(I wrote this piece last year after the General Election . Since then ‘all has changed, changed utterly’ yet I still find that what i wrote then is what I would say now. I wrote this at the request of Moscow Friends and it was translated into Russian and is on the Russian language Quaker website.)
In December we had a General Election here in Britain and many people are disappointed and even fearful at the result. I feel a bit conflicted; I was disappointed but not surprised. Even more, I find I am not too despondent. Is this because I’m an uncaring person, self centred and unconcerned? I’d like to think not.
I am full of admiration at the number of Quakers in Britain who worked really hard at campaigning prior to the election and I feel their pain at the result. Many recognised that aspects of the Labour Party manifesto really echoed our testimonies. It was a Friend at our local meeting who pointed this out to me. The Labour manifesto did promise a better life for the most vulnerable in our society yet this glimmer of hope seems to have been extinguished.
Many countries at this point in time face the reality of extreme right wing leadership. This seems to me an indication that people of faith have a serious and challenging calling to show by new and creative means, that a better world is possible. When I say ‘people of faith’ I mean faith in its broadest sense: faith in the basic goodness of humanity and a well grounded belief that things can change.
I think my own seeming lack of concern comes from the fact that for many years I have not placed my trust in political parties. Before becoming a Quaker I was a Catholic and for sixteen years I lived in Catholic Worker communities in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and New York in the U.S. and, in England, Oxford. The Catholic Worker movement is on the radical left of the Catholic Church and is basically anarchist in philosophy. The co founders, Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day, preferred the term ‘personalist’ to ‘anarchist’ but in effect Catholic Workers believe that we are called to build a new society in the shell of the old. Their lives and actions all bear witness to this. They live in communities where they give hospitality to the most needy and they engage in nonviolent direct action against all war and preparations for war.
It seems to me that what is sustaining me during these dark and difficult days at home and abroad, is a source of strength which has three manifestations.
First, I am sustained by the knowledge that people in many countries are feeling the oppression of inadequate leadership which lacks generosity of spirit, vision, compassion and integrity. Our leaders are failing to address the most urgent questions of the time; the devastating suffering caused by war, the catastrophe of climate change, and the ever widening gap between rich and poor. Knowing that we share the same difficulties, though many suffer more than others, helps to create a sense of courageous solidarity and purpose.
The second source of strength is rooted in the transition I made from Catholicism to the Society of Friends. In preparing to become a Quaker I was encouraged to think about the treasures I would bring from the church I was leaving into my new home, the Society of Friends. I did in fact find many treasures which are still with me and one of them is the influence, the inspiration, the vision of the Catholic Worker movement, along with other faith communities I have met in the U.S. and here in Britain What I learnt as a Catholic Worker was that we can all make a difference by our own faith and our own actions. Working where we are and with the people around us, we can work towards creating a better world. Dependence upon political parties, governments, leaders, is fruitless. They have lost their way and no longer act at the service of the people but in their own self interests. Yes, of course they are powerful and their decisions affect all our lives but faith that a better world is possible and a willingness to work consistently for this, can have a profound effect.
The third sustaining source of strength is the faith and commitment of the Society of Friends.
When I first started to attend Meeting for Worship in Oxford, I picked up a copy of Quaker Advices and Queries. For me this text contains the essence of Quakerism and I return to it frequently to nourish my own faith. It encapsulates the Testimonies throughout the text and not just in the numbers referring to them. It was the Peace Testimony which drew me to Quakerism and QA&Q shows me how to live our Testimonies in all aspects of life.
I have been pondering on the first seven sections of QA&Q over the past few weeks and feel revitalised and sustained when confronted by the darkness around us. This text does indeed shed a light and reveals the Light within.
I would not have contemplated becoming a Quaker had I not read the following words;
‘The Religious Society of Friends is rooted in Christianity and has always found inspiration in the life and teachings of Jesus’ (QA&Q 4)
Catholics of my generation, contrary to popular belief, were encouraged to read and study the scriptures and I always had a vivid awareness of the person of Jesus as presented in the gospels. The query ‘Are you following Jesus’ example of love in action?’, (QA&Q no4) challenges, disturbs, and energises me. I am reminded of the quotation from ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, much quoted by Dorothy Day, ‘Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams’.
Accompanied by the familiar yet always surprising Jesus, I delved more into Quakerism. The first number of Q.A&Q
‘Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in you hearts. Trust them as the leadings of God whose Light shows us our darkness and brings us to new life’, brings me much comfort, inspiration and challenge in our troubled times.
It is one thing, however , for me to read inspiring texts and talk about being challenged by them. How should I live in these dark days?
Last September a large group of Quakers from the British Isles and beyond, blockaded an arms fair in London by holding a Meeting for Worship in the road. Since then a group of us in our Area Meeting, which covers a smalll part of West Yorkshire, have been meeting to pray and discern how to carry on resisting not just the next arms fair but all manifestations of increasing greed and injustice in our country.
We have started to study “How We Win: A Guide to Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigning’ by American Quaker activist, writer and teacher, George Lakey. We meet regularly as a group and so get to know each other, creating a community of reflective activism. Lakey’s book is a handbook which draws on his rich experience of campaigning and we are learning much from it. It reminds me of my time in the U.S. where I first encountered such community building by small groups, generally called affinity groups. Such groups breathe life into nonviolent direct action campaigning.
At the beginning of this new year, this new decade, when the world is in a very dark and dangerous place, I feel blessed to be a Quaker and to have the opportunity to create with other Quakers and others of good and generous heart, a world of Light, of hope, of joy.
Here are familiar, well loved, challenging words from George Fox, written in 1656
‘Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them;
Then
you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone.’
Live Adventurously 