Letters - 24 March 2023
From The future of Meetings to Vaccines
The future of Meetings
I was very interested in G Gordon Steel’s article on the future of Meetings (3 March). His sociological analysis seems right, and his challenge to think outside the box is good, but which side of the box must we think outside of?
Going to Meeting on a Sunday may seem quaint but, for many of the public, going to a football match on a Sunday definitely does not.
They are not the same kind of activity, but they are both subject to the same sociological pressures as G Gordon Steel describes.
Considering the future of our Meeting houses or other physical arrangements seems rather like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
People will go to events that attract them and that they feel they are getting something from. Many evangelical churches have realised this and are making their services something exuberant and promising their congregations spiritual security.
We would not want to go down their route, but people coming to Meeting need to feel that it is spiritually enjoyable as an experience and spiritually uplifting.
Do our Meetings achieve this? Can they do more in achieving this? Here is the box we need to think outside of, and find how to help those who attend our Meetings grow spiritually.
G Gordon Steel is right that the situation is urgent. One well-respected Friend suggested, around fifteen years ago, that the Society would not exist by 2035. 2035 is now twelve years away and I do not sense that our decline has halted.
I doubt that I will be alive in 2035, but I fervently hope that the Society will still be there to give to others what it has given to me – and much more. Yes, think outside the box, but think about the spiritual life of the Society and its members, not its physical arrangements.
Geoff Pilliner
Small charities
I was saddened to read Peter Maple’s letter (24 February) about his negative experience of seeking a merger.
Most small charities and some larger ones are having difficulty finding trustees and other volunteers, and one way forward – encouraged by the Charity Commission – is through mergers. Trustees need to be open to the opportunities before they are so overwhelmed that discernment and right ordering become impossible.
I very much hope that the Quaker Housing Bursary Trust will find a suitable partner.
Lucy Pollard
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