During the parallel sessions on Saturday 5 May the library at Friends House hosted a display about the history and development of the Book of Discipline. Photo: Trish Carn.
Britain Yearly Meeting 2018: Perspectives on the ‘Red Book’
Parallel Yearly Meeting sessions offered a range of perspectives on the Book of Discipline
On Saturday afternoon at Yearly Meeting Friends continued to respond to the question: ‘Is it time to revise Quaker faith & practice?’
The first part of the afternoon was devoted to ‘parallel sessions’ when groups of Friends met, in different spaces at Friends House, to discuss aspects of the Book of Discipline under a series of titles: a conversation in the large meeting house, religious difference, church government, missing identities, dance and art.
Church government
A group looking at church government attracted over eighty Friends and the thought-provoking hour was clerked by Jenny McCarthy and Michelle Dumont, clerks of Young Friends General Meeting. Three representatives from the Book of Discipline Revision Preparation Group (RPG) – Jeremy Greenwood, Caroline Nursey and Nick Perks – were present to introduce the RPG’s work and answer questions.
Caroline Nursey spoke of how the RPG became united in considering a revision to be necessary once they gave particular attention to church government and had heard from Friends, both in response to the ‘Reading Quaker faith & practice’ initiative and those serving on the Church Government Advisory Group (CGAG).
She explained the recommendation of the RPG to restructure church government into ‘core’ and ‘supplementary’ material. Core material would include a description of ‘why we do things the way we do’ whilst supplementary material would contain procedural information that Friends need less frequently. Responsibility for the maintenance of supplementary material could be delegated to other groups as appropriate, such as Meeting for Sufferings, a committee with the right expertise, or a staff department.
Jeremy Greenwood commented that supplementary material could be in handbooks or online. He highlighted that this approach could make principles clearer, reduce the size of the book and make the core text less liable to change. Friends posed questions about a wide range of topics, including: maintenance of handbooks, accessibility, technology, legal requirements, stewardship and diversity.
Others asked if the revision process could be an opportunity to address concerns such as membership or the burden on small Local Meetings.
Another Friend sounded a note of caution, highlighting that proposals should not constrain any future revision so that Friends ‘give the Spirit freedom’ to act through those nominated to move any potential revision forward.
One Friend commented that going ahead with a revision ‘might change us’ as well as the book. Jeremy Greenwood, who was involved in the 1994 revision of Quaker faith & practice, replied that ‘the great joy in revising the book… is the process of doing it’.
Personal responses to diversity
Craig Barnett, Marisa Johnson and Roy Stephenson – in a session introduced by Helen Rowlands, editor of God, words and us – offered personal responses to the subject of religious difference and there were thoughtful contributions from Friends.
Helen Rowlands began by asking the three invited speakers: ‘What has been your experience of encounter with difference?’
Craig Barnett highlighted ‘the way we may use different words’ and referred to Friends who said: ‘Underneath it, it’s the same thing.’ However, he wondered: ‘But is it the same experience? For some it is described as a “sense of the presence” – of “awe at the mystery of Divine Creation” – of a “unity with Creation’ and ‘for others it is a stillness. These experiences are very different. They are not the same. So, what is this telling us?’
Marisa Johnson explained that in her work she met a lot of Friends from different Yearly Meetings and worked a lot with diversity. She said ‘it is a challenge and a joy’ and valued her experience, in the context of the world family of Friends, of being made ‘to feel uncomfortable’. Britain Yearly Meeting, she said, is different from all the rest. Often the closer we get to what appears to be sameness dissolves into diversity – and ‘difference exists at every level of life’.
She spoke with tenderness and honesty: ‘My experience with FWCC [Friends World Committee for Consultation] challenged my conception of being inclusive “as once my understanding, I felt, was more progressive than something more primitive. However, I understood my sin of pride”.’
Roy Stephenson urged Friends ‘to talk to all people – not just to people who think like us. My sense is that we want to avoid things that are difficult. The longer you do this the worse it is and the deeper the divide. Conflict avoidance can be damaging. These things touch very deep, precious, things within us.
‘If we feel someone is dismissing our beliefs as “less evolved” it is disrespectful. Sometimes this “pushes a button”. Our beliefs are formed by our past.’
‘I do not like the “theist-nontheist” description – positions are not static – I have moved backwards and forwards – there is fluidity. There is a phrase – “moving from believing to be-loving and being in community” and this will always be difficult.
‘The root of the word “belief” in German is to love. To believe in God is to love God. Something that remains a challenge – the range of differences – other communities have that also – we have always had diversity – but we had a shared set of stories and language. It was a broadly Christian story – the seed, the Inward Christ. Now it is open to question.
‘If we do not have a shared language and shared stories then what do we have?
‘What kind of Quakerism is it possible to have when each of us has our own language? This raises questions that cannot be avoided.’
A Friend said: ‘What I’ve become aware of is actually how little I have spoken to other Friends about deep aspects of belief. My tendency is to make assumptions that might have been wrong. I would like to see more conversation and learn where other people are coming from.’
Another Friend revealed that she used to travel with an old blue Quaker faith & practice and marked up a lot of passages that she liked. She said: ‘Fifteen years later I came across the book and I marked up different passages. I had changed.’
A Friend passionately expressed the importance of seeing people as individuals: ‘When I meet someone I encounter another human being. What really hurts me, when I am not accepted on theological grounds, is that it is sometimes not about this – it is about my sexuality. It is about, for me, how a soul speaks to another soul. Words are just like clothes.’
A Friend said he was bemused by much discussion on ‘arguments about belief’. He explained: ‘It is, for me, about my experience – not what I can prove.’ Friends were encouraged not to criticize one another, but to listen to others.
Religious difference
The parallel session on religious difference was led by Alex Wildwood and Rachel Muers.
Rachel Muers said the workshop was about ‘us sharing together’ in the spirit of ‘open-hearted listening’.
For the first exercise, Friends were invited to write on sticky notes words or phrases to sum up ‘what leads us, what do we seek and what do we find at Meeting for Worship’. On a second sticky note, they were asked to write any word or phrase that others used to describe the same thing, but ‘does not mean anything to you’. They then shared it with their groups to reflect on and discuss.
Friends were then asked to consider ‘how much these words matter’. Alex Wildwood suggested: ‘There’s a core experience and we can all enjoy and learn from this diversity.’
For the next exercise, Friends were asked to imagine the Religious Society of Friends as a caravan travelling through the desert, made of individual parts, but moving in unity as ‘one thing’. Rachel Muers said: ‘It’s got a main body with all the supplies and the baggage… it’s not got any boundaries, but then, around it, you see groups and individuals who are a bit further ahead. One might be there to see what’s ahead. Some might be hanging behind to see we’ve not left anything behind. In order to keep going, everyone has to take responsibility for the main body and keep the centre strong, but it’s still got to keep moving.’
Friends were asked to consider: ‘Where do you think you are on this moving caravan?’
One Friend said that the exercise was a good insight into the theme of ‘unity and diversity’. Another Friend said their group had had an interesting discussion: ‘Is what makes you a Quaker what you believe or what you do, and how important is that?’
Another speaker said ‘if we are only defined by our actions, we’re just a humanist society’ and a Friend felt that ‘what we have failed to do is celebrate the diversity in our ranks’.
A Quaker from central England said: ‘Our instinct to workshop in a circle is a clue. We need a space between us in which this clarity, that nobody owns, can appear.’
At the end of the session, Rachel Muers urged Friends to ‘keep reflecting, keep listening, keep talking’.
Missing identities?
‘Diversity, inclusion and privilege’, and how they relate to a revision of the Book of Discipline, were considered at the ‘Missing identities?’ parallel session. There are many aspects of diversity, and those at this worship-sharing meeting were asked to consider: ‘Do you see yourself in Quaker faith & practice [Qf&p]?’
A Friend said: ‘We’re missing a lot of wonderful people who should be sat here with us, who’ve got a lot to give.’ The challenge was: ‘How do we make an invitation inviting?’
Another Friend suggested that the gifts of people with disabilities are often overlooked when considering Friends to serve on committees and as clerks’.
Mental health issues, a Friend believed, ‘could sometimes disturb the “subtle process” of a Meeting’ and he asked: ‘What’s the resolution to that, especially if the elder doesn’t see it?’
‘All I see is a very binary view of gender… We need our stories in our book’ a Friend said, and another added: ‘The only dogma that trans people have is that we want to be treated like human beings.’
Other speakers suggested that Qf&p could include ‘more modern examples’ of conflict resolution and living in old age. Addressing inclusivity, one Friend said care should be taken: ‘We do ourselves a disservice by talking of ourselves as middle class.’
‘People born since 1980 could have their experiences included,’ a Friend suggested. Otherwise, he said: ‘What is there for teenagers? You have to translate it [Qf&p] in Meeting.’ ‘Testimonies from children could be a lot more inclusive and positive,’ a Friend added.
One Friend alluded to the absence of working-class voices, while another said: ‘To live a single life is not as easy as some may think.’ She added that only three passages in Qf&p deal with this, and one of these was ‘pretty patronising’. She said of single people: ‘We’re not second-class citizens. We belong in this world.’
A Friend considered that there was ‘not much diversity’ in the areas of wealth and education.
Another speaker thought Quakerism clearly had something to offer all those present. He said: ‘Coming here hopefully represents the future of Quakers.’
Other parallel sessions considered imaginative responses to the subject of revising the Book of Discipline, including expression through dance (see the Friend next week) and art.
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Ministry from Yearly Meeting
‘We must explain clearly why do we do things the way we do’
‘It was not good enough to say “I want to be transformed but I do not want to change”.’
‘These things touch very deep, precious, things within us. If we feel someone is dismissing our beliefs as “less evolved” it is disrespectful. Our faith and beliefs are formed by the past.’
‘It is a huge task, an important one, and one worth doing.’
‘The true listener is vulnerable. May the Spirit make us vulnerable.’
When there are troubling thoughts knocking at the door of our mind ‘we should open the front door to let them in, open the back door to let them out, and in the meantime do not give them any biscuits’ when they come through.
‘The time period between revisions has got smaller and smaller. Will we get a constantly evolving, fluid book of faith and practice?’
