Quaker renewal: Spiritual generosity

Craig Barnett concludes his series on Quaker renewal in Britain today

by Craig Barnett 6th January 2017

For many years, Quakers in Britain have been deeply reluctant to share the riches of the Quaker way with others. We have labelled any attempt to welcome potential new Friends as ‘proselytising’, but as Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, has pointed out: ‘There is a big difference between proselytising and not hiding.’ Our long-standing refusal to actively invite newcomers is not just liberal reticence. It is a failure of generosity and of imagination; an inability to imagine that people who are not ‘just like us’ might also find something of value in Quaker practices.