Eye - 01 May 2015
The love of letters...
The love of letters
‘What an excellent method the Quakers have found
To keep the Society healthy and sound.
There’s a column reserved in the Friend magazine
Where the views of the various readers are seen.
If they have a concern or embrace a belief,
They can write it all down with a sigh of relief,
And feel they have safely accomplished their end
If they see it next Friday in print in the Friend.
‘There are Friends who would like the Society freed
From commitments remotely resembling a creed;
And others next week say they think the reverse,
And protest woolly-mindedness seems to them worse.
There are some whom long sermons in Meeting distress
And others who like the long silences less;
They are sure they can change the Society’s trend
If only their letters appear in the Friend.
‘There are those who enjoin that we enter the strife
Of social reform and political life.
And others reply in a tone of reproof
That a well-concerned Quaker should stand quite aloof.
There are some who abjure the consumption of meat
And would give us raw carrots and onions to eat.
And all of the writers are sure they can bend
The views of the rest, if they write to the Friend.
‘There’s a Friend who insists we’ll be left in the lurch
If we don’t join the one ecumenical church;
And another rejoins that he strongly objects
If the Quakers consort with unQuakerly sects.
There are some who say motoring’s clearly a crime,
And others approve, if it saves Quaker time.
And they all think their brethren their ways will amend
If a letter of protest appears in the Friend.
‘The editor often – long-suffering Peet –
Assures them their letters, if short, will be sweet.
And sometimes they find their epistles in spots
Have become interspersed with a neat row of dots.
Then in sheer desperation he adds: “Hold your peace;
It is time for the vain correspondence to cease.”
But it’s all to no purpose; they don’t cease to send
Long letters expressing their views to the Friend.’
Whilst leafing through archives of the Friend recently Graham Gosling, of Bury St Edmunds Meeting, unearthed these verses. They were published on 25 January 1946 and were sung as part of an entertainment at the annual meeting of the Birmingham Friends Reading Society.
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