Reading the ‘Red Book’

Terry Oakley reports on a conference held at Woodbrooke

‘Why is there a Revision Preparation Group (RPG) when it hasn’t been decided to revise Quaker faith & practice?’

This was the first question asked at the conference, held at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham in April, which was set up to consider a possible revision of the Book of Discipline. It was a good question.

The forty of us from Area Meetings attending the conference learned the answer: to explore what obstacles and anxieties there are about the possible revising of the ‘Red Book’, to produce resources to help the process when it does happen and to encourage everyone in Yearly Meeting to read and (re)discover its treasures.

We learned that many Local Meetings are meeting regularly to read and reflect together. They are following the schedule offered by the RPG, which runs from October 2015 to April 2017. There are other Local Meetings that may not even have heard of it. A quiz helped us to discover not only what is in the book but also how to access it using the contents list and the indexes. We hoped to get ideas and inspiration for ways to help others to engage and to get a better grasp on the process.

It has not, however, always been like this! We now have the fifth edition of the 1994 revision. Before that it was in two volumes, and sometime before that in three volumes. The first ‘book of extracts’ was handwritten and sold to Quarterly Meetings for fifty shillings. The first printed version of general advices and extracts from Yearly Meeting minutes was in 1783. The message is that the Book of Discipline (the generic title) takes different forms in different times.

Hidden gems

Some of the local reading groups are using resources downloaded from Being Friends Together. Others are using a set of questions sent with the calendar of readings. As well as Friends who have not heard of the reading programme at all, some have started later and are playing catch up. It is not too late to start, though one piece of advice is to join in where the calendar is now, rather than start at the beginning. Then you will be part of the widespread group reading the same passages in the same month.

The experience of reading and reflecting together has been very positive, going beyond the sharing of favourite quotations, even finding hidden gems in the sections on church government and making connections between different types of content – spiritual and organisational.

We are learning more about each other as well as appreciating more the insights and collected wisdom in the book. We discovered that the resources on Being Friends Together have been specially commissioned for this ‘Reading Quaker faith & practice’ programme. They can be accessed free and offer a variety of activities to open up the different chapters, including creative listening and the use of art and poetry. They enable a group to deepen relationships as well as approach the text in adventurous ways.

Favourite passages

In this journey of exploration there will, of course, be favourite passages, like the one by Isaac Penington that one group chose (26.70). A quite different passage was chosen by another group, that by Robin Tanner at 21.36. There will also be thorny issues. The fear of these may well be putting some Friends off attempting any exploration corporately.

There are ways, however, to enable a deep, shared reflection that avoids any polarisation of beliefs and ideologies. One we tried was to encourage a sharing of our experience of living with certain words for ‘God’. Accepting each experience, even if we disagree about belief, is possible.

The journey may feel pointless and a chore if there is not a vision of what we would like to achieve. One group wished for a collection of experiences that enabled a dialogue between historic and contemporary Friends. There might be selections that are accessible to enquirers and others that are helpful to those with roles, like clerks, in our Society. There is also the continued facility for parts of church government to speak with spiritual experiences.

We could imagine a web-based Book of Discipline with a core of principles and values surrounded by panoply of resources accessed through links. Questions on the authority of the text, criteria for inclusion, the need for occasional updating, sensitivity of language and respect for tradition were all raised during the conference, but we had a strong desire that the process should not take the nine years it took for the present book.

The programme

The Revision Preparation Group has offered the ‘Reading Quaker faith & practice’ programme as a way of deepening the spiritual life of the Society by increasing our awareness of what is in the book and how to use it. But their work is wider and includes consideration of ways in which to present material on our forms of government.

There have been frequent revisions to certain parts of the book, not least those to do with marriage, and this leads to the possibility of having the latest version online, and to the idea of handling detail separately from the more general principles.

The history of the Book of Discipline reminds us that there have been a variety of formats in the past. So, in the future there could be one volume or two, or a mixture of printed and online material. This, too, is part of the Group’s remit. So is finding ways to talk about our variety of religious beliefs in ways that avoid polarisation but encourages mutual understanding and appreciation of the experience of each other.

When the reading programme nears its end in spring 2017 it will be interesting to learn what the mind of the Society is about the future. Will we have learned to appreciate the Red Book even more? I think very probably. Will we have a clearer understanding of what is missing and of what can be discarded? Yes, very probably. Will we have a leading as to the timing of the next revision of our Book of Discipline? Good question!

Further information: http://together.woodbrooke.org.uk

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