| The Canadian Friend
November-December 1997
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Quakers in Britain
Alastair Heron - Britain Yearly Meeting Quakers in Britain today are more diverse in the religious basis of their membership than at any time in their 350-year history. Although there is evidence of change in this respect over the last 100 years, the rate of change has accelerated since the late 1960s. Though debated, this has possibly resulted from what a membership review committee identified as "a tendency for membership to be acquired more easily." It is however clear that a great many of those joining the Society in this thirty-year period did so with scanty knowledge of the Quaker heritage, the religious basis of the testimonies, or even of the responsibility to take part faithfully in Meetings for Worship for Business. There have been other factors at work. We have seen an erosion of the concept of commitment: the general ethos is that one "does not commit oneself to anything or to anybody, unless one must in order to get what one wants." In the Quaker context, that helps to explain why thousands of fairly regular attenders do not apply for membership, to the point where in Britain Yearly Meeting there are only two members available to provide the structures and climate for each listed attender. The local Meeting, offering what attenders describe as a friendly and tolerant welcome, is perceived by many as a safe haven, and thus the focus of their service and loyalty. The widespread lack of involvement in the wider activities of the Society largely stems from congregationalism - the corporate expression of individualism. And there is more risk from a largely secular attitude than from the over-emphasised split between the so-called Christocentric and universalist positions. But the overall picture is far from being one of doom and gloom. The silence-based Meeting for Worship continues to be the greatly-valued spiritual centre-point for members and attenders alike, despite wide variation from Meeting to Meeting around the country in the quality and depth of the spoken ministry. As older Quakers pass away, Biblical quotation is heard less and less, but reference to the teachings of Jesus continues. Although vocal prayer has become a rarity, it may well be the unspoken basis of many a gathered Meeting. Whatever the variation at Monthly Meeting level, British Quakers display a remarkable discipline when they gather in their many hundreds for Yearly Meeting. In recent years they have started the process of getting used to being
one of the smaller Yearly Meetings in the world - and to silence-based
unprogrammed Meetings for Worship as being in the minority. The Friends
World Committee for Consultation triennial gatherings provide opportunities
for a selected few to find out at first hand what their fellow-Quakers
are actually like. And there is no doubt that mutual learning and growing
understanding are the result for them: but of course it must be very hard
indeed to get the message across back home. Obviously it is easier for
those in the silence-based tradition perceiving themselves as Quaker Christians
to relate to those from the other backgrounds. But the understanding depends
more on shared spiritual experience than on theology or outward forms of
worship. Overall, it is easier than one expects to feel a member of the
world family of Friends. |