WEST SOMERSET AREA
QUAKER MEETING NEWSLETTER
JANUARY 2011
The Work that Reconnects:
From Overwhelm to Vibrant Living
10am-5pm.Saturday 9th April 2011
Quaker Meeting House
High Street, Wellington. TA21 8RA
Feeling overwhelmed and helpless in the face of environmental, economic and social challenges?
The Work That Reconnects is an experiential workshop process that supports individuals to:
connect to themselves, each other and the natural world
express feelings of concern for planetary issues
find ways towards a sustainable future
Developed by visionary ecologist elder Joanna Macy (www.joannamacy.net),
it can transform worry and despair into creative, collaborative action
with the aim of rekindling our joy and gratitude for life
and our sense of purpose in the world.
Facilitated by Fran Hicks and Sally Lever.
Fran Hicks is a trained art therapist, counsellor, Quaker
and core member of Transition Taunton. She has run groups
in mental wellbeing, deep ecology and exploring spirituality.
Sally Lever is an experienced personal and business coach,
writer, speaker and workshop leader, specialising in living
and working sustainably.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~£12 per person booking fee + optional dana (donation) on the day.
Vegan soup and bread based lunch provided. Please bring a small vegetarian or vegan salad or dessert to share.
Chairs available or bring your own meditation cushion or stool.
Bookings and further information:
Sally Lever - sally@sallylever.co.uk - 01749 674842.
SOUTH SOMERSET PEACE GROUP
On Tuesday 22nd February South Somerset Peace Group are holding a public meeting when Rebecca Tinsley will talk about "Sacrificing Darfur", describing how the USA and UK governments are sacrificing Darfur for the sake of the ongoing
'war on terror'. She will draw on her six years of experience working on Sudan since her 2004 visit to Darfur.
Rebecca is Chair of Waging Peace - www.wagingpeace.info - an organisation that campaigns against genocide and systematic human rights abuses, with a particular focus on Africa and on atrocities overlooked by the international community, where minorities have been persecuted on racial or religious grounds.
The meeting will be held in the Minster Rooms, Ilminster at 7.30 pm.
All welcome - entry £3 including tea/coffee.
Saturday 19th February Peace Vigil Victoria Hall Crewkerne 11-12
CIVIL LIBERTIES: WHAT A STATE TO BE IN!
This was the title of an excellent Regional Gathering on April 17th at Sidcot. By the end of the day we had been reminded of the number of changes going on that affect our personal liberties and are changing the kind of society in which we are living. Nor were they remote from the experience of those present. We all live under the gaze of surveillance cameras and automatic car plate registration number readers. We may well be photographed by the police if we go on a demonstration, however non-violently. Many of us have to be CRB checked with the risk that incorrect, or out of date, information may prejudice the result. One of those at RG told us how her house had been burgled six times but only her personal papers had been gone through. She had been prominent in animal rights demonstrations. Another Friend had taken part in a trial run of the next census form just at the time he was sheltering a young woman escaping from a dangerous situation – should he include her if she feared it would mean she could be located? In small groups, we exchanged our views on these and other issues in which the state may want to over-ride our privacy.
Friends are not blinkered. We do know that we need protection from criminals and that acts of violence and terrorism do happen. Roger Iredale, one of the speakers, looked at the paranoia that can result so that governments bring in laws that result in sweeping powers for the authorities. Modern information recording methods mean that vast data banks are being assembled to which large numbers of people have access. How secure, accurate and respected are the results? From loyalty cards to the new NHS records system we are all sucked in. There are immediate advantages, but serious questions about possible future use of information and the use of private firms to look after some of it. Roger raised particular concerns for the more vulnerable people in society, those with learning difficulties for instance, in understanding what was being recorded about them.
We were asked to list the fears with which we lived personally and then given the tough question “Which of your civil liberties would you forego for the interest of society as a whole?” On the roads, we are willing to drive in accordance with the rules and not our personal whims, but in the realm of protest what counts as free speech and what as incitement to violence?
Richard Drake, our second speaker, reminded us of the freedoms we enjoy for association, assembly, religion and speech, and of our rights to fair trials and privacy. Crucial to these is trust between people and their institutions. These can break down, for instance if the police use “profiling” to target particular types of people. Or if government takes the attitude that society is made up of a majority who are threatened by minorities who can be labelled and seen as the source of tensions. Thus, for instance, the wearing of headscarves by Muslim women becomes a big issue in society because of all the associated fears.
A week before, I had been at the Amnesty International annual meeting. It was opened most movingly by a young Burmese woman whose father was in prison for his involvement in pro-democracy demonstrations. “This meeting could not take place in Burma”, she said. We do enjoy many freedoms in our country. We need to stay alert to their erosion.
A really good outline of the issues relating to civil liberties is given in a booklet published at the time of yearly meeting last year, “Seven Quakers and Civil Liberties: personal liberty and the authoritarian state”. It is edited by Roger Iredale and well worth reading. Borrow a copy or get one from the Quaker Book Shop at Friends House.
Chris Lawson
FUND RAISING EVENT
One day in the not-too-distant future, when the weather is warm and my 2010 experiences of broken bones, flu and snow are but distant memories, I plan to hold a
PURPLE BRING AND BUY SALE
to raise funds for Purple Fields Productions. In the meanwhile, please look out for
any purple items you could donate to the sale and either hand them to myself
or Zoe or leave them, clearly labelled, at Wellington Meeting House.
Many thanks. Avril Silk.
DO QUAKERS COMPLAIN TOO MUCH?
Prompted both by some recent ministry and subsequent conversations as well as some doubts about whether Quakers centrally were active enough on some major issues, I have wondered whether Friends individually and corporately resemble the grumpy old men (and women) portrayed on TV.
Complaining may be a British trait – the whingeing Pom – but where does it come from? I believe that feelings of fear and powerlessness are often elements, both about the issues themselves and maybe compounded by individuals’ own past experiences. What Friends complain of may differ from many in society. Rather than complaining that Muslims are taking over or about the wickedness of speed cameras or high taxes, what troubles us are often discrimination against the marginalized, dealing with peak oil or the effect of public spending cuts. How can any one of us hope to solve any of these huge problems?
Historically Quakers have challenged the conventions of the day. Complaining can be a starting point on the route from silence to action, a topic that will be explored in the upcoming Quaker Quest. In that route words in business meetings, as an integral part of the process of discernment and of communication are essential – as is the allowing of the divine to speak to us in the silence. It may be an initial and natural reaction to the “pain for the world”. It is when the initial complaining leads nowhere that it is purely negative and when repeated too often, tedious and ineffective.
Many of the matters that most concern Friends are complex and overwhelming. How do we deal with the feelings of powerlessness they engender? There is both the internal work exemplified by Joanna Macys’ “The Work that Reconnects” or the new field of ecopsychology and the external way of taking action. Within this area meeting, there is Elspeth Waldie’s inspiring work in making films in developing countries, supported by other individual Friends and friends and now financially by Area meeting; Minehead Meeting’s lead in commissioning an energy survey; the input into the TransitionTown and peace movements. Nationally we can see the work of ecumenical accompaniers in Israel and Palestine, the behind-the scenes-input at United Nations and the contribution of individual peace workers. All arise from what we define as a concern – maybe often a complaint re-defined as something positive.
We can all take smaller actions as a cog in a much larger wheel, whether that is writing to our MP, joining a demonstration or doing “back-room” tasks. Can we remind ourselves that there is that of God in us all and accept that we are all trying in our own small way to live up to Quaker values of simplicity, equality and peace? And that what we do is valuable.
So let us not be afraid to complain but when we do let us say to ourselves or our fellow grumps, “So what shall we do to make a change, however small a step it is?” And we might want to share that in ministry next Sunday or in the newsletter or just with another F(f)riend.
Afterword
I googled Quakers and complaining and found the following on the website “Worldview 2040”:
“I wonder about the actual Quakers and never hear about the Quakers complaining about how their image being used on the oatmeal is disrespectful.”
John Ainsworth
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NEWS FROM PURPLE FIELD PRODUCTIONS
I have been asked to introduce myself to you after my recent appointment as Administrative Assistant with the Purple Field Productions, a post which I believe the Friends have made possible by a generous donation.
I have been a self-employed counsellor for over nine years working with a counselling charity in Somerset, as well as seeing private clients in Ilminster and Taunton. This work is very important to me and I enjoy it enormously, and I hope is of benefit to those I work with.
Until September, I also worked for many years as a part-time Senior Youth Worker for Somerset County Council, working on behalf of disabled young people, but, due to the massive cuts we are all facing in Somerset, I had to take voluntary redundancy.
My administrative experience comes from earlier posts in schools, and a mental health charity in Taunton so, as I was keen to find a job that I could do alongside my counselling work, I started looking for a small administrative post. And I was very fortunate to have found PFP! For reasons which are a mystery to me I have always had an interest in African culture particularly, am drawn to African music and love the vibrancy of the fabrics.
So, I am very pleased to have been appointed to this post which is so interesting and unusual, (something I could not have anticipated) and to have the opportunity to work with Elspeth, who I think is inspirational in her approach to helping local people effect changes in their own lives and communities through the medium of film.
Vivienne Noyce
I am now pleased to update you on what’s happening at PFP:
THE NEXT PROJECT: AN AGRICULTURE EDUCATION FILM FOR MALAWI
WHY? Farmers in Malawi face the growing threat of climate change. In the last two decades, droughts and floods have increased in frequency and intensity. Food security is seriously at risk, and the livelihoods of the poorest farmers are the worst affected. Many have difficulty growing enough food just to feed their own families.
HOW CAN A FILM HELP? Purple Field Productions will work with local farmers who have had the opportunity to try out new methods of agriculture and conservation. Film will enable them to share their knowledge and experience regarding those methods that have proved successful - and to demonstrate the practices they have found most effective.
WHAT AND WHEN? We plan to send a film crew out to Malawi in August 2011. We will work with a local NGO, Total LandCare, who have expert agricultural knowledge and the means to screen the finished film in an estimated 1000 rural communities throughout Malawi. It is also planned to show it on Malawi television and to make it available to other NGOS who can use it. But first we need to raise the funds. Our crew will consist of professional filmmakers who will give of their time and skills on a voluntary basis - but recruitment, airfares, equipment and other expenses are expected to cost nearly £5,000.
SPECIAL EVENTS IN FEBRUARY
The Premiere of our latest Film – THE TIME IS NOW – will take place at the British Council in Accra on February 4th. “The Time is Now” campaigns for increased services for children in Ghana with cerebral palsy. It will be available in the UK from February 5th onwards, and we should be delighted to send or bring it to any Meeting interested in screening it.
MAWA LANGA, our HIV and AIDs awareness drama for schoolchildren, which PFP made in association with Temwa and YONECO in Malawi last summer, will receive the award for Best drama over thirty minutes at the Picture This …film festival taking place in Calgary, Canada. Again, if any Meeting hasn’t seen this film and would like to see it, please contact Vivienne at admin@purplefieldproductions.org
Purple Field Productions, 10 Hill View Terrace, Ilminster, Somerset TA19 9AL
www.purplefieldproductions.org - Registered charity No. 1127076
STOP PRESS FROM ELSPETH
Tremendous News! Mawa Langa has won an award at the "2011 Picture This... Film Festival" in Calgary, Canada !! The same festival at which Radio Bhai won an award two years ago. This award is for the best drama of over thirty minutes in length. For full details, please see the Festival website - http://www.ptff.org It is a tremendous credit to all the team and especially to our child actors. I just can't wait to get the news to them. H opefully, too, an award such as this will get more publicity for the film in Malawi, and thus aid distribution so that we can get Mawa Langa's HIV/AIDS message to even more children. That's what matters most of all.
MAWA LANGA LAUNCHED IN MALAWI
The launch of the HIV awareness drama, Mawa Langa, made by PFP in conjunction with Temwa and YONECO, took place at the Pacific Hotel, Llongwe on Friday, November 19th 2010 in the presence of the Hon. Dr Lucious Kanyumba, Minister for Youth Development and Sports.
The young hero and heroine, Innocent Green (Tobias) and Thandiwe Nkhoma (Effie), were also able to attend the launch and meet the Minister from whom they both received rare, but well-earned, praise.
An article appearing in the national daily, “The Nation”, on Monday 22nd states that in an interview after watching the film the Minister said it was touching that the two children starring in the film deliver real-life experience with passion. “What I like most,” Dr Kanyumba explained, “is the passion from the main characters. Also that it is in our local language. Its style and approach is to generate discussion and most importantly its story is about children in present day Malawi. It is about our children.”
Elspeth Waldie
SPICELAND AND OUR AREA MEETING REMEMBERED
Jocelyn Rennie Podhalicz, now living in the north of Scotland, wrote to Chris Lawson recently with memories of the time she and her family lived in our area. Here’s some of what she says:
…. I’m writing in response to your article in March ‘Quaker Voices’about meeting houses in West Somerset, in which you took me down memory lane, as it was in Spiceland Meeting that I first learned to be a Friend fifty years ago. I was lucky enough to find Elsie Woodgate as Nanny for my two infant children; and she and Ernest, who was engaged in much of the renovation at Spiceland, took me and the children there for Meeting for Worship. Denis Crabtree lent me Christian Faith and Practice, then a new publication, and I fell into it headlong and converted from the C of E to become a convinced Friend. I went to Meeting there regularly, and to MM in Minehead, Taunton and the rest, and to Quarterly Meeting in Sidcot and Street. I met some wonderful Friends, including Bill Sumption of Oxfam fame, and Ruth Bell.
Once the children were four in number and two of them about school age, we began to go to Wellington for worship where Yvonne Cadbury Fox ran the children’s meeting. We knew Julian and Marjorie Fox, who did so much for Spiceland, and taught me a lot about Friends and the Society. Our youngest was actually received into Wellington Meeting in her carrycot, a birthright Friend had she wanted to be. Later we went back to Spiceland Meeting picking up Florence Priestman to take with us. We were rather hard up, and had our troubles, but as you know memories of when one’s children were young remain sunny and happy, as we were amongst the loving supportive Friends of the southwest.
… Now in this AM, North Scotland, an area so large you need an atlas to realise its size, there is only one FMH, and we few scattered Friends drive miles to meet in rented premises or each others’ houses – how different!
Jocelyn Rennie Podhalicz
A PLEA FROM THE LANIDLOES AS-SAWEYA FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION
Our partner village As Sawiya has been under attack again and we appeal for your urgent support. The Lanidloes As-Saweya Friendship Association, their Twinning Partner in the UK, is asking people to write letters.
After the shocking arson attack on the girls’ school in October settlers started last Sunday to uproot trees belonging to villagers in As Sawiya and the neighbouring village Yatma. The land is being confiscated for the expansion of the Israeli Rechalim settlement.
In response to this latest aggression Llanidloes As Sawiya Friendship Association (LASFA) is appealing once more to everybody to write to Israeli Ambassador (Ron Prosor, Israeli Ambassador to Britain, Embassy of Israel, 2 Palace Green, London W8 4QB). Copy to MP.
Please remind him that all settlements in the occupied Palestinianterritories are illegal under international law and ask him what action isbeing taken to protect Palestinians and Palestinian property from the
illegal activities of the settlers.
A little background information:
Members of the eminent global group, The Elders, have called on theUnited States and the rest of the international community to insist on anend to all Israeli settlement activity. They have issued their call in response to reports that the United States’ government has asked Israel to extend a ninety-day partial moratorium on settlement activity in return for a package of diplomatic and securityincentives.
The Elders’ chair Desmond Tutu said: “This news breaks my heart. What is Washington thinking? Settlements are illegal; they contravene UN Security Council Resolution 242 and violate the Fourth Geneva Convention. The resumption of direct talks cannot be based on one side negotiating its way out of an important question of international law.”
QCEA/QPSW CONFERENCE
(Brussels 29th October – 01st November 2010)
Working for Peace in the Middle East
ROUGH TERRAIN
A symbiosis of need
And profit from need
Generating the anger
For its own survival
Complex, ingrained
Dangerous sensitivities
Beyond easy solutions,
Simple explanations.
Mistakes and intentions.
Trampled actualities and perceptions.
Walls with Individual, Few and Many doors slammed closed
Needing forgiveness-communication
May God’s Kingdom, God’s Will
God’s love for Each and All
Transcend our partisan wills, powers and sins
In a listening, learning Truth
Of God’s Presence in Each and All
And be on Earth as it is in Heaven
Written with the Peace Testimony, Lord’s Prayer, Adam and Eve and the Conference in mind.
Carol Whitaker
MEETING FOR SUFFERINGS 4TH DEC 2010
This was held during the December snow storms, so our numbers were depleted, although distance was not a factor with Scotland and the Channel Islands well represented, while Essex and Kent were thin on the ground.
The first report of the day was from BYM Trustees, and was a context in which the new Recording Clerk was introduced, and indeed he was present and we were able to hear from him. Those involved in the recruiting process felt clearly led to the selection of Paul Parker of Thaxtead Area Meeting. Paul is at present an Assistant Head Teacher at a comprehensive school and teaches languages. During Paul’s brief address to the meeting what was evident was his enthusiasm and his considerable vision for the Society of Friends.
The main focus of the day was on priority D of the Framework for Action: Sustainability. Sunniva Taylor of QPSW introduced a paper on living out our statement on climate change with a particular emphasis on helping us to work out what we can do as a community and in our meetings towards a more sustainable world. Of the various queries we considered one spoke very clearly to me:
As a Quaker community, we do try to live what we believe guided by the values of simplicity, truth, equality and peace. Too often we fall short of honouring them. Climate change is challenging us to ask anew what our faith leads us to do.
QPSW would like Area Meeting to consider the following items in preparation for YM and the Yearly Gathering in 2011 where there will be an opportunity to consider how we are led as a Society in response to the challenges that face the world in the future.
2.1How far are Friends adapting their lifestyles to be more sustainable, making use of the spiritual support available within their Meetings as worshipping communities to do so?
2.2 Is the use of Britain Yearly Meeting’s assets consistent with our faith? Are we patterns and examples of sustainable low-carbon living?
2.2.1 How can our buildings be used as centres of radical witness to sustainability and low-carbon living? Can we commit to reducing the carbon emissions of our property by 90% by 2050, for example?
2.2.2 Can the finances of BYM (both corporately, and of individual meetings) be invested in ways that build sustainability? E.g. how do we consider the environmental impact of companies invested in?
2.2.3 Are sourcing and purchasing practices ethically and ecologically sound? E.g. does energy for meeting houses and other Quaker property come from energy suppliers committed to renewable energy? How do Meetings consider the impact of their food and other purchases on the environment?
2.3 What impact does BYM governance have on the environment?
2.3.1 Could the Yearly Meeting be organised and administered differently so as to reduce our carbon emissions and impact on the environment? E.g. how we meet, how we travel, how we use resources.
2.4 Can Meetings Houses become hubs for action on sustainability in their local communities? In what ways are Friends being encouraged by BYM to utilise their Meeting Houses to this end? Are Friends committed to working with others in their local areas to build low carbon, sustainable communities?
2.5 Are we committed to speaking out with a radical and distinctive Quaker voice on sustainability and peace, and collaborating with others concerned about these issues?
2.6 Is Britain Yearly Meeting joining with Quakers worldwide to explore and speak out on sustainability?
I should add that this is not a request for a response to Friends House; rather it is to stimulate, thought, discernment and, if appropriate, relevant action.
Other items on the agenda that may be of interest to Friends:
Ø Experiment with Light: are there Friends with an interest in forming a core group to support the future of Rex Ambler’s initiative? Rex will be laying down the running of workshops to devote more time to writing, and there is concern that this valuable resource continues to be nurtured.
Ø The clerk has written on behalf of Meeting for Sufferings urging the Government to keep to its promise to end the detention of children who are seeking asylum in the UK. I have a copy of her letter if Friends would find this helpful in composing a letter to their own MPs.
Ø There was concern about the inequity of public expenditure cuts. Can local Friends start to note and collect evidence of hardship? An update of the Social Inclusion Toolkit from 2004 is promised next year as guidance for Friends.
Ø Yearly Meeting Gathering Clerks are concerned to clarify that the theme: Growing in the spirit: changing the way we live to sustain the world we live in includes, but is wider than, climate change. Economic sustainability, peace witness, sustaining our meetings and sustaining ourselves spiritually will all be explored.
If Friends require further information, copies of briefing documents, or relevant minutes do please let me know
Martin Wall - MfS Representative.
ZAYTOUN OLIVE OIL
Deir Estya is a village that has recently gained FLO certification for its oil production. Wadi Qana, in the valley below the village, has long had problems from sewage deliberately diverted from the settlements into its springs and streams. It is also where Riziq lives. Many of you may have seen Riziq on Channels 4’s Food: What Goes in
Your Basket (or you may have met him during Fairtrade Fortnight 2009). He has sent in this news.
“Wadi Qana is a valley in Deirstya village surrounded with 3 settlements. All the lands there belong to the people of Deir Estya who are, since a few years ago, prevented to cultivate and develop the agriculture in this valley. The valley is a rich place with water springs, and some families used to live next to their farms until recently. In the past few months some farmers have started to plant new olive trees and rehabilitate the water resources there, but today when they arrived to the valley the military guarded some bulldozers and destroyed the new plantation and the springs. The Israeli military is implementing organized action against our livelihood by destroying our farms and they want this valley empty from its owners to confiscate it completely."
Zaytoun hope that Riziq may come to the UK again for Fairtrade Fortnight 2011.
The year’s harvest was a mix of extremes. Among the highs was the delicious taste of new harvest oil, oil so fresh the olives had only been picked the day before. It was bright green and bursting with flavour. We poured it over our hummus and enjoyed it under the trees during our morning break. But there were also the lows; predominantly the frequent settler activity, well coordinated, efficient and vicious.
Our team was stationed in Madama. Those of us first to arrive in Madama had the pleasure of watching a village wedding. The bridegroom, gorgeously attired, rode through the streets on a white horse accompanied by musicians and dancers. There were crowds out on the street and many of the people recognised us. They seemed very pleased to see us and in their reserved manner, greeted us warmly. We were very touched.
We harvested in an area south west of Nablus, around the villages of Burin, Madama and Asira al Quibliya. Wherever we went the noise and sight of caterpillar bulldozers working on the expansion of the settlement of Yitzhar was painfully obvious. The residents are religious Zionists, many affiliated with the Gush Emunim (block of the faithful), who hope to force all Palestinians off their lands. On 1st November the army entered Madama, searched houses, imposed a thirteen hour curfew and erected a flying checkpoint at the entrance of the village restricting the movement of an estimated population of 1,800 people. Since the beginning of October, OCHA recorded a weekly average of nine incidents in the context of the olive harvest, resulting in injuries, severe damage to property and the uprooting and burning of thousands of trees.
After three weeks, we left with a sense of fear as to what might happen to the people we met and their villages during the coming year. We also left with memories of incredible hospitality, laughter, great conversations and the sense that we have learnt a lot about our hosts and about ourselves. And one last word from the villagers… ‘we do not want aid, we want jobs and freedom’.
If you are interested in coming to Palestine for the olive harvest next year please check back on our harvest page http://www.zaytoun.org/harvest/about-the-harvest/
Please note our new address: Zaytoun CIC, ClarendonBuildings , Cabin Q, 25 Horsell Road, London, N5 1XL .
Submitted by Jenny Bell on behalf of Cathi, Manal, Rachel and Heather
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