Letters - 06 March 2015
From membership and unconditional love to being a Quaker
Membership and unconditional love
Why all our kerfuffle about membership? As Sheila Stevenson (8 February) observes, our procedure is in some ways not ‘unconditional love’. Unfortunately, our trouble is that Quakers have no creed or statement to define who or what we are: we only have ourselves as living statements. This has the advantage that, over time, Quaker understanding has evolved, but it also means that we have to take membership seriously from a long term perspective. When an application comes to Area Meeting (AM), the question is: ‘Are you satisfied with the kind of people this person may be expected to attract into the Society?’ [That, incidentally, is why membership is an AM matter, decided by people who know each other personally, not by a distant central body nor by a small local group which can become a clique.] Otherwise, over time we will disintegrate into a meaningless mish-mash meaning anything, or nothing, to all people.
Volker Heine
Renewable heat incentive
There are some issues to be considered before committing to a wood pellet burning stove.
For Ben Pink Dandelion’s enthusiasm to be endorsed (20 February), in my opinion, the building to be heated needs an external boiler house and availability for delivery of loose pellets into a hopper.
It is different for an internal boiler. The pellets are delivered in 10kg plastic bags. These add to landfill in a world that already has a vast waste plastic problem. It is absurd to have a renewable heat incentive, wrapped up in plastic bags. If the stove has to be inside the house, these bags need to be carried from the fuel store and then tipped into the stove as required. If you are elderly this can be a problem.
The stove has to be cleaned every day in winter. We are retired so this is not normally a problem but it can be awkward at times. The room, after cleaning, has to be washed down because of the soot dust.
Despite these reservations, the stove is cosy and sitting by it with our cup of tea is a pleasurable indulgence. And we can afford to keep warm.
Robin Goodman
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