond to God will. It is through us that God generates a thirst for Godself in others, and they will come to us and ask, “Why are you different? Why are you so full of hope and peace and joy even in the midst of troubles?” When they do this, you then can tell them about Friends.

So we must ask ourselves: Are we functioning as salt in our society?

Worldliness destroys saltiness my dear Friends. Jesus said that if salt loses its saltiness, it would become useless and worthless. People can lose their saltiness through replacing it with worldliness. When we conform to the patterns of the world, when we embrace the broken values of the world, when we become materialistic, sensual and pleasure-seeking, we lose our saltiness. We become like the world—rotting, rotten, and foul. We must realize that we are to be in the world but not of it. Although we are in the world, we must focus on Jesus Christ and his teachings.

We are to be different.

Night Garden, Easter Thursday.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 072012
 


Virginia Jealous, Western Australia  Regional Meeting.

There is mystery here, in this night-altered
garden, where things are not quite what they seem.
High waxing moon spotlights a shadow
that might be a man kneeling alongside
keening frogs in the dam. A drum roll
of retreating feet sounds kangaroos
bounding the back fence; still trees shift
a little, and leaves whisper a small betrayal
of roosting bird. It would be easy
to sleep and for this moment to slip
into history. Lemon gum silhouettes
sky, stars pass behind its loose weave of branches.
Slowly the shadowman vanishes, a night-mirage
transformed into that pile of logs where more roos
graze, hunched like boulders in the receding
dark. Emptied of nighttime imaginings
the garden fills with light. No cock crow here.
Just kookaburra laughing in the dawn,
telling who knows what lies
ahead in this new day.

From The World Turned Upside Down, Picaro Press.

Yearly Meeting 2013: Advance Information.

 1206 June 2012  4 Responses »
May 072012
 
David Purnell, Yearly Meeting Planning Committee.

 

Arscott House

Arscott House

In January 2013 Yearly Meeting will be held in Canberra, hosted by Canberra Regional Meeting. We look forward to welcoming you at the beginning of our centenary year as the capital city of Australia.

The University of Canberra in Belconnen will be the venue, from Saturday 5th to Saturday 12th January. Friends will be encouraged to arrive on the afternoon of 5th and depart after lunch on 12th January. The University has grown rapidly in recent years and now has around 13,000 students during the academic year. It is located 8kms to the north-west of Civic Centre in Canberra, near Lake Ginninderra and the Belconnen Town Centre. Parking should be readily available at that time of year, and cycle paths are nearby. Frequent bus services travel between the University and Civic Centre.

Most activities each day will be held at the conference centre (Building 2) of the University, which is close to the main Refectory area and next to a large courtyard with grass, shrubs and trees in profusion. This will allow for outdoor use when desired or needed. There will be space for an art exhibition in the conference centre. The Backhouse Lecture by Jocelyn Bell Burnell will be given in the large lecture theatre in the conference centre.

The main accommodation offered will be at a residential college called Arscott House run by the Students’ Association and situated on Aikman Drive, near Lake Ginninderra, on the western edge of the campus. Single rooms will be available there, with some flexibility for small children to share a room with a parent. The cost is expected to be $54 a day bed and breakfast, with linen supplied. There is an early deadline (1 September) for confirming bookings at Arscott House.

The Canberra Motor Village in Dryandra St, Lyneham (4.5kms from the University of Canberra) offers cabins which will accommodate several people, from around $130 a night (3 people). Caravan sites with power cost $35 a night, and tents on unpowered sites $25 a night. Early bookings are essential for that time of year. Go to www.canberravillage.com.au . Billeting options will be explored and made known later. The nearest hotel is the Quality Inn in Benjamin Way, Belconnen, and the standard single room rate there is around $130 a night.

Specific plans will be made for the children and Junior Young Friends during the week. We expect that Young Friends will also be closely involved. There will be provision for extended free time and/or outings one afternoon during the week. Time will be allocated for Share and Tell sessions.

Catering for lunch and dinner will be arranged with the Refectory at the University, and will allow for a range of diets to be covered. Breakfasts will be available as part of the accommodation at Arscott House. Morning and afternoon teas will be served by our volunteers in the conference centre.

Summer School will focus on the theme of achieving a peaceful and sustainable Australia. The Quaker Peace and Legislation Committee (QPLC) and YM Earthcare Committee will organise the Summer School, as they are preparing a blueprint for Australian Friends to consider and adopt at Yearly Meeting. Details of the draft blueprint will be circulated with Documents in Advance. The committees welcome creative contributions to the overall theme, and invite anyone willing to lead a session on a particular aspect to contact the conveners – Brian Turner at: brianturner@netspeed,com.au or Vidya at Vidya.sutton@finance.gov.au.

Friends are asked to bear several points in mind:

The booking requirements for Arscott House mean that we will need definite numbers by the beginning of September. Registration arrangements will take this into account, and will be sent to RM Clerks in the coming months.

The distance between Arscott House and the conference venue will mean a walk of around 10 to 15 minutes each way. Transport will be available for those needing it.

Easter Sunday.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 062012
 


Sue Parritt, Victoria Regional Meeting.

 

Born on this day in the season of new birthings

My tiny body whisked from womb warmth

Laid egg-like within an incubator

Unwashed unweighed a scrap of barely breathing life

Expected to arrive for summer’s glorious June

 

Beyond red-brick hospital’s green gardens

Church bells rang out the joy of resurrection

Lifted momentarily the drab grey veil

Of bomb blast rubble and empty silent homes

Still smothering those northern islands

 

Asleep in my unconventional crib

I could not hear clear voices soar in praise

Or oft-repeated peace prayers

Or an anxious grandmother’s whispered plea

‘May it please the Lord to take her’

 

Despite this inauspicious dawning

The Lord had four season plans for me

So sixty-two years on I reach another birthday

As autumn leaves blanket the sun-baked earth

Of this sea-wrapped southern continent

 

But today I am denied an Easter Sunday celebration

February’s added leap year hours

Have pushed my birth date into Monday

No matter every day is sacred in life’s calendar

Welcome as pealing bells on that post-war April morning

Julian of Norwich, a True Friend.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 022012
 


Barbara Lumley, New South Wales Regional Meeting.

 

In 1910, in London, during the transfer of the Sloane Collection to the British Museum, a book was discovered which caused great excitement. It was very old, being a copy of a book written by Julian of Norwich, a mystic and anchoress of the 14th century, the first book written in English by a woman.

It had, no doubt been hidden at the time of Henry VIII’s destructive onslaught on religious property.

The find attracted much interest. Over the years there were many publications written about it, from devotional books through to Ph.D.’s. An Order of Julian was established in America, numerous Julian Groups focusing on silent prayer, sprang up over the UK, USA and as far as Australia! Julian’s cell, attached to St. Julian’s Church in Norwich was reconstructed, having been badly bombed during WWII. This became a shrine, looked after by members of the Julian Centre. An annual lecture on Julian is given there each year. Men and women have come from all over the world, to sit quietly in her cell, to pray, to be healed and to receive help. I was one such woman back in 1989.

It had all started ten years before when I was reading Medieval History at the ANU in Canberra. Sitting in the quietness of the library, a reference to the English Fourteenth Century Mystics, especially a Julian of Norwich, jumped out at me giving me an unexpected jolt, and I knew this was something I had to follow up.

There was no one else there the day I visited St. Julian’s church in Norwich. I let myself in and sat in her cell trying to imagine what it must have been like for her. What had prompted her to take on this unusual way of life? Medieval society would have understood that an Anchoress, after a requiem Mass and extreme unction by the local Bishop, was now dead to the world and ‘entombed’ for the rest of her life. Julian lived there for over forty years. It was also understood she would devote her life to prayer, especially for the local community. The original cell would have had two windows, one allowing access to the services held in the church, the other facing the main road to the coast. Contemporary accounts reveal that Julian was widely respected as a holy person who offered counsel and comfort to many people who came to this window in those very troubled times. On leaving the church, I bought a copy of her book, “The Revelation of Divine Love in Sixteen Showings made to Dame Julian of Norwich”.

 

It took me some time to come to grips with the contents. Six and a half centuries separate her world from mine. To begin with, hers was a sacred world whereas mine is very secular. Women then had very few rights or freedom. Some daughters of wealthy families might be lucky enough to receive an education but it would never be as comprehensive as that of sons. A more obvious difference was that it was a world dominated by suffering and the theology of the time very much reflected this reality.

All we know of Julian is what she chose to write in this book. She tells us she had been a devout lover of God from an early age and prayed that she might enter into a deeper intimacy with Christ and share his suffering. On the night of 8th May, 1373, at the age of thirty, these prayers were answered. It was believed by herself and those of her family and friends present that she was about to die, and a priest was sent for. Instead, over a period of perhaps 24 hours she experienced what all mystics struggle to adequately express, a direct experience of the divine presence which changes lives forever.

This encounter was in the form of sixteen visions, or ‘showings’, with the suffering of Christ having central place. At the end of the showings, Julian was healed. She wrote down these ’showings’ in what is referred to as ‘The Shorter Version’. The ‘Longer Version’ of her book was written after 20 years living as an Anchoress where she had time, solitude and silence to search for meaning and what it was that God was trying to teach her. It became clear to me that living as an Anchoress was the only way, as a 14th century woman, Julian could convey through prayer, discernment and the written word, God’s teaching on love which she felt He had called her to do.

Both Thomas Merton and Grace Jantzen, the feminist theologian and Quaker, believed her to be a theological genius of ‘astonishing complexity’. Jantzen concluded that Julian was an ‘integrated theologian’, in that daily life, religious experience and theological reflection were all part of the whole. Julian’s criteria for understanding doctrines had to include natural reason, the Church’s common teaching and Grace, and that God was the source of all three. Experiential encounters with the Divine were important but no more important than the other two. It was a safeguard against fanciful thinking.

Julian remained a faithful daughter of ‘holy Church’ for all her life. However, it does become clear that by teachings she meant those from the monastic spiritual tradition rather than the Scholastic philosophical system of the universities and clerical elite.

In her long search for meaning, she ‘saw’ that God had no ‘wrath’ in him and therefore no blame nor punishment were attached to his creatures. Nor did she ‘see’ hell or purgatory. In God there was no anger, instead only love and compassion which we too must practice. The practices of the church however, must have troubled her greatly and much time was given in asking God for an explanation of sin which was only ever partially answered. She came to understand that sin is a’ blindness’. Prayer was the key to transformation making the soul one with God and His will and it is God who teaches us to pray.

Julian was the first theologian to understand that the Godhead was both Father and Mother.

However, the overriding message of the Showings was that God’s meaning has been and always will be love. She finishes her longer version with these words:

“I desired frequently to understand what our Lord’s meaning was, and more than fifteen years afterward I was answered by a spiritual understanding that said, ‘Do you want to understand your Lord’s meaning in this experience? Understand it well: love was His meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did He show you? Love. Why did He show it? For love…’ Thus was I taught that love is our Lord’s meaning and I saw most certainly…that before God made us He loved us.”

 

It does seem to me that my life would have been the poorer without Julian as a friend and companion for all these years.

References.

Grace Jantzen, Julian of Norwich, SPCK, G.B. 1987

Where is the Light Leading Friends? Engaging With Friends in the World.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
May 012012
 


Valerie Joy, Queensland Regional Meeting.

Friends that I meet in several countries are actively engaged in practicing our beliefs, conversing on the things we hold in common, and sometimes too on where we diverge.

Face to face conversations are sublimely better than other communication.

I note how much spoken interaction takes place at our Yearly Meetings: during meal breaks, walking to sessions and sometimes later into the evening we plumb the depths of our hearts and spirits with concerns for a variety of issues.

We also use written words, which can arrive through the medium of books, blogs, online Journals, Facebook etc.

With the 6th World Conference of Friends almost upon us this dialogue will become richer, diving into more aspects of our shared faith, and trying to find the uniquely Quaker stance on problems such as Global Change, ethical living and respectful relationships.

At Kabarak University there will be 43 different “Thread Groups” each of which will look at one aspect of the theme “Being Salt and Light, Friends living the Kingdom of God in a Broken World”. The 1,000 participants will meet three times to examine particular questions on Climate Change, Food Security and Deadly Conflict; Did you visit me in Prison? Healing and Rebuilding our Community (Rwanda), socially responsible banking, Sexual Brokenness, Water Giving Life, Friends and the Interfaith movement plus 35 other choices.

After a full day’s excursion outside into aspects of Kenyan life, groups will reintegrate around common threads for plenary “weaving the threads”, and what emerges from this will point us to the future- with realistic guidelines on how Friends everywhere will focus our energies by finding uniquely Quaker responses to worldwide problems. We will leave Kenya with new Friends and clearer vision and messages to take home to share with our home communities of faith.

Sixteen Australian Friends will take part in the World Conference, and they will need space within their local communities to speak clearly on their new focus on their return. In all, 60 Friends from Asia West Pacific will be present from the wide diversity of Friends, evangelical to liberal- and we can help one another with our prayers, our giving and with informed visitation. In particular our Friends from poorer countries such as Myanmar, Nepal, Indonesia, parts of India, and the Philippines will be happy to share their struggles with us on a regular basis and I hope that some will be willing to write about these in the Australian Friend.

A more formal opportunity to deeply enter into the outcomes of the World Conference is planned to take place at Silver Wattle from 17-25 August in a course being presented by myself and Abel Sibonio.

The aims are to learn from the experiences of Friends globally, what it means to be a Friend, and how each of us can help develop the global spiritual community of Friends. The course is essential for current FWCC representatives and for those who have a broad vision and want to know more about Friends worldwide and their varied approach to Quaker Testimonies.

There will be three parts to the week:

Day 1: Interactive Introduction to the dimensions of Friends globally with papers made available from the speakers for study & reflection.

Days 2-3: Each participant to choose a country and person with whom to make contact and learn about. Using a series of queries about another meeting/church in another country, such as their work, their faith, their life at home, what makes them hopeful? What are they struggling with?

By using prior arrangements, participants will engage with Friends using Skype and email to undertake this task.

Days 4-6: Participatory Workshop where each participant makes a slow and thoughtful presentation on their research. Abel will use his stories on how “Salt and Light” came into the refugee camps and the changes that took place as a result. He will map where these Friends now are in the world and how they have settled into their new lives. Valerie will use AWPS stories from her experiences throughout the Asia-West Pacific Section of FWCC. The final day will track where the Spirit is guiding Friends in the four Sections, what will be the challenges and the opportunities in the decades to come.

The week will be held within the Silver Wattle rhythm of prayer, study and work, with times for worship sharing, for singing, and for relaxation and enjoying the property.

Friends will be introduced to the concept of journaling- for those not already using this process – and participants asked to spend time writing what is taking place in their minds and hearts – we will have silent periods set aside for this. Other techniques such as “mind mapping” may be explored.

Source Materials:

a) Different theologies amongst the FWCC world (using the journals edited by Paul Anderson. He nominates a topic each quarter, and then invites Friends of varying theological backgrounds to submit papers).

b) Tracing the journey of Friends worldwide from 1991 to 2012.

c) Report of the World Conference- what we learnt

d) History of FWCC

e) Quakers at the UN, QCEA and other international forums (eg Friends Peace Teams, QSA, AFSC, EFI international and FUM).

f) Inter-visitation- a two way learning process- using our visit to the USA as an example- but also looking at the concepts and practice of inter-visitation.

g) Discerning our way into an uncertain future

Valerie Joy

Secretary AWPS

On Reading the Mystical Way.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
Apr 302012
 


Drew Lawson, Victoria Regional Meeting.

 

on reading of the mystical way

speak these words

with the voice

of your soul

feeling the sound

vibrate

your being

listen

with the ear

of the heart

leaving the work

of the mind

until the infused silence

has revealed

what is

beyond

these mere words

allow

these doors

to open

upon

your own bliss

which will

reveal

a thousand thousand

blessings

enabling

you to embrace

bodhichitta

and bathe creation

in an ocean

of great good

*

where does it come from

this book you have made

with pages of fear

constraining your heart

proclaiming

what your life is not

the cannots and impossibilities

the demeaning smallness

denying your nature

in the image of alaha?

this tomb of a tome

fences you in

with blindness to the truth

of your being

encouraged to wither

its existence becomes

an unseen mystery

an itch

scratched with the wrong hand

irritating

instead of healing

whose voice

has captured you?

and with your allowing

sent you to the hell

which is the denial

of the long, long, list

of alaha’s graces to you

the long, long list

of alaha’s gifts to you

the long, long list

of the diamonds shining

in your heart

when did you learn

to say no to alaha?

when will you say yes?

with no answers

you sit in the unending

stream of love

in a landscape

where there is no drought

but unceasing baptism

this water does not

clean you

for you are

this water is empty

of gifts

for you have everything

this turbulent water

is alaha’s dance of joy

at your existence

the roar of universal communion

singing the song of greeting

to their blessed sibling

polishing the preciousness

you have always been

scrubbing away the moss of lies

to reveal

yourself

to yourself

divine and infinite

being of alaha

blessed beyond measure

generous beyond weighing

loving as the depth

of the cosmic ocean

look in the mirror

of alaha dearest one

and be flabbergasted

by reality

*

centuries

of small theology

have left us

harming christ

by refusing

to embrace

the gift of our being

made in the image of god

encountering the divine

we rear away

like a startled horse

whose staring eye

has seen

the consequences

our own divinity

which threatens

to break us

open

into the endless

blessing

we have

unknowingly

always

been

*

i stand

facing countless blessings

incarnated

as hedge leaves

a vibrantly green choir

singing

in the spring air

*

prayerful silence

is

a demolition ball

pounding

all constraints

into a mountain of rubble

to be cleansed

in the flowing river

and recycled

into a temple

of adoration

of our bridegroom

who came

to set us free

from all

inhibitions constructed

from the bricks of fear

anger and guilt

releasing

a monastic enclosure

whose limits are

a torrent

of edgeless love

yes

yes

a monastery

without walls

containing all

of the impermanent

evolving cosmos

constantly baptised

by the living stream

which is

the eternally infinite

mystical ocean

welcome to your being

*

blue

blue

hangs

in the air

serenely

present

a divine

infusion

rising

from the earth

to attract

our attention

reminding

our heart

each step

is enfolded

*

longer and longer

i sit in silence

until i am

no longer waiting

alaha speaks

release your song

let your mystical being

live

as a fully open door

a wind of love

infusing the cosmos

with song

sung through your being

into the ears of all

mystics

throughout eternity

*

the lintel

gives the clue

when we look

with our heart

rather than

the mind

which only sees

a bricked-up doorway

stopping

our desires

the seemingly vertical

and blocking stones

are

the welcoming path

waiting for us

to allow ourselves

to believe

our vision

caressed

by the spirit

which is

forever opening

what we think of

as closed

*

the song of my heart

is

a doorway

filled

with shadow

inviting me

into

what i cannot

see

*

in the land

of the spirit

the grass

is

still

singing

a thousand songs

of green

drawing us

into

the incarnation

of love

un-noticed

when

our outer spontaneities

are

disconnected

from

our being

*

the stone walls

cold and moist

with morning rain

touch my hand

entrance my eye

bend my knee

and i sit

leaning

against the upholder

of my being

as the baptismal spring

begins

again

silently

i sing

with the joy

of the pilgrim

at home

amidst ruins

alive with the lineage

of all contemplatives

*

on top

of a mountain

vision

is

blinded

by the insistent

blue

prising open

the eternal

eye

of the soul

waiting

for the descending

cloud

of unknowing

to baptise

with sight

*

the window

beckons me

to fly straight

as a meditation

into the mystery

of the source

unconstrained

by materiality

each vibrant colour

of the hill-side and sky

fruitful

emanations of the beauty

of the unseen

silence

singing

at the centre

of each geographic moment

arising

from the divine emptiness

infusing

yet beyond

the seen

and unimagined universe

flying

flying

flying

soaring

the ever open

window

disciplines the flight

into the infinite

space

encompassed

by the eternal hermitage

walls glowing

with the darkness

of all meaning

hidden

in clear sight

to be found

by the faithfulness

of the bride

*

amorphous forms

of words deceive

with dictionary definitions

that cannot

explain the i am

of colin mccahon

or the swirling

letters and words

of aida tomescu

we use

a million pieces of rope

in a deluded attempt

to tie life

to a mythology

devoid

of the human heart

and end up

nowhere

this is

the nowhere

of confused lostness

not

the nowhere

of everywhere

given as our birthright

of connectedness

infusing

all with all

and from the silence

of nowhere

which is

everywhere

light

is

spoken

*

on her first

much longed for

pilgrimage

to iona

the abbey church

disappoints

the sadness

filling her

like a wave

flows

down her cheeks

and reduces her

sprightliness

to the walk

of the living dead

the living stone

that had uplifted

her heart

over the miles

of her geography

turned out to be

merely

a museum

so much she couldn’t see

through

her tear filled eyes

yet on entering

the pale

of the nunnery

she finds

the nuns waiting

for her

*

the lintel

is

large

and heavy

to pin

all

in place

like a key

turning

in a lock

it floats

into place

on a cushion

of divine silence

releasing

the compassion

of the mystic

heart

*

flowing

mystical

essence

unlocks hearts

unlocks hearts

and is

my doing

by being

*

in disappearing

i struggle

as tentacles

of the worldly desire

to be seen

tug me out

of the awareness

of the divine

entrancing my mind

with seductions

of the temporary

i hesitate

at the choice

between death

and the eternal

*

the window

which is

my soul

looked out

from my cave

on the mountain of god

and saw

a space so enormous

that my being

as naturally as breathing

expanded

into union

with the divine

and the valley of my illusions

fell away

revealing

god’s constant call

to rebuild

the nunnery on iona

with blocks

of silence

*

earthquake

of my heart

you sit

so still

under a celtic cross

while facing

the abbey

on our iona

marvellous music

sings

through our conversation

of silence

interspersed with words

as exclamation marks

on our voyage

that never ends

for it is

always

just beginning

*

my being

is

a hermitage

cathedral

expanding

all notions

of inner-space

until all is

beyond

all notions

*

my hermitage

is

a cave

on the mountain

of god

firing

clouds

of unknowing

into hearts

confused

by certainty
*

dancing

through the cloud

of unknowing

reveals

a sacred arch

framing

the ancient tree

of wisdom

planted

in our own soil

Pushing at the Frontiers of Change.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
Apr 272012
 
Pushing at the frontiers of changeRoger Sawkins, Queensland Regional Meeting.
Review of David Blamires (2012) Pushing at the frontiers of change; A memoir of Quaker involvement with homosexuality. London: Quaker Books. (ISBN 978-1-907123-23-8, paperback 100 pages)

Changes in attitudes to homosexuality in the Western world have been dramatic over the last 50 years. No less so within the Religious Society of Friends. David Blamires has been involved in these changes for much of that time and his book gives a valuable insight into Quaker responses.

Although David was not part of the group which wrote Towards a Quaker view of sex, published in 1963, he knew many of the authors and gives a full account of the lead-up to that booklet. Not only was it ahead of its time, it caused much discussion both within and without Quakers, including in Australia. Curiously, much of the discussion was about the authors’ call for acceptance of relationships outside marriage as much as their accepting attitude to homosexual relationships.

Although the booklet was published by Quakers it was not an official view but that of the contributors. The same applied to David’s own book Homosexuality from the inside, published ten years later in 1973. It was this booklet which resulted in him being invited, whilst he was on a visit to Sydney that year, to fly to Brisbane with the help of Queensland Regional Meeting and give a public lecture. Out of that came the suggestion to our Yearly Meeting in 1974 that we should support the decriminalisation of male homosexual acts, culminating in our public statement at Yearly Meeting 1975.

Since then in both the UK and Australia there have been many, sometimes very painful, discussions around support for homosexual relationships and the more recent acceptance of gay marriage. Through all that time Quakers have struggled to balance the testimony to equality with the conventional idea that marriage was for heterosexual couples.  This, of course, culminated in the acceptance of gay marriage and calls for changes in the law by Britain Yearly Meeting in 2009 and Australia Yearly Meeting in 2011.

David’s final comment is ‘The story of Quaker involvement is still worth telling … because it shows how small groups, working together under concern and prepared to devote the necessary time, made a difference to the resolution of an important area of social injustice.’

The history of homosexuality and homosexual relationships has been largely hidden over many centuries, and our understanding of all types of relationships is very different from that of our ancestors. It is important to document recent changes as fully as possible so that future generations can see how we dealt with them. David’s book is an important, interesting and very readable contribution to that process.

References:

A Group of Friends (1963). Towards a Quaker view of sex. London: Friends Home Service Committee.

Blamires, D. (1973). Homosexuality from the inside. London: Social Responsibility Council of the Religious Society of Friends.

QSA Notes April.

 1206 June 2012  No Responses »
Apr 072012
 


Jackie Perkins, New South Wales Regional Meeting.

Cambodia – Department of Women’s Affairs

As ever, QSA continues to pursue a rigorous agenda when it comes to supporting project partners to best move forward in supporting the communities with which they work. This necessarily includes providing training to project staff members in order that their expertise can then, in turn enhance the opportunities and quality of life attainable for those community members whom the project supports. A recent example of this has been a training co-operative between QSA and APHEDA (Australian People for Health, Education and Development Abroad) or Union Aid Abroad as they are maybe more commonly known, running across Kampong Thom and Pursat provinces in Cambodia. The co-operative ‘skills-swap’ scheme was established in order that project capital, education and skills reach a broader section of the community than would otherwise be possible and a workshop pooling ideas and resources can only spread the know-how deeper and wider!

APHEDA staff trained 20 staff and farmers from QSA partner projects in locations in both Kampong Thom and Pursat provinces facilitating workshops which ran 3 to 5 days, in raising fingerling fish. The training has been successful and despite the Kampong Thom project needing to construct a pond for the farming, the Pursat office had an established pond ready for use. Fish farming has become for the projects and communities, a very effective alternative source of additional nutrition, income generation and has also provided sustainable alternatives to the over-fishing of many fish from the natural environment where in Cambodia many edible fish stocks are significantly depleted.

 

At the back of the Kampong Thom demonstration centre where the fish farm pond will be located.

 

QSA trainers offered their part of the exchange, over a course of 3 five day workshops, a thorough training in Permaculture practice for 16 participants from 4 provinces which included specialisations such as seasonal crop growing, water saving in the dry season, compost fertiliser making, seedling germination, integrated pesticide management and fruit tree crafting, cutting and pruning, among others. Particularly in light of the recent flooding in Pursat province, the training has also included Permaculture training in how to grow vegetables during the wet season which will shortly become paramount as rice stocks become scarce after losing the rice harvest to flooding. This is of further import as the understanding of Permaculture practice as working with, rather than against the environment resounds at this time and the correlation between good food and good health is felt strongly in the communities and projects alike.

 

The trainees practicing how to make natural pesticides.

Trainees also had the opportunity to build their own demonstration garden where Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, mint and other vegetables were established. Indeed, after the second workshop 14 trainees travelled to the Mong Russey district of Battambang province to establish a model vegetable garden for their Community Training Centre also. The pathways towards sustainable land care and agriculture, income generation and health have coalesced very productively throughout this joint skill-swap scheme. May our project partners find much success in achieving their goals.

World Development Report 2012 – Gender Equality and Development

The recently published 2012 World Development report asserts that much progress has been made in closing the gender gaps between men and women in the developing world over the past decades. Across four major outcome areas, those of women’s rights, education, health and labour force representation, achievements and liberties which took hundreds of years to be established in wealthy countries such as Australia have taken 40 years to embed themselves into the fabric of society in low to middle income countries. The paramount importance of gender equality has long resounded in QSA’s project work as a development in and of itself and it is heartening to have acknowledged the work invested and the challenges sustained by the communities for whom such changes are new.

Despite much progress there remains much ground to cover and the report acknowledges that the status of women and gender imbalances in many countries and population groups remain serious, even crippling. As inspiration to continue to work towards true equality in gender relations and opportunity, light shines brightly from the end of the tunnel to hear that more women are literate than ever before, labour force participation has for young women increased almost 2.5 times between 1995 – 2000, women have reversed the education gap and now have higher completion rates than men and the world’s fastest recorded decline in fertility has taken place, from an average of 5 births per woman (1960) to 2.5 (2008), which has significantly lowered maternal mortality rates and increased female life expectancy. The full report is a fascinating read and can be accessed in full via the World Bank website http://www.worldbank.org/.

Pitchandikulam Forest

Grateful thanks are also extended from Joss Brooks and Anita Truchanas at Pitchandikulam Forest where Joss has been updating us of their clearing and reconstruction efforts, what follows is a heartfelt thank you and section of his latest update:

Dear Friends who have helped us in this time of need,

The copper, mauve, gold and greens of the new growth bursting out from the broken limbs of broken trees exhilarate us, covering up the ragged wounds in our, since December, dramatically askew forest.

The forest remains all damaged angles, bent trunk leaning on the next bent trunk, though now leaves surge forth in a huge vertical aspiration towards the sun.

The chainsaw buzzing signals the arrival of the team to clear paths through the confusion and liberate younger plants from underneath the older acacia branches that have crushed and contorted them. Some of the trees are 150 ft tall and 3ft diameter!! It takes one day for the crew to clear one tree with our small chainsaws, it is careful work to protect the plants underneath. We imagine it will take several years to clear the whole sixty acres of Pitchandikulam !

Our forest community is profoundly grateful for the help that has been given to us so far by friends and well wishers. Additional donations have enabled us to buy chainsaws and petrol and will support a team of an extra 5 people for another several months in order that we can make a larger, communal dent in the huge task ahead of us. Thank you. Joss and Anita

The Trainees practicing how to make natural pesticides.

Trainees also had the opportunity to build their own demonstration garden where Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, mint and other vegetables were established. Indeed, after the second workshop 14 trainees travelled to the Mong Russey district of Battambang province to establish a model vegetable garden for their Community Training Centre also. The pathways towards sustainable land care and agriculture, income generation and health have coalesced very productively throughout this joint skill-swap scheme. May our project partners find much success in achieving their goals.

World Development Report 2012 – Gender Equality and Development

The recently published 2012 World Development report asserts that much progress has been made in closing the gender gaps between men and women in the developing world over the past decades. Across four major outcome areas, those of women’s rights, education, health and labour force representation, achievements and liberties which took hundreds of years to be established in wealthy countries such as Australia have taken 40 years to embed themselves into the fabric of society in low to middle income countries. The paramount importance of gender equality has long resounded in QSA’s project work as a development in and of itself and it is heartening to have acknowledged the work invested and the challenges sustained by the communities for whom such changes are new.

Despite much progress there remains much ground to cover and the report acknowledges that the status of women and gender imbalances in many countries and population groups remain serious, even crippling. As inspiration to continue to work towards true equality in gender relations and opportunity, light shines brightly from the end of the tunnel to hear that more women are literate than ever before, labour force participation has for young women increased almost 2.5 times between 1995 – 2000, women have reversed the education gap and now have higher completion rates than men and the world’s fastest recorded decline in fertility has taken place, from an average of 5 births per woman (1960) to 2.5 (2008), which has significantly lowered maternal mortality rates and increased female life expectancy. The full report is a fascinating read and can be accessed in full via the World Bank website http://www.worldbank.org/.

Pitchandikulam Forest

Grateful thanks are also extended from Joss Brooks and Anita Truchanas at Pitchandikulam Forest where Joss has been updating us of their clearing and reconstruction efforts, what follows is a heartfelt thank you and section of his latest update:

Dear Friends who have helped us in this time of need,

The copper, mauve, gold and greens of the new growth bursting out from the broken limbs of broken trees exhilarate us, covering up the ragged wounds in our, since December, dramatically askew forest.

The forest remains all damaged angles, bent trunk leaning on the next bent trunk, though now leaves surge forth in a huge vertical aspiration towards the sun.

The chainsaw buzzing signals the arrival of the team to clear paths through the confusion and liberate younger plants from underneath the older acacia branches that have crushed and contorted them. Some of the trees are 150 ft. tall and 3ft diameter!! It takes one day for the crew to clear one tree with our small chainsaws, it is careful work to protect the plants underneath. We imagine it will take several years to clear the whole sixty acres of Pitchandikulam !

Our forest community is profoundly grateful for the help that has been given to us so far by friends and well wishers. Additional donations have enabled us to buy chainsaws and petrol and will support a team of an extra 5 people for another several months in order that we can make a larger, communal dent in the huge task ahead of us. Thank you. Joss and Anita

Is Quakerism a ‘Religion For Atheists’.

 1206 June 2012  5 Responses »
Mar 282012
 
Review of  Alain De Botton (2012) Religion for Atheists. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Ian Hughes, New South Wales Regional Meeting.
Alain De Botton 'Religion for Atheists'

Alain De Botton 'Religion for Atheists'

I have heard interviews on radio and watched interviews on television. I’ve also read reviews in newspapers, and now wonder if Quakerism might be the religion for atheists that De Botton is looking for.

Reading the book, I was left with an impression that De Botton is nostalgic for a bygone age when religion held communities together, enabling whole villages and towns to lead ethical and transcendent lives. It is an easy book to read, with gems of insight and even wisdom.

De Botton claims that, in the West, ‘we have allowed religion to claim as its exclusive domain areas of experience which should rightly belong to all mankind’ (p. 15). He thinks religions have combined theories about ethics and metaphysics with a practical involvement in education, health and other everyday concerns in ways which no secular institution has managed. He proposes a new secular religion of wisdom without doctrine, with secular temples which aim to raise the human spirit, with secular schools and universities which teach morality, not just facts and theories. In short, he proposes a religion without God.

I kept wishing that De Botton had dome some research into existing religions, such as Buddhism, Taoism and Indigenous Australian Religions. I would like him to read Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World and Towards the True Kinship of Faiths, both by the Dalai Lama. He might inquire how Hinduism has many Gods, which some scholars understand as projections of human minds rather than independently existing supernatural beings. De Botton limits his discussion to the Abrahamic Religions, and even here he seems unaware of the acceptance of non-theists in some Jewish and Christian congregations.

Alain De Botton is an atheist brought up by non-observant parents from a Jewish family with a long and proud heritage. He was educated in Anglican boarding schools and at Cambridge University. De Botton writes that ‘for some atheists, one of the most difficult aspects of renouncing religion is having to give up on ecclesiastical art and all the beauty and emotion therein’ (p208). I speculate whether De Botton is worried that a public commitment to atheism means forgoing his Jewish heritage.

This leads me to wonder: ‘Should I tell De Botton about Quakers?’

For more than 300 years many Quakers have not believed in the God described by mainstream Catholics and Protestants. Non-theism is openly discussed and accepted by liberal unprogrammed Meetings in the United States, Britain and Australia. We have the wisdom without doctrine that De Botton seeks, and we bring ethics and transcendence to unity.

But we don’t have some of the other things which De Botton looks for, the sacramental genius of the Mass, the splendour of religious art, the inspiring cathedrals and uplifting music or the Jewish family rituals. Perhaps he would be disappointed by the quiet simplicity of Quaker Worship.

Quakerism may not provide what De Botton is seeking, but my personal hope is that we are and continue to be a religion for atheists.

Links

Click here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Oe6HUgrRlQ ] for video of Alain de Botton talking about this book. For different opinions about this book visit The Guardian, Huffington Post or New Statesman

The Path.

 1206 June 2012, Issue  No Responses »
Mar 112012
 


Grace Verity, Western  Australia Regional Meeting.

 

My path—

The one true path—

Unrolls beside me

One step at a time

From colourful scraps of wool.

I often know where it is going,

And head straight there,

To save myself time,

And humility.

I lose the path.

It takes a long time to find it again.

I need to become smaller than I was,

Lighter.

Then, again, it appears by my side,

Where it always was.

(Perhaps I need to look down more?)

I follow it with renewed faith,

Like a dog receiving training at heel,

Not planning my own way,

Simply alert to follow

the Presence beside me.

The path unfurls more quickly now

And I pass up opportunities to shortcut

Where I think it is heading,

And cleverly, though without cleverness,

do not get lost when

it does not go there at all.

It is like a light,

This path,

One step at a time

Closer to revealing

The mystery.

It is assisted by my putting aside

All my forecasts, all my grabbing

Of certainty, which

Turn to ash in my hand.

But the light,

Simply allowed, and followed

Leads me where I need to go.

That unexpected, marvellous place

I have wanted to go all along.

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