Mary-Jane Thornton

I read the following statement published in Bristol City of Sanctuary June newsletter during Meeting for Worship on 14 June. It seemed to me to sum up the right response to the demonstrations and protests we had seen in Bristol over the previous week or so, and resonates with Quaker values.

The killing of George Floyd at the hands of the police has sent shock waves around the world. His death highlighted, again, the extent of police brutality against the black community in the USA. The global response to this terrible act has also forced us all to confront racist structures that exist within our own countries. In the UK, these include the disproportionate stop and searches of black people, prejudicial assumptions that infiltrate the public and private sphere, the Government’s deliberate creation of a Hostile Environment, the Windrush scandal. Unfortunately, the list is long.

This is not the first time that we have seen such an outpouring of grief and understandable anger. People are tired of discrimination, tired of police brutality, tired of the injustices, tired of fear, tired of structural inequalities that continue to exist within businesses, faith communities, educational and public institutions and that also exist within our government.

“It’s up to all of us – Black, white, everyone – no matter how well-meaning we think we might be, to do the honest, uncomfortable work of rooting it [racism] out. It starts with self-examination and listening to those whose lives are different from our own. It ends with justice, compassion, and empathy that manifests in our lives and on our streets” – Michelle Obama

There are no quick fixes for racism so ingrained in our communities in Britain. However, by continuing to work together locally we can make Bristol a real City of Sanctuary which provides welcome, safety and hope for all. There is so much work to be done but there is also a tangible feeling of hope that things can change for the better.

Black Lives Matter. We stand in solidarity with this movement, and all those who  stand for justice and peace in our city, nationally and around the world. We must listen to the voices that speak their pain and then act decisively on what we hear. Our humanity must speak truth to power until every person is valued equally.

Caroline Beatty – Co-chair, Bristol City of Sanctuary
Reverend Richard McKay – Co-Chair, Bristol City of Sanctuary
Forward Maisokwadzo – Manager, Bristol City of Sanctuary

Submitted by Linda Ewles

by Rob Hopkins 

Review by Alison Bordes

The two qualities which are most important to children of today are hope and imagination. Hope to believe they can change the world they live in and imagination to find ways to do so.

Janet Galbraith 1986 (Quaker Faith and Practice 23.85)

At the start of a new decade when there is a great deal of gloom around, here is a book to lighten the spirit and give a glimmer of hope.

Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transformation Movement shows how change is possible if we can embrace the idea that by using our imagination and creativity, new perspectives and solutions can be found in facing up to the multiple challenges which confront us. He has experienced transformation in his own community in Totnes and instances around the world where people come together with a common purpose to find new ways to combat personal loneliness, prejudice and negative beliefs about how to deal with a fractured world.

Hopkins exhorts us to use our innate creativity to think beyond what we see in front of us to find better ways of living and behaving. He uses multiple examples of how communities have shown how they have the drive and enthusiasm to achieve realistic solutions.

Climate change, extreme governments and ideologies, loss of biodiversity ecosystems, insecurity both personal and global are all confronted by the author. He has a well-founded belief that we humans have it within us to bring about change if we combine and pull together and each contribute using our imagination. An inspiring book that will be available in the Redland library soon.

What Is to What If by Rob Hopkins (2019) Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing

Redland became a ‘Sanctuary Meeting’ in 2017. Our Meeting’s refugee action group was active between 2016-2018!  While we have been less collectively active as a Meeting in refugee support in the past year, many of our member and attenders, both from Redland and other meetings in Bristol Area, continue to be very much engaged in Bristol’s refugee support sector.  Others have significant personal connections with people seeking sanctuary in the city.  It is inspiring and supportive to know what each other is doing.  So this gathering, on 26th January, following a shared lunch, will be an opportunity to share our involvement and experience in the field.  Please come and tell us what you are doing.  I will structure the meeting lightly so everyone gets a chance to contribute and reflect.  I suspect that our collective experience will fully earn us our place in the wider Sanctuary Everywhere movement – let us see.

Whether or not you are active in this field at the moment, of course you are welcome to come.  On 16th February there will be a meeting for learning from 10-10.45am at Redland Meeting House, to reflect on the way in which this concern links with others in the meeting, such as climate change and homelessness.

Caroline Beatty