Eye was at the famous Quaker centre of learning in Birmingham last weekend and - would you believe it - found most of the Friend's editorial staff running a course on 'The Spiritual Journalist'. We suspect the outpourings below from some of the twenty-one participants will enable the editor to take a few weeks off! (Some chance! - Ed.)

Labels: brum, woodbrooke

The doorkeeper rota comes round about four times a year at Blackheath Meeting, writes Elizabeth Angas. I love greeting people with a handshake and a smile, adjusting these appropriately for each individual concerned. It means continuing to stay at the front entrance after Meeting has begun, so one can let in latecomers.

Then, having taken my ‘reserved’ seat just inside the Meeting room, I still have to remain alert. There is a light to watch for, indicating that the outside bell has been rung. This means one is unable to settle down into Meeting with closed eyes. How to overcome the feeling that I am not part of the ‘centring down’ being experienced by everyone else? How to still tune into the Holy Spirit so that I become a channel for that healing and creative power?

I have solved this dilemma. I concentrate wholly on the light bulb. It becomes my metaphor for the Light.

Labels: blackheath, light

Pelmanism can help your spiritual journalism! Sally Mason was surprised to be faced with a card game as an aide memoire to writing for the Friend. 'The essential skill needed', she observes, 'is not, as you might suppose, possession of a pen, paper, laptop and a subject to write about, but the ability to remember where two sevens, aces, kings or whatever lie in a pack of cards spread face down on a table. Naturally, the only ones capable of demonstrating this skill were those who play the game regularly with their grandchildren.'
The editor hastens to assure readers that the staff aren’t playing cards in smoky rooms all day! (Try this game - see how it teaches you to make mental connections and links, invaluable for expanding the mind when writing - Ed.)

Labels: cards, pelman, pelmanism

Participants showed innovative thinking. Ann Boot thought Advices & Queries 13 could hold valuable help for spiritual journalists, with just a tweak or two:

'Do not assume that written ministry is never to be your part. Faithfulness and sincerity in writing, even very briefly, may open the way to fuller ministry from others. When prompted to write, wait patiently to know that the leading and the time is right, but do not let a sense of your own unworthiness hold you back. Pray that your written ministry may arise from deep experience, and trust that words will be given to you. Try to write audibly and distinctly, and with sensitivity to the needs of others. Beware of writing predictably or too often, and of making additions towards the end of your script when it was well left before.'

Labels: advices, queries

Eye was amused to hear that the home of the football team called 'the Quakers' - Darlington - also hosts another Friendly tradition. A local butcher makes 'Quaker sausages'. We wondered what ingredient rendered them Quakerly, and discovered from the participant who lives in that town that they are very pure and what’s on the label is what’s inside'. A marketing campaign is called for here, to displace the awful Quaker oats.

Labels: darlington, quaker oats, sausages

We were heartened by the enthusiasm of the Friends who tackled the Spiritual Journalist course. Journalism is not a profession but a skilled craft which needs practice and discipline. We at the Friend are encouraged that people want to engage in this as a modern expression of their beliefs.

Coleraine Friends are relieved to be back in their Meeting house after a major facelift. The clerk, Veronica Young, sent us this account:

'It has been a long haul, but the result is well worth it. The warden's flat is now totally self-contained, no more sharing of kitchen and bathroom. The lower floor is disabled friendly and there is room for a proper welcome to be shown to visitors before they enter 'the jewel in the crown', the new Meeting room. What was once a scruffy garage full of junk is now a beautifully simple, eco-friendly space with a James Turrell-inspired ceiling (though we do have glass in the skylight). The whole room is conducive to peace and worship.

'The meeting would like to express its thanks to all the Meetings and individuals in Britain and Ireland Yearly Meetings who have supported us. You will be welcome to visit us at any time, just don’t all come at once - we do not have a very big Meeting room, even now.

'Our biggest debt of gratitude goes to John Chilvers, who by one of those coincidences that do crop up, has found that his first and last projects as an architect have been extensions to Quaker Meeting houses. The first was at Derby in 1971-72, which he remembers with great fondness and was perhaps the first step on his journey to membership of the Religious Society of Friends. As a member of Coleraine Meeting this is his final project before retiring to move on to pastures new. We thank him from the bottom of our hearts.'

If the RSPB report on the effect of climate change on the British bird population last week depressed you, look at it this way. The black-throated diver, snow bunting, capercaillie and dotterel may find the UK climate inhospitable in future ('it doesn’t bear thinking about,' said the editor, who is particularly fond of the diver.) but we would instead start to see the purple heron, hoopoe, Scops owl and serin in our country. The owl is a particularly striking bird, which we have accorded our front page this week. Eye loves its menacing look, so amusing in such a tiny owl (about eight inches tall). It reminds us of how the editor looks after a day of reader complaints. For those of you who follow the Harry Potter epics, you may not know that Ron Weasley's mail carrier bird is a Scops. Obviously a star bird, and we would welcome it to our shores.

You don't have to be at home to study these days - there is now a solar-powered talking Bible that can plug you into Leviticus or Revelations as you do the shopping or wait for a bus. Human voice recordings deliver either New or Old Testaments to you via ear phones or speaker on this hand-held gadget. And Muslims can find prayer times for cities around the world on their mobiles now with some new software. How far God has come.

In describing a concern for the welfare of animals bred for food as 'illogical', and later as 'hypocritical' (letters, 18 January) we would like to point out that we were referring to Eye's own ambivalence in this matter and not to any of our readers' attitudes to animal welfare. We are sorry for any offence caused.

Labels: apology

Astonishing safety precautions were put in place around the Ramallah Friends School last week when George Bush paid a visit.

We read in the Jerusalem Post how Bush's entourage of security people flooded the area with sniffer dogs, bomb signal-jamming equipment, sniper marksmen, decoy helicopters and arranged for 10,000 police to surround Jerusalem. Hardly a heart-warming welcome.

The school's carport was used in practice runs for the helicopters, which were to ferry the US president to Mahmoud Abbas's HQ in Ramallah. Whether the landing site was the school or Abbas's Mukata compound was a closely guarded secret until the actual arrival. Marksmen took up positions on roofs. In the event fog forced the cavalcade onto the roads.

The West Bank was closed down for the visit, leaving any humanitarian needs of Palestinians to be co-ordinated by government agencies. Three doctors travelled with the president in case he was injured, and space was set aside on the US president's plane, Air Force One, for an operating theatre.

We wondered what the children made of all this.

Labels: abbas, bush, ramallah

We were not surprised that some of the truly successful ideas during National Quaker Week involved Quakers taking themselves outside.

Tom Harris, the outreach development officer, in his summary for Meetings, says that enquirers appear to appreciate Quakers making the effort to meet them where they are, rather than hoping they will come to us.

Meetings held outdoors in town squares, Friends wearing Q-badges, thus inviting street enquiries, and released balloons with attractive Quaker designs all seemed to have pulling power.

Yes, we should get out more.

Quakers in Criminal Justice are not without their lighter side. This contribution (no doubt from a gentleman 'on the inside') was spotted in the network's newsletter -
'"Swearword Cricket", a game for three players, one of whom does not know a game is being played. To be played in association time, it distracts from the monotony of prison life.'
The two men who know they are playing take turns to be IN. They listen to the third man’s conversation. Each time he utters a sentence containing a swearword, the man who is IN scores a run. For two swearwords in the same sentence, score 4; for three, score 6. If he utters a sentence without a swearword, the first player is OUT and his friend gets an innings. They alternate until one of the following events occurs: the bell rings for the end of association time; the pool table becomes vacant; the cocoa arrives; or Who Wants to be a Millionaire is about to come on the telly.

Labels: prison, swearword cricket

Eye commends Quaker Action on Alcohol & Drugs for introducing an interfaith perspective on addiction in its winter issue of QAADRANT.

The director of the Hindu Council UK, Suraj Sehgal, explained something of the Hindu approach to drinking, gambling and drug dependency.

It's non-judgemental, as you would expect, but addiction is viewed under the five main vices - greed, anger, jealousy, obsession and haughtiness.

So gambling would come under 'greed': the excessive love of money, particularly that acquired without effort or labour.

In Hindu scripture the downside of this can be seen in the Mahabharata where a crown prince loses his kingdom through gambling.

Indulgences, explained Suraj, keep people away from living the spiritual life. But his religion does not prescribe what to do.

Labels: hindu, qaad

QHA volunteer Colin Rendall enjoyed the best Christmas dinner he has had since he dined aboard a collier as it loaded in Sunderland on 25 December 1953. His 2007 experience was shared by the guests and volunteers who helped to make Quaker Open Christmas 2007 (QOC) at the Union Chapel, Islington, the most peaceful on record. Last month's QOC was 'dry', bed space (on folding beds) was booked by daily referral, and the Friends and friends of Friends who served as willing volunteers included an invaluable half dozen who work throughout the year on the Union Chapel's several schemes aimed at addressing homelessness in Islington and beyond. One possible consequence of the new-style QOC may be that QHA and its extraordinarily generous donors (and eager volunteers) can link directly into year-round programmes. Providing guests with good food, warm beds, fresh clothes and good fellowship are the aims of QOC. This year, the peace and good order that reigned throughout, made space for much recreation and good fellowship. The snap of jigsaw pieces was the defining sound of QOC 2007 and, also, the defining 'snap' when Barbara Smith, Islington’s mayor, joined guests and volunteers on a most memorable Christmas Day.

Labels: barbara smith, qoc, quaker

In the last Independent on Sunday edition of 2007 Eye read an article where figures in the public eye picked their heroes of the year. Symon Hill, of Campaign Against Arms Trade and an attender at Westminster Meeting, was one of those chosen, in recognition of his organisation's dedicated work. He told Eye: 'I'm really chuffed. The nomination is really for CAAT as a whole - and for the thousands of people who are playing a part in the Campaign to Control BAE.'
Symon has continued with his tireless work already in 2008, appearing in The Big Issue column 'King for a Day'. If Symon were king, he would reopen the Serious Fraud Office corruption inquiry into BAE Systems and Saudi arms deals. He would also end subsidies to the arms trade and be tough on corporate crime.
Time for a change of monarch, any one?

Labels: caat, hill, king, monarchy

How many of you like to curl up with a good science fiction (SF) novel? And have you noticed Friends popping up in the pages? It has been brought to our attention that Quakers appear in such literature with more frequency than many other faith characters. If you are an SF aficionado then the names of Joan Slonczewski, Olaf Stapledon, Piers Anthony and David Morse will have occurred to you.
Intrigued, we looked up a literary research website (adherents.com) and found there was some truth in this assertion. 'There are more significant works of science fiction about Quakers, or with significant reference to Quakers, than there are to many much larger denominations, such as Presbyterians, Methodists or Lutherans,' claims the site, which has a Religion in Literature database.
Is this to infer that Quakers have exceptionally creative fantasy lives? There is a more intellectual explanation of course. They have many cultural distinctions distinguishing them from other protestant denominations, says the site politely. 'They are more pro-science than other faith groups. Quakers have a strong literary tradition and no theological proscriptions against writing science fiction.' Pacifism also appeals to SF writers, apparently.
We had a peep at one or two of the titles. Molly Gloss's The Dazzle of Day starts 100 years hence, with Quakers abandoning an ailing earth and searching for another home in a self-sustaining spaceship (it would have to be, wouldn’t it?) Judith Moffett's Penterra is considered the most prominently Quaker (describing a Quaker-colonised world) although not the best introduction to the Religious Society of Friends. That appears to be reserved for The Iron Bridge by David E Morse.

Labels: science fiction

Eye is happy to report that William West, our intrepid Quaker cyclist, has completed his marathon Lands End to John O'Groats ride for charity. William has raised more than £1,000 for HIV counselling in Kenya and he was assailed by donors wherever he went – even 'given money out of a car window at traffic lights.'
His journey was 1014 miles in sixteen days, although not all in one go. After 422 miles in six days he needed a three-day break to recover from a sore throat and aching legs. 'I felt like I was on some kind of pilgrimage that people could see and respond to', he tells us. He carried a colourful poster on the bike about his journey. 'It was hard work, it was occasionally boring, it was fun, illuminating, exciting, the scenery was stunning especially in the Highlands in Scotland, and I was able to ruminate in a good way on my life and sort out the odd problem to boot.'
William, who goes to Altrincham Meeting, had 1,000 visitors to his blog, www.billonbike.blogspot.com. Here are a few observations he made on the blog as he wound his way up the country:
'I feel tired, a bit sore, but delighted. I have faced some demons and fears and potential failure and come through…' 'I so much like cycling in Scotland and want to return soon. I am no speedy cyclist… I plod on and get there in the end…' 'there must be a cyclist's prayer somewhere? I have a vague memory of a Celtic travellers' prayer something about the road meeting you…' 'I mused on some things that troubled me, some things that troubled me I thought I would muse on I didn't and some things I didn't know troubled me I mused on… mostly I was travelling in the moment… a kind of extended meditation or Quaker worship.'

Labels: bicycle, billonbike, hiv, kenya

We've had one suggestion so far of who the Quaker character appearing in an Aldous Huxley novel is. Well, not so much the character as the book he/she might appear in. 'Eyeless in Gaza (1936) deals with pacifism,' Kathy Bell tells us. 'It might be a good starting place.' The character has a rather Quakerly habit of addressing people with their first name and surname. But who is it? Any advance on Eyeless in Gaza?

Labels: eyeless, gaza, huxley

Our Friend Alan Russell points out that Marsden PM has become Pendle Hill LM. 'Surely there is some mileage for musings in that?' he suggests. These name changes certainly are proving interesting.

You never know what will be stirred up when you write for The Friend. Bob Johnson, who pens us occasional pieces, found his old school catching up with him recently. After his piece 'God, good and other Quaker beliefs' (26 October) appeared, Bootham School's Jane Peake spotted a style she recognised. 'I was struck by its clear insight and straightforwardness and I began to wonder if it had been written by a Bootham Old Scholar,' and she wrote to him via us. She looked up the register and saw Robert Alfred Johnson who attended from 1949 to 1955. 'Is this you?' she asked. Bob was quite taken aback. 'Fancy my having a recognisable 'Bootham style' after fifty years!'

Labels: bootham scholar

Eye can see that the future is on two wheels. We hesitate to mention the word 'lottery' on these pages, but in a poll of the public just before Christmas nearly half voted for Sustrans, the bicycle network charity, to take £50m of lottery money and improve national cycleways.
One can only look into the courtyard at Friends House to see the signs of success for cycling: overparking is becoming a problem. With only two free-standing racks - and no more permission for fixed racks because of listed building status - there is a daily scramble for parking space. The resulting tangle of mounts is not pleasing to the eye and Friends have been asked to park more prettily.
We see this as the tip of the iceberg. If cycling is made safer by more off-road routes there could be a revolution in personal travel, leaving motorised travel for older people, disabled people and shoppers. Eye visualises an emergent figure on our streets and courtyards - the cycle traffic warden who will slap fixed penalty notices on your handlebars.*
* They are already here!

Labels: sustrans lottery bicycle

A reader has jumped to our defence for saying that it is illogical to treat animals compassionately until they are killed for food (Lobsters in the shell, Eye 23 November).
This prompted a response in Letters (7 December) pointing out that the humane treatment of food animals is important. 'Animals die hideously in the wild', said the correspondent 'humans can do better'.
Fiona Owen from Holyhead Meeting took issue with this. Abattoirs were the human version of killing and had the correspondent visited one? 'They are immense, industrialised units', says Fiona. 'The work is done mechanically. We must not fool ourselves: animals do suffer "hideously" at the hands of humankind.'
We were pleased to see that our Christmas issue carried a hopeful report of the latest molecular developments in medical research which take away the need for animal models. Eye knows many readers are deeply uneasy about the human record in animal welfare. Progress to change is painfully slow but it wasn't that long ago when bears were baited in the street and it was considered legitimate entertainment.

Labels: animals abattoir welfare

Eye spent a perfectly pleasant afternoon over Christmas in an antiquarian bookstore speedreading an early edition of Eyeless in Gaza (the book was rather expensive). We asked readers who the Aldous Huxley character was in the novel who resembled a Quaker. The clue was the way the character addressed another person with full name each time he spoke. We had some help. Eric Ingram wrote to say it was James Miller, an Edinburgh doctor. 'I thought you would be swamped with information', said Eric. Well, no, and it is certainly not clear whether doctor Miller was a Quaker. He appears to have been a pacifist. Lawrence Ambrose wrote in referring to Miller as a 'Quaker-like' character who first appears in chapter XLIX during January 1934. 'But because of the structure of the novel, dodging to and fro in time, he is mentioned in earlier chapters.'
There was a further complication in that the BBC serialised Simon Raven's dramatisation of Eyeless in the 1970s. This has the 'Quaker' connection appearing in the Mexican desert as a Buddhist, persuading the central character Anthony Beavis into pacifism and mysticism.
We are no wiser now but inclined to read more Huxley. Was he a closet Quaker?

Labels: huxley

Our latest profile of a 20th century Quaker notable (Kathleen Lonsdale, pages 8 and 9) provoked schoolgirl memories for our trustee Rosemary Hartill. In the early sixties Rosemary was a pupil at Wellington High School and one day the eminent scientist arrived to talk to them. Lonsdale, it seems, was keen to interest pupils in science, particularly girls. 'I had never seen the headmistress so in awe of anyone', Rosemary recalls. 'Lonsdale was impressive and I remember a sparkling performance'.

Labels: lonsdale

Our Friend Susan Hartshorne has drawn our attention to a - probably - little known aspect of William Penn's governance of Pennsylvania. Susan has been following The Friend's excerpts from David Yount's book How the Quakers Invented America. 'What he doesn't mention is that William Penn's laws were written in inclusive, non-sexist language', observes Susan. And she has sent us his first Great Law:

'No person now or at any time hereafter living in this Province who shall confess and acknowledge one Almighty God to be the Creator Upholder and Ruler of the World and that professeth him or herself obliged in Conscience to live peaceably and justly under the Civil Government shall in any case be molested or prejudiced for his or her conscientious persuasion or practice nor shall he or she at any time be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious worship place or ministry whatever contrary to his or her mind but shall freely and fully enjoy his or her Christian liberty without any interruption or reflection and if any person shall abuse or deride any other for his or her different persuasion and practice in matters of religion such shall be looked upon as a disturber of the peace and be punished accordingly.'
Apart from the lack of full stops, which had Eye gasping, we agree with Susan that this is remarkable language for the 17th century.
'Not all documents (legal or otherwise) are written in inclusive language today - though they should', says Susan. 'Also, the content of William Penn's Great Law above, although not interfaith, shows a toleration of difference far in advance of most others of his time.'

From 9 November paper edition

Eye spent a delightful day in Scotland viewing the Rosslyn Chapel, that mysterious medieval church which found itself catapulted into the limelight when a certain book and Hollywood film made it a prime location. The Da Vinci Code has been no bad thing for this building, which needs a £14m facelift. The Scottish climate has been unkind to the intricate stone carvings, many of which have prompted speculations linking the chapel with the Knights Templar and the Freemasons.

Eye's disingenuous guide Simon ('or Keith if you wish to complain about my talk') explained that the crypt has created considerable curiousity. Whatever is down there? The Grail? Bodies of Knights in armour? 'Elvis'? suggested the cheeky Simon. But a scan of the area (which appears to have no entrance) just revealed a mess. Of course, the crypt will not be opened for another ten years or so, while the renovations continue. Meanwhile the whole world is beating a path to the Chapel and 170,000 visitors were recorded last year.

There's a lesson here. If your building needs a new roof, just unearth a secret or two and get a novelist to write it into a mystery.

From 9 November 2007:

Our reader poll of significant Friends has thrown up many fascinating paths to follow. A reader mentioned Marie Stopes as an influential Quaker. Was she? We took a look at this fiery radical's life and discovered Quaker links in the family (her paternal grandfather was a Friend) but a rather coy approach by Marie herself. It seems she attended Meeting when young and may have found a claim to Quakerism helpful when being accused (as she was) of Godlessness. It all appears to have stemmed from a quote in a book published in 1993 (Crown and Mitre - religion and society in modern Europe in the 1960s, published by Boydell Press) which referred to her as 'the Quaker Marie Stopes'.

In the Friends House Library manuscript collection there is a letter from Marie to M Ethel Crawshaw written in 1923 with permission for one of her poems to be reprinted in The Friend. And we know that Marie mixed with Friends, such as Thomas and Anna Haslam, also pioneers of female suffrage and birth control. But we feel she might not have been convinced.

We know from our researches that Arthur Eddington was a very private man. So there might be a stirring of controversy when the BBC screens a drama next year which does bring the personal side of Eddington’s life into focus. The film, Einstein and Eddington is currently being filmed on location in Croatia, Hungary and Cambridge. It tells the story of how Eddington championed Einstein's general theory of relativity and brought the theory to world attention. Readers might be intrigued at the choice of actor to play Eddington. It's David Tennant, the current Doctor Who.