Autumn 2007 Issue
Morning
Thoughts on BBC Radio Solent
25th-28th September 2007 - National Quaker Week
presented by Hazel Inskip,
Southampton
A recent poll found that most people thought that Quakers had died out
years ago. So, this week, Quakers are holding National Quaker Week to
let people know that we still exist and that we don't all eat Quaker
oats, nor do we wear funny hats. Quakers have four testimonies that
they try to live up to. Today I'm going to talk about our Testimony to
Peace. Living up to this is far from easy. It's not just about
pacifism; it's about building Peace on a daily basis. It's about
working at relationships to minimise the threat of conflict. It's about
learning to understand others, a bit like actors understanding the
characters they play. There are a number of famous actors who are
Quakers, such as Sheila Hancock, Judi Dench and the late Paul
Eddington. Actors are required to get inside the skin of the character
they are playing. They need to think, feel and act as their character
would, not as they themselves would do in real life. It's a tough thing
to do well. In a situation of conflict, seeing the problem from our
enemy's view can lead to understanding and peace building. So, thinking
ourselves inside our opponent's skin can be a good way to begin
reconciliation. We can take the skill of the acting profession as a
model for this and try to work towards peace.
....................
This week is National Quaker Week and I'm talking about each of the
four Quaker Testimonies in turn. Today it's Equality. I enjoy singing,
though I don't do it at all well. For a number of years I - along with
a few other Quakers - have been part of an amateur choir, the Conchord
Singers, that puts on concerts in aid of various charities. We have
very mixed abilities in singing, some are extremely talented, others
like me really struggle to hit the right note. But everyone is a valued
member of the choir, independent of their ability. Importantly though,
no one of us could do the work of the choir on our own. We need to work
together. It's a wonderful feeling when it comes off and we do a good
performance. Everything seems to come together. The good singers help
the poorer ones, and the poorer ones lend volume to the general sound.
Each person matters. We stand or fall together. We come from different
backgrounds and have different skills, yet we all get equal credit for
the performance. Equality is not about making everyone the same. It's
about valuing everyone for who they are, and not for their wealth,
colour of skin, sex, age etc. The choir does this well in a very small
way, but it would be great if we could take that much further and value
everyone in society.
....................
"Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics" is commonly quoted at me when
I tell people I'm a statistician. I don't like it - in fact it's rather
offensive as I do try to do my job honestly. But we live in a Society
where bending the truth and spinning politics is all too common.
Quakers have a testimony to Truth and Integrity. It's a hard discipline
but requires us to work at developing our honesty in all that we do. It
sometimes seems so easy to tell little lies to make our lives easier
and to protect ourselves, but working at telling the truth on the small
details will help us face up to the truth when it really matters. My
great-grandfather was a church minister and often had to conduct
christenings. He thought that generally new-born babies were rather
ugly but of course he couldn't say that to the proud new parents. His
line was "My, that is a baby". He'd found a way of telling the truth
and he worked at it. Many early Quaker firms did well due to their
honesty, and now, although mostly no longer Quaker run, they are
household names: Cadbury, Barclays and Clarks for example. Honesty paid
in their case and we need more of it in today's world.
....................
When I was a teenager I did a lot of dress-making. It was the
cheapest
way to get clothes then and I enjoyed doing it. Commonly I used
dress-making patterns made by a company called Simplicity. They had
many patterns that didn't have too much complicating detail and were
straightforward to make. So the name Simplicity was apt. Quakers have
Testimony to Simplicity. This is about trying to live our lives simply
in order to focus on what is most important, and ignore or play down
unnecessary detail - like the dress making patterns. It's not easy in a
consumer society with the pressure to buy and the temptation to live
beyond our means. The American philosopher Thoreau said "Our life is
frittered away by detail - simplify, simplify". He had a point. How
much time do we waste thinking about the next thing we wish to buy,
wondering whether we can get another loan, and worrying what others
think of us? Quakers have long felt that our footprint on the earth
should be light. We shouldn't use more of the world's resources than we
need and we should put whatever we save to good use for others. It's a
worthy objective but one that I do extremely badly. But as we get more
concerned about the dwindling resources on this earth and the need to
live more simply, this Quaker testimony takes on greater urgency.
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Summer 2007 issue
Valuing the
beliefs of our children
by Ruth Cole, Southampton
In our children's class a few weeks before Easter we acted out the
story of the resurrection with the children dressing up as the
characters of the guards, Jesus, Mary, Martha and Magdalene. This made
the children familiar with the exciting parts of the story ready for a
deeper discussion about its meaning on Easter Sunday itself. The five
children who took part were from 4 to 11 years old.
There were four adults present so first we told the children our own
beliefs about what happens when we die and what we think happens
afterwards. Then we asked them, "What do you believe?" We used a
microphone and the results were recorded onto a tape. This is the
transcript from when the children started talking.
Adult
What
do
you
know
about something that has died?
Have you seen anything that has died?
ES
aged 5 A fish. Two fish.
Adult
A
fish.
Tell
me
about the fish.
ES
The
fish
jumped
out
of the fish bowl.
Adult
Why
did
he
die?
What was wrong with that?
ES
He couldn't breathe. It normally happens at night.
The first one jumped into a little pot. The second one, he jumped into
the kitchen.
LH
aged 11 I don't know many people who have
died. I
believe they don't leave until the people who are really close to them
have mourned for them properly. They are around until their people have
mourned for them and their friends are moving on and then they leave to
go somewhere else.
IS
aged 9 I believe that once you die you go
into an
everlasting sleep which makes you feel like you are an angel because
you never wake up until the morning.
SB
aged 4 I'll remember great grandma when
she
dies.
LB
aged 6 I think when you die you haven't
finished
your life. You have another life in heaven and then when you die in
that life you're re-born out of somebody else's tummy but you look
different.
I was fascinated to hear the children's fledgling beliefs. The tape
shows that children of this young age can come up with their own ideas
and beliefs on such topics. By recording them for the meeting, I was
saying "Your views are important. Your beliefs matter to us."
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Spring 2007 issue
The Old
Cemetery, Alton
by Joyce Preddle, Alton Meeting
No slow processing mourners, faithful families
Tending loved ones' graves;
No grateful lovers, finding an escape
From nosey families.
The gate stays shut against the vandals;
Elderly ladies steer reluctant dogs
Between the yews, grossly overgrown;
Graves untended, bearing mundane messages
Extolling worthy merchants, or a mother
"Now at rest" from years of drudgery and wifely duties;
Toppled tombstones, long since fallen angels
Midst ghastly, rain-stained artificial flowers;
All as dead as those who lie beneath
Its close cropped grass - duty of the Council.
And yet - just once a year its life returns;
Under the hedges, round the sombre yews
Carpets of vibrant colour - daffodils
Sporting among late snowdrops
In a sea of crocus, blue and white,
All conscious of their so short time to stay
To leave their message with all sleeping here
"In hope of the resurrection".
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Winter 2007-8 issue
You have made
God small (after R S Thomas)
by Judy Mantle (Jersey Meeting)
You have made God small,
So small I cannot see Him;
Even the tiniest glimpse
Of His shirt-tails eludes me.
You have made Him so small
I cannot feel the warm breeze
Fanned up by His feet as
He hurries past along the road.
You have made God so small
And He has been shrinking daily
Since His huge frame filled my house
Pretending He would protect me.
I have made Him so small
So small I do not miss Him
Like that other father, full of promises
He did not intend to keep.
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Spring 2008 issue
An Ordinary Poem, #451
© Karl Chamberlain
[Karl has been a member of Hampshire
Quakers for about 2 years; this
poem was sent to the Editors of News & Views with an accompanying
letter of greetings dated
March 18th 2008, from Livingston, Texas (Death Row)]
Yesterday I awoke
to the curious dance of shadows
along the ceiling of my cell.
It seemed as if two birds
were upside down, walking
along the ledge outside -
I rose quickly, excited -
imagine my surprise to find
instead, two ordinary convicts,
walking, talking, taking our trash
to the edge of the parking lot.
The glorious Sun shone down, and
reflected its Light, and shadows
up onto the ceiling.
I thought of how the eye works,
mysteriously turning life upside down
and how the mind sets things aright.
But I shouldn't be so surprised
to find men walking on my ceiling,
held up by blue radiance, wondering,
"What happened to our wings???"
With man this may seem impossible,
but God does all sorts of wild things,
surprises and schemes
designed just to get our
ATTENTION, PLEASE!!!
God turns the world upside down
and right side up again
in the most ordinary way.
Won't you join me
for just another day
in paradise? Every day
is the best day of our life.
Glory be to God.
[Footnote: Karl was executed in June
2008 for raping and killing a Dallas woman in 1971. It is reported that
before he died he said,"I am so terribly sorry. I wish I could die more
than once." The scattering of his ashes took place in the Winchester Meeting House Garden on 25th October 2008.]
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Summer 2008 issue
Through My Window
by a Nonagenarian from Alton
My window is the mirror to my world,
The world of which I too was once a part.
At seven twenty Mr X will leave his house,
Returning shortly with the morning paper
From Raj's wonder store just round the corner.
He'll pass the furious peddling paper boy
Earning some coppers for the next "must have".
Now those who drive to work begin to surface,
Casually dressed for comfortable driving,
The suit and tie on hanger in the back;
Scraping ice from windscreens in the winter.
I know the drill, I've done it all before;
The girl who jogs, accompanied by her dogs,
The man who had one, but now walks alone;
The small, white cat, sedately stepping
Across the wall; two days I did not see him, felt concern,
Had accident cut short his feline frolics?
Today he reappeared, so all is well.
I'll now complete my toilet, start
my day.
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Winter 2008 issue
Christmas Party 1925
Little boys and girls in party finery,
crackers, postman's knock and hot mince pies -
This was the party.
Outside the fog, silence as deep as death;
impatient, anxious mother in the car.
I, as eldest, sat by open window
directing the torch unwaveringly on the roadside
as slowly - oh how slowly - we processed.
At last, the friendly candle in the window;
never before so brightly had it shone -
This was the coming home.
Joyce Preddle
Alton
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Spring 2009 issue
Scandals
&
Successes
in
Personality
Disorders
The James Nayler Foundation 11th
Annual Conference, 25th April 2009 at Friends House, London
Bob & Sue Johnson (IOW)
We set up the James Nayler Foundation - a mental health charity - in
1997, following an outpouring of public sympathy and support. This had
resulted from a BBC Panorama documentary which had shown Bob's work in
Parkhurst Prison. The Foundation is named after the "spirit that
delights to do no evil" which James Nayler described in 1660.
The Foundation concerns itself in particular with those suffering
extreme emotional distress. We find many are in prison, many in secure
hospitals and yet many more are in the community where, despite recent
increases in talking therapies, there is still much lack of compassion
and understanding. Families, friends and sufferers are too often in
despair. Underlying all this agony are harmful traumatic experiences.
The Foundation exists to bring these into the light, to show that
solutions exist, based on truth, trust and consent. We have an
unshakable belief that everyone is born lovable, sociable and
non-violent. Our experience is that no one is beyond help. We never
give up.
This has led us to questioning the role of Compulsory Treatment Orders,
compulsory detention, and imprisonment, in particular of the ill,
children and mothers, and the role of medication. At all our annual
conferences we have a policy of inviting talks from the front line from
people who have experienced personality disorders. Thus, over the last
ten years, our conferences have been vehicles for letting people's
voices be heard.
We have heard from prisoners, sufferers, and recoverers, as well as
from professionals who question the orthodoxy and who outline new ways
of working and thinking. We are grateful for their courage in speaking
out - this is a continuing inspiration to us all, and gives hope to
many. We produce the full text of all our conferences so their thoughts
and experience form an increasingly large and uniquely important
record, which has served to create more optimism in this area.
Questioning orthodoxy is neither easy nor comfortable. Building
knowledge and courage is the way forward. Our work impinges on so many
areas of social concern - prisons, homelessness, torture, civil
liberties, peace, justice. Fear is toxic to community, so we are
building on our experience of developing and running an Emotion Support
Centre, to establish fear-free zones. We aim to support individuals,
families, friends and sufferers themselves through email, texting,
telephone and letters. We have also experimented with linked seminars
and development groups. We have a vision of developing and testing a
model for Emotion Support Centres that are robust enough to be copied
and spread throughout the country, and more widely. As this work
becomes better known, we are getting increasing requests for training,
which we wish to pilot and evaluate at the Centre.
Full details of next conference and the workshop and public debate
we're running on the day before, are on our website:
www.JamesNaylerFoundation.org
email admin@jnf.org.uk or phone 01983 731 827.
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Autumn 2009 issue
The Fourth Plinth
by Jane Bennett
This morning at 3 a.m. I stood on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar
Square.
My friend B. was my plinth pal and traveled up to London with me
yesterday. We spent the afternoon at Kew Gardens, visiting the
glasshouses before heading off to the Travelodge at Covent Garden (a
bargain if you're staying in London).
We had to be at Trafalgar Square an hour and a half before, and there
were still a few people around as we walked down. The One&Other
office is bigger than I'd expected, a large double-storey portacabin
type building at the bottom of the square. There was a security search
of our bags, and a check for metal before we were allowed in. There was
a small waiting area with a sofa and chairs, and the 'plinther' before
me. Next to this was the technical centre with computer and video
screens, where the camera angles and sound were explained. I had to
fill in and sign several forms, and then the plinthers were changed
over, and the one o'clock plinther arrived back, very happy with her
stint.
All the plinthers are being interviewed as part of the project; the
conversation is not just about what you're going to do, but about your
life and where you come from, so there will be a snapshot of society at
this moment in time. When the interview finished it was time to dress
up warmly, although the temperatures were mild for the time of year. I
went out to the cherry picker and we headed slowly off from behind the
cabin into the square. Because of the safety nets round the platform
you have to be raised up quite high before it's lowered into place on
the platform edge. The two o'clock man came off the plinth and I was
allowed on - ensuring there's only one plinther on the platform at any
time.
The first thing you notice is that although it's described as 4 ft 11
inches wide that doesn't seem very much when you're suddenly stuck on
it. But after a few moments of vertigo and tentative wandering about I
became used to it.
I took several photos to start with, since it's a unique position for
viewing the square, before setting up my 'exhibit'. The first act was
wishing my brother-in-law 'Happy Birthday' although I found the sign
I'd made for him didn't get picked up by the camera. Then I set out the
two notices which labeled what I was doing. The first was "Silence by A
Quaker" and the second "Inspiration: Sound II by A Gormley". As I
mentioned in my previous update, the sculpture Sound II is in the crypt
of Winchester Cathedral and I've always found it very atmospheric. When
thinking about what I would do, I thought that trying to do a small
homage to that would be within my capability. Initially I hadn't
thought of having a book, but realised it would
be a bit boring staring at my hands for an hour.
I picked the "Advices
& Queries" booklet of the Quakers for practicality, since it's
quite small and light, and for mental stimulus, as one of its uses is
for private reflection, so you can ponder the various sections for a
few minutes each. I wasn't attempting a Quaker Outreach event, since
the time of night rather precluded that, and Peter Davies of Bridgnorth
had already done a successful open-air meeting for worship when he did
his hour in July.
Sound II in
Winchester Cathedral crypt
Close-up
of
the
plinth
I did up my
coat and pulled a hat on, and had gloves ready if required but the
mildness of the night and the heat from the lights surrounding the
plinth were enough to keep me warm, which was just as well since I
wasn't moving much. I stood in the pose of the statue with arms and
head bent so I could read the booklet. My feet were slightly apart and
knees flexed since if you lock your knees and stand for a long time you
keel over - not the highlight I wanted for my performance! Initially I
was at a different angle to the statue since I didn't want to do a
complete copy - that would, after all, have involved me wearing a
silver bodysuit!
It's quite surreal being on the plinth; the lights at night make it
awkward to see anything, and it was also difficult to hear anything
from the square, especially over the sound of traffic. I was
particularly glad to have my friend B. around since I could see the
flash of her camera every now and then, reminding me I wasn't alone. I
settled into thinking about what I was reading, but keeping awareness
of the situation around me. About 40 minutes in (it seemed a shorter
time when I was up there) a young woman asked me what I was reading. I
think she asked a few times, but it took me a while to hear. I'd
decided beforehand that if anyone did ask I would come out of statue
mode since it seemed churlish to just ignore a polite query. So I gave
a muddled explanation of the book and Quakers generally, and when she
asked for a reading, I saw she was with a group and thought that this
one from the page I was on would be suitable:
A&Q 21. Do you cherish your
friendships, so that they grow in depth and understanding and mutual
respect? In close relationships we may risk pain as well as finding
joy. When experiencing great happiness or great hurt we may be more
open to the working of the Spirit.
A bit gloomy for that time of night, but, perhaps cheered by some
alcohol, she expressed gratitude for the thought, and I was equally
grateful for having the chance to move, since my feet were beginning to
ache on the cold concrete. I moved around so I was now matching the
angle of the statue and settled back to reading. The hour ended a lot
sooner than I was expecting, and I gathered up my paraphernalia which
was slightly damp either from dew or the spray from the fountains, and
slipped in one last 'Happy Birthday' still to the wrong camera. Back on
the cherry picker and then back in stately procession to the offices,
where I picked up the stuff I'd left in a locker there, signed the
visitor's book and met up with B. again, before walking back to the
hotel and falling asleep very quickly.
The response from friends and family before and after has been fun.
Since I chose black as my one colour to try and give a consistent
effect, I had some comments of 'Ninja Quaker'! Also since I was wearing
so much and had a high collar, some friends thought I probably looked
like a cross between the statue and the diver William Walker who worked
on Winchester Cathedral. An elderly Quaker friend gave me a small
miniature bottle of alcohol as an emergency measure, in case I was
chilled on the plinth.
I am quite happy with my hour, I may not have looked much like the
statue, but it was a unique experience being a work of art.
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