New Year message
'Are you building bridges – personally, locally, nationally and internationally – which will help the world recover?’
The challenges facing Quakerism in 2021 were set out in a New Year blog written by Britain Yearly Meeting’s recording clerk Paul Parker.
‘Quakers are invisible,’ he says on the Quakers in Britain website. He likens the Covid-19 pandemic to ‘a powerful lens’ illuminating ‘many of the challenges we already knew we faced – both inside our Quaker community and in the world around us’. ‘Are you and your Meeting ready to make your Quakerism visible in 2021? Is your public face on display?’ he asks. ‘What will you do to invite people to experience Quaker worship in 2021?’
In a piece that highlights the challenges of Quaker visibility and its ability to connect with a wide range of society, including children and young people, Paul Parker speaks of both the fragility and resilience of Meetings. ‘The median Quaker Meeting has 21 members, down from 24 in 2009,’ he says. ‘That probably equates to around 12 worshippers on a typical Sunday. That means there are around 250 Quaker communities relying on small numbers of people to keep everything going.’
‘We still don’t know the impact of the pandemic on our numbers in 2020,’ he adds, and while many have savoured the chance to connect online, with far flung Friends more able to take part, ‘Our children and young people have – in many Meetings, not all – disappeared from view… Will you find ways to ensure that all Friends in our communities can feel engaged and valued? Are you listening to the needs of our children and young people…?’
The pandemic has also underlined that Quakers’ ‘silent, waiting worship’ can happen anywhere, he said, offering an opportunity to reconsider new ways and times of gathering. There were also words calling for tolerance. ‘We too get drawn into toxic debates, sometimes forgetting the power of listening and human connection in a time of mistrust of institutions and opposing tribes… Are you building bridges – personally, locally, nationally and internationally – which will help the world recover?’
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