'I hope the Spirit, not the letter, can guide… our Business Meetings' Photo: Photo: Trish Carn.
The jewel of Quakerism?
Judith Smith considers Quaker Business Meetings
We are now considering ‘What it means to be a Quaker today’ and there is much to rejoice in, particularly in our worship and witness. I hope we can also examine in what ways, and why, other aspects of our Quaker lives are in need of change. This, I feel, includes our Business Meetings, though they have been described to me as ‘the jewel’ of Quakerism. There are moments – though I can now recall only a handful of them – when this seems an accurate description: times when a Friend’s inspired ministry has completely changed the sense of the Meeting; or, as happened recently in our Area Meeting, when the clerk has been able to find the core of unity that lay beneath strongly opposing views.
