Thought for the Week: Quaker belief
Stuart Yates reflects on Quaker belief
Everything that is sacred and that wishes to remain so must envelop itself in mystery.
- Stéphane Mallarmé
The subtitle of Quaker faith & practice is ‘The Book of Christian Discipline’, reflecting our Christian origins. Today, the basis of Friends’ spiritual life and practice is not solely confined to Christianity. We also tend to refer to our faith and our faith in action, rather than our belief.
So, what do we believe in? What belief do we hold in common – belief that unites us as a coherent community? Because of the diversity of the grounds upon which belief is based, we may be hesitant about being specific about the core of why we are Quaker, for fear of offending, of not being thought a proper Quaker, or of highlighting what may be uncomfortable differences. Sometimes we are hesitant to speak plainly. We hedge our language, try to be all things to all people within our community, which risks weakening that community, rather than relying on the strength that comes from expressing difference from a knowledge of a shared core.
We welcome diversity in our Meetings, but too much spiritual diversity risks not only weaker communities within our Meetings but actual schism. Our testimonies provide a basis for our faith in action, but those testimonies are not exclusive to people of faith. They are the result of belief and faith. We need, I think, an explicit core belief around which Friends can unite, demonstrating the common ground on which we stand, that will strengthen our communities in faith. This core belief is not some holy grail to be newly discovered, but is hiding in plain sight and frequently invoked by Friends in various ways.
Simply put, many of us believe there is that which is beyond the human dimension – something beyond us that informs the way we live and act. The essential mystery of our belief is in a guiding presence from beyond that cannot be seen or touched, but can be experienced. This is absolutely present in the original writings of early Friends, couched in Christian terminology. While that terminology is no longer accepted by all Friends we have not, as far as I am aware, formally crafted the words that might unite Christian Quakers and Friends whose spiritual base is not wholly or partly Christian. The actual form of words might be difficult to create, but their essence is simple. It is what differentiates us from organisations that may carry out similar works, but from a purely humanist perspective. The implication here is clear: those who do not believe in anything other than human capacity and endeavour would (should?) find it difficult to call themselves Quaker.
The book God, words and us, edited by Helen Rowlands, has opened up this topic beautifully. I hope that the whole body of Quakers in Britain can be involved in creating a form of words (preferably brief) that sufficiently describes the central mystery of our faith in a way that we can all accept – to which we can say, in part or in whole: ‘Yes, that is essentially what I believe, that is what underpins my faith.’
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