Celebrating difference

Elinor Smallman reflects on her first experience of encountering other forms of worship at the World Plenary

I have come to realise that this marvellous light is present in speech and in silence. The light dances in both places if we let go enough to see it. As it dances in silence, it dances in the noise of life itself. It is all around, here, now.

- Max Raupach in This we can say by Australian Quakers

Curiosity, discomfort and trepidation roiled inside me as I made my way to the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Plenary. As a Young Friend who has only ever attended unprogrammed worship, I knew that my ideas about Quakerism were likely to be challenged by what I encountered.

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