Letters - 10 April 2026

Political language

I have just received the 27 March edition of the Friend, in which there is the most curious letter from Paul Davies. He claims that the politics of ‘the far left’ (whatever that may be) have ‘infiltrated Quaker thought and practice’. Furthermore, he says that is ‘certainly true of the peace movement where Stop the War and CND are led by the revolutionary left’. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

I have been an active member of CND for over forty years and I have never thought that campaigning against weapons of mass destruction was anything but good sense. CND has not been taken over by something Paul calls the ‘hard left’. It is a democratically run body which campaigns as it has always done, against militarism, weapons and war. Paul himself uses odd political language, such as ‘infiltrated’. Many of my Quaker Friends are active in both CND and the Stop the War Coalition and I don’t think we have been infiltrated.

Rae Street

Unlike Paul Davies, I was pleased with the caption ‘If Palestine Action were terrorists then so is Jesus’ on the 27 February cover.

I had already come to believe that Jesus was a subversive disruptor; that was surely at least part of his mission. Nobody said that Jesus was supporting Palestine, but he was unsettling the establishment and powers of the time in what is now Israel – the pharisees, chief priests and scribes, king Herod and the Roman empire represented by Pilate (Luke 11:37ff, 20 and 23), all of whom were presumably satisfied that Jesus should be tortured to death.

We might assume that Jesus also believed that swords should be beaten into ploughshares (Isaiah 2:4), the inspiration for many nonviolent direct actions against the suppliers of weapons likely to be used indiscriminately and in a genocidal manner.

Dilys Candler

Opinion piece

Peter Bellenes (Letters, 20 March) says that members of all the Abrahamic faiths should have opinions as to the ethics of the war in Iran, just as Catholics, he says, did during the troubles. I was Catholic during the IRA attacks, and I and other Catholics definitely did have opinions on what was being done. But these opinions were as human beings, not as Catholics. We were never, ever, asked to justify the IRA’s behaviour, or even asked what our opinion was of them, as Catholics. This is what, I am guessing, the new guide on antisemitism is getting at: Jews will have opinions, just like anyone else. But we should not expect them ‘as Jews’ to have an opinion. David Baddiel talks of this. He says his fellow comedians who are British-Chinese are never asked for their opinion on the Chinese government’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslims, so why should he have an opinion on Israel ‘as a Jew’? (Baddiel is fascinating on the subject of the left’s blindness to what he calls ‘anti-Jew hate’. I’d recommend looking him up. He certainly changed my mind on this very issue.)

As to Alastair Jackson (Letters, 20 March), I think you make some very valid points. I have despaired at how little interested Quakers have become in practical peacemaking: taking sides (one side) seems to appeal far more than trying to build bridges between communities. Crass virtue signalling gestures proliferate, like wearing a kefiah as a football shirt (Team Gaza!). Words do matter, especially in regard to anti-Semitism. We know from history what our words can be turned into.

Rachel Grimshaw 

Title role

We thank Neil Morgan (Letters, 27 March) for his thoughtful response to the idea of Our Quaker Way as a proposed title for the new book of discipline. This is a working title, for the moment. We have made it clear that the final title for the new book will be for Yearly Meeting to decide. The Revision Committee was led to this working title after an extensive discernment process. We deliberately omitted the words ‘faith’ and ‘practice’ to avoid confusion with the existing book. 

The working title Our Quaker Way and its subtitle The spiritual discipline of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain are meant to encapsulate the whole range of our spiritual life, faith and witness.

We hope that, when the draft book is published in November, Friends will find that it speaks to their condition in representing both our tradition and the variety of our contemporary faith, experience and practice. The subsequent ‘read, reflect, respond’ programme will help Friends and Meetings to explore all this, and prepare for the discernment of Yearly Meeting in July 2027. We will be asking Yearly Meeting whether the draft book (including its working title) is on broadly the right lines; and whether further work is needed to add or remove or rewrite material. 

Friends, please take part in this coming process of discernment together.

Michael Phipps, Book of Discipline Revision Committee and Jordans Meeting

In response to Neil Morgan’s letter, it is, I think, more or less an open secret that a large element of the motivation behind the current revision of Quaker faith & practice was to back-peddle on references to God, faith and religion generally, in order to make it more acceptable to atheists. I would encourage any Friends worried by this to buy up copies of the fifth edition while they are still available, before our traditional faith-based concept of Quakerism as a Religious Society is consigned to the dustbin. 

Peter Bolwell

No, I wasn’t aware that the revised edition of the red book is to drop the word ‘faith’ from its title. Thanks to Neil Morgan for highlighting this. 

I am appalled and astounded. My faith is the very reason why I am a Quaker. It’s at the heart of it, its very definition. I live the ‘Quaker Way’ (the new title) precisely because it is the outcome of faith, not instead of it. The Quaker way is not just a mindset, a way of behaving or a set of attitudes. Without faith, or indeed (shock horror) the religious, it would be in danger of becoming a set of externalised rules and beliefs with which to adhere. In other words: creeds. 

Quakers are often asked what we believe, as though that is how we are to be understood. But we don’t have beliefs or creeds, we have faith, which is being in touch with the loving, accepting and mutually-connecting spirit in us, which is to experience that which is sacred, from which our testimonies and other wordings arise to serve as reminders – not the other way round. For goodness sake!

Andrew Sterling

With reference to Neil Morgan’s letter, I would respectfully note that the first (unnumbered) page of the present book simply repeats the title on the cover. About thirty sides of paper later (in paragraph 1.04) the historical origin of the movement begins to be told. Perhaps the religious radicals, still vital members of the movement, would be more than content if the radically-religious peace-loving founders of the movement were highlighted on that first page? Perhaps, along with a brief summary of the broad spectrum of present adherents?

Apologies to the Revision Committee if they have a better way of addressing Neil’s concern.

Harold Baxter

Peaceful schools

The good news that the Peaceful Classroom project has been awarded funding (News, 27 March) prompts me to mention the parallel Peaceful Schools Project run by Mid-Wales Area Meeting. This has delivered upwards of 110 programmes in primary schools over the past dozen years, but what we are short of are volunteer facilitators, particularly Welsh-speaking volunteers, for the schools on the west side of our area. 

Volunteers (vetted, trained, supported) go in pairs to deliver the six-week programme. The feedback we get from schools is always positive and the volunteers get enormous satisfaction from the programmes. If anyone reading is interested please contact me (helenporter@phonecoop.coop).

Helen Porter