Reflections on the ‘Red Book’: Atonement
Keith Walton reflects on Quaker faith & practice 2.92
…faced with the decision, whether or not to approve the epistle. We had laboured for several hours the day before, and it looked as though preferences for wording and other concerns would make it impossible to approve the final draft.
However, something happened which transformed the feeling of our meeting… [A New England Friend] said something like ‘I know that the blood of Christ and the Atonement are very important issues for some Friends, and I don’t see anything in the epistle which addresses those convictions…’
In the discussion that followed, [an] evangelical Friend expressed his concern that the number of references to Christ might be difficult for Friends not used to Christ-language. What had begun as an act of loving concern for other Friends transformed the meeting into a unified whole. The discussion had changed from persons wanting to ensure that their concerns were heard to wanting to ensure that the concerns of others were heard and that their needs were met. We had indeed experienced the transforming power of God’s love.
From Quaker faith & practice 2.92
I was idly browsing the back cover of Quaker faith & practice and saw that it promises to tell me what Quakers have said on ageing, AIDS, atonement or about tithes, tobacco and torture and lots of other things.
As my Methodist upbringing has failed to fill me in on atonement, and Quakers have not added to my knowledge, I thought I’d find out just what Quakers have said about it. Not much it would seem; the single index entry led me to paragraph 2.92.
The paragraph talks of the difficulties agreeing the epistle at the Friends World Committee for Consultation Gathering of Young Friends in 1985. It also shows that a unity was reached. As Ryan Baum, a South African Friend, said in his A call to be born again: ‘God has not called us to be right. God has called us to be neighbours…’
Perhaps I am destined to give the atonement a miss in my knowledge bank, but it has served to lead me to a much-loved and wise piece of Quaker faith & practice.
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