Sacredness of life
In the Friend of 14 July, Clive Gordon points out a contradiction between his understanding of the teachings of Jesus (a world divided between sheep and goats) and the ‘sacred oneness’ I wrote about in an article published on 24 May.
Hebrew thinking did indeed divide the world in a binary way – Genesis relates to the creation of the world through separation, then Leviticus lists the pure and the impure, and many of the prophets warn the Israelites not to be like other nations. Later, however, the vision was widened to include other peoples.
Biblical writers none the less were open to new light – what we call continuing revelation.
I am very moved by the reference in Matthew 27:51 to the tearing of the temple curtain at the crucifixion. The curtain separated the high priest from the people, on the holiest day in the holiest place. Somehow the early followers of Jesus, mostly Jews themselves, saw in his life and death a tearing of the curtain, an ending of hierarchical categories. So all places are holy, all times are sacred, all human beings are priests.
Yes, we do not always experience or act on this universalism – my article was precisely about this fragmentation – but nevertheless when asked about Quakers, I would affirm this insight as the foundation of the Quaker way. It is not so much a theological statement, as a call for the reverence of the sacredness of life.
Harvey Gillman
Provision, not control
Crime and punishment are among the problems to which political parties devise solutions they hope will impress voters. Too often solutions are seen to involve more policing and tougher sentencing, and the provision of more and bigger prisons.
I find this utterly depressing. We need to deal with crime in more radical ways other than locking people up. But the immediate cause of overcrowded prisons is not in the venality of citizens but in the failure to provide alternative ways of dealing with offenders. Every magistrate knows that the official guide to sentencing, supposed to be a ‘guide’ for the bench in dispensing justice, is too often regarded as a rulebook to be departed from only in exceptional circumstances. If the guide suggests custody, it is a bold bench that imposes a non-custodial sentence.
Until the sentencing guide is radically revised, the justices’ hands will be effectively limited and what the guide gives as tentative suggestions will result in the gaols being over-full. We need not more prisons but greater provision of sports provision, youth clubs, and genuine opportunities for young people to develop positive skills and creative abilities. Social provision, not social control.
Malcolm Elliot (former magistrate)
My vision today
My vision today is that I am a constant observer with choice amidst the continually changing environment in which I was born and currently live.
As my present physical form organised by my unique DNA of stardust from a star explosion aeons ago eventually melts back into the stuff of the universe, my practice of using intuition – that is my connection with perennial wisdom and energy that brought me into existence and maintains me in this life – becomes of increasing importance.
Whenever I am troubled for whatever reason, the solution that works the best for me today is returning to my inner source by practising silence and gratitude in all my affairs, one day a time.
Daniel Clarke Flynn
George Fox
I was surprised to see George Fox described as ‘the infallible dogmatist who never doubted that he was right’ in a recent letter (14 June). Fox endured periods of profound doubt and depression through his life, and it was the despair of finding ‘nothing outwardly’ to help him that led him to Jesus, his inward teacher, and a vision of ‘a people to be gathered’ in willingness to listen and yield to that teacher.
In reaching the end of his own intellectual and moral resources, Fox became newly aware of his need for help from a power greater than himself; that doesn’t sound much like an ‘infallible dogmatist’ to me.
My sense is that this description comes more from liberal embarrassment about the zeal of earlier generations of Friends than from anything they actually stood for.
They preached a simple, living faith centred on a transforming experience of Christ within. They understood this to be very far from manmade religion centred on intellectual assent to ‘windy notions’ – very far, that is, from dogmatism.
They experienced the Light of Jesus dwelling in all people, whatever names they use for this. And they were willing to suffer intensely for this inward teacher, not because they ‘never doubted’, but because through all their despair and difficulty, they came to see their deep need for Christ as he comes to teach his people himself. They were changed by this experience, and what (despite what the letter of 14 June suggests) could be more ‘Quakerly’ than that?
Matt Rosen
Quaker songbook
The new World Quaker Songbook with common song repertoire for the World Plenary Meeting (August 5-12 in Johannesburg) is available now in both hard copy (from the Quaker bookshop) as well as free to access online: https://fwcc.world/resources_cpt/wpm-songbook.
Sadly it’s words only in this new little book. Luckily lots of the songs, together with scores, appear in our existing British Quaker songbooks, both Sing in the Spirit, which can be bought from the bookshop (with CD if required) and its forerunner, Quaker Song Book, available now only second-hand. If anyone would like a list of page references for these songs please get in touch.
As someone who runs a regular all-age singing group for our Meeting I need scores for the songs I don’t know so I can teach them to our enthusiastic singers.
Others I know from my Sunday School days – for example ‘In Christ there is no east nor west’ – but there are several tunes available for that online, so which is the tune to use? An online resource listing the tunes and links to scores would be very helpful for those of us who learn music this way. Others who like to learn through listening would be glad to have links to audio versions of each song. Are these resources available anywhere?
There are a couple of songs I don’t feel comfortable with, and will be leaving to others to sing. Jesus’s suffering and death as atonement for the world’s sin, and being washed in the blood of Christ, doesn’t have a place in my understanding of Quakerism.
Celia Waterhouse
(celia.waterhouse@cambridgeshire-quakers.org.uk)
Meeting Friends in person
I reply to the letter from Elizabeth Coleman (31 May). I would like to say that although I have benefited greatly from attending Residential Yearly Meetings in the past, I now would probably find them very expensive. I think that any future gathering needs to have provision of bursaries to enable as many as possible to attend.
I have tried attending Yearly Meeting (YM) sessions by Zoom and I can get a lot from these, but an important part of YM for me is meeting Friends in person.
Jane Heydecker
Using Zoom
I admit to being an enthusiastic user of Zoom in several groups, meditation, poetry and our Meeting for Worship. I have two points.
Can we dispense with the term ‘Zoomer’ in favour of ‘Friends worshipping on Zoom’? More wordy, I accept, but that does not usually deter Friends. ‘Zoomer’ somehow separates Friends on Zoom from those present in-person and always makes me think of the friendly alien in Fireball XL5 (younger Friends, see Google).
It is suggested that the Spirit (and thus Spirit-inspired worship and discernment) might somehow be absent on Zoom. Might it be mildly presumptuous of us to assume that the Spirit confines itself to our Meeting houses?
Surely the Spirit is everywhere; not just in the Meeting house but all over town, across the world and even in the far planets visited by the said Fireball XL5.
Peter Hart
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