Letters - 03 April 2026
From different action to the book of discipline
Different action
Early Friends were noted for refusing to accept situations that they judged were wrong. In response to this they took action to create something good, to work to right a wrong by positive means.
William Penn went to learn about the thinking and spiritual practice of the indigenous peoples in the United States. He wrote of what he had gained, and by so doing he emphasised the wrongness of the belief that had arisen that white-skinned people were inevitably superior to those with darker skins.
Quakers in the English Midlands got involved in industry, and created homes, schools and clinics for those working for them to alleviate the more obvious horrors of industrialisation.
Quakers in London, such as John Coakley Lettsom (who we heard about in the Friend recently) had an ‘abiding concern’ for the welfare of the poor. He established the Aldersgate Dispensary – the first of a series of dispensaries in London maintained by voluntary contributions.
More recently, there was Ada Salter and her husband Alfred, who chose to live and work in Bermondsey, providing a medical clinic and support to the many poor people in that area. Ada was a pacifist and socialist and became the first woman Labour mayor in London.
Woodbrooke was set up partly to meet a recognised need to support Quakers’ spiritual life and growth, since we do not have trained pastors. It provided Friends with a place to develop their knowledge and spirituality in the company of other seekers.
In current times we have had Quakers creating conditions for diplomats, who cannot publicly talk with each other, to meet and confer with each other in a calm, peaceful setting. Others have worked in Nagaland and Northern Ireland to good effect.
The point I want to make is that these Quakers were focussed on addressing conditions that were not good, that were damaging others, and their responses were creative and constructive. This was a reflection of our belief in respect and love to others. Boycotts and protests are a proclamation of ‘wrongness’, useful in that they raise others’ awareness of a problem, but they create opposition, binary thinking and division. While a protest or boycott advertises a ‘wrong’, it also means the possibility of dialogue is reduced. Sides are taken and complex situations lose their nuances. Boycotts are indiscriminate in their effect, and have no chance to create common ground.
This is why I am concerned about our support of boycotts and protests.
I do hope as a spiritual group that pursues peace and goodwill we can find different ways to take action in the face of the many injustices and cruelties in the world.
Juliet Morton
Debating points
Alastair Jackson (Letters, 20 March) may have some reason to believe that correspondents on the Israel-Palestine conflicts are not learning from the process. But do we really know? And what about readers of these letters? Have some seen things differently or more clearly? As to humility, it is not defined by believing that there is always as much validity in the other side’s position as there is in one’s own; that may be mistaken.
If you really listen to what is being said, you will hear people clearly feeling pain, rather than rehearsing clever debating points. What a misconception! And it is a travesty to reduce the Quaker response to a genocide to a morally neutral position – a position in which all that can be done is to offer financial assistance – when Quakerism has long been a faith that deals with the causes of social evils and strives to prevent them, as well as offering financial assistance where possible.
Of course peace matters; of course practical aid is indispensable. But there is zero evidence to suggest that activists give less practical aid than those for whom ‘our opinions are not important’. If all the abolitionist Quakers had been convinced their opinions were unimportant, slavery might even have lasted months or years longer. Standing for peace and justice in the world may involve our opinions but it is surely an essential aspect of our faith.
Jonathan Dale
