Hope for the future
IWASN’T planning to be at home this week – instead I expected to be at Bath University attending Britain Yearly Meeting, until the coronavirus struck. Every year since 1668 a gathering of The Society of Friends from throughout Britain has taken place in person, until this year. Thank goodness for the internet, this year a shortened gathering will take place online.
The gathering is typically of two thousand people from throughout Britain lasting several days, usually at Friends House, the Quaker Centre in London. However every third year it is held as a week-long residential stay elsewhere, this year it was to be held at Bath University.
The gathering is used to meet together in worship and reflect on the current issues brought to the gathering and discern the way forward. It is a chance for old Friends and new to meet and talk as well as time for quiet reflection.
One of the issues brought forward was the revision of Quaker faith and practice. This book constitutes the Christian discipline for Quakers in Britain covering Christian life, faith and thought, Christian practice and Church Government.
It was first issued in 1738 in manuscript form, and every generation since it has been updated to accommodate changes in language, religious thought and social attitudes and in the nature of British Society itself. Oh well, it took eight years for the last revision, so maybe an extra year is of little consequence.
Included in the gathering since 1908 has been the Swarthmore Lecture. This has two purposes: to interpret to Quakers their message and mission, and to make the wider public aware of the spirit, the aims, and fundamental principles of Friends.
This year it will be live-streamed, entitled Openings to the infinite Ocean: A Friendly Offering of Hope by Tom Shakespeare.
It will address how do we face all the very real, terrible things that happen in our world and still have hope? How did Friends in the past have hope in dark times and how can we have it today? Tom will reflect on the nature of hope, our reasons to hope, and how we can preach hope through the way we live our lives.
These questions are so pertinent for the current times, however we should all be content with what we can do and not that which we can’t. We should do what we can faithfully and with love in our hearts.