Quaker Week

Once again, Quaker Week is here. This is a week that Quakers in Britain designate for Outreach, Friends House sets a theme, and all individual Quakers and Meetings are encouraged to run activities to help raise the profile of Quakers, inform and interest the general public, and just generally be “out there” more.

Outreach is a difficult topic for British Quakers. One of the first things I learned about Quakers could be summarised as “we do not proselytise”. Of course, I learned that in the context of liberal Quakers. Evangelical and pastoral branches of the world Quaker family are quite keen on proselytisation, especially (as you might expect) the evangelical branch. But liberal Quaker, especially the sort here in Britain, just don't go out and tell people they should be Quakers.

Yet, obviously thing we have something worth finding out about, and thus surely worth sharing. Anecdotally, it seems that those convinced in adulthood are growing, as a proportion of our Yearly Meeting, compared to those raised among Quakers. I'm sure someone has figures on that, but I don't have them to hand; in any case, that is the impression I, and others I know, have been getting over the last decade or so, at least in terms of people who are actively involved in Quaker goings-on. When you add our dwindling numbers and ageing demographics, it becomes clear that we would be both selfish and foolish not to try to share this wonderful thing we have found.

Back from Woodbrooke

As previously mentioned, I was privileged to be invited to speak at Woodbrooke's course on The Impact of Diversity of Belief on Quaker Practice: Discernment, Decision Making, Worship. That course is now over, and I'm back home. You may have noticed that I posted a piece of written ministry on Thursday – The Contemporary Quaker Maze. This arose during reflection on an excellent session from Craig Barnett (no relation) on Tuesday morning, leading to a feeling that British Quakerism is in a period of profound transition; where that will take us is hard to know, but it definitely depends what we all do now.

The purpose of inviting me was that I deliver a session specifically on Quaker Business Method, in the context of diversity of belief, specifically non-theism; this session was delivered, over two 90 minute sessions, on Wednesday morning. With a course title and description like that, I had no idea what sort of people would be coming. Would they be open-minded about diversity of belief? Would they be worried about the increasing presence and visibility of non-theism? Would they feel that Christianity is being driven out of British Quakerism? Would they be worried that their own, less traditional beliefs, would be driven out by people who are worried about these things? It made things a bit more nerve-racking, and indeed I was more careful with presentation because of this. It is an issue that is a live source of worry for people with all sorts of positions.

The Contemporary Quaker Maze

We are in a maze.

The hedges are tall, and we cannot see over them.

None of us can see where the paths lead, where the exits are, or even where those exits go.

Some claim to have glimpses of the path, and warn us of the perils of taking the wrong one.

Some tell us of the joys to come when we find our way out, and some tell of the horrors.

Some tell us the maze is wonderful, and we shouldn’t want to leave.

The only way we will know for sure is to make our choice and see what happens.

We can, however, get the lay of the land. While the hedges are tall, and we cannot see over them, none of us is here alone.

We can lift one another, stand upon shoulders, and we can see over the hedges.

We cannot see far, we cannot see clearly, but by working together and trusting one another, we can see something.

Written September 2017

The "Transmundane"

A term I often use when discussing spiritual life is “transmundane”, or “the transmundane”. This isn't a word in common currency, so even looking up its definition in a dictionary doesn't necessarily reflect how it is used – especially by me. So I thought it was perhaps time for me to attempt an explanation.

Online dictionaries tend to give a definition along the lines of “beyond the physical world”, or “existing beyond the world”. This is a simple etymological explanation, as one of the meanings of “mundane” – a technical one, rather than the vernacular usage – is “of relation to this physical world, as opposed to a heavenly or spiritual one”. “Trans-” as a prefix, of course, means “beyond”. As an aside, it is very much a development of this meaning, via some specific usages, that leads to the usage in words such as “transgender”, via a sense meaning “across”, but the root meaning is “beyond”. This does not mean that “transgender” means “beyond gender”, and I generally frown on arguments from etymology when determining the meaning of words. Linguistically, I'm very much a descriptivist.

Love Is Not A Finite Thing

Love is not a finite thing, that is spent and exhausted.
Love flows from the Spirit, and is inexhaustible;
As you live your life in the Spirit, and let its presence grow in your heart,
So too will love flow stronger and brighter in your life.

Think you that giving love here will leave you less to give elsewhere?
Think you that you can run out of love?
You have limited time, you have limited energy,
Your love is not limited.

Love is not like water, poured away and spent or imbibed and expended.
Love is like warmth, and where it is given each to the other,
It is like sharing warmth on a cold night,
Neither becoming cold to make the other warm, but warmth increased for both.

Do not be parsimonious with love, for given well it is never spent.
Yet do not give it unwisely, for if it is not returned, you can be spent.
Whether the love is given to a lover, or in good works in the world,
Given wisely it is returned, and given recklessly it is exploited.

For while you cannot run out of love, you have other resources.
And when you give love, you may expend these.
Do not exclude yourself from your love, or from your care.
In your eagerness to give love, do not overextend yourself.

Do not be jealous of love given.
If you trust your lover's judgement and loyalty,
If you communicate and trust and support,
The gain of others need be no loss to you.

Love is not a zero-sum game.

Written September 2017

Ownership of Ministry

Since I first started writing down and sharing written ministry, something has been troubling me. It may sound shallow and trivial, but it's a really complicated question with real implications on what I can and should do in future.

To what extent can I, or should I, claim ownership of the written ministry I produce? The law is very clear, because the law doesn't take into account claims of divine inspiration in writing. It came from my head, through my hands, onto paper (or keyboard), and its my intellectual property. What happened to get it into my head in the first place, the law doesn't care about (unless I was literally copying from existing creative work). When it comes to spiritual writing, however, there's so much more to it than that.

Tolerance, Acceptance, and Celebration

We often speak of tolerance. Of tolerating difference, of tolerating what is strange to us, of tolerating things that make us uncomfortable.

Often, the spirit calls us to be more than tolerant. Sometimes it calls us to acceptance. To tolerate something is to allow it to exist, to be near you, to be visible, despite your reservations or discomfort. To accept something is to recognise its existence and value, its validity as equal with your own.

Sometimes, the spirit calls us to be more than acceptant. It calls us to celebrate. While acceptance recognises the value and validity of a thing, celebration affirms it, openly rejoicing in its presence.

Celebration allows you to learn more than acceptance, as it requires openness to see more.
Celebration is an act of love, and love given and returned is love increased.
Celebration of difference opens the heart to the spirit in new ways.

Celebrate one another, and celebrate your differences. Celebrate the different people and cultures around you, that you may know them and love them and learn all that can be learned. Celebrate that we share our world, our neighbourhoods, our Meetings and our lives with such richness.

It is better to celebrate than to mourn.

Written September 2017

Subscribe by email should now be working

Hi all. Just a quick note about the blog, rather than any new content here. You will see in the column on the right a box to follow the blog by email. This was formerly broken, but should now be working. You have to jump through some hoops to prove you are human and that you're giving it your own email address, but once you've done that, you should get email notification of any new posts on the blog.

Just thought you might like to know.

Testing Ministry part 2: Business

In my earlier post, I explored the idea of testing ministry in Meeting for Worship, and outlined some simple tests that I find helpful when testing ministry. I also mentioned that these were only readily applicable in simple, undirected worship, and other sorts of meeting in which we might minister need to be handled differently. In this post I will explore the most common other sort of meeting, the “Meeting for Worship for Business”, often shortened to “Business Meeting”, and known formally in Quaker faith & practice as “Meetings for Church Affairs”.

These meetings are the primary decision-making organ of Quaker bodies, from our Local and Area Business Meetings, to Britain Yearly Meeting in session, and all of the business meetings to run all sorts of other groups. It is probably helpful at this point to quickly recap the essential principles and process of the Quaker business method, though a full exploration would certainly merit a post all to itself.

So, let us take a theoretical, idealised Meeting for Worship for Business. Any given “real world” case will deviate from this, but in various different ways depending on the meeting, so the platonic version seems a good starting point. The meeting in session is a number of Friends, probably in the small dozens – to avoid any of the complications brought by a particularly large or small group. One or two Friends undertake to clerk the meeting, and sit at a table where they can see everyone. Everyone else sits arranged in such a manner to be able to see as many of the rest of the meeting as reasonably possible. The clerk introduces an item of business, a decision that needs to be taken. The clerk will introduce the business, perhaps with the help of another Friend who is familiar with the matter in question. The decision to be taken will be made clear to Friends, and all necessary information will be provided at this time, or even better in advance of the meeting (this being a point where pretty much every real world case will depart drastically from the ideal, but it is a complication that is besides the point of this post). At that point, the meeting begins discernment – a period of worship focussed on making a decision.

The Irrelevance of Life After Death

An aspect of diversity of belief among British Quakers, that we discuss less than most others, is the question of what happens after we die. There are likely several reasons for this, including that, for some, that belief is very important, and challenging it strikes deeply at their life and, perhaps, what helps them to maintain hope.

However, it strikes me that the greatest reason is a distinction in the Quaker motivation to right action. In rhetoric at least, many mainstream – especially, but not only evangelical – Christian churches, it is common to talk about the promise of heaven as a motivation to right action, or at least avoidance of wrong action, or at least for full and frank confession. In my time among Liberal Quakers, I have not seen or heard that used, rhetorically or conversationally. Rather, we see that we should do what is right, what the spirit urges, what love requires of us, simply because it is right – or indeed, that we cannot do otherwise, when the leading is sufficiently strong. We do it because of our conviction that it will lead to a better world, and that if all acted as we did, it would be a wonderful result. We do this because if we will not, who will?

I do not mean by this that we are morally superior to mainstream Christians. I don't even know what it would mean to be “morally superior”. It is, however, a difference, and one not unique to us; there are certainly those among many denominations, and many other faiths, who see right action in this way, as do many humanists. It is, however, more consistent among Quakers than any other faith group I have known.

Thus, the idea of what happens after we die, of life after death, of eternal reward and punishment, is something we do not speak of much – simply because it is seldom of relevance to our decisions and actions.

Written September 2017

What the Heck is Non-Theism Anyway?

This seems to be a question that is appropriate, given thought and worry within our Yearly Meeting (that is, Britain Yearly Meeting) at this time. I don't doubt there are other unprogrammed Yearly Meetings with similar concerns. There's a lot of discussion and worry about non-theism, and perhaps as a consequence, much discomfort among some non-theist Friends that we are no longer feeling as welcomed and a part of our Religious Society as we once felt. For there can be no doubt that we've been around for quite a while, but there is an almost sudden increase in worry about us. Whether this is because of increased visibility, or because of concerns being aired by visible or weighty voices among us, I couldn't say. At least, without some in-depth study, and I doubt anyone is going to fund me to do that.

First Conscious Contact with the Divine

My first conscious contact with the divine came a few years before I found Quakers.

My life until then, in the religious sense, had been one of seeking, though I would not have known to call it such. I found much that resonated with my condition and my experience in many faiths, and sought out opportunities to learn more of further traditions. At the same time, each generally had things that didn't ring true to me.

As a student, my house was visited by missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly referred to as Mormons – a convention I shall follow here, for brevity if nothing else. I wasn't actually in at the time, but a housemate and a friend were, and had arranged for a return visit to start hearing what they had to say; they did this not because they had any idea that they might be converted, being settled in their own beliefs, but because they thought it might be interesting. And so I heard about it, and arranged to be there when the missionaries came back.

Update: Normal Service to Resume Shortly

It's been a bit quiet here.

This was not intentional, nor is it reflective of my attitude to the future of this blog. Various personal matters, and my preparation for a Woodbrooke course I'll be speaking at, The Impact of Diversity of Belief on Quaker Practice, at which I'll be focusing on non-theism and business method, have taken time that I might otherwise have used to prepare more material for you, here.

While the rest of my life goes on, the paucity of time that has led to the dry spell on this blog should be coming to an end, and normal service will resume shortly. This includes some pieces of deliberate writing partially coming from my preparation for the course mentioned above, and some written ministry that's brewing and maturing.

So stay tuned!