A map of the world with a blue arrow from the Asia West Pacific area to Britain. Photo: By Louis Hansel via Unsplash.
For all the world: Adrian Glamorgan reflects on Britain and the global family of Friends
‘Somehow we qualify as those called to listen.’
As a Friend from half a world away, my first experience of Britain Yearly Meeting, gathered in London, was open-eyed and appreciative. It also helped me further understand the challenges we face in Asia West Pacific Section, and what is needed to bridge the gap.
Enjoying the silence as we gathered in the large hall, and appreciating the thoughtfulness of ministry and business, I wished that Friends across Asia West Pacific could experience it also – now somewhat possible, online. Still, nothing compares to the immediate experience of being together in one room, as well as being in the right time zone!
I could look across the refurbished auditorium, these days called ‘The Light’, appreciate the James Turrell-inspired ceiling, and relish the ingenuity that had redesigned the hall and its values – a modesty and beauty combined.
The history of the building and those who walked in it, and those who are remembered, was moving indeed, for it speaks of a wealth built over time. But as I heard ministry and response to Britain Yearly Meeting business, it was clear that the solidity of the buildings is only a means to an end. Quakers exist as an undertaking to the world to try something better.
At one point during the gathering, a Friend rose within the vast hall to caution the several hundred of us how few Quakers we indeed were, in comparison with the tasks ahead, and so encouraged us to be cautious about adding new initiatives. I had heard this same anxiety about numbers among Australian Friends, who have a fraction of British membership, and have heard it also in various Meetings and churches around Asia West Pacific, where only a small circle of chairs is needed to begin the hour. This attention to our numbers and our lack of resources is necessary caution. Yet we are also called to be sensitive to the Spirit’s presence among us. If our numeric strength is to be the final arbiter, we may overlook how only a handful of people can make a huge difference in the world, and often have!
Beyond numbers, I could respect the wealth that has been accumulated. Britain Yearly Meeting has impressive assets, which include a building directly opposite the busy Euston Station, with dozens of rentable rooms, as well as a welcoming cafe, a spiritually-nourishing bookshop, and a remarkable auditorium. There is also the support of paid staff, able to add strength to the volunteer work of Friends across Britain.
Of course, Friends count their wealth in wider ways. We have the unique legacy of Quaker insights and courage over almost four centuries, which guides our post-credal faith: the value of contemplation; and to be informed by and willing to attend to our leadings. Our history also teaches us how we have organised through the ages, and upheld faith and practice in a hostile environment. We have learned to be faithful, not necessarily successful, though we can point to some possible achievements along the way.
Britain Yearly Meeting Friends have also another hidden strength. Their fellow British have often heard of Quakers – even if they are not well-informed about us! But at least we are not unknown. From 2002 until 2017, Elizabeth Fry even appeared on the sterling five pound note. Friends’ ability in Britain Yearly Meeting to demonstratively express their opposition to governments, even petition the monarch, are rare gifts, to be grateful for.
‘Quakers exist as an undertaking to the world to try something better.’
By comparison, Friends in Asia West Pacific live a faith largely invisible to the remainder of their community, and in some places practise faith liable to persecution, opposition, or even communal terror. This may be because Quakers tend to have progressive ideas, or may more often be the result of Quakers identifying as, or being construed to be, Christians. So in Asia West Pacific, Friends may be both unknown and sometimes quite vulnerable.
Then there is the joy of meeting Friends in the corridors and dining areas. There are chats about everything, from poetry to decolonisation, from climate action to Local Meetings. Sharing a meal with strangers is impossible, because we are Friends already, even if we have never met before.
There is also diversity within Britain, which is still being recognised and embraced. It was moving indeed to hear within Britain Yearly Meeting of the recurring efforts to speak words of Cymraeg, Welsh, in introductions to sessions. This is a step towards inclusion and enrichment. But diversity exists in many forms, not least for people of colour, with disability, class, age, and education. There are doors not fully open.
Consider elsewhere, where diversity may have even greater challenges. Only one is the language. Quakerism has been an imported notion for some Friends around the world, and the English language has been the high-status medium. Translating Quaker terms into many Asia West Pacific languages can be linguistically challenging. Then there are cultural assumptions about ‘being a Quaker’. How much of the outer garments of our Meeting together comes from Quaker spiritual insights, and how much might be perceived as English values: a tendency to reserve, an intellectualism, a sense of history? A search for an accurate local meaning that keeps the heart of the Quaker insight in another land may be a deepening opportunity for us.
There was much for any newcomer to understand about the workings of Friends in Britain. I heard of many committees, and challenges, and perspectives. How can Friends’ decision-making be well understood by those few in number who do not have weighty Friends to guide them, or an experience of a Meeting for Worship for Business? Repression of Christians in some countries has sometimes sensitised Quakers to their Christian identity, rather than our unique Quaker processes. Consider how our well-developed ways of working are not always grasped by seekers new to Friends in places faraway.
This highlights another of Britain Yearly Meeting’s treasures: its commitment to Quaker learning. This is not confined just to Friends’ schools. Woodbrooke Learning reaches out to any seeker or weighty Friend, to deepen insights about the workings of the Spirit in our thoughts, heart and efforts. This is an essential effort. The absence of a Quaker learning institution devoted uniquely to our own Asia West Pacific timezones and isolation must be redressed, somehow.
In Britain there are also Quaker Recognised Bodies of many kinds and descriptions, offering fellowship. Within such a small area, Friends of Britain Yearly Meeting do not need to feel alone. How different it is in other parts of the world! Within Asia West Pacific we are gradually building communities of interest, and potentially they can overlap with those elsewhere. While visiting Britain Yearly Meeting I sought out the Quaker South Asia Interest Group, which brings together Friends who have spent some of their life in the sub-continent, as well as members of the Indian diaspora who now make Britain their home. Britain Yearly Meeting has real opportunities through such transnational-oriented groups to connect with wider global perspectives.
A counter current within Britain may be an unconscious insularity, a not-knowing the world further away. There is so much wealth of Quaker material in the Anglophone world that an interest in dialogue beyond may not occur to Friends. Consider the work of Friend Ham Seok-Heon, the ‘Gandhi of Korea’, largely unknown across the British Isles. Encountering the work of Friends, he detected the workings of the Tao, was attracted to the teachings of Christianity, and ultimately arrived at Quaker universalism. He has written extensively – but in Korean.
Similarly, the consequences of imperialism, militarism, and climate damage may often be expressed in relatively British local terms, establishing a contemporary worldview shaped by: a narrow channel to the Eurasian landmass to your south; a vast Atlantic Ocean to the west; and memories of empire as it has been experienced at the centre. But the arms trade, fossil fuel economy, corporate strategies, and the tools of cyber-surveillance, are now disbursed globally. Clues and opportunities for international cooperation by Friends are significant as they are necessary. I hope we can build transnational cooperative links. A handful of Friends are developing, QuIP, Quakers for International Peace, hoping to give a global perspective to Friends connected in some way to these corporations and military treaties – for example the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS), and its arms deal involving nuclear submarines and hypersonic weapons in Australia, to fight a South China Sea war one day. I live within a few kilometres of what will become a nuclear submarine base for US and British aggressive ‘postures’ – the threat of nuclear war. This is not just a matter for Australian, or Filipino, or Japanese, Friends. If the British military-industrial-parliamentary complex are organising with their US and Australian counterparts, so too must Friends in the same places, and further afield. Of course, this is always the challenge to Friends, whose own Meetings have their own pressing problems. But Friends developing a global perspective at the same time is needed to deal with this existential threat, and its corresponding theft of resources from our national essentials.
‘Our well-developed ways of working are not always grasped by seekers new to Friends in places faraway.’
As I sat within the auditorium at my first Yearly Meeting, spotting Friends I had met outside, or heard ministry from within, I appreciated their sincerity and commitment as fellow spiritual pilgrims. The family of Britain Yearly Meeting Friends has created a mantle that surrounds us all, and connects us with those before, giving a body of faithfulness to all who call themselves Quakers.
To join a Britain Yearly Meeting gathering is to share and appreciate the discipline of the Religious Society of Friends, and all its insights and connections. We know how few, how under-resourced, how lacking we all may be. But material wealth and poverty aside, through gratitude and grace, somehow we qualify as those called to listen, and who choose to be obedient to, the holy presence that settles among us. Such a gathering offers us the comfort of Friends met on the journey, travelling the lifetime path of Quakerism.
It is a memory to keep, and live out, each day. But it cannot stop at the territorial borders of any country. We need each other globally, too.
Comments
Any thoughts on Palestine, Friend?
By Nicola Grove on 13th February 2025 - 10:36
Whatever happened to Aotearoa (New Zealand) on your map?
By Peter E on 13th February 2025 - 18:12
Yes, I have many thoughts, Nicola, about Palestine. But in the Asia West Pacific Section context, we only stretched from the West Pacific to Afghanistan, perhaps Iran, and not including Far Eastern Russia, either, or the Middle East (which is part of EMES). So I was focusing on my experience two yearly meetings before.
Peter also asks about Aotearoa New Zealand. I protest in unison with you also, Friend. Not my graphic. Let’s have a word with the editors?
By Adrian Glamorgan on 14th February 2025 - 11:46
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