Letters - 20 September 2019
From 'Primitive Quakers' to
‘Primitive Quakers’
Friends in Christ, the small body often called ‘Primitive Quakers’, recently held their Yearly Meeting. A concern was raised, about a Friend’s feelings of identity as a Christian and a Quaker, since she resigned from her local Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) group. ‘Am I still a Quaker?’ she asked. An emphatic ‘Yes’ was our answer, as we have recognised gifts of eldership in her.
It has never been our concern to ‘poach’ members from BYM. We have no formal membership, our doors are simply open to all. Many people who have approached us retain membership of Meetings within BYM. Nevertheless we are separate. We link to the Christ who was before all denominations were; it is on him we wait, and him we know in our Meetings. We respect old Quaker ways but do not exist to preserve them, except as they may serve Christ’s purpose here and now. We are in that ‘here and now’, and in the eternity that is God’s.
It says in the most recent issue of The Call, our quarterly journal: ‘To breathe is to pray. To have a heartbeat is to pray. To stand up is to stand in the presence of God. To work or to rest is to do so in the presence of God.’
When we meet for worship, sitting together in waiting silence, there is such joy in hearts, such peace, for we meet in that Presence. Our doors are open to anyone who is led to us – come freely, and accept what we share freely with you. Our website is at https://plainquakers.org.
Paul Thompson
Clerk at the time of Friends in Christ Yearly Meeting
Foundations undermined
I wholeheartedly agree with the points raised by Rex Ambler (30 August) and feel that the current trend towards ‘management’ bypassing Meeting for Sufferings is the inevitable outcome of the structure of a board of trustees being imposed upon us by the Charity Commission.
For the sake of the financial savings enabled by having charitable status, I believe that one of the very foundations of the Society, our unique Quaker business method, is gradually being undermined.
Irene Ridgeon
Arms sales and greed
Recently in London I had a strange juxtaposition of events. I was in Friends House Library, Euston, researching material for a reading from Theodora Wilson Wilson’s book The Weapon Unsheathed, which was a sequel to her book The Last Weapon, published in 1916, two years into the first world war. Both books sold well and were ultimately banned by the government. The extracts I was gathering were for an event, ‘Banned – Books for Peace’, in Manchester on 11 November. (We have been unable to obtain a copy of The Weapon Unsheathed.)
Both books present powerful arguments against war and the military. Among many issues, Theodora cites as a cause of war the greed of the makers of weapons for profit.
The next day I was protesting the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair at the ExCeL centre in London’s Docklands. There were so many reasons to be there, but I particularly am angry at our government selling arms to Saudi Arabia, which I believe is mainly responsible for the death and suffering of the people of the Yemen. The DSEI arms fair is vast, possibly the largest in the world.
I think the spirit of Theodora would have been with us. But would she not have been saddened at the scale, size and profits of the military manufacturers over 100 years after the printing of her books?
Rae Street
Arms market
The promoters of the weapons bonanza in London from 10 September call it an ‘arms fair’. I prefer to speak plainly and call it an ‘arms market’. I hope that Friends might adopt this more accurately descriptive terminology in future.
Jane Taylor
The root of our faith
I have always thought that the root of our Quaker faith was grounded in our experience of Divine revelation. George Fox’s words, ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition’, tell of a religious experience that transcends our ordinary everyday understanding, so opening to us a different, higher level of consciousness of the Divine.
I was, therefore, disheartened to read Martyn Kelly (23 August) say that ‘the challenge to a denomination whose faith is rooted in experience rather than divine revelation is how we process concepts’. Is he saying that our faith is grounded in another kind of experience that has replaced divine revelation? Have we really come so far from our roots?
He suggests that scientific reports ‘constitute a form of secular “revelation”, making them subjects ripe for Lectio Divina’, but isn’t this rather a contradiction in terms? Lectio Divina means divine reading. Martyn Kelly refers to Origen, who taught that such meditative contemplation of scripture led to a deeper awareness of God.
Let us hope that contemplative reading of scientific reports, such as those from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, may lead us to such a sense of awe, wonder and respect for the majesty of creation that we may once again worship the source of creation before creation itself. May we once again praise and magnify that source that some of us continue to call God.
Hilary Johnson
Veganism diet and digest
I am wholly in favour of trying to reduce the carbon footprint of our food consumption and fully understand the reasoning behind Sarah Sheard’s letter (23 August) suggesting that Quaker Meeting houses should serve only vegan food.
However, I would like those who are making decisions on these sorts of issues to bear in mind that are peole who are unable to follow
a fully vegan diet as they cannot easily digest items such as beans, lentils and pulses. They would probably need to bring their own food or go short of nourishment. This would not make our Meeting houses and Quaker centres welcoming and open to all.
Susanna Riviere
God and good
I was puzzled when Diana Francis (6 September) wrote ‘the Old English word for God is simply the word for good, given a capital letter’. The Oxford English Dictionary says of the word god: ‘The etymology is disputed… There are two Aryan roots of the required form… variously interpreted as “what is invoked” and “what is worshipped by sacrifice”. Either of these conjectures is fairly plausible.’
Of the word good it says: ‘Good comes from a similar but different Old Testament word meaning “to bring together” or “unite”.’Unlike Diana, I think that treating the two words as synonyms is more likely to confuse than assist us.
Diana Lampen
Quietly remarkable
Recently I walked into Meeting and the silence was beautiful. As I sat there, the thought came to my mind that the Religious Society of Friends really is quietly quite remarkable.
I thought it really is quite remarkable that, in this age of noise and hurry, a group of people will come together and sit together
in (sometimes total) silence for a whole hour. We are used to this because that is how we worship but, really, isn’t it quite remarkable?
You can be sitting quietly and someone the other side of the room can stand up and say something which completely ‘speaks to your condition’. It doesn’t always happen, of course, but who knows if the words being spoken are touching someone else’s heart or mind?
That it can happen at all, again, seems in many ways quite remarkable. These things happen so simply and are part of our everyday experience as Quaker but, as I reflected, they are also quietly quite remarkable. I felt so thankful.
‘Worship is our response to an awareness of God. We can worship alone, but when we join with others in expectant waiting, we may discover a deeper sense of God’s presence. We seek a gathered stillness in our meetingsfor worship so that all may feel the power of God’s love drawing us together and leading us.’(Advices & queries, number eight.)
Elizabeth Mills
Comments
Not for publication: Please let Rae Street know that Pranava Books in India have reprinted The Weapon Unsheathed by Theodora Wilson, and it’s available from AbeBooks.co.uk for £10.95 including shipping.
In Friendship,
Henning Sieverts
Woodbridge Local Quaker Meeting
By SHSieverts@aol.com on 21st September 2019 - 10:42
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