Pendle Hill
Gerald Hewitson reflects on his experience as a Friend in residence
Submit yourself to God Submit your whole being to God Let God carry you lightly Allow yourself to be amazed
These words were said in one of the first Meetings for Worship we attended at Pendle Hill, Pennsylvania. They seemed to be addressed to me personally – they ‘spoke to my condition’ – but they also seemed to indicate the differences that exist between my experience of Friends in Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) and my experience of American Quakers and Quakerism. Beth Allen’s article in the Friend a couple of years ago (‘A serious search’, 1 January 2010) had led me to expect significant differences. I’d noted in my blog before travelling that:
Generally Americans seem to be a more God-fearing people – unapologetic and unselfconscious. Other ‘Friends in residence’ have noticed that American Quakers share these characteristics, and do not have the reticence of British Quakers who, for a number of reasons, find themselves far less willing to use a language which recognises God’s providence in their lives.
This proved to be the case, both in terms of my experience and in the academic research. I attended a lecture by Robert Putnam in Swarthmore College on his latest book American Grace: how religion divides and unites us. In a very sophisticated argument, offered in disarmingly accessible terms, he showed how America does take its religion very seriously (it ranks as eighth in religiously observant nations – the ninth is Iran), with thirty-five per cent of the population regularly attending church. In comparison, about eighteen per cent of Britain attends church or other forms of worship regularly. The thesis of his book is not so much to explain religious division, as to suggest reasons why, given this very serious division, there is not greater degree of open conflict as there so often is in countries where extensive religious division exists with a serious commitment to religious observance.
The power of song
If American Quakerism is rooted in a very different cultural landscape, one more conducive to religious experience, it is also located in a very different physical landscape. Huge mountains, vast forests and gigantic trees are the experience of many inhabitants of this great continent and are used to great effect in spoken ministry, as well as other aspects of the American experience – panning for gold is not a metaphor one would anticipate in typical vocal ministry in BYM.
Another contrast is the use of sung ministry: we heard more sung ministry in the first three weeks at Pendle Hill than in thirty years of attending Meetings in Britain – often soaring, beautifully sung and startlingly appropriate, it often found its way straight to my heart. There are many possible explanations for this American readiness to sing openly. One was suggested to me by the introduction one Friend (in Brooklyn Meeting, New York City) offered before launching into a heartrending hymn: ‘I usually sing this hymn in a gospel choir, but its words are haunting me today’.
There is probably no aspect of American culture that has been touched by the black experience more strongly than American music – rich, complex African rhythms, a history of gospel singing, and a willingness to use song and dance as a means of expression. Quakers, being an open people, might be unconsciously responding to this tradition, and have a greater readiness to draw on music, especially sung ministry.
Politics
This leads me to another aspect of American Quakerism – its sense of being more keenly alert to those ‘isms’ (racism, sexism, ageism and so on) which can get in the way of one’s relationship with God. For the Americans I met, these are not problematical intellectual constructs to be wrestled with but real injustices that can interfere with one’s relationships with other people and with one’s experience of God. The resolution of these issues requires ‘heartwork’ – internal work at a deep level. In general, the American Quakers I met seemed to be more conscious of the need for this work and much of Pendle Hill’s work was to enable such work to be done.
Along with this, American Quakers seemed to be more generally politically aware, if we use the word politics in the inclusive sense: having to do with a range of concrete relationships (economic, governmental, military, cultural and so on) in a given social formation (Binding the Strong Man, Ched Myers). There was a much greater sense of America as empire – the oppressive nature of empire both on cultural minorities at home and its impact overseas. I am not used to hearing such a broad, inclusive understanding of politics or the implications of such an understanding informing religious discussion in Britain, even among Quakers.
That said, it was heartening to see Rowan Williams offering a difficult query to the broad, comfortable audience of the Christmas edition of the Radio Times: ‘What’s the exact point at which involvement in the “empire” of capitalist economy compromises you fatally?’
A wider world
One of my most outstanding impressions is of my own parochialism as a Quaker. I am used to thinking of BYM as the birthplace of the Quaker movement and, therefore, as the epicentre of Quaker experience. Quite suddenly, I began to see American Quakerism, and its offshoots in East Africa, as a source of diversity and rich variety.
It was very interesting talking to an Afro-American Quaker, an ex-professor, about the current intellectual strains in BYM – particularly liberal Quakerism and nontheism – contrasting BYM with the experience of the wider Quaker family. That Friend was very clear that BYM needs to be aware that it may become increasingly irrelevant to the worldwide Quaker experience: a shock to me and my Brit-centric experience to that point.
During our stay I was reminded by a Quaker scholar of the history of Quaker intervisitation from both sides of the Atlantic (remember John Woolman died in York) in the hope and expectation of a continuous fructification of experience. At the time, this would have been focused on Pennsylvania.
In the light of this experience, it seems to me that a challenge to us in BYM, at a time of collectively reducing our environmental footprint as a Yearly Meeting, is to actively ‘seek to know one another in the things which are eternal’ in the various Yearly Meetings, whilst enjoying and delighting in our differences. In the meantime, I return home personally enriched, my experience extended and my faith deepened and developed.
To read more of Gerald’s blog visit: geraldandgwyneth.blogspot.com
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