Letters - 01 March 2024
From George Fox and Mansfield to Quakers and the Bible
George Fox and Mansfield
We at Mansfield Meeting have been following keenly the events covering the 400th anniversary of George Fox’s birth. But we have felt that there has been something missing – his close connection with the Nottinghamshire town of Mansfield. This predates most of the other major events of his life that others have covered in depth. The tale of George Fox cannot be told without reference to Mansfield, the town where the Quaker movement was born.
Fox came to Mansfield in 1647 and set up a business making and repairing shoes. It was while living in Mansfield that he became convinced that there was a better way, where one could simply approach God direct from one’s own heart and soul without the intervention of a ‘professor’, vicar or priest. He became convinced of this while walking outside of the Church of St Peter and St Paul in Mansfield.
While in Mansfield he met Elizabeth Hooten whose house in Skegby near Mansfield may be thought of as the earliest Friends Meeting house. The current Mansfield Meeting House is a direct descendent of Skegby. Attending Meetings in Elizabeth’s house he became acquainted with the silent worship practised by the ‘Children of Light’.
Mansfield as a town officially regards itself as the birthplace of Quakers. In 2015 a Heritage Trail was established by the council, leading followers around the key spots in the town with an association with Quakers. It is not every town whose bus station has a memorial plaque to George Fox.
Jim Norris
Educating for peace
Many years ago I was on a silent vigil, protesting about I’ve forgotten what, though we had placards declaring the target of our protest. We also had placards inviting passing motorists to ‘Honk if they agreed’. Many did.
Standing next to me was a young man I didn’t know. After a time, he stomped off muttering: ‘This is useless. I’d rather be doing something.’
Was he right? Is protesting useless? Yes it sends a message, but does it make a difference to the reason for the protest?
In the Friend (26 January), there is an article detailing the court appearance of the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) protesters. They are not being charged with anything to do with the planned proliferation of devices to be even more effective at killing people, but violation of blocking public highways.
Were the delegates at DSEI affected by the protest? Did the protest make them question the morality of their objective? I think not. Instead they carried on in the smokescreen of a totally irrelevant legal process. Which begs the question uttered by that young man: is protesting useless? If he (or we) could ‘do something’ to make a difference, what would that action be?
Can we change the international mindset that military might is the way to bring about peace? Maybe not, but we might ‘do something’ to change the mindset of the leaders of tomorrow, our children.
‘You’ve got to be taught, before it’s too late, before you are six or seven or eight, to hate all the people your relatives hate. You’ve got to be carefully taught’ (South Pacific).
Brian Hodkinson
Gaza
I am almost certainly extremely naive in asking this question, being eighty and a retired nurse/social worker, but I feel I must ask. I ask entirely non-politically and belonging to no particular tribe or party. Why do we not hear that world governments aret working together to ask Egyptian leaders to allow safe passage via the Rafah crossing through Egypt to airports through the country to places across the world where they could be taken in as refugees to stop the carnage?
Only then could world leaders unite (no, not a joke) to create a peaceful settlement of the very long-term Israel/Palestine conflict that could result in a peaceful homeland where people who continued to wish to live in that area could return and live in peace alongside each other.
Too idealistic? Well, at least it could be tried with intensive reconciliation support from peacemakers around the world.
In 1988 I came out as gay. I joined in with demonstrations across the country in the cause of allowing all people to love the person of their own choosing. As everyone knows, this was pretty successful, at least over much of Europe, the US, Australia and Canada. As a result I do believe in miracles, and I do believe that love can win.
Jill Green
The Fire and the Hammer
My Friend (2 February) was late this week so I only read the fine article ‘Keeping score’ yesterday.
I agree that The Fire and the Hammer was a fine tribute to George Fox, but David and Joolz Saunders are wrong in saying that 1991 was its first choral performance. I, and about twenty others, performed it one evening at Yearly Meeting in 1984.
It was recorded for posterity, including the sounds of a noisy child, with a photo in the Friend of us in seventeenth-century smocks!
It would be good to get a largish (fifty-odd) choir to perform it again. Sadly, Barry Wilsher is no longer with us, but I would volunteer to narrate, if available.
Here’s hoping, Friends.
Max Evens
Listening
Dorothy Woolley’s letter ‘Listening’ (16 February) spoke to my condition. Over recent years Friends have been considering whether some of our vocabulary has changed in meaning since Quakers first used it (‘worship’ and ‘believe’ being examples), and whether ‘eldership’, ‘overseers’, and ‘God’ carry too much baggage, and have perhaps become off-putting to newcomers.
I think it is a useful practice to examine our vocabulary periodically and, after careful reflection, to alter what is discerned to be necessary.
However, I feel that we are now in danger of adopting, rather rapidly, another set of jargon, one which may well exclude and alienate a number who have been Friends for very many years.
While mutual jargon has its place within the circle of those who may find it useful for speeding up their daily routine, we do not all follow the same routines or share the same lifestyles.
Bureaucratic or technological terms can be meaningless to many of us, just as our own individual daily jargon would be to others.
When items for our information or reflection are presented using such terminology, ‘poor Friends is mangled in their minds’ (Margaret Fox, 1700), and it is almost impossible to give such matters due attention, and to listen carefully through the words for ‘the still small voice of calm’.
Carol Williams
Living in the Light
Friends, there is hope for the world. Our God is Love. This is not just a nice idea discussed between theologians, but God really is Love itself: the one source from which all loves spring.
Because all creation centres in the Creator, all things must ultimately resolve themselves into eternal Love.
The seed of peace was sown on our dear Lord’s cross; and what God begins, He always finishes.
Peace will reign, simply because God has declared this to be His will.
Clive Gordon
Quakers and the Bible
Thank you, Elizabeth Coleman (‘Cracking a book’, 16 February), for your article about Quakers and the Bible. I have recently spoken in two Quaker groups: our own Local Meeting at Bideford, where I am an attender, and in our spiritual matters monthly meeting about ‘Quakers and the Bible’. And also in our monthly Quaker Universalist Group Zoom gathering, prefacing my short talk with my own biblical and Christian background. Reflecting on a quote from George Fox: ‘You will say Christ saith this, and the apostles say this, but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of Light and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from the God?’
I would like to add a plea to fellow Quakers to become as familiar with the Bible as you can, for through it the Spirit can/will help us in our discerning what Love requires.
John Carvosso
