Celebrating the liberal tradition
Marion McNaughton teels us about a new book, Celebrating the Quaker Way
In the world of charitable trusts and foundations the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust is known nationally and internationally as a funder of radical causes that challenge injustice and inequality and aim to create a better, fairer world. Within the Society of Friends in Britain and Europe it is seen primarily as a funder of Quaker projects and concerns. What is not often realised is how deeply the two are linked, and why they are interdependent.
The Manchester Conference in 1895, the setting up of Woodbrooke in 1903, and the establishment of the Rowntree Trusts in 1904 all grew from the same concern – the perceived spiritual poverty in modern British Quakerism and the dwindling of the Society of Friends. Concerned Quakers were asking how the liberal or unprogrammed Quaker tradition could find ways, without a paid and trained ministry, to keep replenishing itself spiritually, to foster a vibrant sense of itself in relation to other branches of world Quakerism, and to maintain a Quaker voice in national and world affairs: The empty benches and deserted galleries of our meeting-houses are signs of a high-water mark from which the tide has ebbed away. We may recognise local or particular reasons, more or less pertinent, but the real causes, which cannot be minimised, are the poverty of our spiritual life. - John Wilhelm Rowntree: Manchester Conference 1895.
Friends such as George Cadbury, Joseph Rowntree and John Wilhelm Rowntree were absolutely firm in their view that British Quakerism must avoid the route that programmed American Quakerism had taken, which they interpreted as going backwards to the forms and trappings of Christianity that Quakerism had walked away from. If liberal Quakerism was to thrive they saw clearly that there must be provision for ongoing religious, spiritual and social education for all Quakers, not just a few ordained pastors.
Part of Joseph Rowntree’s response to this need was the establishment of the three trusts that bear his name, and the hope that the endowment of the Charitable Trust in particular could be used to strengthen the spiritual health of the Society of Friends in Britain, in order to ‘foster a powerful ministry in the world’. These two urgent concerns – the spiritual life of liberal Quakerism and the radical social ministry that flows from that life – still inform the governance of the Charitable Trust today.
Much progress has been made in the field of liberal Quaker education since then, and JRCT has been privileged to be able to support many inspired initiatives. The establishment of Woodbrooke 100 years ago, with its Quaker library and varied teaching programme, was a project dear to George Cadbury’s heart, and has been funded continuously by JRCT throughout its life. Its work has been complemented by many other initiatives, like Quaker Quest, Appleseed and the Leaveners. But the concerns for a vibrant spirituality out of which will flow a ministry of social concern still occupy us today.
As liberal Friends we are familiar with the unprogrammed or ‘silent’ form of worship, which draws us together, deeper and closer to God and to God’s purposes. We derive strength, insight, comfort and challenge from our worship together. We share an understanding that goes deeper than words.
And yet this is not enough – it is vital that we find these words, for our own clarity of understanding, for the enlightenment of others and for the growth of our Meetings. Where we should be eloquent, we often find ourselves tongue-tied. In a religious society without trained ministers, the task of attempting to speak what we know and understand of the nature and purposes of God falls to each one of us, not just a few. It is something we all need to encourage in each other.
To help us in the task of putting our faith into words, to give us an example of speaking our Quaker experience, the trustees of JRCT have commissioned from Ben Pink Dandelion the short devotional booklet Celebrating the Quaker Way. We are moved and grateful for what he has produced. What Ben has written comes to us in his own voice, and the voices of Friends he has spoken to. We hope it will be widely read, and will inspire each of us to find our own voice, to speak passionately to each other of what we know, to express the power we find in the experience of our liberal Quaker faith, to be God’s ministers in the world today.
Marion is the chair of trustees of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
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