Using this booklet

Being faithful witnesses: serving God in a changing world is the theme of the 21^st FWCC Triennial. It invites us to bring together the ways in which we follow a shared calling in our very different cultures, experiences and Quaker traditions.

This booklet is intended for the use of Friends who plan to attend the Triennial, for the groups of Friends whom they represent, and for Friends in meetings and churches everywhere. It contains fourteen reflections on aspects of the theme by Friends from a variety of Quaker cultures. Each statement comes from the authentic experience of a member of our world-wide family of Friends, each seeking to be faithful according to his or her own lights. FWCC triennials and world conferences provide precious opportunities for Friends from different cultures to meet face to face to worship together, listen to each other and share what it means to be a Friend. This booklet is a way to participate in that opportunity. As we learn about each other's experience of God, our task is not to judge, but rather to be open to truth as seen from the perspective of our sisters and brothers. Perhaps it will broaden our sense of what it means to be a Friend.

These essays are offered for reading and reflection on your own or in a group. David Blamires, editor of Friends Quarterly and Clerk of Quaker World Relations Committee, Britain YM, has edited and arranged them for us. With the questions which follow them, we hope they will serve as a stimulus for personal and shared reflection. We suggest that you choose at least one essay which reflects a Quaker tradition different from your own. By participating in this study, Friends can have a share in the Triennial and help their representatives to prepare for the experience. Worship and sharing groups at the Triennial will be encouraged to spend some time working with the Triennial theme through the means of these essays and questions.

October 2002 International Planning Committee

Contents

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Using this booklet

Faithful waiting on God David Blamires Britain YM 1

Witness Elizabeth Yano Bware YM 2

Nadia's story Max Carter N. Carolina YM (FUM) 3

Servant of God Angella Beharie Jamaica YM 4

Witness to faithfulness Rachel Muers Britain YM 5

Quaker message Helmer Batista N. Carolina YM (FUM) 6

Unchanging truths Phyllis Short YM of Aotearoa / New

Zealand 8

Affirmation Susannah Brindle Australia YM 9

A fire in our hearts Diego Chuyma INELA Bolivia 10

Witness Anne Thomas Canadian YM 11

Proclaiming the good news Dan Cammack Northwest YM 12

Vigil for peace Misha Roshchin Moscow MM 13

Faithful witness Kenneth Co Hong Kong MM 15

Building a foundation for peaceful witness

Val Liveoak South Central YM 16

Faithful waiting on God

David Blamires (Editor) Britain Yearly Meeting

It has been a pleasant and rewarding task for me to edit these contributions to the Triennial theme, Being faithful witnesses: serving God in a changing world. Each contributor writes from his or her own particular Quaker experience and cultural background with gratitude and mutual encouragement, discoveries and questions. We can be thankful for these searching responses to the Triennial theme. I hope that every reader will be able to resonate to the spirit of what each contributor has written, as there are challenges for us all.

What has been most striking for me is the recognition that we are united in so much. Central to our witness are the individual and corporate quest for peace and justice and the testimonies to truthfulness, simplicity and equality. These are the fruits of faithful waiting on God. Jesus tells us that 'the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world' will be inherited by those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and those in prison (Matt.25: 31-40). Those who fail to do this reap condemnation.

These are the challenges of daily life. Though some may be called to serve God in distant places and testing circumstances, the majority of us are called to be faithful witnesses just where we are, through our jobs, our family and other responsibilities and our contact with the earth and other living beings. Life is big enough for everybody to have a contribution to make, but it is too big for each of us to do everything. We need to value each other for our differing gifts and insights, recognizing that we are different members of one body, each with a special task (Romans 12: 1-21).

In 2002, in the 350^th anniversary year of the beginning of Quakerism, the Bank of England in Britain has singled out the work of Elizabeth Fry in prison reform by putting a picture of her on the new five-pound note. When she was first led to do this work, Elizabeth Fry was uncertain and fearful, but she was faithful to her Guide. We in our turn are called to be faithful in the tasks God lays upon us. They are tasks that we shall never complete in this life.

Witness

Elizabeth Yano Bware Yearly Meeting

Jesus promised the disciples that they would receive power to witness after they received the Holy Spirit. That power involved courage, boldness, confidence, insight, ability and authority. The disciples needed all these gifts to fulfil their mission.

God has important work for us to do for Him. Most things prophesied by Jesus are taking place. We have political, social and economic changes which have resulted in various problems: corruption, the cost of speaking the truth, drought, famine, rebellion in politics, civic and national wars, divorce, abandoned homes, manslaughter, a high level of poverty, pollution through industrialization, cries of bloodshed, people seeking peace.

As followers of Christ we become witnesses by taking the word of Christ to preach peace. Peace comes from Him, then we pass it on. Our Quaker testimony is to seek peace, to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the good, which tends to peace for all.

The spirit in us should lead us to the attitude of the Samaritan, to care for strangers and the needy. True religion looks into human needs and the oneness of humanity.

Purified by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are compelled by the gospel to give our time, our money and our service. Many people have known nothing except the bitterness of death, poverty, ignorance and massive suffering. We need to live a life that shows God's spirit in us. Faith and trust must have hands and feet. Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God is to care for orphans and their troubles, and refuse to be corrupted by the world.

The Book of Jonah (3: 1-10) gives us an account of the troubled city of Nineveh, when Jonah declared the word of God to them. The sudden recognition of God by the people of Nineveh and their leaders met with a gracious response from God. The psalmist in his prayer of confession realized that the precondition for being cleansed is a broken spirit and a contrite heart (Psalm 51: 17).

Queries:

- How are you and I involved in witnessing with our time, money, material, service and words?

- Each one of us has to give an account before God how we have used our testimony, talent and service. Are you a peace-maker or a trouble-maker?

Nadia's Story

Max L. Carter North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM)

Nadia's home had been raked by bullets from an armored assault vehicle the previous night as she, her husband and three small children had huddled, terrified, on the bedroom floor. A few hours later I stood with a group of Americans in the courtyard of the ravaged Palestinian house, listening to her story.

'For half an hour we were under fire, and they call us terrorists! We have no guns, but a tank shoots at us in the middle of the night, and they call us terrorists! When we swept out the shell casings from our home, we saw that they were stamped "Made in the USA". I hope all Americans burn in hell!'

What could we do? As volunteer workcampers at the Ramallah Friends Schools in the summer of 2001, we had come to the region to bear witness to the Biblical injunction to love and to serve. But now our 'witnessing' had taken on a whole new meaning as we witnessed terror and anger. As our group processed the event that evening back at the School, a clear sense of the right way to proceed came over us. Both Israeli and Palestinian peace advocates had told us that, on average, every man, woman and child in the USA contributes $20 annually for the military hardware that helps create the problem in the region. Symbolically, we gave $20 apiece to a fund for Nadia and her family to begin rebuilding their house. Augmented by other monies given to us by Friends in the United States for 'emergencies', the fund amounted to a few hundred dollars. We sent it the next day by way of a Friends School teacher who knew Nadia, hoping that she would accept it.

A few days later, as we were enjoying supper at the teacher's home, Nadia called and asked if she could bring her family to see us. We were anxious to see them - in both senses of the word! Would she still be angry? Would she see our gift as 'blood money'?

Our anxieties were quickly relieved. Nadia and her family were relaxed and expressed their thanks to us. After a few minutes of pleasant conversation, she asked, 'Are Quakers Christians?' I laughed, explaining that, in some circles of Friends, an answer to that question could take hours. We responded simply and directly, though, with a 'yes'. 'I thought so,' she said, and then this Muslim woman reached into a bag and brought out Christian tokens to give to each of us: crucifixes from Jerusalem, a crusader's cross, images of Bethlehem.

Only a few days before, we had the potential to be enemies: a Palestinian Muslim family ravaged by weapons provided by the ostensibly Christian United States and we - visitors from the USA. Our initial goal of 'bearing witness' to God's love through service to others had become a deeply moving experience of witnessing the pain and anguish that requires reconciliation.

God's message of the possibility of reconciliation was made visible: a token of love that came in the form of a crucifix given by a Muslim to a Christian. I may be the only Quaker I know now who carries a crucifix with him. It is a daily reminder of the reality of redeeming love.

Queries:

- What do we do to find understanding with people of faith communities that are different from our own?

- As citizens, what do we do if our government follows a policy which we believe to be wrong?

- How do you react when someone expresses anger?

Servant of God

Angella Beharie Jamaica YM

As servants of God we must build our faith on the 'Light' that never fails and keep in tune with God all the time. Abraham's faith in God was such that he was prepared to do anything for God. He remained true to God, and God purified his faith (Gen. 22: 1-18).

'For it is God who works in you both to will and to act according to his good purpose' (Phil. 2: 13). Do I believe that God is the source of my will and that He is in me to do it? Then I must be in obedience to the Holy Spirit to achieve His perfect will and nothing less. If I am the vessel that God has chosen to work with, I must submit myself completely to God to be cleansed and purified. I will become the 'world' as the changes take effect in me. That is, my lifestyle will now be on display and has become the witness for all to see. Therefore my attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus. (Phil. 2: 6-11)

In 1990, while I was the Secretary to my Yearly Meeting, I was privileged to work with a team of representatives from Friends United Meeting (FUM) who came to encourage and strengthen Friends in our meetings (churches). We visited most of the meetings and met representatives from all meetings. Mary Glenn Hadley, then Associate Secretary of FUM, spoke at the Sunday morning worship service in Kingston. Her words were based on the story of Jesus and the miraculous catch of fish (John 21: 1-14). As our Lord commanded Peter and as he went in obedience, Peter was successful. God spoke to me that day. He said, 'When you step out in faith I will open the windows of heaven and will pour my blessings on you.'

In 1991, while I was seeking God's guidance to have a Vacation Bible School in my home meeting (Dover), Jamaica YM received an offer from Myra Brady (one of the team of FUM's representatives) to do Bible school here under the sponsorship of North Carolina YM. July 1992 Vacation Bible School was held in four meetings. This ministry has increased so much that last year we nurtured over 2000 children in seven meetings. Bible School has become a household name in many communities, where children have benefited and anxiously wait the date of the next one so they reschedule their vacation outside their communities. Our Lord Jesus said to Peter, 'If you love me, feed my lambs.' We are trying to do just that. 'Just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as ransom for many' (Matt. 20: 28).

Prayer: 'Dear Lord, I want to live for thee. Oh! keep me everyday, a faithful witness along life's rugged way. Take my hand and lead me anywhere you need me. With thy Spirit feed me till I am safe at home' (J. W. Gaines).

Queries:

- In what ways does the call to witness come to you?

- How can we and our children share our religious life?

Witness to Faithfulness

Rachel Muers Britain Yearly Meeting

I love the biblical texts that speak of God's faithfulness to God's world - a faithfulness that endures however the world changes. Being faithful witnesses is partly, I have come to realize, about being witnesses to that faithfulness.

Being a witness to God's faithfulness means, perhaps, being prepared to act in a way that says that next year, or the next hundred or thousand years, matter. It also means being prepared to wait; to resist the cultural forces that say, 'What matters is getting what you want now.'

If I consider aspects of my life that might be places where this 'witness to faithfulness' could happen, I think, for example, of undertaking long-term commitments to voluntary organizations; thinking through the environmental implications of an increasing number of aspects of my lifestyle; entering a lifelong committed relationship. None of these moves has happened as a result of sudden or dramatic changes in my perception of God and the world. Perhaps, in fact, my growing sense of the significance of being 'witness to God's faithfulness' partly arises out of my knowledge that I am not one of those Friends whose understanding of the spiritual life is shaped by identifiable 'peak experiences' or moments of intense clarity.

This does not, however, mean that processes of discernment are unimportant to me. I am not naturally a very patient person, but it seems to me that I am most able to serve God in a changing world - which in all its changes is God's beloved world, the 'object' of God's faithfulness - when I have the patience to pay attention to what is going on. That sounds easy. In my experience it's one of the hardest things to do. I build myself structures of thought that give rise to automatic responses: prejudices about people, words or turns of phrase that cause me to 'switch off', pat answers to difficult questions. In a complex world we all simplify our decision-making processes, forming habits so that we don't have to make every choice as if for the first time. Being a faithful witness is, then, also for me about forming habits of listening. Meeting for worship is central to this; so is reading the Bible, and the ways in which it teaches me to see the world as above all the object of God's love and infinitely patient attention.

Queries:

- How do we discern individually and as a group what God wants us to do?

- How can we be faithful in everyday things?

Quaker Message

Helmer Batista North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM)

(English translation by Marigold Best, Britain Yearly Meeting)

According to the word of God, the Lord demands that we should be his witnesses throughout the world. When God made the world, it was not His intention to divide it up and place frontiers to separate us. He wished to make of His creation an earthly paradise worthy of being cared for by us humans with our wisdom and knowledge, constantly improving it to fulfil His purpose of allowing us to live in a holy place and care for it well.

But human beings have put up barriers to divide us by race, culture, language, ideology, political and economic convictions and all kinds of concepts. Even worse, we have divided ourselves into different religions. It was not Christ's intention to create a religion: he always strongly opposed all that was false in organized religion. Nor was it George Fox's idea to found a religion. Yet over the years we have been enveloped, infected or contaminated by the ideas of certain religions which have gradually obscured the true meaning and practices of Friends.

We have a fresh message drawn from the Bible, distilled from the experience of years of work within and beyond those frontiers which have attempted to enclose Quakerism. It is the message of love, inner peace, freedom and acceptance which Quakers have lived out for hundreds of years. It allows people from outside the organized local group to feel accepted by their brothers and sisters and, without having to abandon all their old customs, become open to change through the intervention of the Holy Spirit.

We Friends need to take seriously our responsibility for enabling people who have not yet known God, who are not friends of Christ, who have not had an encounter with the Holy Spirit, to feel inspired to join in this unique and saving experience which makes them new, not because of any effort on their part, but because they allow themselves to be renewed by God.

From God's perspective frontiers do not exist, whether geographical, political, cultural, economic, religious or any other kind. There are only men and women in need of a personal experience of Him, hungry for a personal encounter with Him, longing to find a truth as clear and straight as a ray of light. Those men and women work, travel, dream and wake up to the reality that technological advances, science, human knowledge, the humanities, have fulfilled certain needs, but that the spiritual needs which sustain us in moments of trial, make us joyful and give us hope for the future, depend only on an intimate personal relationship with God through Christ and with the help and participation of the Holy Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, this is a great task. The workers are few, the fields are ready, the minds and hearts of men and women are ready for the seed of the gospel. World events over the last decade have been pushing us towards this realization. Today, more than ever, people yearn for this experience, an experience devoid of dogmas and religious rules that distance them from the central truth of a God who says, 'Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will refresh you.' As we face an uncertain future, the word of the Lord tells us, 'I will not leave you alone. I will be with you until the end of the world.' Friends need only to remember the words spoken to Joshua at an important moment for the Hebrew people: 'Do not be afraid or dismayed, be strong and courageous' (Josh. 10: 25).

Queries:

- What does the personal encounter with God mean for you?

- How can our Friends meetings and churches make sure that our organisation proclaims and does not hinder the truth of our message?

Unchanging Truths

Phyllis Short Aotearoa/New Zealand Yearly Meeting

Aotearoa, pronounced 'ah-oh-te(as in tent)-ah-ro-ah', is the name given by the Maori people to New Zealand. The word means 'the world (or land) of the long white cloud'. This name is in common use today.

Here in Aotearoa/New Zealand we members of the worldwide family of Friends are the southernmost. Here the sun goes round by the north, and we have summer when the northern half of the world is in winter. Yet here too, in this 'farthest corner of the earth', the Spirit is present within the 'first people' the Maori, those of European origin and more recent immigrants of many races.

When we acknowledge the Spirit or Light within, we are ready to receive power to live as faithful witnesses. As Friends, we are united the world over by this knowledge and embrace all people.

All my life I have valued the priceless heritage of our Christian and Quaker roots: from Jesus, whose life and teachings guide us and whose Light shines brightly still after 2000 years; and from the insights of George Fox, who learned by personal experience that Christ is our inward teacher and that the Spirit, or God, resides within every human being. From these truths, and the experience of Friends over the centuries, have emerged our Quaker testimonies to equality, peace, integrity and simplicity. I am inspired by the lives of men and women who have been faithful to these truths.

In Aotearoa/New Zealand Te Whiti, a Maori 'prophet', applied the Christian principles he had learned. In the late nineteenth century he led his people in prayerful and peaceful actions in an attempt to save their land and village from the British colonists. They prayed, sang hymns, went on ploughing their fields in front of the troops, and the children brought flowers to give to the soldiers.

While I was in India in Quaker service, meeting Gandhi at his ashram was a significant experience on my life's journey. This remarkable man, a Hindu who was strongly influenced by his Christian friends, including Quakers, showed me glimpses of what Jesus might have been like. I saw this in Gandhi's huge love for the poor and his ability to respond directly to the needs of those who came to him and to 'speak truth to power'. These qualities, combined with his occasional withdrawal into prayer and fasting while seeking guidance for the way forward, impressed me deeply.

My spirit is uplifted by such people who have acted under guidance in their day and circumstances to show love and to work for justice and truth. I know that, in our changed and changing circumstances, I must seek in prayer and worship for the leadings of the Spirit today, joining with other Friends in learning how we can live, both individually and collectively, the unchanging truths we have been given.

Queries:

- What are the unchanging truths of your spiritual experience? How do you try to communicate them to others?

- Where do you find people who inspire you?

Affirmation

Susannah Brindle Australia Yearly Meeting

As we seek to witness to the Christ Spirit within us in this tumultuously changing world, I affirm:

That God - the Ground of Our Being - is incarnate in the Universe, in the heavens above, and beneath, in the earth and all its life communities, and in the waters and the creatures of the deep; in the coming up and the going down of the fiery sun, in the whirlwind and in the still calm air, just as 'that of God' is to be found within each human being that breathes the breath of the Spirit of Life. 'In the Lord's hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of every human being' (Job 12: 10).

That when we harm the least of these our brethren, we have done it unto the Whole. That the Spirit of the Living Christ may be known intimately in all of this and that we are never alone, for 'Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?' (Psalm 139: 7).

That our Christian responsibility is to love God in all Life's manifestations equally.

That it is from this first motion of universal love that we begin our witness to peace, simplicity, integrity and equality with all our relations in the human and in the more-than-human world ('more-than-human' means 'all that is not human' as well as 'all that humanity may yet become'), and that this universal love will lead us and sustain us.

That this love is learned, not through theories or concepts, but rather through experience of the beloved's reality in the intimacy of mutual relationship.

That to know and love Creation we must know its essence in its myriad and individual expressions - 'But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air and they will tell you; ask the plants of the earth and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare to you' (Job 12: 7-8) - and come to recognize its pulse as our pulse and its spirit as our spirit, the pulse and the spirit of God.

That it is through a Creation kinship, learned from the world's indigenous peoples, that we may come humbly to submit ourselves to the guidance of the Spirit in all Life.

That it is through the guidance of those for whom all is of God that we may be brought once again into a just fellowship with those whom formerly we despised because we believed ourselves superior, and destroyed through fear of our own diminishment.

That it is through the Light of the Creation, which God called good, that we may cease to fear shadow places, until now perceived only as 'through a glass, darkly'.

That in so doing we may come to witness faithfully to the Truth and serve God in a changing world.

Query:

- How can we learn to treat the whole world as God's creation?

A Fire in our Hearts

Diego Chuyma INELA Bolivia

In this changing world we need a threefold commitment: to know the resurrected Christ, to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be a faithful witness. First, to really know the resurrected Christ, we need not only to know about Christ, but to know him personally. Everyone who has known Christ has never been the same. The apostle Paul before his conversion was a religious leader; he knew his Bible and doctrine, but did not know Christ personally. When he met Christ on the road to Damascus, his life was changed forever. The same can be said about George Fox. Second, there has to be a commitment to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Only those who ask, seek and knock receive the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:9-13). We are to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18). Third, we must make a conscious decision to be a witness to Christ. This is to live with a purpose, with a mission.

If we are to be effective witnesses of Christ, we need to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. Even Jesus needed to be anointed with the Holy Spirit to do his ministry and the good work (Acts 10:38). He said that we would do the same things that he did and even greater things (John 14:12). The results of being baptized with the Holy Spirit will be changed lives, holy lives and lives that are impacting families, communities, cities and the whole world.

We receive power of the Holy Spirit to do the kind of works that Jesus did, to be a missionary church. Friends from around the world, we need more than ever to have a missionary zeal, a passion for lost souls. The world is ready for Jesus and to be changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Revival is going on, and people are getting saved. As Friends, we should be part of this great harvest of souls for Jesus. As people of God, we have a job as ambassadors of Christ in this changing world. Where are the 'Valiant Sixty' who had the zeal to change the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Jesus commanded us to go out and make disciples in all the world (Matt. 28: 19-20). We receive the power of the Holy Spirit in order to be powerful witnesses in our home, our country and right to the ends of the world. If we are Friends who obey Christ's command (John 15: 14), we should be making not just converts, but disciples. This requires a fire in our hearts.

Queries:

- What are the ways in which you have received power?

- How can we be enabled to change the world?

Witness

Anne Thomas Canadian Yearly Meeting

It suddenly became clear to me as I walked down the hallway in Friends House, Toronto, that I could no longer pay taxes for war. There had been a small but faithful group of Friends in Canadian Yearly Meeting who had withheld taxes for war for many years, but up to that moment, although I respected the witnesses of these Friends, this had not been my concern. I felt a sense of lightness and absolute clearness about my leading. During the years I actively maintained this witness this clarity never left me.

On returning home I spoke with my husband and children, who felt this was crazy. After all, how much money would I withhold from my part-time Quaker position? What good would this do? Would it jeopardize our family finances? And how could this be done? Up to that time war tax resisters in Canada were usually self-employed, as no organization had agreed to break the law by withholding taxes on behalf of its employees. I spoke to my Monthly Meeting, who named a Committee of Clearness to meet with me. The committee members made it clear that they did not understand this 'symbolic gesture'. We met several times, and the committee reported to the Monthly Meeting that, while they did not support war tax resistance, they recognized that my leading was valid.

I informed the Yearly Meeting of my leading and asked if they, as my employer, would withhold the percentage of taxes that were going to pay for current and past wars, about 9% of my income tax payments. The Yearly Meeting named a committee and sought legal advice on who would be deemed responsible if the government decided to seize the monies which were withheld and fine the organization. After three years the Yearly Meeting approved a minute supporting staff who were war tax resisters, the first, and still the only, Canadian employer to do so.

When I sent in the required tax each month, I added a letter explaining why it was short and informed the government of the name of the bank and the account number in which the $13 was deposited. Each month's letter included the text of a different expression of the peace testimony. As other Yearly Meeting staff were not called to follow this leading, I closed the account when I resigned from my position several years later, and sent the money to the Canadian Friends Service Committee, informing the government of this.

Was it worth it? I believe so. I could do no other.

Queries:

- What experiences have you had where you have felt led to a particular act of witness in relation to the secular world?

- How can we, in our churches and meetings, help one another to test our leadings?

Proclaiming the Good News

Dan Cammack Northwest Yearly Meeting

In 1647 George Fox heard these words, 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.' His heart leapt for joy, and Fox began proclaiming the good news about Jesus to his contemporaries in England. The message soon spread to surrounding countries and the Americas. Thousands of people responded by fixing their eyes on Jesus, tuning their ears to hear His voice and following obediently after Him.

In the following centuries Friends have continued to carry the good news about Jesus throughout the world. Some of my own family have been a part of taking this news to the Aymara people in the Andes mountains of Bolivia and Peru.

My great-aunt, Helen Cammack, was among the first group from what is now called Northwest Yearly Meeting (USA) to go to Bolivia. Helen, a single woman and a school teacher, arrived in La Paz in the early 1930s. Because there were few roads and vehicles, Helen obtained a mule she named Princess. She spent much of her time founding schools near Lake Titicaca. She also began to compile a dictionary of Aymara words. On more than one occasion Princess managed to get loose during the night. Helen would have to get out of bed and wander through the countryside looking for her naughty mule!

On a visit to the Pacific Northwest Helen delivered a message based on Jesus' words in John 12: 24: 'I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.' Not long afterwards, in 1944, Helen died of typhoid fever in La Paz. There were only a few hundred Friends in Bolivia at the time.

Now it is 2002, and my family and I are concluding fourteen years of missionary service in Peru. In just a few weeks we will board a nice bus and head for La Paz. Along the way we will see many, many meeting houses. We will ride through the area where Princess played hide-and-seek with Great-Aunt Helen. When we get on the airplane bound for the United States, we will be thinking about the approximately 10,000 Friends that make up the yearly meetings of Bolivia and Peru.

Thank you, Jesus, for allowing us the privilege of proclaiming the good news!

Queries:

- What is your understanding of 'proclaiming the good news'?

- How do you respond to Fox's realization that there was one, Christ Jesus, who could speak to his condition?

Vigil for Peace

Misha Roshchin Moscow Monthly Meeting

English translation by J. Coutts

Autumn was cold in 1999. By the end of October the second Chechen War had already been raging for a month. Refugees were flooding out of Chechnya, but Moscow was calm and peaceful. Nobody was protesting against the war this time -many remembered the recent explosions in Moscow, and the vast majority felt certain that Chechens were to blame. At that time few realized that a new tragedy was overwhelming a whole nation, and that the pathway of blood was unlikely to lead to better understanding between Russians and Chechens.

I felt great concern at the time and was particularly anxious because I could do nothing about it. I phoned Viktor Popkov, a man of deep faith and an Old Believer. Viktor had been hard at work in Chechnya during the first war. He brought in humanitarian aid, arranged the exchange of prisoners and was an Observer of the short armistice that took place in the summer of 1995. We both realized that this time there would be no mass protests against the war. The press was screaming, 'Let our army get the job finished!' Nobody explained exactly what this would mean.

Viktor proposed a hunger strike in peaceful solidarity with the people of Chechnya. Our hunger strike was in fact a strict fast, because we regularly drank hot water in the nearby building belonging to MEMORIAL, a human rights organization. For our motto we chose words of the ancient Russian Prince Alexander Nevsky: 'Not by force, oh God, but in truth.' We began our action beside the Malo Solovetsky stone, which was brought from Solovki, where a large camp for political prisoners was set up in Stalinist times. Near the Solovetsky stone we set up a small polythene shelter. Here, on a folding table, we placed devotional books and icons. We prayed for all who perished in the war - Chechens and Russians, Christians and Muslims.

We tried to explain what we were doing - and why - to anyone who approached us. I have to say that we received support from many. I especially recall a certain woman who travelled from another town merely to meet us.

Nine days after the beginning of our hunger strike I was replaced by my friend Sasha Gorbenko, a member of Moscow Monthly Meeting. He stayed on hunger strike for 43 days, until the elections to the Russian Duma. Sasha felt called to make a high level of spiritual commitment at a time when blood was being shed in the world and innocent people were perishing. The results of our work were minimal, of course, but we felt that it was better to do something rather than look on silently while crime after crime was committed in the name of all Russians.

After five weeks of unbroken hunger strike Viktor Popkov got ready to travel to Chechnya for a meeting with the President, Aslan Maskhadov. Viktor believed that such a meeting could bring military activity to a halt. The Chechens received this well-intentioned man of another faith with respect. He was able to reach the villages of Urus-Martan and Valerik, but unable to cross the front line and reach territory outside the control of Federal forces. During the winter of 2000 Viktor was able to reach Chechnya on two further occasions. He carried money, bought flour and distributed it to villagers. Finally, when spring came, he was able to meet with the Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov, but the road to peace proved harder than we expected. New seeds of hatred are sown by the war every day.

On 18 April 2001 Viktor was mortally wounded in Chechnya, not far from Grozny, by unknown gunmen. He died on 2 June 2001. He really tried over all his life to serve God in our difficult time. He was very close to Moscow Monthly Meeting. A few of us Moscow Friends took part in his peacemaking initiatives.

I still believe that it is only by tearing hatred from our hearts that we can set out to meet each other. Only then can we learn that there is nothing more precious than peace.

Queries:

- What does the pursuit of peace mean in a world of injustice and inequality?

- How do we live the life of peace?

Faithful Witness

Kenneth Co Hong Kong Monthly Meeting

What should non-proselytizing Quakers do in a changing world to be faithful witnesses? As men and women of faith, we seek to know what it means to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbour as ourselves. In other words, we seek to know what the presence of God means in our lives, since it is only in our daily struggles of life and death that our beliefs about God come to life. As active bearers of faith and witness, we must be people who have seen extraordinary things happen in the mundane, people to whom the example of Jesus is important because we want to follow that example and live that kind of life. To follow Jesus is to live in the light of love; we need to share the light we receive with the world.

Being faithful witnesses means putting what we believe into action. Although the Religious Society of Friends does not have creeds, we do have testimonies. These are simplicity; speaking the truth; and adopting a life-style of peace and non-violence.

Simplicity means putting some different priority or order in our lives: simplifying our life-style so that what is most important - being close to God and knowing what God's purpose in our lives is and acting according to these principles - takes effect. Speaking the truth means adhering to the truth even if at times it makes us unpopular, takes away the advantage of profit or puts us in material distress.

Finally, living a peaceful and non-violent life is far from easy, especially in the post-September 11 world, when so much rhetoric equates patriotism with goodness and when speaking out against the established doctrine is regarded as unpatriotic and, therefore, as siding with evil. One of our members, Steven Palmquist, wrote in a recent article in the South China Morning Post:

We should never again speak impersonally of terrorism - as if eradicating it would bring peace - but of the real human terror created by all forms of violence. Solving problems by violent means always defaces the humanity of both parties. . . Principles such as non-violence are not merely nice but impractical ideas, they are powerful principles that are meant to be lived. The more people live them, the more hope we have of lasting peace.

There are a myriad ways of being faithful witnesses. I have a doctor friend who at age fifty gave up his medical practice in Seattle to become a full-time missionary in China, training local Chinese church leaders to be better Bible-study group-leaders. Another friend of mine with a Master of Divinity degree is giving up his stable position as a teacher to join Amity Foundation as a volunteer teacher in interior China. These are examples of people heeding the call. But no matter what way one is called, it is the answer to an inner Voice, a life of service in which one goes out and walks cheerfully over the world, meeting that of God in everyone.

Queries:

- What do we do to speak the truth and live out our Quaker principles in daily life?

- How do we speak truth to those in positions of power and authority?

Building a Foundation for Peaceful Witness

Val Liveoak South Central Yearly Meeting

I have often felt weak when I have tried to speak Truth to the powers of the modern world. When I think of the faithful witness of Friends who went before my generation, I often wonder, 'What did they have that I don't?'

Slowly, I have come to learn some of the things that earlier Friends knew. I came to Friends after a wide search of religious options, so I had studied the Bible to some degree, but as an unprogrammed Friend I have only occasionally consulted it. Although quite familiar with the gospels, I have recently been awestruck at the power of the language of the Hebrew prophets, and I resolve to study this resource for the perspective it can give me on God's power and grace.

I also see the need to strengthen my own prayer life, to develop more spaces of quiet communion with God amid all the noise of the modern world. That discipline is hard for me to cultivate, yet my efforts that are not grounded in it have been shallow and dry.

George Fox and his companions in the Valiant Sixty discovered how to corporately seek God's will and to act upon it. In my work with Friends Peace Teams, I have struggled to find the corporate leading of the Spirit. As a member of a highly individualistic culture, this has been a hard lesson to learn. I have had enough experience with the power that comes to actions based in Friends' corporate discernment to know I want to work at building a meeting community where the way of prayerful waiting for God's leading is the basis for decision-making. I have seen quite clearly the relationship between the roots of the work and its fruits in the development of our projects in Africa and the exploratory work in Colombia. The practices handed down from earlier generations need reviving and refining to give us the faith and power of early Friends. As our work progresses, I pray that we will learn to seek God's guidance personally, as a group and from scripture, and that that will offer us the power spoken of in Acts 1: 8.

Queries:

- What do you do when you feel weak in responding to God's call?

- What is your source of strength in being a faithful witness?