Thought for the Week: Being transformed
Huw Still reflects on transformation and the Friends World Committee for Consultation World Plenary in Peru
When I arrived here I was comfortable in my faith. I was comfortable in my doubt. I could sense that something special was present in a gathered Meeting, but I’d never known what it was. I wasn’t sure how to describe or understand it. And I accepted that. I was comfortable in my doubt.
I have been challenged here. That challenge is no less strong for being tender.
I have been challenged not to be complacent in my doubt but to wrestle with it. Not to placidly accept my incomprehension but to strive for new understanding of the unknowable. I have been called to worship in a state of Holy Discomfort. And it’s been hard.
When you are being transformed you have no control.
You don’t get to say what you will be transformed into. You can’t say ‘change this part of me, but leave that. Make me this, but not that’. The security of what has been is gone. And you wait to see how you will be changed.
As I move forward – in this gathering and beyond it – I don’t know where or whether this transformation will end because it’s not my choice. It’s not in my control.
…now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
- Romans 8:24-45
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) representative, Huw Still, delivered this prepared ministry during the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) World Plenary in Pisac, Peru. The Quaker World Relations Committee are keen to hear from Friends interested in the follow-up from the Plenary. A special interest group will be held at Yearly Meeting in May as well as a weekend course at Woodbrooke in September. It is hoped that speakers can be coordinated for interested Local or Area Meetings. Further information: marleens@quaker.org.uk
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