Letters - 21 August 2026
'In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.'
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Reparations and racism
I would like to respond to Mark Frankel’s letter of 31 July.
Mark’s sweeping dismissal of the Reparations Working Group’s (RWG) document reminds me of my own journey. I can so identify with Mark’s position, from when I was a bit younger.
In the 1980s I worked in the probation service. Of the 200 or so staff in our service, not one of us was a person of colour. Of course, we said, we didn’t have a problem with racism. It was never raised as an issue in our everyday work, so what was the fuss about?
It took someone from outside our area to gently point out that about twenty per cent of the inmates of the three prisons in our area were people of colour, and why might that be? And, of course, we hadn’t kept any figures about what proportion of the people we were working with were people of colour either. Might that not suggest that we may need to give the matter some consideration?
Looking back now, I see that startling experience as the beginning of my own journey through racism. My journey has included, for instance, fortuitously visiting ‘slave forts’ in west Africa, and working briefly in the Caribbean. Only gradually (and, I admit, often painfully) have I become aware of what happened to people if they survived becoming enslaved and then survived the Atlantic crossing, before being sold for their labour.
More recently my learning has come from David Olusoga’s television work, and reading Corinne Fowler’s Our Island Stories, for instance.
I have followed with interest the growing awareness of Friends about these matters. This is taking us well beyond the simplistic, self-righteous assertion that, because some Quakers became involved in the anti-slavery movement, we should now somehow be exempt from scrutiny.
I know that I have a good deal further to go. To approach these difficult issues with humility and open-mindedness, listening to others’ experiences and not closing down on new perspectives, seems right, if I can keep trying.
The work being done by Friends in the RWG, and Lancaster and Bristol Friends in continuing to research and learn, is necessary. And I, for one, am grateful for their assiduous attention to their learning, and to their bringing findings to our notice. They are simply asking that we hear, reflect and act accordingly.
Brian Fellowes
Membership and welcome
I read with joy George Penaluna’s words about becoming ‘part of the whole’ (17 July). George writes about how Quaker membership found him, in 1990.
This year’s Quaker Week theme is ‘Coming to worship’. Woodbrooke events speak of a ‘radical welcome’ of newcomers to our Meetings. I think George’s article and Quaker outreach have a parallel theme: how worship finds us; how membership finds us.
In 2026, Discovering Quakers will be offering a fifteen-minute taster of silent worship, repeatedly, and Taunton Meeting, as part of its plans, will have an open door. Silent worship says a thousand words.
Stories of journeys into membership are so compelling. Discovering Quakers, in its weekly online hour for Quaker seekers, includes a story for a quarter of the time. Might the Friend print some stories about people joining Quakers?
Rhiannon Grant, the Quaker author and researcher, says that Quakers should be active with their invitations. George’s story has times when he was nearly excluded from service. Woodbrooke’s radical welcome proposes that every Quaker step should be welcoming and nonjudgmental.
Why should Quaker membership ‘find’ people? For each new Quaker, we become better, and more sustainable. Ben Pink Dandelion wrote in Open For Transformation that ‘Quakers are better together’. We have no creeds. The best description of a Quaker, for those who want to find out more about us, is that a Quaker is someone who shares in Quaker worship.
Might our new book of discipline be augmented by the revision committee to reflect George, Rhiannon, Woodbrooke and Young Quakers’ thinking? Could our words of welcome adopt this radicalism?
Underpinning this all is a phrase I heard in ministry at our Local Meeting last month: there should be more ‘adoration of each other’.
David Fish
Pluralism
I agree with Tim Gee (Letters, 31 July) that we have become a pluralistic faith community, in that being a Quaker today no longer implies a faith perspective shared by other Friends. Consequently, unity within Britain Yearly Meeting now appears to be dependent on a shared commitment to practices such as unprogrammed worship, and our testimonies of peace, truth, equality, simplicity, and sustainability, rather than the faith perspective out of which these practices evolved.
I wish to suggest that faith and practice are codependent, and, therefore, if they are separated, Meeting for Worship is likely to become an opportunity for meditation rather than an act of worship. Meeting for Worship for Business is likely to become an exercise in consensus decision making rather than discernment. Our testimonies are likely to become well-intentioned liberal policies rather than a witness to Truth, which is how they were traditionally understood. To what do our testimonies testify if they become detached from their source?
As Sungsoo Kim pointed out in ‘From Beacon to Renaissance’ (10 July), the 1895 Manchester Conference (which gave rise to modern Liberal Quakerism) rediscovered and articulated the faith perspective upon which early Quakerism was based, in a way that spoke to the condition of contemporary society. That is what each generation of Friends needs to do, including our own, if we are to remain a coherent faith community that has something prophetic to say about the human condition.
Richard Pashley
The word of God
I have occasionally heard Friends share in worship that they ‘don’t like the word “God”’. This has been said after someone else has given ministry, using the word ‘God’ in a way that implies their personal belief.
Now, I think it is a good thing that there is room among Quakers for both nontheists and theists to Meet and worship together. But I find that this tendency to say that one doesn’t like the word ‘God’ comes across as an attempt to shut other people down. The word ‘God’ appears many times in Quaker faith & practice, and of course is an important word in the key belief that there is ‘that of God in every one’.
Keith White
Electronic visits?
Some of the letters of 31 July seem to see British Quakerism as under threat. I wonder if there are numbers of convinced attenders who see no need to apply for membership.
In larger Local Meetings we may no longer know each other so well, and be less likely to nudge people into application. Could we make it easier by allowing visits to be made electronically?
Richard Seebohm
Heaven sent
Jesus compared heaven to a feast. He also said that the kingdom of God is within you. Many people think of heaven as some daft place in the clouds with a lot of boring old men in nightshirts and an infinite number of people playing harps. What sort of reward or fun is that?
Some Christians think that Christ was a sourpuss. In fact, he was always dining and eating with the very people that the priests disliked the most.
An Irish term that seems to be a better way of describing heaven is ‘craic’, which translates as good company and festivities – much more desirable.
Jesus was the only one of the prophets who turned water into wine. That made him very popular in Ireland. Do you think there’s Guinness in heaven?
Richard John West
Comments
Richard Pashley very much speaks my mind . I do hope we will be able to have an on-going robust , vibrant , and free discussion of the important matters he highlights . One very important up-coming focus is the Quaker -wide discernment of “Our Quaker Way ” , which will begin in November this year .
By Neil M on 20th August 2026 - 11:43
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