Letters - 28 October 2022
From Language to Uniquely Quaker
Language
The quote from Quaker faith & practice (Qf&p) in Ol Rappaport’s article on antisemitisn (30 September) really spoke to me. ‘The language in which we express what we… say is of vital importance; it both shapes and reflects our values’ (Qf&p 23.44).
Language is indeed important, and I was very impressed by Judith Moran’s article in the previous week’s Friend (23 September), written for Quaker Week. Her letter to Liz Truss was indeed, as the title promised, ‘direct mail’, speaking truth to power and upholding the Quaker commitment to integrity.
But the tone was so different from many letters and articles I have been reading recently. It was a model of calm, reasonable, non-aggressive language, acknowledging ‘that of God’ in the prime minister.
Many of us will be writing to our MPs in the near future. We can learn a lot from Judith.
Marion Longstaff
Grace and joy
I am a table tennis player but I was unaware of the story of Egon Kramminger (23 September).
In The Tablet of the same week (24 September), there is an interview with Christopher Jamison, the Benedictine monk from Worth Abbey, which is headlined ‘Amazing Grace’. In his own book, Finding the Language of Grace, he describes grace as ‘the action of God in the world’.
There are also The God of Surprises by Gerald Hughes and Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis. Do not our experiences of grace sometimes come as joyful experiences?
John Dodwell
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