Category Archives: Articles

Articles

Darwin and the Divine

by
Christopher Moriarty

This article is based on a talk arranged by Monkstown Meeting in the Darwin bicentenary year.  It was first published in The Friendly Word January-February 2010.

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. Continue reading Darwin and the Divine →

Articles

Mary Leadbeater and the Annals of Ballitore

Article first published in The Friendly Word November-December 2009

by

Christopher Moriarty

This year saw the triumphant conclusion of years of work by Mario Corrigan and his colleagues at the Kildare County Library in the publication of the definitive edition of a very remarkable 19th century book. Of particular interest to Friends because of the Quaker life of its author, The annals of Ballitore is also a vital source work in social history.

Continue reading Mary Leadbeater and the Annals of Ballitore →

Articles

Reflections on a Home-coming

Doreen E Dowd

Address to Ministry and Oversight at Yearly Meeting, 2005

Good Evening, Friends;

For those of you who do not know me, I am a life-long member of Ireland Yearly Meeting, Dublin Monthly Meeting and attend Eustace St. Meeting. In 1992 I left my job as a respiratory physician in Dublin, and went to work in a Salvation Army hospital in Zambia. My work permit described me as a missionary. In 1998 I moved to Lesotho, which is a tiny mountainous kingdom, completely land-locked by the Republic of South Africa, and worked for six years as the Flying Doctor. I was officially a civil servant, but as I was flown several times a week to various remote mountain clinics by the pilots of Mission Aviation Fellowship, I was close to the missionary community in that country.

Continue reading Reflections on a Home-coming →

Articles

In and Out the Meeting House

David Butler, Britain Yearly Meeting

A talk delivered at Ireland Yearly Meeting 2004. David is the author and illustrator of the definitive book on Quaker Meeting Houses in Ireland, past and present, which is about to be published.

These remarks are lightly-connected incidents in Quaker life, mostly from Ireland, gleaned from a life-time spent looking at meeting houses and reading about them, and from a mere five years enjoying Irish meeting houses. They include many small events, few of which one would wish to make permanent, but which I thought you might like to hear before they sink back into the sands.

Continue reading In and Out the Meeting House →

Articles

‘All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny’

by Christopher Moriarty

This article was published in Teaching Religious Education Issue 3 December 2008

Christopher Moriarty is Clerk of the Historical Committee of the Religious Society of  Friends in Ireland and a member of a group of volunteers who care for the archives and library of the Society at its headquarters in Ireland: Quaker House Dublin, Stocking Lane, Dublin 16. The library is open to the public on Thursday mornings from 10.30 am to 1 pm.

The Religious Society of Friends was founded by the 17 century Christian visionary George Fox.  Its members came to be known as ‘Quakers’.  Their beliefs were based firmly on the doctrine revealed in the Bible, and particularly on the teaching of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Four Gospels. They adopted a belief, in distinct opposition to the feelings of the times, that the meaning of the Commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ was unequivocal.  Even more important was the instruction of Jesus to ‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you’.  As early as 1651, Fox was jailed for refusing to fight in the English Civil War.  William Edmundson, who established the Society’s first meeting for worship in Ireland in 1654, had served as a Cromwellian soldier but renounced violence soon after the end of hostilities in 1651.

In 1660, following the Restoration of King Charles II, Quakers put their views on non-violence in a formal declaration addressed to the king in person.  Known over the centuries as ‘The Peace Testimony’ its first paragraph reads as follows:

Our principle is and our practices have always been, to seek peace, and ensue it, and to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the good and the welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all.  All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fighting with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world.  That spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ which leads us all into all Truth will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.

The declaration was prompted in part from a legalistic angle. Loyalty to the king was required from all his subjects – disloyalty was treason and punishable by death.  To refuse to enlist in an army and fight for the king could be construed as treasonable.  Quakers were not engaged in any subversion of the legal status quo and insisted on the truth of their claim that they were loyal and law-abiding subjects.  The reasoning behind their refusal to bear arms therefore needed to be expressed very clearly.  For this and for a number of other points of principle, many Quakers suffered imprisonment.

The Williamite warfare in Ireland in the 1690s saw the first serious test of the peace testimony and the great majority of Quakers acquitted themselves honourably.  Four took part in the fighting and they were disowned by the Society.  Of far greater importance was the fact that Quakers gave help to people on both sides in the conflict.  This seems to have led to a recognition and respect rather than to any attempt at revenge by the victorious Williamites.

A hundred years later, the impending rising of 1798 brought about a vigorous campaign within the Society to take practical steps to ensure that its members would both privately and publicly renounce violence.  The all-Ireland National Meeting in 1797 agreed:

The Subject of some in profession with us having guns in their houses, which might be made use of for the destruction of mankind, as well as other instruments of a like nature, having come weightily under the consideration of Friends in the three provinces, this meeting, under a solid feeling, is of the judgement that all such should be destroyed, the more fully to support our peaceable and Christian testimony in these perilous times…..

A committee was appointed to visit Quakers around the country and make sure that they had destroyed their firearms.  At least one of them made a public display of his voluntary disarmament.  Joseph Haughton, a member of the committee, took his fowling piece to the main street in Ferns and broke it up.  Once again, the more positive – and extremely hazardous – practice of giving help to people on both sides of the conflict was followed in 1798.  But, with few exceptions, it seems that the reputation of Quakers was so well established that their communities survived the hostilities without reprisals being taken.

The 20th century, with two world wars, the War of Independence in Ireland and the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ imposed a succession of major challenges.  During and after both world wars, Quakers, amongst them a number of Irish members of the Society, were involved in two international movements.  The first was the Friends Ambulance Unit in which young men enlisted.  While they would not take up arms to fight any enemy, they were equally determined not to shelter from danger by staying away from the fighting.  The Ambulance Unit, serving only to give help to the wounded – without discrimination as to whether friend or enemy – was a solution to the dilemma.  The second came after the wars, when Quakers played an active role in bringing relief to those who suffered in the conquered countries – putting into practice the ideal of loving their enemies and establishing a reputation for their humanity.  They continue to lobby the United Nations and the European Union, through Quaker offices in new York and Brussels.

In Northern Ireland, from 1969 onwards, Quakers became deeply involved in a variety of efforts to achieve reconciliation between the parties in sectarian strife.  Quaker Cottage, on the outskirts of Belfast, was established to provide holiday breaks for families from both sides of the divide.  The essential was that adults and children who, in the normal course of things, would avoid each other, were brought together.  They discovered that the differences between them were remarkably few.  As with the broader thrust of a world-wide renunciation of violence, Quakers have not been so na�ve as to believe either their international work or the example of Quaker Cottage would convince a majority of people within a short time.  The point is that their devotion to the cause of non-violence has changed the thinking of many individuals, actually saved the lives of others and is an essential step in spreading the message of peace.

The Quaker House project in Belfast city was –and still is – a centre giving fulltime employment to a small number of Quakers with skills in bringing national and local political figures together and, in an uncounted number of cases, defusing difficult and dangerous situations.  It is easy to count the numbers of people who died during the Troubles.  While it is impossible to enumerate the numbers saved by behind-the-scenes actions, there is no doubt that Quaker House was instrumental in averting countless tragedies.  The need for unpublicised handling of such situations has meant that the institution rarely achieved public recognition for its achievements.

Another seminal activity in Ulster was the establishment of visitor centres, initially at the Maze and later at Long Kesh prisons.  The abhorrence felt by the involved Quakers towards the violent actions that had led to the imprisonment of the inmates, was equalled by their belief in the humanity of each and every one of them. The ideal had been expressed poetically by George Fox in the 17th century; ‘Walk cheerfully over the world, answering to that of God in every man’ and it continues to be a core belief of Quakers everywhere.  The visitor centres were places where the families who came to visit the prisoners could find shelter, relax over a cup of tea and, if they wanted, find someone willing to listen them.  The work of  the centres developed from an outside fringe activity to being accepted by the authorities who understood their value, not only in supporting people in great difficulties, but also in helping to keep families together and rehabilitate the prisoners when their eventual release came.

Meanwhile, in the Republic, individual Quakers, with official support from the Society, have been active in parallel activities to those of their northern counterparts in attempting to nurture a spirit of peace, even amongst people who are undergoing punishment for violent behaviour, often of an extreme nature.  Quakers, with other religious groups, have been active in establishing and staffing visitor centres in prisons.  At a more direct level, Quakers have been in the forefront of implanting AVP, the Alternatives to Violence Programme, which involves practical training sessions with prisoners.

This article gives some examples of the work undertaken by Irish Quakers towards sowing the seeds of peace and nurturing the rather delicate flowers that spring up.  Similar projects are taking place in all countries in which there are Quaker communities.  The Mission Statement of South Africa Quaker Peace Centre in Capetown gives an excellent summary of essentials that are applied throughout the world:

Our mission is to build a non-violent society where diversity is celebrated, the energies of conflict are turned into a positive transforming power and where the democratic rights of every individual are respected, protected and pursued.

Further Reading (more obtainable from ‘historicenquiries@quakers-in-ireland.ie’)
Maurice J Wigham (2nd Edition 2006) The Irish Quakers, a short history of the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland Dublin: Historical Committee of the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland.

Richard S Harrison (1986) Irish Anti-war Movements 1824-1974. Dublin: Irish Peace Publications.

Glynn Douglas (1998) Friends and 1798: Quaker witness to non-violence in 18th century Ireland. Dublin: Historical Committee of the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland.

Articles, Events

Putting Faith in Action: Quaker Bolivia Link tour to South America

In 2006 Alan and Sue Pim travelled to Bolivia and Peru as part of the Quaker Bolivia Link Project team that visits Bolivia once every two or three years, to discuss the merits of projects that are proposed to the UK and USA Boards of QBL; and other responsibilities might include summarizing projects for the Boards, writing reports after visiting projects, working with the project database and discussing strategy and implementation.

This is their report:

Barbara Flynn, our leader was there to meet us as we flew into La Paz, the capital of Bolivia at 07.00 on a beautiful clear sunny morning. Seventeen of us had met in Miami to fly the last leg of our journey together, we had come from different parts of the US, England, Scotland, Germany, Spain and of course Ireland. La Paz (the airport) is well outside the city on a high, flat plateau at about 13,000ft. Surrounding us were the beautiful snow covered peaks of the Andes over 21,500ft. We sat quietly in a café at the airport to rest a while to begin to get used to the thin atmosphere (only 80% of normal oxygen levels here). To help with fighting the thin air we all had our first cup of “matte de coca”. The American government wants to stop the Bolivian people growing coca but it is part of the Bolivian culture and certainly a cup of coca tea is far less addictive than ordinary tea or coffee and is actually good for you.

Our luggage along with that of two of the Americans failed to turn up and we were travelling at the time when hand luggage was VERY restricted! I had believed the BA captain when he said there was no need to collect our luggage at Miami and check it in again, a process that has been insisted on by the Americans since 9/11. In some ways it was liberating not having luggage but it was rather miserable to have to wear the same clothes we had travelled in when we got up the next day! The luggage that had arrived was tied on top of the two minibuses that took us to Sorata, a picturesque town in a valley surrounded by the Andes.

Sorata is lower than La Paz and we stayed there a few days to get used to the altitude. While there we visited many Quaker Bolivian Link projects high up in the mountains. Mostly water projects bringing water from the melting snow along pipes to the villages. Some villages would just have taps; others would have showers and toilets as well as taps. There is a huge increase in the number of girls attending primary school when a village gets water, as it was the girls’ job to collect water. We also saw irrigation projects and agricultural projects.

Quaker Bolivian Link funds projects that the local communities have asked for. The community will have to do a feasibility study into their project and also be willing to help to do the work in carrying it out. QBL have a lot of requests for funding but they only fund those projects that will help to better the community. They employ four agricultural advisers who come from the local Indian Aymarian community and have been to university and are able to converse in Aymarian and Spanish. We were very impressed with them and their knowledge of agriculture and horticulture and the way they carried on their jobs. There was also a part time accountant who looked after the money end in Bolivia. It is very important to have these people with local knowledge overseeing the projects and visiting regularly to see that everything is working as it should.

To get to these projects we all piled into the back of an open truck, one or maybe two could fit in the cab beside the driver, but it was far more exciting standing up in the back, getting scared by the sheer drops on the sides of the road, as we wound our way upwards on tiny dirt roads as far as we could go. We then had to climb further up the mountain on tiny steep paths until we reached our destination, these walks would often be over an hour.

We would bring bread and fruit towards a shared lunch, luxury items as far as the villagers were concerned. These people were some of the poorest in Bolivia, which is the poorest country in South America. They produce over 600 different types of potatoes; even someone coming from Ireland was amazed at the different varieties! They also had cooked dishes with corn and quinoa with vegetables that were lovely.

While in Sorata we attended the dedication of the Internado (the hostel for children from these high up villages who are attending secondary school in Sorata, which we are so keen to raise money for). Alan and I arrived early and I helped with the food preparations cutting up lettuce and tomatoes. That was alright but then I had to cut onions very thinly and I wasn’t doing it thinly enough, I don’t understand Spanish but I knew that one of the boys from the internado was telling the house mother that I was doing a bad job! Finally the celebrations started; there were lots of speeches, all in Spanish, from local dignitaries and Quakers. Afterwards we had the usual shared lunch. That afternoon when we had free time some of us went with the manager of the hotel on a walk to some caves. The walk was meant to be downhill all the way but we found that a lot was definitely uphill! It was a lovely walk but when we got to the caves we found them pretty boring, not as good as the ones we have here.

On our last day in Sorata, a Sunday, we went to the Quaker church where we got our travelling minute signed and attended the programmed service for about an hour. We then had to leave for La Paz. While in Sorata we had a short Meeting for Worship each evening, which was very special, but it was harder to have it in the hotel in La Paz. When we were staying in a hotel beside Lake Titicaca we had arranged a circle of chairs for our Meeting and a family had sat down in our circle to play cards but we started our meeting despite the card playing. It was amazing how quickly they sensed something was going on and they quietly left us. It was a pity they couldn’t have stayed and worshiped with us.

On our way to La Paz we stopped at the home of one of our minibus drivers and we were all given food and matte de coca or soft drinks. Our minibus drivers were so good to us and looked after us very well, and drove so well over the awful roads. In La Paz we visited more projects. The best had to be the Gregorias project where we visited a group of wonderful ladies and bought some of their beautiful fine quality alpaca products which they had knitted or woven. They gave us an excellent lunch too! We went to a school for children who are mentally and physically challenged – the deaf and mute were there in the afternoon. We were impressed by the staff and the children who were so friendly and gave us big hugs when we left. The school was a catholic school but QBL had funded a booklet for parents of these children with helpful information about their various needs.

One day we set out in the two minibuses for the altiplano (La Paz was first built up there by the Spanish but was quickly abandoned and rebuilt in the valley). A huge flat area, thousands of square miles, very dry, bare, windswept place with few trees. The altitude here is about 13,000 feet, higher than The Alps; although it is in the Tropics it is cold, especially at night where there is a frost 200 nights a year. We went to visit water pumps and various plastic greenhouses which help the villagers to grow all sorts of vegetables which improves their diet especially the children’s, again we had a wonderful meal at a place where the women of the community had got together to organise the viability of their project, unfortunately we had just eaten and weren’t able to do the meal justice! We had spent the morning looking at some pre Inca ruins at Tiwanaka, which was fascinating. The place is a World Heritage Site.

One day the whole of La Paz was blockaded by a transport strike so we couldn’t go to any projects instead we went shopping and sightseeing and got our shoes cleaned; the shoes looked great, almost new again! We had a wonderful meal in a vegetarian café, you could eat as much as you liked for next to nothing in our money. Even though there were heavily armed police around the main streets we never felt threatened by anyone.

We then said good-bye to La Paz and headed to Lake Titicaca, which we had seen in the distance on our way to and from Sorata. It was lovely to finally see this lake that we had first heard about so many years ago in Geography class! It was so beautiful and the colour always seemed to change from day to day. We met one of the boat builders who had been flown to Chad in Africa by Thor Heyerdahl to help build the Ra II. We had a posh lunch in a posh restaurant, very nice. We then left for the Amacari Medical Centre which Irish Friends helped fund. We felt proud when we saw the plaque with “amegos de irlanda” on it. We had to board a boat to cross the straits of Tiquina to the other side of the lake while our minibuses were hauled across on barges. We were very impressed by the centre which has made such a difference to the health of the local people who live in a very isolated part of Bolivia.

As Copacabana was blockaded we couldn’t stay there and had to spend two nights on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We tried to visit a project nearby which had funded the growing of alfalfa and better quality cattle but everybody was at a local rally where the president Evo was speaking. When we got back to the hotel we decided we’d go too! We must have been the only gringos in amongst thousands of locals. The speeches were over and there were various dances going on with wonderfully colourful costumes. Evo is a president of the people and we hope he survives but Bush doesn’t like him! We were glad to be there and see him, in the distance and wave to him when he left by helicopter.

The next day was an early start, as we had to go all the way around the southern coast of the lake to get to Peru, because of the blockade. We said a sad farewell to Barbara and met Malku our guide for Peru who is very knowledgeable about Inca ruins and has written many books on the subject. We visited many Inca and pre Inca sites culminating in Machu Picchu. We visited the floating islands on Lake Titicaca as well as going in a reed boat. We found Peru very touristy compared to Bolivia and we felt we were hustled by the locals to buy goods. On the other hand the roads, accommodation and food were better, but more expensive!

We have started Spanish lessons since coming home in the hope that we can go back to Bolivia and/or to other parts of South America.

Articles

Meditation: Duty to one’s self, one’s soul

Sarah Hardy Jackson, Monkstown Meeting: : talk at Ulster Quarterly Meeting, 23 September 2007

Sarah Hardy Jackson is a convinced Friend, a member of Dublin Monthly Meeting for over 30 years. She has served as clerk, overseer and elder of various meetings, including a period as Yearly Meeting recording clerk. This talk was given twice in different versions. Her thought developed over time and each version is specific to a different audience. The first version (Duty to Oneself) was given to Friends at Ulster Quarterly Meeting, held in Bessbrook Meeting House in September 2007. Here she could make reference to our queries and other shared experience as Quakers. Later she was asked to give the Meditation which forms part of the World Day of Prayer Service for Christians of all denominations, held in Monkstown Meeting House in March 2008. Her own experience during the intervening time, the reaction of the audience at Bessbrook, the content of the set part of the service, and the fact of being heard by a wider audience, combine to create a version that is both shorter and with a broader context.

Introduction

The request to write something for Ulster Quarterly Meeting came in mid-March, a time when the world changed very fast for me.

My 84-year-old mother, resident in New York since 1950, had gone to live with a nephew in England the previous November. It was not a good decision for either of them, and the relationship was falling apart. By prearrangement, she was to visit me in April. Suddenly the nephew decided that enough was enough and he wanted her out of his house as soon as possible. With nowhere else to go, short of money and getting frail, my mother would be living with me by the end of May.

So my response to the request was that I was unsure of what the future would hold and thus of whether I could offer anything to Friends by September. But this was the second time Ulster Friends had asked me for a talk, and it seemed that I should not say NO forever to such kindness and faith.

It has been a busy time trying to re-establish life for my mother in a new place with new people. Not to mention that she’s an Englishwoman now living in Ireland! Through the generosity of so many people and agencies, she is living a semi-independent life in sheltered housing and seems healthy and as settled as one might hope for. Since May I have been treading the difficult line between trying to make everything right for her and remembering to value my own life, work and needs. Much of the time I was so caught up in duty that I lost love and soul. From that awareness of my own failings and an incident at a Ministry and Oversight meeting come the germ of this paper.

Duty and service to others

In June was my final M and O meeting before completing the current term as an elder. That seemed like a chance to reflect on what had been achieved in the previous three years, along with the hopes and wishes for what might have happened instead. I was glad my term was over, especially as it ended in the middle of the settling-in period for my mother, whose needs were frequent and often difficult to meet. The demands were onerous and I was close to exhaustion. It was hard to remember if I had given anything of myself to the Society as an elder over the years. Time and duty, yes; but how much of my real self had I contributed?

The previous Sunday at Monkstown meeting we had heard most of the General Christian Counsel, with all its prescriptions about behaviour, being a better F/friend, those impossible measures of ourselves. Then at M and O we heard the fifth Query. Usually I note the part about honesty and integrity, pat myself on the back as this is not a huge issue for me, and get on. But this time I was caught by the final sentence: “Do you seek to discern how much of your time, talents and resources you should devote to the service of others?” When that phrase has spoken to me before, I’ve thought I should do more, be a better child, parent, wife, citizen, Quaker. Give more, think of myself less, and be more dutiful. Here I was, exhausted, close to losing any sense of my self, my soul, or what was true and right for me. And Quaker writing seemed only to reinforce the demands. The weight on my shoulders felt heavier than ever.

At M and O we had some discussion, the usual one in Quaker committees, about how to get more people involved, why the young adults do not come among us and certainly not to business meetings, what is the future of the Society. We all know this discussion. We’ve heard it many times. By definition, if you’re here at Quarterly Meeting, you’re one of those who do give up time for this communal purpose. You sit on committees, bring the flowers, take the children’s meeting, and visit the sick and elderly. And maybe your hair too is greying and you have a sneaking niggle about how long you can go on doing all this and who will do it then.

Duty to the self

A light shone for me. We may just have this backwards. The Queries are all about tasks and hurdles to overcome. They can feel very negative. It is difficult to achieve all these duties about relationships with others. They are the actions, the results; but what about the core value from which service proceeds? What is it that Quakerism teaches above other paths to God? What canst thou say?

What about the relationship with our self? That of God, which we are exhorted to seek and to meet in everyone else, is also in our self and our soul. Perhaps God’s spirit does not call us to attend business meetings, teach Sunday school, or other outward tasks. What if our gift is quiet worship, or growing geraniums, or painting pictures, or dancing? Are these self-indulgent? And what does that really mean? If God did not want us to feed our soul, why would we have one? Why would we have needs and wants? Do we have to deny our self in order to follow God’s will?

From childhood society, and particularly religion, teaches us to deny ourselves and put others first. But that’s not what Jesus said. He told us to love God first and then to love others as our self. In Matthew 22:37-40, he says this in reply to a question about which is the greatest commandment.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So we are commanded by Jesus, by God, to love our self. Of course there is a risk we might become selfish. But that is different from loving our self, our soul: for this is our true being, what God really wants of us and for us. Unless we do listen to that voice, we may never discover who we really are and what we are truly called to do.

How easy it is for duty and other people’s ideas and standards to become adopted as our own. It is natural for us to want to fit in with our family, culture, church or school. We may rebel a little as teenagers, but most of us eventually conform. Unless this outside standard is really true for us and our soul, at some stage this unthinking acquiescence will come adrift. We may lose heart, become depressed, burn out, give up, or drift away.

This is not to advocate free love and a world without standards. But there is a huge need in each person’s life to take time to find out what is really true at a spiritual level. And that can change over time. We may have to make this journey more than once. Perhaps every decade we need to revisit this. Who am I now? What is true for me now? That doesn’t mean that what was once true is now false; just that I have changed, and it no longer fits.

We must not fear change. It is part of us, part of all living things. And on the whole we change for the better. We mostly try to pare down the layers, to get to the kernel of eternal truth in us, to find what we are truly meant to be, to know, and to embody.

Change in the individual can seem like a threat to others. They like predictability. Oh Jean, she’ll always take the children’s meeting. Well Jean may have given all she has to that task. She may need to feed her own soul for a while. That may mean she sits quietly in meeting for worship for many months. Or maybe she needs to go walk in the mountains on a Sunday. The voice that calls her is the voice she needs to follow. Even if all the outside voices around her are complaint, talking of duty and responsibility, Jean must follow the inner call of her soul.

Real service can only come out of the inner truth. It is not a substitute for it. If service is done purely from duty or habit, while useful, it has nothing of joy or love. It does not come from the heart, from the soul.

There is brief reference in the second Query to making time for private retirement for meditation, prayer and thanksgiving. The General Christian Counsel talks of giving time to the consideration of your spiritual growth. But these phrases about the value of quiet as the centre of our life are drowned in reams of words about duties, tasks and action.

The gift of silent worship

At the FWCC triennial this summer, the question was whether the Society has a prophetic vision for today. I was not present there to hear the discussion, but I do know we must share the good news of our direct experience of God in the deep silence, with our own and other young people. I feel this so deeply, yet it did not move my children. Was this because when they were young I was always off at business meetings, moaning about the paperwork? Did I never share the deep joy and refreshment of my soul in a gathered meeting? To listen, to really listen to myself, to others, to God in the silence of the meeting: it’s hard to achieve, but when it happens I am refreshed and renewed. I am saved from bombardment by my own ideas and all the environmental noise. I hear the peace. I hear the truth. It’s rare and doesn’t happen every time. Often I mishear, speak ministry that doesn’t ring true. But sometimes, just sometimes, I do. And what a gift it is to hear that clear note. How do we share this understanding that all of us can experience God directly?The great gift of Quaker worship is that it provides, even insists on time for quiet reflection. The amount of quiet may depend on the quantity of ministry in our particular meeting. People use this time in many ways. I’ve heard some say apologetically that they use it to sort out the problems of their daily life. Why apologise for that? Yes, we all hope to praise, to hear God’s message, to do all sorts of higher activities in this time. But it has to start with a cleared mind. Nothing new can come in if we are preoccupied with duties and cares. Using the time to mentally housekeep and make those lists, that’s not such a bad thing to do. It would be sad if it were the only thing that ever happened to us during meeting for worship. Sixty minutes of that a week would be a bit dull. No room for joy there. But if it helps us to centre down, we should do it.

Some people talk about meeting for worship as the place to recharge their batteries. That was true for me when I first went to Churchtown meeting, aged 26 with three small children. I would arrive each Sunday exhausted in every way. I left with a bit more calm, a lot more patience and energy. Of course by the following Saturday I was back at the bottom again. But each Sunday I learned a little more about the importance of taking time for myself.

For many attenders, that is all they want of meeting for worship: a place to be quiet and alone in the company of others. We old hands need to remember just how great is the gift of focussed silence. There are few quiet places left in the world, fewer still for people who know they have a spiritual need that so far has been unfulfilled.

It is hard to listen to one’s soul, the self. All the roles, tasks, activities, and other people’s needs seem so pressing. Caring for our soul can seem so much less important, certainly less urgent: something to be deferred. The state of the meeting house roof, a father’s ill health, the employee who is always late: these might seem vital. And so we neglect that which nourishes us.

The funny thing is that it doesn’t take much time to have a healthy soul. If we go for that daily walk, listen to that music that moves us, look at that sunset, stroke that cat – whatever it is that feeds us – something every day, we can be well. And we’ll also get huge energy for all the other outside tasks. But we need first to take time every day to be quietly alone with our self, our soul.

Service and love
Once we’ve been coming to meeting a while, we hear the queries, and we get asked to serve on a committee. For some people this is a natural progression as they start to be more in touch with their own soul. Service then can come from their inner truth. But it’s essential that we not drown each other with tasks. The Society of Friends is a do-it-yourself religion. We do need to take part, or most of us do. It’s important to recognise that this cannot be forced on people. It has to be something we embrace because it is right for us, not something required of us because it’s right for the meeting.

What if no one will serve on a committee, people ask. Then lay it down, I answer. I was on the Outreach Committee in Dublin for many years. A time came when we recognised that we had become just inreach. The same Friends came to every talk, all of them old Quaker hands. We had nothing new to say. So we laid ourselves down. When the need did arise, after several years, the elders took it on and are doing it more effectively than we did.

We must have faith that change will come and is not a threat. The way we’ve always done things is not the only way. Coercion of people to do tasks, to serve on committees, the banging of the Quaker gong on duty: these are not the right way for them or for the Society. If no one agreed to be a clerk, elder, overseer, committee member, would that be so terrible? Many things might not be done for a while. That meeting house roof really might leak. But something would happen. That old Quaker word, concern, comes in here. Someone would have a concern. Someone would act. Other people would respond and gather around to help or encourage.

We must trust. We must not get bogged down in organisational bureaucracy. Record keeping is important, but it can be hard to keep one’s heart, spirit and faith when focussed on that role. I’ve served in the central office and know what it’s like to be the one paid Quaker in Ireland. And there are Quakers all over the land in a similar state, so overwhelmed by committee work and dutiful service that they have almost lost touch with their soul, the inner spark which is God working in them. Let us not allow that to happen. Let us teach ourselves and our young people the essential value of the soul. Let us give it time and space and quiet to reflect. Our great gift is the meeting for worship. Regular attendance there can keep us in touch with God in a deeply personal way. And all the best things that we get from meeting for worship can be ours every day. We know how to centre down and listen to the still small voice. We must give ourselves, our souls, that gift every day. The service that comes then flows from love. In Paul’s words (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3, 13):

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing… And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Articles

Meeting for Worship – Adam Grennan

Discussion memoir contributed by Adam Grennan to an Outreach meeting at Monkstown Meeting House, Dublin on October 1 2008, as a contribution to the ‘What do You Think?’ series.

Early Days
‘9/11′ is a date that no one will easily forget. What happened that day in 2001, seven years ago, is etched in the minds of people all over the world who through the pervasiveness of television saw the moment when the planes hit, over and over again. The tragic loss of life, countless heart-rending stories and the sheer barbaric nature of the act challenged the faith – not just of those directly involved – but of us all who believe we share a common God. So when, by coincidence, exactly one year later on the 11th of September 2002 I was accepted into the Religious Society of Friends the two events became forever entwined in my personal search for true meaning. Apart from the obvious distinction of good and evil there is another difference. The events of that day in 2001 catapulted the world into a new order over night. In contrast I had no Damascene like conversion. Mine is a journey which began many years ago in a place which will be familiar to countless Irish people.

My upbringing was typical of the time. I was baptised and raised in the Catholic church. The priest, standing at the baptismal font, refused to administer the sacrament until my father accepted that Adam was not a saints name and either change it or have it tempered by something more appropriate. So I became Adam Benedict in honour of the Saint who happened to be commemorated on that day. Years later my mother told me that I owed my Christian name – not to the story of creation – but to a crush she had on Adam Faith, a well known pop star in the fifties. To this day I wonder what the priest might have said had he known.

My formative years attending Catholic schools was not an unhappy one. I have many fond memories of both primary and secondary. I never experienced anything other than kindness from the De La Salle brothers. I do remember odd things about going to mass. Like my father disturbing the serenity by perpetually having to clear his throat – a symptom no doubt of an earlier encounter with TB. I remember too the enormous cross hanging above the central altar with Christ on both sides. I don’t recall any sermons but in those days there wasn’t much of a focus on involving children. My older siblings drifted away one by one. Oh they said they were attending mass but I knew otherwise. When it came to my turn to break away I rather naively went and told my father that I had attended my last sermon. I can still feel his anger and sense his outrage.

In ’79 riding on the wave of the Popes’ visit I returned to the Catholic faith but it didn’t last long. Although I married in the church I honestly say now that at that time I didn’t feel committed to the faith. I don’t intend to analyse that further, nor do I believe that the road I’m on is the only one. All I can say is that it seems to be right for me. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My first encounter with the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers as we are also known, came in the form of a book, written by an American Friend, Robert Lawrence Smith. In the introduction he wrote: “Quakerism is a pragmatic faith that depends on inner experience, on habits of mind and feeling that comes from living rather than from reading yet, an incalculable part of what we know comes from familiarity with the lives of those who have come before us”. Quoting from Deuteronomy he reminded us that: “we all warm ourselves by fires we did not build and drink from wells we did not dig”.

Having stirred my curiosity, through the modern convenience of the Internet I found this Meeting House no more than two miles from where I lived. Crossing the threshold the following Sunday I began an experience which Patricia and I are attempting to describe to you this evening. Believe me this isn’t an easy task. The difficulty in trying to describe a Meeting for Worship is that very little happens, very little, that is, in terms of outward appearance. Yet, Meeting for Worship is the very heart of Quaker experience. It’s the place we seek spiritual renewal, a place where we can grow in community, the well-spring of our ministry and testimony and the basis of discernment in Meetings for Business.

To understand the historical origins of the Meeting for Worship it is first necessary to recall something of the life of George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends. He was born in 1624 at Fenny Drayton in Leicestershire. His father was a weaver and a church warden. His mother was well educated and came from a long list of martyrs. Young George was encouraged to understand his religious beliefs and to question what others believed. In doing so he witnessed much hypocrisy within the early established church. At the age of nineteen, he left home and began visiting and questioning those who were considered to be religious people but he found few answers to his spiritual searching. In 1647 during a period of deep despair and depression, George Fox records in his journal, that he heard a voice which said: ‘There is one, even Jesus Christ, that can speak to thy condition, and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy’. This was only one of several ‘Openings’ that Fox had but it represented a turning point. From this moment on he knew that he could have a direct relationship with God. Fox now also came into contact with other groups who felt that here was the truth that they had been seeking. It was from these groups that Fox and other ‘Children of Light’ or ‘Friends in Truth’ as they called themselves at that time, took their Meeting for Worship.

In Quaker by Convincement, Geoffrey Hubbard’s seminal work on convinced Friends – that’s people such as Patricia and I who are not birthright Quakers but converts – he wrote that Robert Barclay, a contemporary of George Fox, said ‘…though there be not a word spoken, yet it is the true spiritual worship performed.’ The worship was so intense, the spiritual exercise so profound, that some shook and quivered under stress and earned for the Children of Light or Friends in Truth the nickname of the ‘Quakers’.

The Outward Appearance
Meeting for Worship, or just Meeting for short, can take place at any time in any place. All that is required is a room, some chairs and the promise of not being disturbed. Meetings in Ireland are typically held at 1030 or 1100 on Sunday mornings. Most Meetings, such as this one, have their own Meeting House but some, usually small Meetings – such as that in Galway – gather together in private houses. All Meetings are open to everyone who wishes to attend.

The room itself has chairs or benches organised in a square or circle two or three rows deep. There is a table in the centre, on which there is usually a vase of flowers. The decoration is calm and tranquil so there is nothing to distract the gathering.

As the time arrives people drift in and sit down. Friends usually sit in the same place week after week. The modern business practice of ‘Hot Desking’ hasn’t yet reached Friends Meeting Houses. As people sit the Meeting begins in total silence. Inevitably this silence is broken by one or two latecomers but within 5 to 10 minutes the Meeting has ‘centered down’. The Psalmist invites us to: “Be still and know I am God”. It’s in those first few moments, as the cares and worries of the day are let drop that Friends begin to experience the essence of a Meeting for Worship.

In some Meetings – like this one in Monkstown – a Friend will then stand and read a short passage from the Bible. The speaker and bible reading are prearranged. Friends mandate very little, so the person who is scheduled to speak, may decide not to read this passage and substitute it with another reading. They may also choose to supplement it with a second reading of spiritual content which has meaning to them and may come from any source. Entirely their choice.

Now beyond that initial set reading there is no program. The Meeting may continue in total silence or within a few minutes someone may stand and speak for a short time and then sit down again. That’s not premeditated in any way. The silence returns. Some minutes later another person might stand and speak, and so on it goes. The number of people who speak or Minister in Meeting can vary considerably.

The signal that the Meeting has ended is when two of the Elders – those whose main responsibility is to nurture the spiritual life of the meeting – simply shake hands, prompting other Friends and Attenders to do likewise. The Meeting is closed. The clerk reads any notices, visitors are welcomed and all comers retire to another room for a cup of tea or coffee and a welcome chat.

Children are equally important as adults in Meeting for Worship and, of course, are very welcome to attend. However, it is generally accepted that most young children wouldn’t sit through an hour long Meeting without becoming a bit restless and that there is also a need to provide some guidance and help towards understanding. So after the first 15 minutes has passed, one or two Friends will take the children out to another room to run Junior Meeting or, Sunday School until Meeting for Worship has ended.

What I have just described to you is the usual format of an unprogrammed Meeting for Worship in Ireland and for the most part in other countries too. However, some Meetings in America and Africa are quite different. These are programmed Meetings, which are often led by a pastor, include some hymns, bible readings and a sermon or talk. There also may or may not be a period of silent worship. We are part of a world Quaker community where diversity adds to the richness of our collective experience.

The Meetings, where the business affairs of Friends is done, are conducted as a continuance of the Meeting for Worship. They are often started with a short period of silence and are based on our belief in the presence of God and seeking divine guidance in all decisions made.

Now I’m conscious that the description you’ve just heard may sound sterile but this is just the outward appearance of what is happening. To fully understand the Meeting for Worship we must go deeper and understand something of the light that guides the Meeting.

Ministry
In her book, Living the way, Quaker spirituality and community, Ursula Jane O’Shea states: Many early Friends were seeking at the time they heard George Fox preach. In Quaker terms they were not converted by his words but by the testimony of their own inward guide, who affirmed what they heard and led them to join the movement and transform their lives…

In Meeting we gather and wait patiently in silence, knowing that we are in the presence of God, and by our stillness making ourselves open to him so that we can know his will. Thus in spoken ministry we act as a channel for the guidance of God within us. Vocal ministry comes through us not from us. It is not an intellectual exercise.

When I joined Friends I had almost 20 years work experience in the IT industry behind me much of which included public speaking to groups of all sizes. Yet, this was poor preparation for what happened the first time I heard that ‘inner voice’ and was prompted to speak at Meeting. I was agitated and my heart was pounding so much I felt it must be disturbing Friends seated nearby and obvious to all. My paltry attempts to resist were brushed aside. At that moment I could no more suppress the feeling to rise than I could stop breathing. As I sat back down some minutes later I felt the gentle squeeze of a small hand in mine. The owner was Moira Gillespie, an elderly Quaker who was to become one of my dearest friends during my first years at Meeting. Moira to me embodied the essence of what it means to be a Quaker. Quite simply, she was love personified.

The contributions to a Meeting can sometimes develop from one Friend to another but there is no room for a debate, answering or contradicting one another. Of course, not everything that is spoken of deepens the spiritual value of the meeting. We are human after all. However, it can also be quite surprising when, from time to time, a Friends ministry speaks directly to another’s unspoken thoughts. On more than one occasion, someone has come to me after Meeting to tell me how what I had said reflected their own thoughts exactly or even helped them in some way. As Quakers we believe: ‘that there is that of God in everyone’ and are moved by the one divine spirit.

Marrianne McMullen, an English Friend, put it beautifully when she said: “Ministry is what is on one’s soul, and it can be in direct contradiction to what is on one’s mind. It’s what the inner light gently pushes you toward or suddenly dumps in your lap”.

Experience
Much of what I am about to say here in this final section I derive from Geoffrey Hubbard’s book Quakers by Convincement not just because his description is so eloquent but because it so closely resembles my own experience. He begins by taking the view of the agnostic whom he assumes is looking to understand the nature of man. In doing so our curious friend recognizes his own intellect. Although he can describe the structure of the brain or the physical attributes of the body there is something missing because this alone will not describe either you or me. We are something more.

At this stage let me stop for a moment and relate a personal memory. About 30 years ago, one Saturday evening, while I was still a college student in Dublin, I went to a house party somewhere in the midlands. I can’t be any more precise than that because it was quite normal then to tag along to any and every old bash. As students we were poor so the lure of free food and the odd drink or two was too good to pass up. Nor do I have any idea of either who or what we were celebrating. All I remember is that the house was rocking. Bodies lay strewn in every nook and cranny. As I wandered from room to room, looking for someone familiar I pulled up sharp. Through the melee I could see a face I recognized but not one I was expecting. For a fleeting moment I imagined that I was looking into a mirror for the image in front of me as closely resembled my own as could be humanly possible. What was even more bizarre was that this stranger shared my surname. Many people that night remarked how similar we were but no one was confused between us. Despite the eerie resemblance he was still himself and I was still me. There was something more.

From the moment one becomes aware of this ‘something more’ there is an urgent curiosity to discover more about it. It has something to do with individuality, with being me and not you. Hubbard argues, that if we continue to persist, with this examination, we pass through stage after stage of identifying and rejecting parts of our self which is not the essential self that we seek. The more we know about ourselves the less significant that knowledge seems.

Thankfully, we are offered an antidote to this condition. It is to be quiet, not just physically but mentally. If instead of using the mind, instead of thinking, instead of referring everything to the standards of the intellect, we suspend this continuous argument in our head and become still, then we have a whole new awareness. We are aware of a sense of unity with the whole of creation, aware of the every sense of being which has so far escaped us. Simply put, we have discovered the spirit which is in us.

The nature of the divine spirit is not in the working of the mind but in the motivation which direct the mind. It is personal in that each of us is a channel for it and can be aware of its power; and yet it is universal, in that the divine spirit in you is the same as the divine spirit in me.

You may be sitting there thinking that I haven’t proved anything. No one can prove this to anyone else, but you can prove it to yourself. We are asked to: “Be still and know I am God”. One way of attempting this is by joining in the silence of Quaker worship. There, all about you are engaged in the same effort, and God grows and strengthens in all.

One last story. Earlier I mentioned an old friend, Moira Gillespie. Moira was an artist and it showed. Her house was tastefully decorated by many beautiful paintings and sculptures and surrounded by a magnificent garden. Although when we first met, her speech was already beginning to fail she had an active mind and a vibrant personality. I spent many fine evenings in her company discussing our shared love of poetry and science. In a large bay window hung a prism through which the light often streamed throwing its spectrum of colours onto a nearby wall. That image I carry with me everywhere. To me it represents that no matter how diverse we are there is that divine spirit in each of us and as Quakers of old said: we can truly walk cheerfully over the world answering that of God in everyone.

Adam Grennan, October 2, 2008.

Articles

Friends Trust (Eire) LTD

Valaura, Kimberley Road, Greystones, Co. Wicklow
The following letter was issued in November 2006 by Friends Trusts (Eire) Ltd. to all Preparative Meetings, Monthly Meetings and Quarterly Meetings in RoI with a copy to all bodies for whom Friends Trusts (Eire) Ltd. acts as Trustee. It was recently agreed to have this letter printed in The Friendly Word and published on the Quaker website to draw Friends attention to in particular the contents of paragraph 2.

Dear Friends

The Directors of Friends Trusts (Eire) Ltd. (FTE) agreed that a letter should be sent to all Meetings and to each body for which FTE hold property or investments to remind them of the role of FTE. FTE only acts as a Nominee and/or bare trustee. Responsibility for management of investments or real estate belonging to any Meeting, fund or committee rests with that body and its advisors. Please consider Chapter 18 from Organisation and Christian Discipline, Trusteeship of Property and Securities.

In its role as Trustee, FTE would like to remind you of the responsibilities undertaken by Friends who are appointed to manage funds and other assets on behalf of Meetings or committees. It is important to ensure that appropriate procedures and systems are in place to support and safeguard Friends who take on such roles, which can be onerous and challenging. Your bank should be able to advise on appropriate best practices. For example cheques should require two signatures, bank statements could be checked by more than one Friend, duties and responsibilities should be reviewed from time to time. Such practices are designed to protect officers and members by building in checks against inevitable human error or deliberate misuse. We should not be complacent in this area, we are aware that Friends in North Somerset and Wiltshire Monthly Meeting recently experienced the trauma of a betrayal of trust involving a substantial theft of funds.

FTE would also like to take this opportunity to remind Friends of the legal requirement to adhere to the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003. You may find it useful to obtain a copy of A Guide for Data Controllers which is available from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (Tel: 01 8748544) or can be downloaded from http://www.dataprotection.ie.

Your friend

Susanna M. Murdoch, Secretary, FTE

Directors: D.B.R. Poole (Chairman), P.R. Jacob, W.F. Bell, E.G.B. Clibborn, J.G. Douglas, S.M. Murdoch, D.A. Pim, B.S. Pim,, B.S.W. Little, R.H. Johnson.

Secretary: S.M. Murdoch.
Charity Number: CHY4458
Registered in Dublin No 10092; Registered Office: Quaker House, Stocking Lane, Dublin 16.