Gill Pennington reflects on Quakers and the Holy Spirit. Photo: Shey / flickr CC.
Quakers and the Holy Spirit
Gill Pennington reflects on a recent experience
The keynote speech at a recent ecumenical conference at Ampleforth Abbey that I attended was entitled ‘Come Holy Spirit’. It was given by Graham Cray, a former bishop of Maidstone.
His inspiring talk and clear message spoke of the real abiding presence of the Holy Spirit as a partner in our lives today; of the stability that is assured when we recognise the Holy Spirit’s permanent indwelling presence; and of the challenges that are offered when we follow the guidance and trust the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
I was asked to respond to Graham Cray’s speech as a Quaker and found much encouragement and congruence in our reflections, even though, for us, the language would be very different.
George Fox came to recognise that the spiritual answers he was seeking were to be found within himself and not through other people. He searched out the religious leaders of the day to gain answers to his questions, but was frustrated by their lack of integrity.
In 1647, whilst only in his early twenties, he heard a voice, which said: ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition’. This experience of the Holy Spirit speaking to him changed George Fox’s life. It challenged both his religious conceptions and his view of the human-divine relationship. He devoted the rest of his life to sharing his new understanding with others.
Access to God
George Fox came to realise that each one of us has direct access to God through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the same way that Jesus and the early apostles did. And when today we act experimentally from that place of deeply discerned inner knowing and with the support and upholding of our Meetings then, just like the apostles in Acts, we can, as George Fox said in 1656:
Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.
Now, ‘cheerfully’ in this context doesn’t just simply mean being happy but being purposeful. We are called to live our lives in the world with divine purpose, seeking out ‘that of God’ (the indwelling Holy Spirit if you like) in those we meet and answering it by drawing out the good in them; enabling each person to become their best self. Hence Quakers’ long involvement with just causes; the abolition of the slave trade, prison reform and peace work – to name but a few.
It is also how we, as Friends, try to live our lives today. Many of us no longer identify with the Christian language that George Fox or, indeed, Graham Cray uses. So, we find alternative ways of expressing our intention to live our lives based on the deepest truth we know.
Ministry
However, I think that we would all still seek to ‘answer that of God’ (or good) in everyone and recognise the power of the Spirit at work in some of our processes. For example, we draw, particularly, on the power of the Holy Spirit in our silent worship when we are waiting expectantly for God to speak to us through spoken ministry.
When ministry is offered it is, at its best, the Spirit speaking through us experientially: a prophetic voice to the gathered community. This can offer stability, and also risk and challenge. We draw on the Holy Spirit in our Meetings for Clearness, where we seek a way forward when facing an important decision or a difficult problem.
We meet with a small group of fellow Quakers who, in a spirit of worship, will ask questions pertinent to the issue, drawing on divine guidance; and we draw on the Holy Spirit when we seek to test a concern – when an individual is feeling called to a particular course of practical action. Before we act we take time to discern with others in our community if this is the right way forward at this time.
So, the work of the Holy Spirit is alive and kicking in our Quaker communities – even though many of us would not use this language. We are alive to the reality of the Spirit of Christ and the call of God to act with integrity. We are grounded in Christianity and yet open to new light. We have an expectation of the continual unfolding of divine revelation in the modern world.
Whilst some of us are more contemplative, and others much more concerned with practical activism, we can draw on the passage in Romans, which tells us:
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 8:37-39 (ESV)
We can be confident that nothing can separate us from God’s love because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each of us – that of God (good) in everyone. We read in Advices & queries 7 and 3 of ways in which we can be open to the spirit of God and use these to help us think about how we can live our lives in a way that more closely reflects our Quaker values and the values of Jesus.
Be aware of the spirit of God at work in the ordinary activities and experience of your daily life. Spiritual learning continues throughout life, and often in unexpected ways. There is inspiration to be found all around us, in the natural world, in the sciences and arts, in our work and friendships, in our sorrows as well as in our joys. Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come? Do you approach new ideas with discernment?
- Advices & queries 7
Do you try to set aside times of quiet for openness to the Holy Spirit? All of us need to find a way into silence which allows us to deepen our awareness of the divine and to find the inward source of our strength. Seek to know an inward stillness, even amid the activities of daily life. Do you encourage in yourself and in others a habit of dependence on God’s guidance for each day? Hold yourself and others in the Light, knowing that all are cherished by God.
- Advices & queries 3
Challenges
If some of these ideas are challenging you, be bold! Listen to the still, small voice within you and then take a risk; step out into a new experience, knowing that the person of the Holy Spirit who is challenging you also offers you stability and assurance and will lead you into a deeper understanding of God’s amazing love for you.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (ESV)
