tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post4032027458540635820..comments2023-10-28T02:59:37.028-07:00Comments on E m e r g i n g ...Q u a k e r i s m ..L i t e r a t u r e ..R e l i g i o n ... L i f e: A good novelDianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-50142823364897187272010-06-07T00:51:58.700-07:002010-06-07T00:51:58.700-07:00Diane, I'll try again to get my
spelling right...Diane, I'll try again to get my<br />spelling right: Her name is,<br />I think, Nikuzi. And find Alexia<br />Niboya, I think her name is, a<br />Burundian doctor for the Friends Woman Assn. clinic in Kamenge, the terrible neighborhood of Bujumbura<br />the capital of Burundi. Dr.Niboya<br />was just denied a visa for a speaking tour in the United States. The insane consul ruled that there was a risk that she might not return to Burundi---yet<br />she is exec.director of the Friends Women's Assn., head doctor<br />of the clinic, and mother of 12<br />adopted children! Luckily, her<br />American partner Dr.Alexandra Douglas, could and did come instead. I don't understand why<br />you don't have some of these amazing Friends visit at Olney<br />and Earlham. All that one must do,<br />when a speaking tour is planned,<br />is invite them, agree on dates,<br />provide hospitality and publicity,<br />and allow them to collect money and lists of names for their projects. The most amazing Friend of the 21st century so far, I think, is David Zarembka, the exec.<br />director of African Great Lakes<br />Initiative. He lives in Kenya now, but he's a member of Baltimore Y.M. He brings together<br />Friends from the United States,<br />Britain, Norway, Canada, Kenya,<br />Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Congo<br />to work on many important peace-<br />promoting projects. He even mangages to raise money from AFSC,<br />from Philadelphia Y.M. foundations,<br />and from the United States Institute of Peace (a State Dept. foundation). You can find his<br />reports under www.aglifpt.orgJeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-62160477375301824692010-06-07T00:04:51.430-07:002010-06-07T00:04:51.430-07:00Jeremy writes again: Here's a remarkable for...Jeremy writes again: Here's a remarkable foreign Friend:<br />Zawadu Nikuze, who you can find by<br />googling Friends Peace Teams African Great Lakes Initiative.<br />She lives in the eastern Congolese<br />city of Goma, at the northern end of Lake Kivu, adjacent to the<br />Rwandan city of Gisenyi. Goma<br />is a gigantic overgrown refugee<br />camp of a city, built on a dump,<br />which lies on top of a sometimes-<br />active volcano. It must be one of<br />the ugliest cities in the world;<br />but many Friends live there, including pastors and other members of CEEACO (which you can also look up via google). At the south<br />end of Lake Kivu is Bukavu, which<br />is a beautiful city; it has Quakers too; but it has been the<br />scene of fighting recently in the<br />seemingly endless World War III of<br />this area. As you can see on the<br />web, Zawadi Nikuze was recently on<br />a fundraising tour that included<br />Chester, Pa. (I suspect that the<br />Friends meeting there has many<br />African-American members.) These<br />Congolese, Burundian, and Rwandan<br />Friends are really marvels. All are young; the leaders are almost<br />never over 35 years old.Jeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-26020071952725924632010-06-06T19:59:54.512-07:002010-06-06T19:59:54.512-07:00Jeremy continues,
There's a wonderful yearly m...Jeremy continues,<br />There's a wonderful yearly meeting in southern Africa, extending to 8 <br />different nations; it's Central & Southern Africa Y.M. (I think). <br />Right now most of the members are<br />English-speaking white people; they are trying hard, with some success, to change that, since it's obvious that the future in SouthAfrica is black Africans.<br />If you look up EFC-ER, and go to<br />their mission work, you can findout<br />about their magnificent work among<br />Gypsies in Hungary and Romania;<br />also about their work in Haiti,<br />and Haitian refugees in Dom.Rep.<br />and U.S.A. Go to ERC--SW, and<br />you will be led into much on their<br />amazing mission work, under incredibly difficult conditions, in<br />post-genocide Cambodia.<br />Try Friends Peace Teams if you will. Some of these groups, including FPT, offer voluntary<br />service opportunities overseas,<br />for a month or for a year or two,<br />for individual Friends or for whole families. And they don't care if you ever went to seminary, or even college in many cases.Jeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-14879504462506931272010-06-06T19:43:42.215-07:002010-06-06T19:43:42.215-07:00As ror reading about Friends worldwide, you can...As ror reading about Friends worldwide, you can't do better than<br />starting with the 5 FWCC websites,<br />espcially the one for the Section<br />of the Americas (which includes<br />Margaret Fraser's reports from a<br />recent month-long trip to 3 different gatherings in Kenya), and<br />the webside of the Asia and West<br />Pacific Section, which includes<br />material about Friends in India<br />(they are booming) and the Philippines (likewise). The FWCC--<br />AWPS newsletter is now published<br />in both Hindi and English.<br />Try googling Guatemala evangelical<br />Friends for those 3 yearly meetings with a total of more than 20,000 members. One of these yearly meetings has a radio station Radio Verdad and publishes pamphlets El Senor Jesu Cristo and La Luz Interior, both titles, by the same author. The European <br />(& Middle East) section of FWCC<br />has a good website, covering all<br />the small liberal Quaker groups of<br />Europe, some quite new. The Africa<br />section of FWCC's website lists<br />almost all the groups in Africa, in<br />cluding several obscure local meetings in west Africa, both anglophone and francophone.<br /> We're much a much bigger <br />Society than we ever used to be, even though our U.S.yearly meetings are shrinking or at<br />best stable. This is, I believe,<br />a very exciting time for Friends.Jeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-19522366048872752642010-06-06T13:34:24.372-07:002010-06-06T13:34:24.372-07:00Jeremy writes again: Yes. And Hans Schmitt's ...Jeremy writes again: Yes. And Hans Schmitt's book, Quakers and<br />Nazis, Inner Light and Outer Dark-<br />ness, should be available in any<br />good Quaker library, and may still be bought from the publisher, Univ.of Missouri press, on the internet. I am more interested in<br />what Friends did in Germany than in other opponents of Hitler like<br />Bonhoeffer who took up arms.<br />In France also, Friends and other<br />friends of Friends were deeply in-<br />volved in saving Jewish lives and<br />the lives of other opponents of the Nazis. They used a lot of American money, smuggled through Switzerland. Yous can read about this in the books about Le Chambon sur Lignon, the Huguenot village in the south of France, where unter pacifist leadership, thousands of Jews were saved. Some were captured there, but not one was turned in.<br />In the aftermath of World War II,<br />there was a considerable effort among U.S. Quakers to help German<br />Quakers who had survived the Nazis. They still had rationing and shortages of many essentials. In my family and many other Quaker families, we "adopted" a German Quaker family and every month or two sent a package with canned food, baby clothes and children's clothes, tooth powder, soap, blankets, and other useful items.<br />This helped the spirits of the<br />recipient families, as well as the<br />bodies.Jeremy Motthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14107954654832001813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-19703614551536992372010-06-06T13:30:48.549-07:002010-06-06T13:30:48.549-07:00Jeremy adds: The book Quakers and
and Nazis: Inne...Jeremy adds: The book Quakers and<br />and Nazis: Inner Light and Outer<br />Darkness, was published only about<br />13 years ago and is still in print.<br />Of course it should be available in the library of any Quaker college. In the aftermath of World War II, when Friends in Germany were really suffering still, Friends in the U.S set up a program to help. My family, like many other Quaker families,<br />sent a packkage every month or two<br />to a German Quaker family that we<br />had "adopted." We sent canned food, baby clothes and children's clothes, blankets, soap, tooth powder, etc. Believe me, the recipients were grateful. They still felt the hatred of their<br />compatriots, as much as ever.<br />British Friends couldn't do this,<br />since they were still suffering<br />from wartime shortages and rationing also, until about 1952.<br /> We have a remarkable recent<br />history, in the last 150 years,<br />not just an ancient history.Jeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-51666429407222566882010-06-03T07:20:55.068-07:002010-06-03T07:20:55.068-07:00Jeremy,
I am behindhand in responding but thanks ...Jeremy,<br /><br />I am behindhand in responding but thanks for all the information on COs. I find it fascinating. The German Quaker decisions during WWII must have been wrenching but they did allow the group to survive.Dianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-20077150766234907232010-06-01T08:27:25.663-07:002010-06-01T08:27:25.663-07:00Emerging Diane,
As many Friends used to know, lega...Emerging Diane,<br />As many Friends used to know, legal conscientious objector<br />status is pretty much a Quaker<br />creation. It began in Rhode Island in the 1670's. The Quaker<br />government there, in alliance with<br />the other New England colonies,<br />was fighting a terrible war against<br />Indians (with the approval of Geo. Fox, who was visiting). Yet it did grant CO exemption to young Friends (and other CO's if there<br />were any) who would otherwise have been drafted into the militia. Some of these men refused to perform the alternative civilian<br />work that the law required; I guess they were fined and their<br />property seized. Sound familiar?<br />Within a few years, similar laws<br />were passed in all colonies (later<br />states) that had Quakers or Brethren or Mennonites. When both North and South passed federal<br />conscription during the Civil War,<br />similar CO provisions were included. Usually CO's had to pay a big commutation fee; those who did not had their property seized or were drafted after all and if they still didn't serve might be<br />court-martialed or worse. This<br />sort of system was adopted in Britain, Australia, and elsewhere in the British Empire during WWI and WWII. Ireland, including the<br />North, never had conscription.<br /> The other origin of legalized<br />CO status is with Mennonites. A large number of German-speaking<br />Mennonites were settled in Russia<br />under Catherine the Great. (They<br />were escaping from conscription in<br />Prussia.) She promised them exemption from the draft. In the<br />1800's, CO status was conditioned<br />on civilian service in forestry<br />camps, then withdrawn altogether in many cases. Russian Mennonites then mostly moved to Canada and the U.S.A. The Canadian and later<br />American programs of civilian work<br />for conscientious objectors obviously came partly from this.<br /> Once legalized conscientious ob-<br />jection had spread throughout the <br />English-speaking world, it didn't<br />go much farther for a very long<br />time. Not only Germany, but France, Holland, and Italy had no such provisions during WW2 and<br />later. France didn't legalize CO<br />until after the Algerian war. And<br />West Germany, when it was created<br />by the Americans and the British<br />about 1952, was told it must have<br />a draft and must legalize pacifist CO's. So Germany<br />actually led the way in Europe.<br />Finland and Greece still court-martialed CO's and sentenced them to death into the 1950's (Greece<br />didn't carry out the sentences; but Finland sometimes did.)<br /> Now pacifist conscientious ob-<br />jection is an international <br />human right, thanks mainly to the <br />lifelong work of Friend Rachel <br />Brett at QUNO--Geneva; you may read her papers on this subject on the web. Of course, there are <br />many countries, notably Israel &<br />Turkey & Greece, where CO's are<br />still drafted and sent to prison.<br />You can read about this on the<br />website of War Resisters Intl.<br />Virtually every country in <br />Europe no longer has<br />conscription or is giving it up.<br />If the U.S. expands the war on terror so much that we <br />restore conscription, we will<br />be out of step. We are a much<br />more millitarized nation,<br />in spirit especially, than we<br />were a few years ago. War is<br />popular again. Peace, Jeremy MottJeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-3079514020004234642010-05-31T16:08:47.904-07:002010-05-31T16:08:47.904-07:00Diane and Friends, I think all would enjoy the boo...Diane and Friends, I think all would enjoy the book Quakers and<br />Nazis, by Hans Schmitt, published<br />in 1997 by Univ. of Missouri press.<br />It's still available from the pub=<br />lisher and other sources on the<br />internet.<br />There were a few hundred German Friends in 1933 when Hitler came to power. The authoritarian<br />clerk of German Y.M., Hans Albrecht, was determined that<br />German Friends----a very young<br />group---would survive. With the<br />approval of the yearly meeeting,<br />he ruled out any revolutionary<br />action, violent or nonviolent,<br />for German Friends. Their activity under the Nazis was to<br />be restricted to two things: worship and service. And what great service they did, rescuing<br />Jews and political opponents of the Nazis, helping Friends and <br />others in concentratiion camps. <br />offering meetinghouses where young Jews and half-Jews could<br />gather, and so forth. The German<br />Quakers didn't even expect their<br />young members to be conscientious objectors, since this might have<br />meant death. Many served in the<br />German army, often in the medical<br />services. Some died there. At the<br />end of the war almost all the German Friends were still alive.<br />And they had kept their unique point of view, their peace testimony, alive too; totalianarian thinking had not<br />conquered them Jeremy MottJeremy Mottnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-54469204838827788712010-05-29T20:30:04.117-07:002010-05-29T20:30:04.117-07:00Ted,
Yes, I think we do--or I do--lapse from lovi...Ted,<br /><br />Yes, I think we do--or I do--lapse from loving Jesus with my full head, heart, mind and soul. In the novel, when the couple do finally--in jail--encounter a truly good Christian chaplain, and a truly Christian layman, it's astonishing. The reader feels the grace so fully, because it's been missing in Nazi Germany. We just take so much for granted, even the small kindnesses. At the same time, Fallada doesn't romanticize the clergy--there's a bad chaplain too.Dianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-26177756355588072482010-05-29T20:29:31.528-07:002010-05-29T20:29:31.528-07:00Ted,
Yes, I think we do--or I do--lapse from lovi...Ted,<br /><br />Yes, I think we do--or I do--lapse from loving Jesus with my full head, heart, mind and soul. In the novel, when the couple do finally--in jail--encounter a truly good Christian chaplain, and a truly Christian layman, it's astonishing. The reader feels the grace so fully, because it's been missing in Nazi Germany. We just take so much for granted, even the small kindnesses. At the same time, Fallada doesn't romanticize the clergy--there's a bad chaplain too.Dianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-44571666698624593552010-05-29T20:28:54.535-07:002010-05-29T20:28:54.535-07:00Ted,
Yes, I think we do--or I do--lapse from lovi...Ted,<br /><br />Yes, I think we do--or I do--lapse from loving Jesus with my full head, heart, mind and soul. In the novel, when the couple do finally--in jail--encounter a truly good Christian chaplain, and a truly Christian layman, it's astonishing. The reader feels the grace so fully, because it's been missing in Nazi Germany. We just take so much for granted, even the small kindnesses. At the same time, Fallada doesn't romanticize the clergy--there's a bad chaplain too.Dianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-17733832387677704472010-05-29T17:18:40.139-07:002010-05-29T17:18:40.139-07:00Thanks for this, Diane. It does bring a bit of the...Thanks for this, Diane. It does bring a bit of the awareness you gleaned from this book to us, to me. We're so far removed from such a world, really. And we take it for granted that we'll always be. But maybe there is in the air for us, and always for followers of Jesus something of this dynamic. Which is inherent in following the Jesus way against the tide of the world's way. Yet such troubled times end up bringing that to the fore. Does make on thank God for the freedoms we have. But do we easily lapse into something less than a full following of Jesus as a result? I'm afraid more than not that that may be the case.Ted M. Gossardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10580691315315271791noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-65961304522351496782010-05-25T04:43:52.403-07:002010-05-25T04:43:52.403-07:00Thanks novels.Thanks novels.Dianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12396312339372162866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-265511791146423221.post-24499596693710881622010-05-23T22:43:23.921-07:002010-05-23T22:43:23.921-07:00http://www.stories.pk it is really nice novel whic...http://www.stories.pk it is really nice novel which gives the informative.novelshttp://www.stories.pknoreply@blogger.com