The future of religion: Daniel Clarke Flynn attends the Quaker Universalist Group annual conference

‘The theme was ambitious.’

The theme of the 2024 Annual Conference of the Quaker Universalist Group (QUG), held at High Leigh Conference Centre in April, was ambitious. ‘What is the future of religion worldwide?  Why is this so important for us all? What is actually happening? What can we as universalist Quakers do about the future of religion?’

The QUG clerk Tony Philpott opened by addressing the question, ‘Why is the future of religion so important to us all?’ He unpicked the meaning of three words in this title – ‘future’, ‘religion’ and ‘important’ – then concluded with some predictions about the future. He explained that the conference did not want to get hung up on the exact meaning of ‘religion’. It was to be as broad as possible so ‘the outward, communal, organised reflection of each individual’s spiritual experience’ would do. He suggested that we look ahead to the year 2100, when our grandchildren will still probably be alive. He argued that we have to find a way to judge what is good in the future, and he went on to outline various definitions of ‘good’ – for humanity and the environment – which are common to, and go beyond, the various religions.

Tony gave numerous examples of the way religions might influence the future, in a way counter to these definitions of ‘good’. He discussed, for example, how some people support politicians who deny climate change, how some deny human rights and gender equality, and how some will use violence to propagate their faith. He concluded with projections from the Pew Research Centre’s recent report on the future of religion.

Following Tony’s plenary session, designated group facilitators led breakout groups to encourage participants to discuss, in confidence, the themes and questions raised in the plenary presentation, or on any concern they may have brought with them, without any requirement to report back. That allowed for more intimate, in-depth sharing of personal experience in smaller safe spaces. Examples of concerns that arose included a lack of women speakers and younger speakers in the conference, and the need to focus on our responsibility for, and stewardship of, the earth, rather than on what creation can do for us.

On Saturday morning, Peter Varney spoke on ‘The future of religion in the world today’. He offered definitions of religion, such as ‘Christianity is not a notion but a way’ from Advices & queries and, from the Japanese philosopher Yoshinori Takeuchi, ‘Religion is not primarily a noun but a verb. It’s not something that exists in texts and buildings, but something that takes place’. His analysis of statistics from the UK 2021 Census showed that the percentage of people who identified as having no religion has increased from twenty-five per cent to thirty-five per cent in the past ten years, and the people who now describe themselves as Christian is down from 59.3 per cent to 46.2 per cent.

In his travels and research, Peter has witnessed ‘multiple religious belonging’, particularly where after colonialists converted local people to Christianity they then nevertheless maintained their original spiritual practices alongside the new beliefs, if they were free to do so under the colonising power. Peter quoted a Tongan Methodist: ‘the colonizers came from Europe and colonized our minds and hearts, faiths and hopes. Myths were… stolen… to justify why natives should need [missionaries] and their teachings.’ Peter also noted an important contemporary phenomenon that some political leaders use religion as a political tool, such as Putin in Russia and Modi in India. A conference participant suggested that these are examples of religion producing violence.

Peter concluded by suggesting that in the west there will be a slow decline for Christianity, stability for Islam and other world religions, but an increase in those who follow a spiritual way of life outside of formal membership. He asked ‘Will Quakers still be here and ready to welcome them?’

Following Peter on Saturday morning was Robert Wafula from the Friends World Committee for Consultation (Africa Section) who spoke on ‘The future of religion and Quakerism in Africa’. Robert is the principal of Friends Theological College in Kaimosi, Kenya. He defines religion as what people believe and practice – how they respond to what they think to be Supreme, and how religion meets their needs for identity and belonging. In religion, language has transformative power. He sees religion as a powerful engine of change, and the most common means of expressing and using shared values. Some religions, however, separate people rather than build community. George Fox rebelled against existing religions in order to establish a religious society, not a church.

Robert sees three possibilities for African Friends: exclusion, inclusion, or pluralism. He cited the World Parliament of 1993 in Chicago as a model for the future. The parliament, an assembly of 250 spiritual leaders, with 8,000 participants, endorsed a ground-breaking document, ‘Towards a Global Ethic: An initial declaration’. Robert believes that religion and care of the environment go hand in hand, and that the future of religion and human endeavour will depend on actions we take now.

Saturday afternoon was open for walking around High Leigh’s magnificent estate and, before supper, the annual QUG AGM. A Saturday evening session featured beautiful music offered by participants.

On Sunday morning, Jan Arriens spoke on ‘The future of Quakerism: Dancing to a silent drum’. To set things in perspective, he opened with a famous, humbling quotation from the Dao, ‘Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know,’ and then spoke to us about Quakers in the context of our changing world. He cited William James, who defined religion as the belief that there is a supreme order, and expressed his own belief that, although our world is continually changing, religion will play a significant part, particularly as we seem unable to find solutions to climate change. He asked, ‘How does religion need to evolve to address this?’ He believes that religions must do several things: admit that all their truths are metaphorical (as the shadows in Plato’s cave), connect to the natural world, go beyond dualism, get away from an anthropomorphic ‘God’, and add doubt that we have The Truth.

Jan was asked if Quakers needed another Manchester Conference to recognise the necessity for change and take action on it, and he agreed. At that conference in 1895, British Quakers began to realise they were paying too much attention to being Quakers rather than challenging the problems of the day. They reaffirmed the importance of everyone having a direct relation with the ‘Inward Light’, and acknowledged that ‘God’s truth is given for every age’, calling for revision of the book of discipline in every generation.

Jan expressed the belief that spirituality will survive, aided by appropriate use of social media, ‘which can spread the message like wildfire’, as illustrated by the recent Discovering Quakers initiative.

The conference came to an end at midday on Sunday with Meeting for Worship, in which Karen Armstrong’s Sacred Nature: Restoring our ancient bond with the natural world was cited. This closed the conference with a theme of reverence for the natural world – a spiritual notion towards addressing human-caused climate change, recognising our responsibility as stewards of creation, who do not own any of it.

Daniel is part of the QUG committee.

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