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the Friend - Independent Quaker journalism since 1843
November 22, 2007
Lobsters in the Shell
Did Cornish and Dorset Friends make a connection to one of their own recently when a research story proclaimed that lobsters feel pain?
There's a fascinating historical tale here. When a professor at Belfast University ran a trial to discover if crustaceans felt pain - and concluded that they did - Friends House library staff sniffed a Quaker link to this. Past tracts were scrutinised, and sure enough, one was found from the early 19th century illuminating the Quaker concern for cruelty to lobsters. We are not completely sure - the records don’t actually explain the links - but it seems that a convinced Quaker Anna Forster (formerly Buxton) set up a petition and consumer boycott of lobsters caught on the west coast of the country which had their claws pegged in a rather barbaric manner. Anna had lived both in Weymouth (where the petition was printed) and Cornwall and her name is handwritten on the tract which urged the public not to buy lobsters so treated. A past archivist obviously knew of her involvement.
The Cornish lobsters appeared to have been treated differently to those from other parts, where the creatures had their claws tied. This, said the petition, was a more humane method. Eye feels compelled to point out the flawed logic here. Treat them better until you kill them to eat.
In his recent article on the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Romania (9 November), Richard Seebohm mentioned, almost in passing, that the Old Catholic Church ordained women. Theological laggards that we are, we had never heard of these 'Old Catholics'. Who are they and how did they come to ordain women, surely in the teeth of fierce opposition? We turned to the internet to discover that Old Catholics are a breakaway 'sect', who in the 19th century found the papal infallibility dogma of Vatican 1 completely unacceptable (they called it an 'innovation').
At the Romanian Assembly Monika Heitz, of the Old Catholic Church in Austria, said that the ordination of women to the priesthood in the OC Church (taking place at Pentecost 1996) went very smoothly; 'it did not provoke reactions as stormy as had been feared.' She put that down to the decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women (1988-1998). Readers with access to the internet can read all about the history of this Church, which although not very big (some estimates put 40,000 worshippers in Europe) has some astonishing liberal attitudes, such as married priests and mass delivered in the vernacular. When they broke away in the 19th century they were hailed by the world's liberal press. But they are persona non grata in Rome of course.
An erudite reader has a complaint about Quaker grammar. We can't help her with syntax, but maybe one of you can? She writes: 'Can anyone explain the Quaker attachment to the conditional - in minute after minute it crops us - 'we would agree' 'we would encourage' 'we would hope'. Would needs to be followed by 'if' - 'if so and so agrees' 'if they want to go' 'if appropriate', but it never is. I am mystified. I don't know if any grammars refer to the suspended conditional, but it ought to be in the canon.'
The collaborative online diary of The Friend: independent Quaker journalism from the UK since 1843. Currently in test stage, featuring items from the magazine and other bloggable snippets
