In their own manner: Gerard Guiton’s Thought for the Week

‘There are many Friends like Albert and Dorothy.’

After my first Quaker Meeting I got talking to Albert. Nearly three hours later I set off home, amazed and grateful for his spending so much time with me. He recalled his life in Nottinghamshire, his emigration adventures, and told me what Quakerism meant to him. Albert was saintly, humble, gentle, down-to-earth. Active in Quaker peace committees, I saw just how Friends loved him.

Years later, a South African Friend, Rosemary, told me about the day when, enthusiastically reporting to her Meeting about national activist initiatives, she heard Meeting-stalwart Dorothy say, ‘If that’s all Friends are doing I think I’ll resign.’ Well, she didn’t. Only later did Rosemary realise the import of Dorothy’s concern. Her humility, tolerance and prayerful conduct brought more people into Friends than Rosemary’s activism. 

‘We’ll have re-learned how Spirit knows no evil.’

There are many Friends like Albert and Dorothy. They are artists of Light and, for me, bring Dutch artist Piet Mondrian to mind: ‘By turning from the surface,’ he wrote, ‘one comes closer to the inner laws of matter which are also the laws of the Spirit.’ This helps them to listen attentively and use speech carefully. Kind and open but not naive, they are tolerant, taking solace, for instance, in William Penn’s works despite his slave ownership. They look upon history and everyday life with perspective, never throwing the baby out with the bathwater. They love baby instead, and use the bathwater on the garden. Neither purist, extreme nor demanding, they wait silently upon Spirit before manifesting our Testimonies in their own manner. In doing so, they prioritise contemplation over action, and temper their peace and justice concerns with compassion. The philosopher Schopenhauer said, ‘Compassion is always ready to pass into operation.’

This leads me to propose a Quaker ‘lent’. Not a time for penance but a special one for compassion, and for enjoying, receiving and spreading eternal love; for experiencing every day as Meeting, to which we awake with hearts and minds prepared, not made up; for spending a few moments in night-time stillness, counting the good things experienced during the day. 

In such a well-spent month, we’ll have let our lives speak, returned home to within, dwelt in that which is pure, and trusted that God is ever-presence. We’ll have re-learned how Spirit knows no evil, that love is the sweetness of life, the tender, melting nature of God. And realise, too, how all life is beautifully sacramental, that the Divine Consciousness is always the One-drous Reality bringing peace, justice and compassion. We’ll have captured the essence and wholeness of the Jesus Way, of the Beatitudes, and learnt perfection – just like Dorothy and Albert, and everybody like them. 

Gerard is from Australia Yearly Meeting. 

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