Letters - 14 February 2014
From 'The Light' to Quakers and Jews
The Light
Not liking the decision an appointed body has reached is not the same issue as whether or not the decision was reached in right ordering. Some Friends have expressed strong views against the use of ‘The Light’ as an additional name for the Large Meeting House.
There is no harm in hearing a range of reactions. But the process of reaching the decision was clearly taken according to Quaker precepts.
The Hospitality Board – a Quaker body – presented with good advice (containing more detail than could easily be conveyed to other groups) from its marketing consultants, deliberated prayerfully and agreed to follow the advice.
Trustees – Quakers – were consulted, as an additional level of discernment. Meeting for Sufferings was given the opportunity to respond to the discernment. In each instance, once a range of opinions had been expressed and considered, it was felt right to uphold this experiment with an additional name.
The Hospitality Company will review the success of the experiment in due course, as they do with so many of the decisions they make on a daily basis about the operation of Friends House, and that will be the moment to take into account the effect of using two names side by side.
Until then, I hope Friends in the Yearly Meeting will join with Sufferings and its perception that if we delegate responsibilities to each other, then we must begin by trusting in the abilities – commercial and spiritual – and the discernments of those who accept these responsibilities.
Jennifer Barraclough Clerk, Britain Yearly Meeting trustees
I will speak up for ‘The Light’! I don’t know whether it is the right name or not but that is not the point. That the matter has been discerned in right ordering and the right advice taken, I have no doubt.
We are in a marketplace. That is what we came to terms with when we decided to go ahead with the refurbishment. If we are in a marketplace, there is nothing to be gained by folding our hands and pursing our lips and thanking God we are not like those commercial, advertising, trading sort of people ‘over there’. As one Friend remarked at Meeting for Sufferings last week, the commercial and spiritual are not separate unless we care to separate them.
So, let The Light shine! One day soon we’ll meet in The Light, and sit in The Light and there will be enough love to go round.
Kathy Gollin
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