‘One wall, two prisons’: Craig Barnett has a Quaker approach to diversity

‘Exclusion and separation impoverish everyone.’

by Craig Barnett 30th January 2026

There seems to be a traditional list of excuses for why so many Quaker Meetings fail to reflect the racial and social diversity of their local communities. These include: ‘Silent worship doesn’t suit everyone’; ‘We shouldn’t be trying to proselytise’; ‘They prefer their own churches, which have lots of singing’; ‘Muslims wouldn’t want to come to a Quaker Meeting anyway’; ‘We do have lots of diversity, in people’s beliefs’; ‘We welcome everyone, but we can’t force people to come’.