Book Review: The 2014 Swarthmore Lecture

QUAKER VISION: A Personal submission to QF&P Revision Review Committee

QUAKER VISION

Personal submission to QF&P Revision Review Committee

We need to accept and re-assert that ours is a religious society. Philanthropy is the outcome of our worship of God, our trust in our discernment of God’s will, and our readiness to heed God’s leadings. We need to extinguish simplistic conceptions of the nature of ‘God’ as a sin-centred autocrat. ‘God’ is the source of an entirely ‘good’ power which manifests itself within us individually and corporately, the nature or location of which we cannot comprehend, but the effects of which we experience.

Though we as liberal Quakers recognise mainly the reality of God’s Spirit, we accept also the value of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. We respect and can learn from the scriptures and prophets of all religions.

In practice we need to give greater priority to our religious and philanthropic activities, and less to our own procedures, structures, and church administration. Corporately we need to support more actively the good work whose needs we have discerned. We might encourage travelling in the ministry, for instance by giving over 15 minutes of worship time to hearing visiting Friends’ concerns, or about other Meetings’ practices.

We must not strive unduly to undertake more work than our resources permit, but we must also contribute more, especially financially. 5% of net income might be the norm. Mundane duties such as maintenance of premises, accountancy, room-bookings and secretarial duties can be undertaken by paid professionals. We might even consider paid pastoral resources to assist our Overseers.

We need also to give a higher priority to our mutual friendship, and the building of local Quaker communities, normally of no more than 50 Friends, supporting each other in our domestic, personal and professional activities.

We must be readier to lay down poorly-attended Meetings, and boldly to attempt to establish new Meetings.

(End)

Supporting ‘evidence’

1. The 2014 Swarthmore Lecture
2. When we consulted on what became our framework to 2014, the great majority of individuals and Meetings gave priority to ‘our spiritual life’. This option was the nearest to what I would have preferred, ‘Our life as a religious society of friends’.
3. Most Friends in our local Meetings see Quakers as one of the religious organisations they may attend on a Sunday. “Friends House” seems to have lost sight of us as a religious denomination, but rather as a philanthropic pressure group working for peace and justice. Moreover, or perhaps alternately, they (and some Area Meetings) seem to regard retention of our membership numbers as paramount, to the extent that religious characteristics are suppressed.
4. If we cease to be God-centred, Spirit led, ‘humble learners in the school of Christ’, if we do not feed the ‘fire which the Life kindled in us’, if we lose our faith in a guiding divinity, then we shall be no more effective than the very many other worthy associations.
5. We are bound by the ‘Purposes’ defined in our governing documents, i.e. to be ‘religious’. Though the Charity Commission interpret ‘religious’ very widely, we agreed in effect to define it by pointing to our ‘book of Christian discipline’. So we simply may not morph into humanism. As we must remain ‘religious’ let us embrace that characteristic with enthusiasm!

Stephen Petter, 3/10/14

The Spiritual Society of Friends (formerly Quakers) in Britain?

The Spiritual Society of Friends?

“Quaker Faith and Practice” (QF&P) and most Quaker publications make clear that Quakerism is God-centred, as would be expected since BYM is an active member of the Churches Together movement. Despite this, letters to The Friend from some Friends, presumably members, often say that though the writer rejects ‘God’, the fact that he or she gets great spiritual satisfaction from meetings for worship makes him or her truly a Quaker. But we are not the Spiritual Society of Friends! Spirituality is only a part of religion, albeit an essential one. We can get great spiritual satisfaction from a wide variety of experiences: the sight of mountains or icebergs; babies’ toes; fine music; great works of art. One can do so on one’s own. One can do so then quickly go back to normal life, as a soldier, a crook, or banker. But being truly religious means being in a community of like minded friends, experiencing together ‘that of God’, and consequently trying to live according to God’s purpose, as it were. In meeting for worship we can be gathered by God’s Spirit, shown our darkness, and led into a new life – if we allow it. This is much more than meditation, spiritually powerful though the latter can be.

It seems that those who firmly reject reject ‘God’ do so for one of two reasons. Some reject the ‘Quaker essential – divine guidance’, whatever its source is named. They would be more at home with the Humanists. Others accept the idea of some form of Divinity, or Higher Power but balk at calling it ‘God’. This is usually because they have a grotesque, outdated, simplistic, even childish idea of what the word ‘God’ signifies. They think it refers to an arrogant, praise-seeking, autocratic, jealous and angry sin-centred masculine ogre. Few intelligent Christians hold this view today, and Quakers never have. Every mention of God in QF&P, if accompanied with any implication of God’s attributes or effects, is benign, uplifting, and thoroughly acceptable.

We (long-standing members) are to blame for this persistent misconception. We sadly lack a teaching ministry. We do little to inform newcomers of Quaker (or modern Christian) understandings. We have been too afraid of challenging our ‘refugees from Christianity’. (The notion that enquirers would be driven away by religious language is belied by the massive growth of esoteric religions and evangelical Christianity.) We have sold them a pig in a poke in purporting that Quakerism is not a God-centred, Spirit-led Faith group, promoting it instead as simply a social group of terribly nice people who meditate and express concern at some of the ills of humankind.

We are inclusive and non-creedal. We do not reject atheists. But we do hope that people will ‘allow God to teach and transform’ them. And we certainly do not need people deliberately to undermine our faith, our willingness to trust that good things are the leadings of God.

Book review: “… a meeting point between Vedic Vision and … Christ”

Book Review

“Integral Dynamic Monotheism – A meeting point between the Vedic Vision and the vision of Christ”,  John Martin Sahajanananda.

John Martin, a Benedictine monk, visits Britain frequently to give talks and hold dialogues, as he does at Shantivanam Ashram in Tamil Nadu, where he has followed Bede  Griffiths as a spiritual director. The Ashram was founded to establish a way of contemplative life based on the tradition of Christian monastism and Hindu Sanyassis. 

In this, the latest of his seven books, Brother Martin demonstrates in an accessible manner how the Gospel story of Jesus is consistent with the ancient teachings of Hinduism found in the Vedas and the Gita. 

For instance, three stages of spiritual development in the Hindu tradition are exemplified by three statements attributed to Jesus at significant times of his life. First, “My Father is greater than me”, which implied that his relationship with God was as Creator – creature (created); two separate entities. Secondly, Jesus later said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”, implying mutual in-dwelling; Jesus as a manifestation of God; both are of the same essence. Brother Martin likes the analogy of water and ice, in that each is separate, in different forms, but of the same essence. This could be likened to the Quakers’ “that of God in everyone”. Thirdly, when Jesus said, “The Father and I are one”, he had reached a level of super-consciousness in which he apprehended the total unity of all creation, because all creation is God. According to Brother Martin, we also can reach this level of consciousness. He disputes the Christian doctrine which claims that only Jesus could be fully human and fully divine. 

The book includes an overview of the development of Hinduism in six stages, all of which are monotheistic, differing in their understanding of humans’ relationship with God, and the nature of reality.  These stages were followed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by radical reforms due to Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, and Aurobindo. What had been lacking in Hinduism was advocacy of love of one’s neighbour, as taught by Jesus. What Christianity lacks, says Martin, is appreciation of God within, though Martin draws attention to exceptions, such as Meister Eckhart [check spelling].

Brother Martin is inclined to make rather startling assertions, such as “Christianity has failed Christ”. One’s surprise that he has not been sanctioned by the Church is perhaps indicative of one’s ignorance of the true nature of Catholicism.

Also startling, to me, was his suggestion that “atheism is a kind of fire that purifies the God of history”, in that it shows up the misleading effect of the historical images (metaphors) of God. A person who has got beyond the lowest levels of consciousness has no need for images. He or she goes from believing to knowing. But Martin does not explain how one could move on from atheism to unity with God. 

What frequently amazes me is the closeness of Quaker understandings and practices to those which Hinduism developed from the Vedas. How did George Fox discover these, unknown then, and largely still unknown, by Christianity?

I found the book interesting and very helpful to my spiritual development. I would recommend it to anyone interested in radical religion and personal spirituality, especially those whose progress from religion based on the ‘God of history’ or other Christian roots has been side-tracked into non-theism.  Don’t throw out the baby with the water! While rejecting a simplistic, erroneous image of God, there’s no need to reject God itself. 

Stephen Petter

Shantivanam, March 2014. 

The book is privately published. Copies may be obtained from this reviewer, or from the publisher: K John Martin, Saccidananda Ashram, Thannirpalli, via Marudur 639 107, Karur, Tamil Nadu, India. 

A donation of between 5 and 10 pounds, plus postage, would be appropriate. 

 

Bede Griffiths Sangha Summer Retreat 2014

Bede Griffiths Sangha Summer Retreat 2014.

 

This is the fourth time I’ve been on a Bede Griffiths Sangha (BGS) retreat. Two of them were silent, the other like this one had a theme and one or two visiting speakers or discussion leaders.

 

I drove the 150-odd miles from my home in Bristol to the venue near Fareham in Hampshire. It was signposted as the Portsmouth Diocesan Centre, but I soon found it was in fact a Franciscan nunnery. It was a grand house in several acres of parkland. I was greeted by a nun and by members of the Sangha who I’d met before. I found I was to share a room with someone who had on a past occasion found my snoring unbearable, so I quickly asked if I could upgrade to a single room, which I could, for an extra £15. I was very content with it – en suite and with a desk and a nice view. At 5.45 we had out first meditation period for about 30 minutes. After the early supper (all meals vegetarian) we had welcomes from the five founder-organisers, being told inter alia that this was the Sangha’s 20^th year, and that its first meeting had been here. We all introduced ourselves; briefly as there were 35 of us. Many had discovered the BGS due to Brother Martin’s visits to places such as local churches. A good few had been to Shantivanam, some several times. e.g. John Cresswell, who was the main event organiser, had been there shortly before my time there in March. There were one or two who had never been to a retreat, and/or who knew nothing of Shantivanam. However, several spoke rapturously about their experiences at previous BGS retreats. Later I found that at least 5 were Quakers. At 9.30 (both days) we had Namajapa, which includes chanting, followed by “the Noble silence” which lasts until after breakfast.

 

At 6.45 in the morning we gathered – well, we were spaced out all over the huge front lawn – facing the glorious risen sun (I miss-typed ‘son’!!) to recite loudly the OM then the Guyatri mantra. (I’ve worked hard, successfully, to learn it by heart). Then we had the first of the three daily periods of meditation and prayer. After half an hour meditation we have a programme very like that at Shantivanam. It includes chanting, and two readings which had been selected to support the theme of the weekend, which was “The Power of Transformative Love”. (When they asked for volunteers, I offered, and my reading was a poem by Rumi.) The chanting is often in Sanskrit (with a translation provided) or short repetitive pieces in the manner of Taize. Then breakfast.

 

We then had the first of three sessions entitled ‘Christian-Sufi Dialogue’, led by Brother Martin and Azim Dobson, of the Sufi Healing Order. Azim had been introduced to us. He is primarily a musician, saying he could write music almost before writing words. Frequently during the retreat he played beautifully, hauntingly, on various flutes. In each session he and Bro Martin discussed scriptures and other writings from their respective religious traditions. As can be expected, these commentaries and exchanges of views were very interesting, often moving, and spiritually inspiring. As usual Bro Martin had a radical, very refreshing take on Christianity. One of many surprising ideas he advanced was that Jesus had regarded the washing of the feet as a more relevant (important?) ritual than the eucharist. At midday we had the second period of meditation and prayer before lunch, which was followed by ‘free time’ until 3.45. In this period there were two ‘extras’ – a long Sufi story (the implied moral of which I did not agree), and some beautiful mystical poetry by Rumi.

 

I learnt quite a lot about Sufism (besides what Azim told us) from a book on it, which was available for loan. There are many schools of Sufism. They claim not to be a religion, but a philosophy, in the context of Islam. I got the impression the main virtue they preach is love of God (who they call ‘The Beloved’) taken to extremes such as to death. (I won’t try to explain the mystical aspect, if only because my knowledge is still very slight. However during the weekend I felt I’d discovered some profound truths.)

 

After tea we were split into groups of about five, and given questions to consider. With my abysmal memory I regret I have already forgotten what they were. I remember I expressed the view that I preferred the Christian emphasis on love which is more tempered than the Sufi emphasis which I felt is close to obsession. (e.g. St Paul’s ‘faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love’.) Our group did not achieve the objective set, which was to come up with hopefully profound question to ask the speakers, but rather we had a very deep, personal interaction which included my recounting the religious experience I had at SV, and two others speaking about the effect on them of the death of their spouses. We also shared our experiences of the divine, and agreed that one of our strongest spiritual experiences was of intense gratitude.

 

At 5 we had the third period of meditation and prayer, then supper, then Aziz led us in some simple meditative dances. Those who had physical difficulties sat in the middle of the circles of dancers.

 

On the Sunday morning we had the same routine as before, but after the coffee break Bro Marin led us in “A Celebration of Transformation”. We were told in advance what this was to be. First we would have a Washing of Feet, in which each of us in turn had our feet washed by our neighbour, then returned the blessing. This was done to the accompaniment of the chant, ‘Ubi caritas et amour, Ubi caritas Deus ibio est.’ We were also told that we would then share a ‘eucharist’ in similar fashion. The bread and wine were to be bread dipped in honey. (These was an amusing cerfuffle about gluten-free bread!)

 

I was greatly trouble by this prospect. I summoned up the courage to share my problem. I said I’d grown up with a strong prejudice against the eucharist, as a superstition, and this was reinforced by my being a Quaker, thus rejecting all rituals especially Eucharist. John Cresswell then told us all that this had been a problem at previous BGS retreats. Others expressed similar doubts but said that in the past they’d agreed to partake. One expressed gratitude to me for raising the topic as she had the same problem. However the loving concern, understanding, and other views caused me to decide to think about it during the break which was to precede the ceremonies. I went into the next-door  chapel, a fine, welcoming, modern place, and prayed about it. It occurred to me that my rigid rejection was itself tantamount to a superstition. Also this was not a true eucharist – the bread etc was not purporting to be actually Jesus. So I decided to go with the flow. I remarked I felt like a virgin on her way to her wedding. In the event it all seemed very ordinary. Those on each side of me were lovingly supportive, and one (who was one of the five organisers) cracked a joke which caused us to laugh, which I think some others thought a bit inappropriate. (The joke was that one had a second piece of bread – was it the the second coming?)

 

I set up my Shantivanam photos on my Mac as a ‘slideshow’, which several people found interesting.

 

After lunch: departures. I drove two parties to the station 5 miles away, then returned to an almost empty nunnery, as I’d arranged to stay on an extra night. This was because I had to make a visit on my way home and this would have meant I could not watch the football World Cup Final*. I watched it in the nuns’ sitting room. (They had it on a huge screen in their office.) In the afternoon I did some gardening, clearing brambles etc from the ‘Meditation Walk’ through the woods.)

 

Stephen Petter, 16/7/14.

* the former Pope’s side won; the present Pope’s was beaten.