Letters - 09 October 2026
'In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.'
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ICE
What a chilling read Lucinda Martin’s article was (‘Foreign exchange’, 18 September). The stories about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are of great concern.
I have for a while now wondered if ICE could be the start of a US Gestapo. Of course, ICE could be closed down now, but for how much longer?
To say ICE, a type of security police, could become like the Gestapo is shocking. So I have been looking up various sources on how ICE works and how it is controlled, and how the Gestapo began and how it was controlled. I was not comforted. Friends might like to do their own research and please share if it is more positive.
I note the political row in Minnesota that happened after Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed by ICE officials in her car. The Donald Trump administration said it was self-defence; the local officials said she posed no danger and was trying to drive away. The court case is ongoing, it seems. These court cases do give protection at the moment.
Lucinda shares several things that are being developed to support US Quakers in Europe. In our Meeting for Worship this morning someone asked in ministry, are we doing enough?
Barbara Mark
Meditation/ministry
Richard Romm’s suggestion that Quaker Meetings have quite a lot in common with Transcendental Meditation (Letters, 25 September) is interesting, but I wonder if it needs some qualification.
The difference between meditation and the way in which Quaker worship is traditionally understood is set out in Quaker faith & practice 2.37 which reads: ‘Friends have never regarded [worship] as an individual activity. People who regard Friends’ meetings as opportunities for meditation have failed to appreciate this corporate aspect. The waiting and listening are activities in which everybody is engaged and produce spoken ministry which helps to articulate the common guidance which the Holy Spirit is believed to give the group as a whole. So, the waiting and listening is corporate also. This is why Friends emphasise the “ministry of silence” and the importance of coming to meeting regularly and with heart and mind prepared.’
I do, however, very much agree with Tim Gee’s article in the same edition that it is not a building, a time, or a pre-ordained priest that make a gathering worshipful. But I hope we do not adopt the slogan ‘No steeple, just people’ as an advertising slogan for the Religious Society of Friends. Such a slogan could be interpreted to imply that we see ourselves as having some sort of monopoly of the experience of Truth, which is lacking in mainstream Christian churches. In my dealings with members of such churches, and with those Friends who are in joint membership, I have not found this to be the case.
Richard Pashley
