Thought for the Week: What being a Quaker means to me
Leah Heywood considers what being a Quaker today means to her
At yearly meeting I met my grandmother on the way to a session on ‘What it means to be a Quaker today’. She said it was a question that every Friend should think about, young and old. She invited me to respond to it – in writing. Okay. By tomorrow morning? Tomorrow morning?
In the heat of the moment I agreed, only to be overcome with adolescent doubts the moment she vanished into the lift.
‘But to me being a Quaker is about not knowing!’ I wailed at lunch. ‘That’s hardly useful!’
That’s fine, I was assured by my mother and old family friends. Not very comforting for a teenager achingly uncertain what value could lie in her spiritual journey, new as it is.
But it is the truth, and the truth is what drives me to remain in Quakerism. All other religions have holy books, in which The Truth is held, immutable and unchanging. The Truth, we are told, Simply Is.
I disagree. To me, Truth is a vibrant, dynamic creature, never the same and always far beyond human understanding. It is less a rock to stand on and see further (or lean against in smug certainty), and more a wave to ride, carrying you on towards the future – where the Truth is just a Truth, because Truth changes; Truth here and now is different from Truth there and then. Quakers do not pretend to have the Truth. We have questions, in the Queries, and some possible answers, in the Advices. We change both, as with all the Quaker faith & practice, recognising that everything changes and we must keep up if we hope to help anyone. We don’t lead – we seek, and we hold that everyone can. That, to me, is the most important thing – to know, in effect, that we don’t really know anything, but to try and do the right thing anyway. That, to me, is what being a Quaker is all about.
Comments
Your article reminded me of QFP 20.06: Some among us have a clear sense of what is right and wrong - for themselves personally if not for everyone else. They have a reassuring certitude and steadiness which can serve as a reference point by which others may navigate. There are others who live in a state of uncertainty, constantly re-thinking their responses to changing circumstances, trying to hold onto what seems fundamental but impelled to reinterpret, often even unsure where lies the boundary between the fundamental and the interpretation… Please be patient, those of you who have found a rock to stand on, with those of us who haven’t and with those of us who are not even looking for one. We live on the wave’s edge, where sea, sand and sky are all mixed up together: we are tossed head over heels in the surf, catching only occasional glimpses of any fixed horizon. Some of us stay there from choice because it is exciting and it feels like the right place to be. Philip Rack, 1979
By gerry on 10th June 2012 - 18:36
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