Letters – 30 October 2015
From Greenbelt to power cuts
Greenbelt Festival
Abigail Maxwell’s contribution (9 October) is timely. But her suggestions will raise anxiety in the minds of many Friends. She reported on the contribution Quaker Life made in the Greenbelt Festival this past summer: ‘…thousands of liberal or radical Christians, and a number of post-Christians – so many natural Quakers who could benefit from our heritage and enrich our Meetings.’ She also wrote: ‘Let us go out into the fields, where the Spirit is.’
I remember an Area Residential Meeting many years ago when a Friend warned that we needed to be ready when the hippies discovered us. There was a communal shudder from most who were present. They did discover the ‘shelter’ we could give to CND activists a decade or so later but, by and large, they didn’t turn to worship with us. Why not?
I dare to suggest many found our Meetings stuffy and introspective. I hope we don’t fail this latest generation of Seekers after Truth.
John Southern
A charter for carrying on as before
On first looking into Our faith in the future, the document recently adopted by Meeting for Sufferings as our next framework for action, I felt the thrill of anticipation: what rich vein of action could consultation with 300 Quaker groups in Britain have foreshadowed? Well, it seems, none! The lovely pictures and poetic language of the new leaflet only reflect back what we already think Quakers should be like. Meeting for Worship is central to us – of course! Our communities are loving, inclusive, all-age – we try to make them so, anyway. We should all live by Quaker discipline – whatever that might mean to us. We should let our lives speak in the world – exactly how, perhaps that will come to us. We work collaboratively – when we can. We should be better known and understood – OK, but who are we, again?
A framework for action should include some aims and some plans for action set in a timeframe; it ought to focus our attention on the troubles and iniquities of these times and bring our Quaker witness and resources to bear on them. Instead of making the decisive switch towards action that we’ve been expecting this year, the new document is just another meditation on what it means to be a Quaker – a charter for carrying on as before, hoping to do a little better.
Ian Beeson
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