Thought for the Week: 170 years of the Friend
Ian Kirk-Smith reflects on 170 years of the Friend magazine
One hundred and seventy years ago, in 1843, a group of Quakers launched an independent magazine. The Friend has been on an interesting voyage since then. It is ironic to note, for me as an Ulsterman, that the decision to start a new publication was prompted by ‘the circulation that was obtained for The Irish Friend’. The closing down of that journal provided an opportunity for the Friend to emerge. Incidentally, a number of other publications were also launched in 1843. One of them was the News of the World. The Friend and The Economist still survive.
Charles Tylor expressed the hope, in his first editorial as editor, that its pages would become ‘the medium through which the light of Gospel truth may be diffused’ and the Christian principles of the Society ‘faithfully upheld.’ He stated that the journal, then monthly, should be intimately connected with ‘the moral and spiritual wellbeing of mankind’.
Reference was made to some of the great causes championed by Friends ‘particularly the extinction of the slave-trade and slavery; the protection of the aboriginal inhabitants of our own and other colonies, the diffusion of the principles of peace, the proceedings of the British and Foreign Bible and School societies, and so on’.
Today, some references in the editorial are uncomfortable to read, such as a concern over ‘benighted heathen tribes’, and a contemporary spiritual palate might find the flavour of ‘mission’ hard to digest. Some Friends, though, may feel nostalgia for the confident expression of a clear, outward looking vision.
It is heartening to read – at a time when the provision of support for the most vulnerable in society is so profoundly threatened by cuts to welfare provision – that ‘we shall be glad to receive any suggestions relating to plans for bettering the conditions of the poor, or stimulating benevolent exertion on their behalf’.
The letters pages have always been an interesting barometer that reflects the health of the magazine and, indeed, the state of the Religious Society of Friends. They remain at the core of the journal – a mirror and a window. The letters consistently engage, illuminate, provoke, frustrate, annoy and stimulate. This is as it should be. We continue to be very grateful to individuals who have taken the time and trouble to share their thoughts, concerns and ministry. We welcome them – and also constructive criticism of the magazine.
In 1843 the language employed to prompt correspondence from a new readership had an attractive wording: ‘We wish particularly to state that our pages are not to be made the medium of controversy. Yet we would be far from rejecting anything that may promote the development of truth or the correction of practical error. It is a sound and useful maxim that religion does not thrive in ignorance; it is our desire that the tendency of this work may always be the promotion of individual piety amongst us’.
The Friend, funded almost entirely by its subscribers and advertisers, remains a completely independent publication – free from the interests and influence of a central religious bureaucracy, whose work it strongly supports, reflects and, occasionally, holds to account.
It continues to survive because of the loyal support of subscribers. We are deeply grateful to you. We know how difficult the times are for many. We wish you all a very peaceful 2013.
The 1843 editorial concludes: ‘We desire that the general tendency of our paper may promote the harmony of the body, and unite more closely its individual members in that “charity which is the bond of perfectness.”’
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