Fenya --- A Christmas Truce from the Veterans for Peace UK

FENYA - CHRISTMAS TRUCE 

Anti-War Christmas single by Veterans For Peace UK and Firebrand Records

Posted by Veterans For Peace UK on Friday, 18 December 2015

Quaker Bonnets and Queensland Bombing - Talisman Saber 2015 at Shoalwater Bay

Not a lot is known, up close and personal, in Australia about the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia.  The main cause of this is that there aren't many of them/us. About 3000 people identified as Quakers at the last census.  This came as a bit of surprise - because the most knowledgable Friends (as Quakers prefer to be called), as well as the records of Friends, could only account for somewhat over 1,000.  For those who know about Quakers, there is usually one stand-out factor - they are pacifists and active campaigners for peace.  Please go here to learn more of The Quaker Peace Testimony.  Quakers also keenly maintain their history with women in many places taking to needle and thread in preservation of the Quaker story.  The Editor of The Network can testify personally to the needlework and design skills of Tessa.  The event to which Helen refers is the Shoalwater Bay Peace Convergence 2015 which coincides with and is a protest against Exercise Talisman Saber 2015.

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Helen Bayes

Shared publicly  -  10:23

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours with my dear Friend Tessa Spratt mending our Quaker bonnets in preparation for the quakergrannies4peace witness at Shoalwater Bay, next month. Tessa's bonnet has a note inside the brim that it was made in 1860 and it is all hand-stitched. Mine is machine chainstitched and probably dates around 1880s. You can be sure they will be worn with joy at actions in Rockhampton and Shoalwater Bay.

2015-06-23

2 photos

#War, #Peace, and #Poppies

Another cross-posting from Advocacy @ St Paul's

Picture below from here

To-day is Remembrance Day in Australia. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the nation falls silent for two minutes. Red poppies are in lapels and in the laid wreaths at shrines, cenotaphs and memorials across the country. Red poppies are massed against the names of the war dead at the Australian War Memorial in the national capital, Canberra.

There are news reports to-day that the print media reporting on Remembrance Day is muted compared to that of previous years.  Why is this so?  Is this because Australia is immersing itself in military action at this time in the Middle East?

If we mute our response to Remembrance Day and its memory of "the war to end all wars", is it time to ask the penetrating questions?

• Do we put the same financial, acquisitive, organisational, and human effort into waging peace as we do to waging war?  

• Are we prepared to stand up and say to our government that we want it to pay as much attention to training for peace, preparedness for peace, arming for peace, strengthening the ramparts of peace as we do for training for war, preparing for war, arming for war, strengthening the ramparts of war?

One of the most interesting bodies of literary work in English in the 20th century is the "Testament" series by Vera Brittain - Testament of Youth, Testament of Friendship, Testament of Experience. The experience/s that impacted Brittain's life in World War 1 made her a lifelong pacifist and fighter for peace.  Between the two world wars, she was active in the establishment and the promotion of the League of Nations. She also became a member of the Peace Pledge Union and its offshoot, the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship. The secretary of the Australian chapter of the latter, is Bishop Philip Huggins.

The Peace Pledge Union is notable for its White Poppy campaign.  Many people in Britain wear two poppies - the red for remembrance, the white for peace.

Listen to the song in honour of Vera Brittain

written by Sue Gilmurray