Discernment and making decisions
Alick Munro offers some personal reflections on discernment, God and the Quaker business method
When Quaker Business Method goes well it is an uplifting experience, but sometimes there are difficulties.
The first difficulty is the gleaning of the discernments in the minds of Friends. How careless it is of God to put such different ones into Friends’ minds all at the same time, and even more careless to make some of the Friends more articulate and confident than others, and some of them garrulous, and then to provide limited time. If God isn’t careful, some of the Friends may depart unheard, with their noses out of joint. God may need to be realistic about the number of Friends He can effectively cater for in a Quaker Meeting for Business, and the number of agenda items He can present to them. At the start of the Meeting, God will have to tell the Friends to take each and every one of each other into their hearts and minds, and to feel that they can resonate with one another, in order to cope with His carelessness. He will have to remind Friends that when He puts discernments into their minds, He may be only toying with ideas. He may ask a Friend to relay a discernment to the others, but then the Friend should feel that their duty has been done, and the Friend may feel detached from it.
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