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Lets Be Friendly
Aug. 9th, 2024 07:57 am It's raining. I'm happy that it's raining.
The last two issues of The Friend (the Quaker weekly) are largely taken up with reports on the Society of Friends' Yearly General Meeting. I think it's called that, but maybe I'm wrong. (Friends tend to be a bit touchy about their system of govrnance.) As it happens, the system of governance at the highest level was what was mainly being discussed- and I'm too new a Friend to understand or (I'm afraid) care very much about it. There is a thing called the Meeting for Sufferings (lovely 17th century English) which will be replaced by an ongoing General Meeting- which means those who like meetings will be meeting more often. I have no idea why this change is coming about or what the advantages or disadvantages may be- but there are people who feel strongly about it.
Another item on the agenda was the welcome- or lack of it- that our Meetings extend to trans people. Seems obvious to me. We call ourselves Friends and that's what we should be to anyone who comes through our doors.
An open letter came my way, written by a Friend called Frankie, deploring the angry and violent slogans being displayed and shouted by some of the anti-fascist demonstrators over the past few days. You don't promote peace and love by chanting "Throw the fascists in the sea". These are my feelings exactly. Anger begets anger, insult brings on insult. We want to break the chain not keep adding to it.
By the way, I see that the anti-immigrant people (I won't call them rioters unless they actually riot and they don't always get the chance or indeed want to) have been deterred from doing their thing in certain towns and cities by a massive turn-out of ordinary citizens prepared to stand in front of mosques and other possible targets and defend them by just being there.. Isn't this great? Among the places where this happened are Brighton (next door) and Oldham (our former home.)
The last two issues of The Friend (the Quaker weekly) are largely taken up with reports on the Society of Friends' Yearly General Meeting. I think it's called that, but maybe I'm wrong. (Friends tend to be a bit touchy about their system of govrnance.) As it happens, the system of governance at the highest level was what was mainly being discussed- and I'm too new a Friend to understand or (I'm afraid) care very much about it. There is a thing called the Meeting for Sufferings (lovely 17th century English) which will be replaced by an ongoing General Meeting- which means those who like meetings will be meeting more often. I have no idea why this change is coming about or what the advantages or disadvantages may be- but there are people who feel strongly about it.
Another item on the agenda was the welcome- or lack of it- that our Meetings extend to trans people. Seems obvious to me. We call ourselves Friends and that's what we should be to anyone who comes through our doors.
An open letter came my way, written by a Friend called Frankie, deploring the angry and violent slogans being displayed and shouted by some of the anti-fascist demonstrators over the past few days. You don't promote peace and love by chanting "Throw the fascists in the sea". These are my feelings exactly. Anger begets anger, insult brings on insult. We want to break the chain not keep adding to it.
By the way, I see that the anti-immigrant people (I won't call them rioters unless they actually riot and they don't always get the chance or indeed want to) have been deterred from doing their thing in certain towns and cities by a massive turn-out of ordinary citizens prepared to stand in front of mosques and other possible targets and defend them by just being there.. Isn't this great? Among the places where this happened are Brighton (next door) and Oldham (our former home.)
