News Page
Quaker News
News about Quakers in Devon and Cornwall, and national or international news relevant to local Quaker concerns. YM 2010 decided to allow non-Quaker journalists into future Yearly Meetings, so they will probably be invited to YM Gathering at Canterbury in 2011.
Bosco
Bosco is a young boy in Rwanda with an unusual gift for science, whose family is unable to pay for him to go to secondary school. He was spotted at his primary school by Dorothy Nelson (see below), who helped to set up a fund administered by Chris Middleton of St Austell Meeting, to support him during secondary education. The fund may also be used in future to help support other Rwandan children. Chris can provide more information - his email address is chrismidd27@btinternet.com. [more..]
Britain Yearly Meeting Gathering, July 25 – August 1, 2009 Dorothy Nelson (of St Austell Meeting) in Rwanda
The headline in the Times on 1 August read. “Quakers back gay marriage and call for reform”, and the third leader in the Guardian on the same day was headed “In praise....... of the Quakers”. [more....]
On 25 May 2009 Dorothy wrote: "Dear friends, I guess you have all heard by now of my untimely departure from Eritrea (not my fault, honest!). Things are still difficult there for volunteers but a few are still able to work. I do my best to keep in touch with Eritrean and volunteer friends. [more....]
Circles of Support and Accountability
Circles of Support and Accountability, which aim to reduce the risk of offending behaviour by ex-prisoners, particularly those who offended against children, is working in Devon and Cornwall through the good offices of the NSPCC and the Home Office. Jamie Stephenson of the NSPCC gave a talk about the project at Devon Area Meeting on 8 November 2008 at Totnes. The first assessment and training day was held in Plymouth on 26/27 November 2008. An introductory talk was given at St Austell Friends Meeting House on Saturday 7 March, followed by another training day. Friends and Attenders in both counties have completed the course and Circles are being formed. For further information ring the NSPCC, tel: 01752 235120. Alan Ray-Jones, 26 April 2009.
General Meeting: the end of a long history
The meeting on Addiction, held at Exeter FMH on 11 November, marked the end of General Meeting for Devon and Cornwall as a separate organisation within BYM. A report of the meeting of 11 November is on the GM page.
Quarterly Meetings were established in Devon and Cornwall in 1668 with responsibility for all local Meetings, and from 1870 a single QM covered both counties. In 1967 it was renamed Devon and Cornwall General Meeting, but from January 2007 the executive role of all GMs in the UK was removed, and since then our GM has concentrated on arranging days for Friends in the two counties to consider subjects of mutual concern, with an attendance of about 30 hardy travellers, from places as far apart as Penzance and Sidmouth.
Joint meetings will in future be organized by an 'Arrangements Committee', consisting of representatives of Devon and Cornwall Area Meetings; so in 2009 the GM page on this website (see the menu) will become the Devon and Cornwall Arrangements Committee page. The committee will continue to be responsible for the List of Members and the website, but not the GM trusts. If this seems simply a case of "The King is dead, long live the King", it isn't; for the two Area Meetings will necessarily be far more involved with the organisation of their joint events in future. Alan Ray-Jones, 13 November 2008.
BYM Forum
For two years I have been hoping that BYM would start a forum on which any topic could be raised or discussed by any Quaker anywhere, and now they've done it! Furthermore, it is easy to use. I recommend it to anyone who is that way inclined and can get online. If you experience any difficulty in using it I'll be happy to help. Just click here and register. Alan Ray-Jones
Climate change: the Kingsnorth trial
On 10 September in a trial by jury, six Greenpeace activists who wrote 'GORDON' on the chimney of Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent, were cleared of the charge that they had caused £30,000 of criminal damage. They argued successfully that their action was legally justified because they were trying to prevent climate change causing much greater damage to property around the world - see the report in the Guardian. Helen Rowlands of Woodbrook Quaker Study Centre said on BBC Radio 4 that the trial could be compared with the famous trial of William Penn which freed juries from control by judges: in both cases the jury of ordinary men and women were persuaded by the arguments, and found against officialdom. At least a Quaker voice was heard on this occasion - even if only about an historical precedent. Hopefully, the verdict will help to persuade the government that public opinion will be strongly against the building of any new coal-fired power station, unless it has an effective mechanism for carbon capture. More direct action by environmentalists is likely.
Devon Churches ask for 80% reduction in carbon emissions
On 17 July David Barkla of Exeter Meeting was one of four people from the Devon Churches Climate Change coalition to present a 'petition' at No 10 Downing Street. It asked the government to go for a higher target than the 60% reduction which is at present in the Climate Change Bill - see the Home Page. Alan Ray-Jones, 22 July 2008.
Devon Area Meeting changes banks
Meeting at Bideford yesterday (Saturday 12 July), Devon Area Meeting decided to transfer its accounts from Lloyds TSB to the Co-op bank. This is AM's reaction to the decision of Lloyds TSB along with other major banks (Barclays, RBS and HSBC), to comply with the US blockade of Cuba despite the condemnation of it in the UN earlier this year, as reported in the Guardian on 23 June 2008. Alan Ray-Jones.
"Quaker cobbler puts soul into sole"
Clarks shoes of Street in Somerset, now a global business, are a West Country firm. In case you missed the full page article about Lancelot Clark's work for Aids orphans in South Africa, in The Guardian of Saturday June 7 2008, that's just about excuse enough for me to provide a link to it here. The charity, Soul of Africa, is financed partly by the sale of shoes hand-stitched by previously unemployed and untrained women. Alan Ray-Jones
Bridge-building to the Kurds in Northern Iraq
Under the heading 'CHRISTIAN PLANS MISSION TO INVESTIGATE PLIGHT OF KURDS' the Plymouth Herald website today (4 June) sets out the appeal by Hayley Kemp of Plymouth Meeting to secure enough money (£1,500) to enable her to travel to Northern Iraq as an observer with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) from July 31 to August 14. The objective is to to promote understanding of the region and hear "first-hand stories of a people subjected to decades of violence and oppression". She will give presentations on her trip to interested groups on her return. See Appeals and Petitions at the foot of this page.
Yearly Meeting, London, May 2008
YM was attended by up to 800 Friends including 100 children; plus 119 non-members. It was exciting, challenging, emotional in parts, exhausting. In the session 'Deeper and wider - united in the Spirit' we were given a suggested description of how Quakerism works, in a nutshell: "Through a process of continuing and continual discernment I open myself to the inward light and allow it to transform me, then go out into the world and act in that place".
The session 'Being the seeds of change', asked for answers to three questions:
1. What would empower us to take a bolder stand;
2. How can we help each other;
3. Can we develop a true witness for a transformed society?
The draft 'Longterm Framework' was about transforming the way BYM works by developing networks nationwide; and priorities for future work. We may look back on this as a pivotal meeting.
YM documents can be seen on the YM 2008 page of the BYM website. Alan Ray-Jones, May 2008.
Expedition to the Chagos Islands and subsequent arrest of a member of Bideford Meeting
Civil Liberties
Our Friend, Jonathan Castle, of Bideford Quaker Meeting, has now returned from an expedition to the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. In order to draw attention to the plight of the Chagos Islanders, who were forcibly removed from their islands by the UK government about forty years ago to enable the building of an American military base on Diego Garcia, Jon Castle and Pete Bouquet sailed a small boat from Malaysia to Diego Garcia. They said they were motivated by the 'Quaker ideal' that: "you should bear witness to a crime, even if you cannot stop it happening." [more..]
Fund-raising with music in Tavistock
Do other places in Devon or Cornwall have an Acoustic Cafe? I experienced it last November, when Tavistock Meeting did some serious fund-raising on behalf of Quaker (QPSW) work in Uganda, helping the children and other victims of the fighting there. [more..]
In February General Meeting discussed Civil Liberties – a report is on the GM page. Friends did not attempt to discern what is right or wrong with our laws and policing, but agreed to take the subject back to their local Meetings for further discussion. One aspect is that laws for dealing with terrorists and serious criminals are sometimes used for other purposes, the best known instance being when 82-yr old Walter Wolfgang was thrown out of the Labour conference for heckling Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. On 11 April the papers reported that Poole Borough Council had used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) to find out whether a family were lying about living in a school catchment area. This involved covert physical surveillance of the family for about three weeks. Alan Ray-Jones, April 2008
Experience of Quaker Quest at Bideford Meeting in 2007
Bideford Friends held a Quaker Quest, delivered as a set of three weekly sessions repeated without a break, on Monday evenings in September & October 2007. Planning took about 10 months. [more..]