A path, branching off in different directions. Photo: By Severin Stalder on Unsplash.
Way to go: Lesley Richards’ Thought for the Week
‘A lot has changed in Quaker circles.’
Some people say ‘a way will open’ or ‘the way will open’, but I know this phrase simply as ‘way will open’, without a definite or indefinite article. There aren’t many ways forward, and nor is there just one and only perfect way. In Quaker phraseology we mean sitting with something that will need to change, or need to be done, but that the way forward isn’t clear yet. We sit with it, in the faith that clarity will come.
That’s not to say that exploration, research and thought have to come to a stop: they may help the way to become clear. But it does imply not pushing ahead, not taking the obvious route, the available or safe road, just because you’re impatient to be doing something…anything. Wanting to know every detail of how each route will pan out is not necessary, often not possible, and is often an excuse to put off a decision. It can feel like prevaricating. Indeed, sometimes Quakers use the phrase as an excuse to do just that.
So expectant waiting can feel as if you’re not making any progress at all. Being in a place of uncertainty for an unspecified length of time takes conscious effort, especially if you are inclined to be impatient like me. The poet John Keats wrote of what he called negative capability: ‘that is when a man (sic) is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason’. This is part of what I mean, but it isn’t all of it. For me there is something more, a faith that I will get to move beyond this place of uncertainty, to a place of knowing.
‘It is unity not unanimity.’
Quakers do not make decisions by voting, but by agreeing a minute that is written during the Meeting and agreed at the time. It doesn’t mean that everyone is suddenly of one mind, but that everyone can see that this is the way that the Meeting is moving. It is unity not unanimity. It’s a collective expression of the faith that, if we wait, way will open.
With this explanation of the Quaker business method, you will be thinking it is no wonder the phrase ‘way will open’ leads to Quaker prevarication. I have spent many hours on central Quaker committees feeling frustrated, but a lot has changed in Quaker circles. Since the 2009 decision to press the government to allow same-sex marriage to be celebrated in a religious context, there has been formal acceptance of the importance of green issues, diversity, reparations, revision of Quaker faith & practice, changing our national decision-making body, and work is also underway in changing how the numerous Quaker charities are structured. The details are still being worked on, but that’s quite a list of situations where ‘way opened’ despite my impatience.
Perhaps you might be facing changes or decisions, quandaries or choices, as we start 2025. I hope way will open for you in this new year.
