Letters - 21 August 2015

From the Light within to science and God

Light within

John Myhill’s Thought for the Week (14 August) is a wonderful reminder of the relevance of Meeting for Worship in our lives. The ‘Light within’, ‘practising spiritual speaking and listening in our Meeting for Worship’ are all words we need to hear again and again. I know how easily we can become trivial and mundane in our thoughts, words and deeds. We all do it and we need reminding to speak more and listen harder in Meeting for Worship so, in the words of Rex Ambler, ‘that we can continue to grow and become more like the people we are meant to be’.

Thank you John.

Shanthini Cawson

Vocal prayer

In response to Sheila Preston’s (14 August) request for information on the old Quaker custom of a Friend kneeling to offer prayer while everyone else stood up, this was done quite frequently in Scarborough Meeting in the 1950s and it was my understanding that it was a long standing custom in many other Meetings. Is this a subject for the Friends Historical Society to research?

As a teenager, I was impressed by the very special nature of the act. Today, prayer is almost never heard in our Meetings but this is not to say that it is absent.

Metford Robson

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