Hastings Quakers

 OUR  ORIGINS 

“Quakers” is the name we generally go by. Technically we are "The Religious Society of Friends" – a bit of a mouthful, that, and normally only used for formal or official purposes. However although Quakerism can be treated for many practical purposes as a religion or a “Church”, the expression “religious society” is in some ways a better way of describing what Quakers are about, as we shall see.

The Society arose in England during the 1650’s when Oliver Cromwell governed the country after executing King Charles and overthrowing the established political and religious order. It was a time of turmoil and unrest, not only in public life but also in terms of people’s values and beliefs. New and radical ideas were being floated – some of them surprisingly advanced even by today’s standards. Out of this atmosphere of enquiry and uncertainty emerged a Leicestershire man – George Fox – who as a young man had profound spiritual instincts but found that none of the existing Churches or religious systems were able to answer his needs. Then in 1647 out of the blue he had a “road to Damascus” experience of the presence of God, and realised that living in the awareness of God’s presence – or “living in the Light” as he expressed it – was all the spiritual guidance one needed.

At that time many people were anticipating the imminent return to earth of Jesus Christ (some people still do!) but Fox now felt that Christ had in fact already returned – not in the way people expected, but in a spiritual sense. Fox declared “Christ has come to teach his people himself”. There was no need to wait for the “Kingdom of God” to arrive: it was already here, for anyone who wanted it. It followed that the whole apparatus of priests, rituals and theological systems built up by the established Churches, both Catholic and Protestant, were superfluous. Fox also, controversially for that time, held that this spirit – the “light of Christ” – is to be found in every human heart, not just among Christians.

Fox was convinced that this was in fact how Christianity had been at the beginning and was always meant to be, but that over the ages vested interests and power-hungry individuals had corrupted the original simplicity of the Christian message and ossified the Church. As the 20th century writer Reginald Reynolds put it, “Quakerism began as a protest against dead letter religion” (in “John Woolman and the 20th century”). 

Fox was anxious to spread the message, and travelled the country sharing his insights. He found many sympathetic hearers among people – “seekers” as they were called – who were also feeling spiritually hungry, and disillusioned with organised religion. In a very few years the scattered congregations of followers that Fox left in his wake were organised into a network of “Meetings” (as congregations of Quakers are still called to this day). In 1652 Fox’s message took on the nature of a mission, when he gained a significant number of adherents during a visit to the Lake District and in particular the invaluable support and protection of the influential Fell family whose home at Swarthmoor Hall became the centre of operations, 

In those days, refusing to conform to the established order – whether the King’s or Cromwell’s – led to persecution and imprisonment. The Quakers however refused to compromise and proved impossible to suppress, developing a technique of stubborn but non-violent resistance to the abuse of power, which has been an example through the ages ever since. Soon Quakers were introducing their beliefs to lands beyond the British Isles, from Russia to the West Indies. William Penn even established a Quaker state in North America, called Pennsylvania, which during the seventy years or so that Quakers were able to retain control of it, was a beacon of enlightenment compared with the narrow-minded intolerance that characterised most of the Puritan colonies of New England at that time.

QUAKER  BELIEFS

The first thing to realise is that Quakerism is not about “faith” in the crude sense of “blind belief in received dogma” but rather about the kind of faith which comes from trusting in the truth and validity of our shared experience. Quakers have no “creed” – there is no list of beliefs that members must subscribe to. As the Quaker writer John Lampen puts it, “The danger in holding a creed is that people begin to believe that its words can actually contain the truth, and that everything depends on getting them right. The creed itself becomes venerated, instead of the experience to which it points.”

So far as Quakers are concerned, issues such as the Trinity or the Virgin Birth are matters of opinion which you can believe or not as you please, but we tend to avoid fruitless speculation about things which nobody can possibly know for certain. In any case such questions do not affect our view of our place in the world, or our purpose in being here. What matters to us is the sort of person you are, and the way you live your life.

The basis of Quakerism is simply that there is something within each of us which we call “that of God” or sometimes more simply, “The Light” or “The Spirit”. It is in everyone, no matter how obscure it may appear, or difficult it may be to see it sometimes! The more we bring our lives consciously into the presence of this inward Light, the more we can experience the love and comfort, wisdom and guidance that comes with “living in The Light”. As Luke’s Gospel puts it, “the kingdom of God is within you”.

Quakers believe in a God who is available and accessible. Our faith does not come from having to believe things we are told by priests (there are no clergy in the Religious Society of Friends) or because it is written in a book, although we do value wisdom and inspiration wherever we may find it. In the end it is a matter of what truth we ourselves discover on our own journeys of spiritual growth. Quakers do not claim to be the “one true Church” or to have all the right answers. We are more interested in asking the right questions. Quakerism, rather, is a “way”. It is a way of approaching God, a way of approaching spirituality and a way of living.

Although the founders of Quakerism set it within the Christian tradition and culture of their time, Quakers always emphasised that The Light is to be found in everyone – not only among Quakers, and not only among Christians. In the words of John’s Gospel, “It is the true Light that enlightens everyone who comes into the World”. We do not for example insist that our Members take any specific view about the significance of Bible or about Jesus Christ.  We consider that actions demonstrate better than words who the real followers of Jesus are (“by their fruits you shall know them”) and indeed it would seem on any reading of the Gospels that Jesus himself was much more interested in the way people behaved to each other, rather than in what religious theories they held. The historian George Trevelyan, commenting on Quakers in his  seminal work “English Social History” hit the nail on the head when he wrote that the Quakers were concerned with upholding Christian qualities rather than Christian dogmas.

Quakers therefore have abandoned much of the trappings of the historic Christian Churches: we have no liturgy, no clergy, no sacraments. However while Quakers have little time for abstract religious dogma, we do share certain basic and enduring values expressed in statements which we call “Testimonies”. These are not just things we say we believe in: it is the way we live. They record the things we have found that work for good in the world, a way to express how our experience of God translates into action – for Quakerism is above all a practical religion which affects how we actually live and act day by day, not just a set of theories which we recollect on Sundays.

"You will say, Christ saith this, and the apostles say this, but what canst thou say? Are thou a child of Light and hast walked in the Light, and that which thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?"  (George Fox)