Z is for Zlatan

In Sweden, Zlatan Ibrahimović is a footballer who has become an idol and an icon the world over. His every move and his every word is followed and reported. I wondered what the name Zlatan meant and looked it up on the Internet.

Zlatan is a male name of South-Slavic origin and means ‘golden’. It is especially common in Bosnia due to its ethnical neutrality among the three dominant Bosnian ethnicities of Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. It derives from the South-Slavic word zlato, from the Old-Slavic root ‘zolto’ (gold). Its ancient form is Zoltan. The qualities behind the name are tenderness, sensitivity, idealism, harmony and balance. Zlatan is reserved and needs a favourable environment in order to communicate effectively.

To football fans across the world Zlatan Ibrahimović is indeed a golden boy. However, what struck me most was the neutrality of the name in a once troubled region, and the qualities that are required in such an environment if peace is to reign.

There is more to our names than meets the eye. Mine means lily. What does yours mean?

Y is for Yule

Although it is only November and not yet the Yuletide season, I have reached the letter Y. As a Yorkshire woman with Viking roots living in Sweden, it is nevertheless appropriate to consider the word and what it symbolises.

Besides being associated with Christmas (Jul in Swedish), Yule is also connected to the winter solstice (the summer solstice for those living south of the Equator). According to the Celtic tradition, on Solstice Night (the longest night of the year) bonfires were lit in fields and trees and crops were toasted with spiced cider. Children visited houses carrying baskets made from evergreen boughs (symbolising immortality) and what stalks dusted with flour (the former symbolising the harvest and the latter triumph, light and life) and filled with oranges and apples spiked with cloves– both of which represented the sun. Holly and ivy was used to decorate the exteriors and interiors of houses to entice Nature Sprites to come and join the celebrations. Holly was hung near the door all the year round as a constant invitation of good fortune and mistletoe was hung as a decoration to represent the seed of the Divine.

The Yule log, usually of Ash, was the highlight of the festival of the Solstice and by tradition must either have been harvested from the householder’s land or received as a gift (but never bought). Inside the house it was decorated with greenery, splashed with cider or beer and dusted with flour before being set alight using a piece of the previous year’s log. The log then burned throughout the night and left to smoulder for 12 days before being ceremonially extinguished. (Reference source: https://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/yule.htm)

In recent years I have begun to write ‘Yuletide greetings’, rather than ‘Happy Christmas’ during the Yuletide season.  Somehow it seems more authentic in this secular and materialistic age, when Christmas is increasingly associated with tinsel and tat, spending up and stocking up, and begins already in October.  It may also be connected to my inner desire to reconnect with the earth, and cherish it.

X is for …… Xempel!

Xempel is not a word, but in this context stands for the Swedish exempel, or in English, example.

Here I am reminded of George Fox’s words from 1656: “Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you.”

In today’s world, xtremism (another made up x!) seems to reign – extreme weather, extreme beliefs, extreme views, extreme behaviour, and so on. How, I wonder, can we best be patterns and examples and a blessing in such a climate?

Sydney Carter’s text is an example of how we might be examples. It is quoted in full on the Netherlands Yearly Meeting website (http://quakers.nu/George), and entitled “The Ballad of George Fox”:

1. There's a Light that was shining
when the world began,
and a Light that is shining in the heart of man:
There's a Light that is shining
in the Turk and the Jew,
and a Light that is shining, friend,
in me and in you.

(Chorus) Walk in the Light, wherever you may be,
Walk in the Light, wherever you may be!
In my old leather breeches and
my shaggy, shaggy locks,
I am walking in the glory of the Light, said Fox.

2. With a book and a steeple and a bell and a key
they would bind it for ever but
they can't, said he.
O, the book, it will perish, and the steeple will fall,
but the Light will be shining at the end of it all.

(Chorus)

3."Will you swear on the Bible?"
I will not," said he,
"For the truth is as holy as the Book to me."
"If we give you a pistol,
will you fight for the Lord?"
"You can't kill the devil with a gun or a sword."

(Chorus)

4. There's an ocean of darkness
and I drowned in the night
till I came through the darkness
to the ocean of Light;
You can lock me in prison
but the Light will be free.

(Chorus)

W is for Wilfrid and Waldemar

Not many words begin with w in the Swedish alphabet, because this letter is often replaced by v. However, as the only children in our Worship Group are called Wilfrid and Waldemar it seems appropriate to write about them in this Quaker-related space.

Waldemar is now six and his brother Wilfrid four.  They come to our once-a-month Meeting for Worship with their parents and are an integral part of our group. Both boys stay in Meeting for as long as they feel able. During that time they draw or crayon in their sketch books or read one of the books from their reading bags. When they come to Meeting they are always well equipped with materials and each boy has his own bag of books from which to choose. When they get restless one of their parents takes them to another room in the house for other activities, while the other remains in Meeting.

This has also posed a challenge to the rest of us in the group. Do we always expect their parents to take care of them and keep them occupied, or can another of us take responsibility for them? In Advices and Queries we are encouraged to “Rejoice in the presence of children and young people in your meeting and recognise the gifts they bring. Remember that the meeting as a whole shares a responsibility for every child in its care. Seek for them as for yourself a full development of God’s gifts and the abundant life Jesus tells us can be ours. How do you share your deepest beliefs with them, while leaving them free to develop as the spirit of God may lead them? Do you invite them to share their insights with you? Are you ready both to learn from them and to accept your responsibilities towards them?”(Advice 19, Britain Yearly Meeting)

Despite attempts to address the issue, it has proved difficult to come to any real solution, given that the group only meets once a month for Meeting, in our homes, and regards it as a precious opportunity to worship together. No-one has really been keen to leave the Meeting for Worship and do something with the children, although one or two have tried to set an example.

A more fertile discussion ground may be prepared when we meet in December, because this autumn we have included a ‘study’ session – in worship-sharing mode – before our Meeting for Worship in order to address topics that concern us. In December we will meet at the home of the children and the ‘study session’ will revolve around them. Might this be the beginning of a more inclusive taking of responsibility? I hope so.

V is for Vänner

Vänner – Friends – are what Quakers call each other. In John, chapter 15 verses 14-15, we read: “You are my friends if you will do all that I command you. No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master does, but I have called you my friends, because all that I have heard from my Father, I have taught you” (from the Aramaic Bible in plain English).

In England, those who attend Quaker meetings but are not members are called Attenders. In Sweden we call them Vänners vänner, friends of Friends. 

U is for Utvecklingsland

The English translation of utvecklingsland, or U-land, is developing country (also referred to as a less-developed country), and is defined by Wikipedia as “a nation with a lower living standard, underdeveloped industrial base, and low Human Development Index relative to other countries”. The term has been criticised for its implied inferiority and assumption that every country should develop according to Western economic development patterns.

In this Alphabet blog post the focus is on Bangladesh, regarded by many as an ‘utvecklingsland’ and certainly one of the world’s poorest countries. My concern here is not with the country’s economic development, but with how an NGO (non-governmental organisation) is working to improve the conditions for the ultra-poor, and especially women, adolescents and the disabled, in the north-eastern part of Bangladesh. Here, Quaker Service Sweden (Kväkarhjälpen) supports Sabalamby Unnayan Samity (SUS) in its work to deconstruct patriarchal ideas and traditions and help people claim their human rights.

Quaker Service Sweden has been supporting the various activities of Sabalamby Unnayan Samity (Self-reliance Development Group) since 1994. SUS was founded in 1985 by a local teacher, Begun Rokeya, who, together with ten other like-minded people, was determined to create a better future for the country’s women and children. SUS is based in north-east Bangladesh, in the Netrakona district, a rural area with some 2.4 million inhabitants. To date SUS been able to establish self-help projects in about half its working area.

One of Quaker Service Sweden’s first initiatives was to help SUS establish a Model Farm to provide local training in organic fruit and vegetable cultivation, compost-making etc. A heritage seed bank has also been created for the collection of hardy rice varieties and other crops for demonstration and distribution purposes. The project has now been expanded to include training in aquaculture (a combination of rice and fish farming). Quaker Service Sweden has also supported the expansion of SUS work in the different villages around Netrakona. This work takes the form of an integrated approach that includes the provision of basic education, micro-finance and micro-enterprise opportunities, training courses designed to prevent violence against women and to create better relations between the sexes, health-related education such as pre-natal and post-natal care, informing about diseases like HIV/AIDS etc., and human rights groups. SUS has also built a hospital so that poor people have better access to health care. At present we are supporting SUS development work in the slum areas of the largest city in the area, Mymensingh, and a rural programme in the villages of Kendua. SUS is also active in helping local people to form Stop Violence Against Women groups. Domestic violence is common in Bangladesh, and acid-throwing extremely prevalent.

Apart from donations from individuals, Quaker Service Sweden also receives development aid funding from the Swedish Government (via Sida) for the projects in Bangladesh, which is an enormous help for the people involved – Bangladeshi people at grassroots level who are trying to improve their living and working conditions and live meaningful lives.

Members of the Quaker Service Committee take it in turns to visit SUS and see the projects on the ground. As a recipient of government aid funds, QSS is obliged to do this, and receives a special administrative grant from Sida for this very purpose. I have been to Netrakona twice and am booked to go again later this year. This time, two members of the umbrella organisation that processes our finding application will also be accompanying us to conduct a Learning Review on Gender Equality and Religion with SUS staff.

You can read more about SUS and its work at http://sabalamby.org/

An interview with Begum Rokeya, the founder, can be accessed on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIAiOynmt9A

T is for Tillsammans (Together)

My sister-in-law visited us the other week and during a walk with standard poodle Irma we talked about Quakers and politics. She is not a Quaker, but her mother was and her brother is. I was talking about collective witness, and she said that she had always understood Quakers as a bunch of individuals all doing their own thing, and not as a collective. I was somewhat taken aback, but when I thought more about it, was not all that surprised by her words. We do come across as a bunch of individuals and this is something that we need to address.

After her visit I listened to Ben Pink Dandelion’s Swarthmore lecture on the Woodbrooke website: https://www.woodbrooke.org.uk/pages/swarthmore-2014.html

In the Lecture, delivered during the Britain YM Gathering in Bath, Ben talks about Quakerism as a Do-It-Together religion, rather than a Do-It-Yourself one.  His message is that we are not individuals in our individual meetings and yearly meetings, but a collective body of Friends worldwide that is gathered and caught, as in a net (as Francis Howgill said way back in 1663).

Ben highlights 4 insights into what it means to be a Quaker, which he regards as inherently collective:

• We have a direct encounter with the divine
• We have developed ways of interpreting this experience – discernment
• We have developed forms of worship that nurture the direct encounter with the divine
• We feel called to live a particular kind of life due to this encounter.

He goes on to say that we can’t encounter the divine without being changed – transformed. This transformation makes us see and feel the world in a new way. This can be uncomfortable, but leads us into a more spiritually authentic place. Our lives are transformed both individually and collectively in order to become agents of transformation in the world. That is what it means to be a Quaker.

In his lecture Ben points to areas where we have become fuzzy, more individualistic, more secular and much more permissive – and have been affected by wider societal trends. Our sense of belonging to our Meetings has changed. He suggests that we are no longer accountable to the group as we were earlier, that we can decide what is and is not Quaker and that we have a huge amount of freedom and permissiveness in terms of faith. We present ourselves as an option in the option of faith – attendance at Meetings for Worship is optional, service is optional (we are now more likely to say no to nominations committee) and supporting  the Meeting financially is optional. We thus have an optional sense of belonging, which leads to a diffuse, rather than gathered, community.

According to Ben, in developing our own individual versions of Quakerism we have lost our Collective Voice.

What can we do? What Ben suggests is not new. He encourages us to resist the individual, resist the secular and reclaim the spiritual and the joy and passion that go with this. He thinks that we need to inhabit the Quaker tradition, be bold, think radically and live adventurously. And we need to do this together. Tillsammans.