Letters - 28 July 2017
From food for thought to atonement
Food for thought
I was reading the Friend (14 July) over lunch the other day, a bad habit but it gave me much food for thought!
Sometimes we need to stand up and be counted, as James Yeoman said in his letter. At other times we should hold our council, quick to listen but slow to speak, having perhaps looked for that Inner Light in all of us and answered the question ‘who am I?’, as Hilary Peters suggests.
If our faith means anything to us, expressing this, as Ann Lewis does in the ‘Community together’ article about Disley, shows that deeds can do more than words, although listening to Prime Minister’s Questions you often wonder! Politics is part of the fabric of our society and the democratic system and, as David Rubinstein says, is about ‘finding the best way to order relations between communities’. Some years ago Kenneth Baker, our local MP as he was then, gave a lecture to a local school and defined politics as ‘the resolution of conflict’. Political parties please note!
As reported on page five, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted on 7 July by 122 countries out of 192 member UN states, with the UK staying away. The treaty is a step in the right direction and in accordance with the Quaker Peace Testimony, but there is still much to be done.
Fred Meynen
What is a Quaker?
I was puzzled by James Yeoman’s view (14 July) that ‘no one – least of all potential new members – can tell what [Quakers] actually believe in’. As a newcomer, when I attended my first Meeting for Worship a few months ago I was given a welcome pack containing several short leaflets, which explained very clearly, directly and simply the essence of Quakers’ shared values and the core of Quaker life.
Their contents – and even more so, my experience of that first Meeting – were a revelation. Coming from a lifetime within the Anglican tradition, the realisation that it is entirely acceptable for me to seek an unmediated experience of God, unhindered by doctrines formulated by others, and then to work out my own understanding of what that experience means for my life and actions, was liberating.
Moving from being asked to ‘believe in’ a set of dogmas recited week by week – an exercise of the head only – to listening and responding to the stirrings of the Spirit in heart, soul and mind, was electrifying.
The unique tradition, the pearl of great price, which Quakers have to offer to others is surely that of silent worship. To quote Quaker faith & practice: ‘In the Religious Society of Friends we commit ourselves not to words but to a way.’ Or to use the words of the psalmist: ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’
If Quakers really need a statement of belief, there are worse starting-points.
Patricia Critchley
James Yeoman’s letter proposes that a Quaker:
1. Believes in something greater than themselves…
2. Believes that this thing is present in us all…
But surely a Quaker is someone, like George Fox, who experiences something greater than him or herself and experiences it present in us all. And if a Quaker doesn’t actually experience it himself/herself then she or he wants to experience it, probably sees the effect such experience has on others, or at least accepts on the authority of others that that experience is possible and desirable.
As I’ve observed before, beliefs are things people argue about and even fight over. The experience of the Divine, the Spirit, the Light, in one’s life changes you, but tends to be ineffable. One might try to talk about how it changes one, but if it makes one fight or be warlike it probably wasn’t the Spirit or the Divine that was experienced!
Noël Staples
Letting premises to political parties
I cannot agree with David Lawrence (16 June), who states that the only criterion we should use for accepting any requests to use our Meeting house is that they do not disrupt our Meeting for Worship. I also find it particularly worrying that Hertford Meeting lets their premises out to all who apply, according to Gerald Drewett (23 June).
Just as in our homes, we have to be selective about who we invite – according to our principles of equality, justice and freedom from prejudice. Do we invite the BNP, the National Front and some evangelical Christian churches? I heard the pastor of one such church say LGBTQ should stand for ‘let God burn them quickly!’
As a gay man in his sixties, I have searched all my life for a spiritual home where I am accepted and welcomed. I found this with the Quakers. I was very disappointed, therefore, when I discovered my Local Meeting was host to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, who believe all gay people are sinners and should ask God for forgiveness.
As Quakers, we are respectful to other faith groups and their members, some of whom oppose their church’s views on LGBT issues. But, also as Quakers, we need to challenge gently the injustice and prejudice of the institutions involved.
As Quakers, we need to have more empathy and solidarity for our gay attenders at Local Meeting. Even to this day, LGBT people are being persecuted, murdered and imprisoned throughout the world. Justice and equality starts at home.
Bernard Draper
From Tees to Ribble
I recently read Janet Rawlings’ delightful book, An 1844 Pennine Way from Tees to Ribble, about a fourteen-day excursion from Crook to Settle taken by five Quaker botanists, with details of all the plants that they found, where they stayed and much more.
My late husband was passionate about the flowers of British mountains and moorland, and I would love to follow the route of those Quakers and see how much is still there. I feel I am up to the long walks, but lack the necessary plant identification skill. Are there any Quaker botanists or keen naturalists who would like to join me? It would have to be in June/July either next year or 2019. It would involve using public transport where possible and staying in hotels or guest houses with long walks in between.
Alison Tyas
A Sibford Summer Gathering archive
Sibford Summer Gatherings were started in the period prior to world war two for young people from Quaker Meetings in the Midlands. The original intention was to offer an experience that a Friends school could offer of community living to those who were not able to be pupils. For many of us who participated in these Gatherings in one capacity or another the impact was significant.
I have been able to bring together records and relics for the Gatherings held in the years 1952-4 and 1968-2000, when they discontinued. This material has been deposited in the Quaker Archive housed at the Library of Birmingham. It would be well worth augmenting with personal memories of what the Gatherings meant to ‘Sib-lings’ or helpers at the time and in later life.
Friends with anything to offer should contact Eleanor Woodward, project archivist, via email at archives.heritage@birmingham.gov.uk or by post: Archives and Collections, Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square, Birmingham B1 2ND.
Bob Ward
Squeezing out the Spirit?
Stephen Feltham’s ‘Opinion’ (30 June) deserves recognition and action by concerned Friends everywhere. The drift of focus away from the centrality of being a Religious Society is, indeed, worrying.
Increasingly, I sense that political concern is taking precedence in Friends’ actions and use of resources. The political views put forward are so often expressed in such a way that there is a ‘hidden’ Quaker creed. Notions of ‘God’ seem not to be recognised. I believe the future of the Society may be jeopardised. The cherished traditional views at the heart of Quakerism risk being swamped.
Or… maybe the Kindlers light will burst into flames?
Len Goad
Atonement
Keith Walton (21 July) wrote that Quakers had said little about atonement. Throughout the ages people have found their lives transformed by their encounters with Jesus, or the risen Christ, and early Friends were certainly extremely conscious of this. For as long as this transformation has been experienced, Christians have tried to provide intellectual explanations of it, and many theories seem to be very unsatisfactory.
Those Friends rejected the ‘notions’ that created such conflict, considering it wiser to build their life on that experience than on intellectualising. Many Friends now do not see the relevance of the word ‘atonement’ and those who do will not come up with similar explanations. I believe that the compilers of the ‘Red Book’ were wise to quote many examples of the experiences of individual Friends and to avoid ‘notions’ which would seem to create an orthodoxy that could become exclusive and divisive.
David Hitchin
