NEWSLETTER April 2005

Hamilton Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

7 Butty Place
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 2R5
www.quaker.ca/hamilton
quakers@hwcn.org
Telephone: 905.523.8383

Refreshment List

April 17 Darlene
April 24 Betty P
May 1 Christina
May 8 Mona
May 15 Harriet
May 22 Ian
May 29 Bev

Minutes of the Meeting for Worship for Business

Minutes of the 7 April 2005 Meeting for Worship with a Concern for Business are in the Reading Room.

Reflections on finding a contemporary Quaker peace query.

Something deeply destructive is unleashed in some threatened human beings when they cannot stop the world from changing and in the process diminishing their power, so they inevitably seek to destroy what they can no longer control.

Bishop John Shelby Spong, Here I Stand p408

Friends whom I have known very well for many years are unable to find unity on the matter of permissible levels of violence in preventing greater violence and responding where prevention is too late. Of course people will see things differently. Things and events really do look different from different points of view.

This diversity of views has a spiritual source - consider the great variety of perspectives we are privileged to share with actors, musicians, painters, writers, theologians, philosophers, and the everyday folks we meet and exchange ideas with. And with people of other cultures. Our lives may be enriched by this.

But this diversity is also a source of violent perspectives and actions, of contempt or hatred that is destructive of love and life. How are we to respond to these destructive perspectives and actions?

• In the mid-1600's days of Cromwell and King Charles, men with bows, spears, and other person-to-person weapons drew the first Quaker response of denying, for themselves, the perspectives of wars and avoiding these actions, and exhorting people to seek the divine in themselves and, person-to-person, in each other. What an excellent response that was. But George Fox did not deny "the magistrate's sword" to deal with evildoers in society, or even with the right of secular rulers to engage in war with a moral purpose (destroying the Inquisition, by sending an army into Spain and Italy; bringing the Turks to Christianity). He simply refused to be personally involved, and exhorted other Quakers to abstain from the army.
• In the mid-1900's days of the World War, the Cold War, and the conflict of political ideologies, men with gas chambers or with nuclear bombs, or fleets of bombers with tons of incendiary bombs, or rockets with multiple warheads, sought quite impersonally to destroy huge categories of non-military people, in many places in the world. And within the military, aimed fire, person-to-person, was replaced by 'blanketing' the target. Overwhelming force leading to detente or else to massive destruction was believed to be the solution to international conflict. The American commanding general (MacArthur) during the Korean war wanted, with nuclear capability, to invade Manchuria and thereby China, and was prevented because the President (Truman) fired him. That was a very close call. Then there was the Cuban Missile Crisis. That, too, was a very close call. Although some Quaker young men chose to fight, most Quakers held to the response of the 1600's.
• Now, the world seems to be going into two warlike directions, there are many civil wars over access to natural resources that compare, in scale but not in the technology of destruction, with Britain in the 1600's. And at the global scale, overwhelming force is becoming more and more accessible to smaller groups of violence-bent men, who can revenge their feelings of personal humiliation and moral desperation by destroying increasingly large numbers of other people, quickly, easily, unexpectedly. In my children's lifetime, or perhaps even in my own lifetime, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons will be small and portable enough to be taken by one or a few men just about anywhere and used to destroy hundreds of thousands or millions of people, on the scale of the holocaust, or AIDS.

QUERY: The very nature of war has changed radically in the scale of destruction and the ease and speed of its execution. Should our peace response also change radically? Is the 1600's Quaker response of refusing to personally take part in wars, and exhorting people to seek the divine in themselves and, person-to-person, in each other, still an excellent response? Is secular use of weapons in policing within societies still acceptable? Are rulers still given the mandate to engage in just wars? Can we support the use of armed UN peacekeepers to prevent large scale violence to civilians? Is The Responsibility to Protect a loving response only if it is limited to unarmed acts of prevention? What is an adequate response to the increasing scale of destruction we all, as part of humanity, face?

Is the categorical denial of the use of weapons, by anyone, a withdrawal from the contemporary world, in principled hopes that the destroyers and the survivors will somehow be led to listen more effectively to the divine? And what of the millions of victims? Are they loved, but worth less than our abstract principles of utter non-violence? Do we support the use of force by police in stopping crimes of violence? Do we refuse to condone actions like those of guards who shoot the driver of an explosives laden vehicle, to keep it from reaching its goal and killing very many more? Can we find some gradient of active response to threats of violence, where we can face the ugly realities in our world and draw our Quaker line? What are we called to do? What canst I say?

This troubles me very deeply, Friends.

Submitted by Dick

Some current Quaker articles on this topic are:
John Spears, "How would George Fox respond to terrorism?" Friends Journal, January 2005, p. 5
Paul Hamell, "Police and community: building peace." Friends Journal, January 2005, pp. 18-21

Meeting Place Organic Farm

Tony and Fran McQuail, Friends who run the Meeting Place Organic Farm in Lucknow, Ontario, are taking orders for fall, 2005. They deliver to this area. If you would like to order organically produced meats and apple products, you can get more information by emailing them at mcqufarm@hurontel.on.ca or by contacting Harriet or Don.

Submitted by Harriet

Roy Hornesty

Here is news of the death of Dee Hornosty's husband Roy. Many of you will remember Dee, a long-time member of our Meeting. Her e-mail address is: cchornosty@shaw.ca.

Roy Hornosty died on Thursday, April 7th. Roy and Dee moved to Victoria from Hamilton Monthly Meeting but were not able to attend Meeting for Worship over the last several years. Roy's memorial will be on Friday, April 15, 2 pm at the Fern St. Meetinghouse.

Submitted by Beverly

Meeting Retreat with Margaret Slavin April 1-3. 2005

As your newsletter editor, I realized as I was putting this issue together that we did not have a report from the Meeting Retreat. It was a wonderful experience, so I feel compelled to pull a few memories from the dustbin to share with those who weren't there.

We gathered at Crieff Hills Community retreat centre on Friday evening April 1, to find we were housed in a lodge with ample bedrooms (2 per room), each with a bathroom, on two levels. On the lower level was a spacious meeting room with a big fireplace and lots of comfy chairs. Margaret set up a display of her travels on a table at the back of the room, including her journal from her 16 months of traveling, and a number of photos. We started that evening with informal sharing and a warm fire. Next day we awoke to wet snow, and made our way to the dining room in a nearby building, where we had the first of an endless array of large and tasty meals. After breakfast we started to work. The theme for the weekend was the connection between creativity, spirituality, and social justice. Margaret is a writer and these themes are her passions. People were invited to reflect (out loud) about themselves. We then chose an item from nature, a stick, a stone, a dried flower, and engaged in a creative process about it; writing a poem, drawing etc, and then sharing these with the group. In the afternoon a number of us braved the wind and snow to walk around the property, and were especially taken by a small chapel for meditation. We all agreed the place must be beautiful in spring without the 6 inches of snow we were wading through.

In the evening we did a role play about a conflict in meeting for business; first playing it for maximum conflict, then with some help from the audience, finding a way forward which brought us together. We ended with an open silence that lead to a lot of ministry of a somewhat unorthodox kind, like a meeting for worship without the usual rules, for example, comments being addressed to each other clearly and from the heart. It was an inspiring experience.

Next morning we had a rich meeting for worship, and then played volleyball in the snow. All weekend we enjoyed the fire; my jacket still smells like smoke.

I thought the retreat was a great experience, both individually and for us as a community. Several of us want to have another one next year Margaret stayed till the following Saturday. She was entertained at a tea at Bev's on Tuesday, a movie night on Wednesday at Prestons', and by a potluck before MWB on Thursday. All of these were well attended. Hospitality was generously provided by Mona then Dick and Betty. Margaret's visit provided us with information about other Quaker Meetings and stimulated us to think about our own Meeting, where it is going and how it is doing.

Submitted by Don

Visit to Russ Powers, MP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale

On Friday April 15 five Hamilton Quakers: Dick, Betty, Helen B, Beverly, and Don, visited Russ Powers on behalf of Conscience Canada and the Conscientious Objection (CO) Bill. We talked about the CO Bill, which would provide alternative service for our military taxes, just as the government provided alternative service for COs in World War 2. He had read the information that had been dropped off earlier, and we had a useful and engaged conversation. He is inclined to support the bill, which will probably be introduced by Alexa McDonough as a private member's bill. His one reservation was a concern that if a large proportion of Canadians used this vehicle to redirect their military taxes, that national security, such as the coast guard, might be endangered. One of us pointed out that would be a strong signal to government to reconsider how they are spending their money for defence.

Mr. Powers has military experience, and spoke knowledgably about the issues. He also has distanced himself from any conflict of interest in that regard as an MP. He had a useful suggestion for us, that we contact Eileen Carroll, minister responsible for CIDA, as our recommendations include enhanced foreign aid.

Overall it was a very positive visit.

Submitted by Don

Reminder

Half Yearly Meeting is at Camp Neekaunis June 3-4-5. It is a great opportunity to meet Quakers from other meetings, and to spend time at beautiful Neekaunis. During the first few years I attended Hamilton Meeting, my visits to Neekaunis for HYM were very important to me.

Don

Last updated: 21 April 2005