We are all Quakers
Michael Wright offers a personal reflection on his nontheism
Gerald Drewett, writing in the Friend in the January 27 edition, is ‘puzzled as to what nontheism is supposed to stand for’. Noël Staples, in the edition of 10 February, suspects many nontheists experience ‘some sort of mysterious power, energy or whatever, which they cannot explain, yet which has a generally benevolent effect upon them’.
It is as impossible to speak for all Quaker nontheists as it is to speak for all Quakers. I hope it may help many Friends to understand if I simply speak for myself, and describe what I think it stands for, and what I experience as a Quaker.
I am in the odd position of never having previously described myself as a nontheist, until I joined the Nontheist Friends Network, after having been invited to address their annual conference in 2014. I joined because I recognised the need to support Friends in Meetings where they feel unable to articulate ideas of confusion or unbelief around the concept of God, yet were clear that they were committed to the Quaker way.
I do not like the word ‘nontheism’ because it is too narrow, and a negative. I identify myself as a Quaker. That is who I am. Ideas about the Divine are only a small part of my Quakerism, so I do not wish to blow that part of my thinking and experience out of all proportion to all the rest of how I seek to be Quaker.
I have argued against the title of the Network, but I accept that it was chosen, after about two years of agonising and discernment, for three main reasons. First, it was the least worst option of many. Second, members were seeking to be honest and plain speaking in the Quaker tradition. They did not wish to pretend to hold a common view, in which they did not all have fill confidence, about their faith. It is a question of Quaker integrity. And third, there was a valuable link with a long-established Quaker nontheism network in the US, and they sought mutual identification.
I follow Quaker practice and seek, either alone or in Meeting for Worship, to be ‘still and cool’ in my own mind and spirit, as George Fox encourages us all to be. I engage in, seek to contribute to, and share in the gathered stillness of the Meeting.
‘I am quite sure that when I engage in still silence, I engage with some source I find indefinable, wonderful, deep, from which I can draw strength, insight, tranquillity, and perception I find nowhere else’ is a quotation from my contribution to the Kindler booklet Through Us, Not From Us – vocal ministry and Quaker worship. Rhiannon Grant quotes from it in her article on ‘Afterwords’ in the current edition of the Friends Quarterly.
For thirty-seven years I was an ordained Anglican priest. During much of that time I taught, lived and prayed a classic Christian doctrine – with a Trinitarian concept. My experience changed my views – which is why I found a true home among Quakers, where experience counts for more than doctrine.
I regard myself a committed follower of the Jesus of Nazareth I find in the synoptic gospels, and I study and act to strengthen my commitment. However, our knowledge of how things are is now vastly different to those of the first century of the Common Era. My imagination will no longer stretch to the concept that any creative intelligence responsible for the billions of stars of the multiverse, or the millions of inhabitants of this planet, is going to be guiding the discernment of my small Local Meeting.
The experiences I find that come from dwelling together in silence – insight, discernment, creative thoughts, compassionate concerns, fellowship, challenges, conscience pricking, leadings – are all, to me, the natural consequences of sharing in an uncommon activity. Last year I took part in an exercise at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre that sought to reduce the polarity between the terms ‘theism’ and ‘nontheism’ – aims that I fully endorse. We are all Quakers. The words we each use to explain our experiences are less important than the experiences we share in.
Comments
Thank you Michael. You have described my experience very well. Like you I am uncomfortable with labels within Quakerism as they so often divide, but if we are prepared to listen to one another the labels can help to expose issues that we need to address. I well remember how an open dialogue between “Christocentric” and “Universalist” Friends 30 years ago led to greater understanding and synthesis. I pray that Friends can engage in a similar dialogue about the ideas and experiences denoted by the label “non-theist”.
By Roger Sturge on 23rd March 2017 - 12:01
A very interesting article! I completely agree that “the words we use to explain our experiences are less important than the experiences we share in”. Our deepest experiences are literally indescribable as they are unitive or non-dual, whereas words are all essentially dualistic: they are predicated on opposites or on comparisons. Words can only be used to point: to use a Zen phrase, they are “fingers pointing at the moon”.
By JohnE on 23rd March 2017 - 17:36
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