Letters - 25 February 2022
From Prepared readings to Sex symbol
Prepared readings
When we were unable to meet in person, our Meeting’s pastoral team decided to offer a suggested reading from Quaker faith & practice each week. The thinking was that if we were all to read the passage at home at the beginning of our usual Meeting time, maybe we could feel some sense of worshipping together even though we were all at home. Then we started using Zoom and are now holding ‘blended’ Meetings. So the plan has changed. Each week a different person is asked to choose a passage (which is circulated with notices) and to read it aloud (in the Meeting room or over Zoom) near the beginning of Meeting for Worship.
I recently asked the pastoral team to consider whether the time was right to stop reading a pre-chosen passage aloud during our Meetings because it sometimes felt to me rather like programming our worship together. The pastoral team invited everyone to share their feelings about this with them and I have seen how many people value the readings. So I am thinking more about the positive aspects of this practice.
Some years ago, our Meeting followed the programme of reading our way through the whole of Quaker faith & practice. Newer and more seasoned Friends alike found the experience worthwhile. The current suggested readings are being appreciated in the same way, opening our eyes to passages we hadn’t noticed before and enjoying the more familiar ones.
It has been suggested that it might be easier to speak in Meeting for the first time if you have been asked to read one of these passages. A few people have told us why they chose that particular section. Perhaps they will find it easier another time to rise and speak when moved and without preparation.
Like all Meetings, we have experienced some extended periods of silent Meetings and a pre-chosen reading may be a way of breaking that pattern.
Our experience has been that the readings have not necessarily set a theme for the Meeting. Sometimes later ministry has been prompted by the reading (but these contributions are not prepared). On other occasions, further ministry has no obvious relation to the reading. And sometimes the rest of the Meeting is silent. So perhaps we have found that starting with a prepared reading does not necessarily programme what follows.
All this has set me wondering if other Meetings have tried anything similar and how Friends have found it.
Jackie Fowler
Population
Phil Chandler’s letter in the Friend (28 January) makes some sweeping assertions about the issue of population.
In 1973 as a very junior doctor doing my first job in gynaecology my consultant repeatedly introduced me to two unhappy women. One desperately wanted to get pregnant but had not conceived and the other was pregnant and did not want to be. Those were the days when septic (induced) abortions were common and caused great distress for everyone. I was working in West Yorkshire at that time. I subsequently went to work for a few years in Bangladesh and encountered similar distress.
There is an ongoing need for family planning education, advice and services all round the world. To ignore that need condemns many women to needless suffering.
Phil Chandler might find reading the booklet produced by Quaker Concern over Population helpful and reassuring.
Martin Schweiger
You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.