Quakers in the World (Europe): Growing in the Spirit
Ian Kirk-Smith considers some of the challenges and concerns of Friends in mainland Europe in the third article of our series
‘Pavel and his wife and two children get on a train at about 6am on Sunday morning. He usually has his accordion with him. The train journey to Prague takes three and a half hours.’
Arne Springorum, clerk of Prague Meeting, speaks in a very matter of fact way.
Pavel is a committed Quaker. Attending Meeting for Worship is important to him – important enough to get a train every second Sunday at the break of day.
‘We have Meeting in Prague twice a month’, Arne explains. ‘We start our Meeting for Worship at 10am with singing and music. Pavel plays the accordion. At 10.30am we have silent worship. We can have up to fourteen people. We then have a shared lunch together. Sometimes we have discussions. We are discussing the gospel of John at the moment’.
‘Later in the day, about six o’clock, Pavel and his family take the train home. It is another three and a half hour train journey. Pavel doesn’t believe in having a car. He takes Quaker testimonies seriously.’
Quakerism in mainland Europe
Being a Quaker in mainland Europe can be challenging. Julia Ryberg, ministry and outreach coordinator for the Europe and Middle East section of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC-EMES), says: ‘I feel inspired by the commitment of isolated individuals and groups. I was brought up in a Quaker family and take a lot for granted – going to my Meeting and learning about the Quaker way. When I see people struggling to raise their family in a Quaker way it is very inspiring – and to see the hunger some people have to be connected to the Quaker family.’
The more established Quaker communities in Europe can be found in places such as the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia. Geneva and Brussels continue to be important centres of work and witness. Elsewhere tiny groups of people are meeting to worship in the Quaker way. Some have emerged quite recently.
Prague has four Quakers in membership and a number of attenders and enquirers. Czech Quakers are a very small and diverse community and their situation is quite similar to that of some other Friends on mainland Europe, as Marisa Johnson, executive secretary for FWCC-EMES, explains: ‘Most Quakers are isolated and meet in very small groups. There are often great geographical distances between Friends. Different ways have to be found to do things. In Sweden, for example, where there are one hundred Friends, three elders serve all the Meetings in the country’.
An interesting development in recent years has been the work done to connect these Friends to the Quaker world and to communicate Quaker ways of faith and practice. Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre and the FWCC-EMES have been at the heart of it.
Use of the internet
This work, which has enabled new Friends and enquirers to grow in the Spirit, has made creative use of the internet. Marisa says: ‘An online ‘Quakers in Europe’ project has been very successful. It provides a ten-week introductory course in which participants can learn about Quaker faith and practice. It is now available in about ten European languages. The Czech course has just finished.’
Julia also believes the internet is an invaluable tool: ‘It is very exciting. The online medium enables Quakers to interact easily and it can complement face-to-face work. In one course, for example, a participant was in Russia, another in Siberia and the tutor, a fluent Russian speaker, was in America’.
‘These new initiatives have also provided a way for established Friends to contribute. The new “companion programme”, for example, involved a first pairing of a British Friend and an enquirer in Portugal’.
Residential gatherings
Residential gatherings continue to be very important. They tend to include teaching about Quaker traditions and practices, worship sharing, spiritual deepening and building fellowship. ‘Woodbrooke on the Road’ is also being developed to go further afield.
In May, Stuart Masters of Woodbrooke is going as a tutor to the Central European Friends’ Gathering in Poland. He will be leading a number of sessions under the heading ‘Celebrating the Quaker Way’.
Stuart says: ‘We need to offer these isolated individuals and small groups a way of connecting with the tradition. There is a danger that, when you are not familiar with Quaker practice, you end up knowing a little and making a lot up for yourself. It is about discipline and getting a good, rounded understanding and establishing strong roots. The internet has opened up creative opportunities and possibilities to help us address these concerns.’
Wider family of Friends
Quakers in different parts of Europe benefit from being connected with the wider family of Friends. Many, also, have a very clear and definite sense of their own identity and are proud of it. Arne Springorum says: ‘We are Czech Quakers. We are a five-year-old group. The reality is that we are not an addition to someone else.’
Quakerism, elsewhere, is deep rooted. George Fox and William Penn made several visits, for example, to the Netherlands and Germany and had contact with Mennonites. Quakers maintain a close contact with Mennonites and have cooperated very closely with them on some projects. Friends in the Netherlands have a strong ecumenical tradition.
Kees Nieuwerth, of Netherlands Yearly Meeting, says: ‘In ecumenical work and gatherings I feel that our Quaker Peace Testimony has been very important. It is something we can bring to the table and we are respected for this.’
Kees, who has become a significant figure on a world-ecumenical stage, has been encouraged by recent events. He adds: ‘A hugely important development at the World Council of Churches is the “paradigm shift”, which, I believe, is currently happening in relation to a position on war. There is a move towards a position that there is no theological justification for a “Just War” in the Christian tradition. This is radical.’
Similar concerns
Friends in Europe share similar concerns with those in Britain – from economic justice and prison reform to sustainability and equality. Peace is ever present.
The theme of the next Netherlands Yearly Meeting, for example, is ‘Just War’. Kees explains: ‘Friends will be considering how we as Quakers can contribute. We will also be considering what might be the Quaker role in Europe. The people in the southern hemisphere focus mainly on the word “justice”. In the northern hemisphere you find that the emphasis is on “peace” – but it is often linked to “security”. “Peace and security” really means, for some, energy security. I believe Quakers in the north must be spokesmen and women for our brothers in the south.’
In Germany worship is mainly in the unprogrammed form. Christopher Hatton, of German Yearly Meeting, adds: ‘In the last couple of years, during worship at our Yearly Meeting or regional gatherings, occasionally we have sung a song or two and semi-programmed, all generation, worship options are also being offered alongside unprogrammed Meeting for Worship.’
Christopher talks of the importance of ‘holy anger’. He urges Quakers to ‘possess a holy anger that inspires them to be salt and light and join those Friends already using their spiritual gifts getting their hands really dirty in the dark places – such as prisons, drug rehabilitation centres, amongst the financially and socially disadvantaged, refugee centres and conflict zones.’
He adds: ‘It is, however, important for me that our holy anger comes from our experience of the divine and our concerns are tested by our worship communities. Our history of tested and supported, spirit-led, action is a source of strength.’
‘For me Quakerism offers our wider society a vision of hope based on love. Our prayerful actions in the small, daily, things in life should also let our lives speak truth. I want to be part of a faithful, divinely inspired society active in bringing as many people as possible to the table, where the voiceless gain a voice and the hungry and thirsty are given enough food and drink. I do not want to be part of a society of comfortable, intellectual Friends.’
A new chapter
Marisa Johnson highlights developments in the east as an interesting new chapter in the story of Quakerism in Europe: ‘New worship groups and Monthly Meetings have been established, for example, in places such as Lithuania, Georgia and Poland. A new Meeting in Tbilisi was recognised in 2008.’
‘The representatives of the new groups are very open and passionately drawn to the Quaker way. They want to consolidate their Quaker identity. They came to Quakerism by diverse routes – some from other churches and some from a secular background. Marina at Friends House Moscow, for example, was drawn to Quakers after being involved with the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) and now runs AVP projects all over the world.’
In mainland Europe people have been drawn to Quakerism from a variety of backgrounds and for a variety of reasons. It is often due to an accidental encounter. Eugen, who is eighty-two, was the first Quaker in Prague. Arne Springorum explains: ‘He had been doing relief work in the Terezin concentration camp and met Friends in Prague who were working with Jewish orphans. He learnt about Quakerism from them.’
‘Sixty per cent of the population in Czechoslovakia are atheists,’ says Arne. ‘There is no other country in the world like this. They belong to no group. But that doesn’t mean that they are not spiritual. I think that unprogrammed worship would appeal to so many of them. The problem is that nobody hears about us. It is a “Catch 22” situation. Quakers are not good at outreach.’
Kees Nieuworth shares this belief: ‘One of our weaknesses, as European Quakers, is that we feel uncomfortable with outreach. It is a problem. A lot of people in the Netherlands are disillusioned by religion because, for them, the religion they know is hierarchical, dogmatic and inflexible. I met a disillusioned young Protestant man and what he really liked about Quakers was our flat decision-making structure. We do have a lot to offer to seekers but we are not easily found.’
Evangelical Friends
There are Quakers, however, in Europe who have no problem with outreach.
An interesting phenomenon in Hungary, where there are a few Quakers who worship in the unprogrammed tradition, is the emergence of a vibrant evangelical Quakerism. It is a result of church-planting activities by the American-based Evangelical Friends Church International (EFCI). Rachel Bewley-Bateman is clerk of FWCC-EMES. She was recently invited, with two other Irish Quakers, to a conference in Budapest organised by the EFCI for their church leaders.
She says: ‘We couldn’t have had a warmer welcome. It is a very different worship than in Britain and Ireland. I enjoyed the visit. At the conference we had prayers in nine different languages. I was very impressed by the faith of people there. I noticed a man with a Bible that was falling apart because it had been read so much. He was one of the Roma people.’
Hungarian Evangelical Friends are a native phenomenon with wide appeal. They are not affiliated to the FWCC. They now have some fourteen churches and other groups amounting to some two thousand adherents with a wide constituency in Croatia, Serbia, Transylvania and Romania – including a large number of gypsy people who are frequently disregarded by society and who often live in extreme poverty.
Rachel adds: ‘The experience in Budapest was very worthwhile. I believe it is important that we are as inclusive as possible. If you believe that “there is that of God in every person” then you should be building bridges and making connections between Friends who come from different theological positions. We can all learn from each other.’
Comments
Quakers in the World The recent series of articles on Quakers in the world should make us appreciate how easy it is for us to worship, whether it be with Friends or others. We may be trying to minimise our carbon footprint, but fellowship with others is important in the development of our faith and the service that ensues. I have always found Quakerism to be a faith family. As a young adult I had the opportunity to worship both in Ghana and in the USA as well as in a variety of Meetings within Britain and despite the differences always felt at home. Writing this while the world gathering is taking place in Kenya reminds me again that we are a family that stretches worldwide; we have our differences but are all branches of the same family. In 2010 I attended a conference at Woodbrooke arranged by the Quaker World Relations Committee designed to inform Friends about the worldwide family of Friends. As a result I completed a yellow offer of service form and soon found myself invited to join the committee. As a result I have been privileged to attend Netherlands Yearly Meeting as a representative: a country where I did not think I had any connections but where I met several friends of Friends so was quickly made to feel at home. Invitations to another conference at Woodbrooke have just been distributed to Area Meetings, so if you are interested in feeling part of our greater family than you have so far experienced do try to attend.
By Judith T on 21st April 2012 - 17:35
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