In our final Reflections session we explored passages 20.30 and 20.32 from Quaker faith & practice, on equality and simplicity. These are quite lengthy so are not reproduced in this write up.
Every new movement needs a way to unite its members, often through inspiring messages about a new lifestyle and strict rules. In the early Quaker movement, uniformity was achieved through plainness, the absence of rank, frivolity, distraction and ostentation. This meant no music, theatre, expensive church decorations or ornate furniture. This was believed to foster a direct connection with God and the Divine.
Margaret Fell (often known as the Mother of Quakerism) realised that outward simplicity and plainness could become an end in themselves, distracting people from their search for the Divine and disrupting the balance between secular and sacred life. She was crucial in navigating this paradox and the dilemmas it presented, as demonstrated in the texts.
We considered whether uniforms can serve a useful purpose or are a tool of control: school uniforms simplify decisions for parents and create a recognisable school identity, aiding outward appearance, but some religious movements and cultures impose strict rules over clothing.
Colour and music foster joy and connection, and we wondered whether people would engage with Quakers if we appeared joyless? In comparison with other religions where music is a key part of worship could Quakerism seen as uninviting or, as we would see it, offering a peaceful, calm space for listening?
We were challenged to look more closely at the origins, provenance and use of our clothing — to consider living more simply and think about how we wear, wash and recycle garments.
One Friend wears brightly coloured clothes and jewellery bought exclusively from charity shops, creating an uplifting appearance, others wear brightly coloured clothes and Quaker badges which encourage people to ask them about Quakerism.
Ultimately we concluded that uniformity of outward forms does nothing and shows nothing, but could carry an association of ‘look at us, how good we are’ so perhaps this Reflections session takes us neatly back to the first text we considered in this series: ‘the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life.’
' Do you respect that of God in everyone though it may be expressed in unfamiliar ways or be difficult to discern? Each of us has a particular experience of God and each must find the way to be true to it. When words are strange or disturbing to you, try to sense where they come from and what has nourished the lives of others. Listen patiently and seek the truth which other people’s opinions may contain for you. Avoid hurtful criticism and provocative language. Do not allow the strength of your convictions to betray you into making statements or allegations that are unfair or untrue. Think it possible that you may be mistaken.' Advices & Queries, 17.
'Think it possible you may be mistaken' was the focus of our sixth discussion of Quaker texts: a sentence which is more complicated than it first seems. It starts with the imperative, but the command is to reflect on not one but two possibilities. There may be a situation where you may be wrong.
What's more, there are multiple possible contexts for this advice. Is it a command from an authoritative third party to a failing second party? It was Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector in 1650 who first addressed the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in this way, 'I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.' We can presume that Cromwell did not think himself mistaken. It is not a command to use against others, especially as a form of weaponised spirituality.
Is it addressed to parties in conflict? The bulk of A&Q 17, about listening to others with whom you disagree and avoiding hurtful criticisms, might encourage that reading. If both parties recognise their mistakes, what then? Ideally, a rethink, a search for the middle ground, a recognition that two things can be true at the same time, or, in a Quaker context, the airing of different views and avoidance of schism.
Is it something individuals might say silently to themselves? It might encourage self-questioning, openness, even a sense of liberation. It is a popular advice amongst Quakers, and resonates with non Quakers, eliciting the adage, 'You come to Quakers to learn how to fail better.'
The overall feeling amongst our participants was that this advice, which has to do with opinions, is not in conflict with the testimony to truth. Intellectual discipline and careful judgement can arrive at shared agreement as to what constitutes fact or interpretation or speculation. Contemporary references to 'my truth' do not seem to be a useful direction of travel, and it is possible that sometimes a shared commitment to truth may be more important than kindness.
In our fifth 'Reflections on Quaker Texts' we examined Eva I Pinthus' 1987 text:
' The duty of the Society of Friends is to be the voice of the oppressed but [also] to be conscious that we ourselves are part of that oppression. Uncomfortably we stand with one foot in the kingdom of this world and with the other in the Eternal Kingdom. Seldom can we keep the inward and outward working of love in balance, let alone the consciousness of living both in time and in eternity, in timelessness. Let us not be beguiled into thinking that political action is all that is asked of us, nor that our personal relationship with God excuses us from actively confronting the evil in this world. The political and social struggles must be waged, but a person is more and needs more than politics, else we are in danger of gaining the whole world but losing our souls.' QFP 23.04
Eva Pinthus wrote from personal experience. She arrived in Britain as a teenager on the Kindertransport, and subsequently lost her family in the Holocaust. She trained as a nurse, became a Quaker and afterwards a theologian, working in Germany in peace activism and conflict resolution.
Our discussion focused on the relationship between the inward spiritual life and the outward life of everyday action and of political activism. How do we keep these things in balance? This feels particularly acute at a time of global trouble, when, as one participant quoted, 'The best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.' [Yeats, 'The Second Coming']
This tension is not unique to Quakerism: the dynamic between active and contemplative religious life is an ancient one in Christianity. There were participants in our discussion who think there need not be tension in that relationship - how we act in the world can flow naturally from our spiritual convictions. There were others who focused on daily life, on practical, small scale, everyday actions, trying not to be discouraged and to maintain a steady course.
As for political activism, there was an awareness that the path is not always clear, that some issues are clear cut but that revolutionaries can be well meaning but mistaken. For example, should we choose to address international issues or the poverty on our doorsteps, and if so, how?
In the midst of uncertainty, we might do worse than remember the words attributed to St David in the 6th century: 'Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.'
The fourth session in our series of Reflections on Quaker texts, held on Zoom on 23 February looked at a passage on conflict written by Joan Fitch in 1980:
'Part of the creative experience of a community is learning how to deal with conflict when it arises, and Friends are not usually good at this. ‘Speaking the truth in love’ is a Quaker cliché, but ‘papering over the cracks’ is the principle more commonly acted upon. Conflict met in ‘brokenness’ of spirit can take a meeting a long way on its spiritual journey, whereas unresolved it deadens the life. We are a small Society. Clashes have always arisen, just as they arise in any family group. In one sense the members of a family know each other too well, in another sense not well enough. It is impossible to impress one’s relations, but they can be a great stand-by in time of need, and it is then that they come to know each other better, if the bond is strong enough.' QFP 10.22
Disagreement, where people are able to engage with one another successfully despite having different attitudes, is not the same as conflict, which is marked by communication failure, and can often result in hurt, anger, and not being understood. Quakers have a tendency to be both cerebral and individualistic, traits which do not encourage a warm communal atmosphere, and our practice in business meetings of allowing someone to speak only once on an issue may leave some feeling unheard.
We suggested a variety of ways to deal with conflict in meetings:
take care to criticise what's said, not the speaker
· foster friendly relationships, settings, and conversation, so that when we come to talk about big issues, it is as friends not strangers
· avoid sanctimonously implying that the person you disagree with has failed in their discernment
· be aware of your own inner conflicts
· think it possible that I (not you) am mistaken
· slow down, take your time, start again if necessary
· confront a problem honestly, which is not the same as seeking conflict
· become more aware of how what you say may be received
Our Quaker threshing meetings, sophisticated structures which can allow friends to be heard in a contained space, could be used more frequently.
On Wednesday 11 February the third in our series of Reflections on Quaker texts looked at vegetarianism. We discussed Vera Haley's 1988 passage: 'If it is right that we should show love and compassion for people, surely it is right that we should extend our love and compassion to animals, who can feel fear and experience pain in much the same way as humans. They may not be able to speak, but we can certainly see fear in their eyes and demeanour. I feel that being a vegetarian is a natural progression from being a pacifist and a Quaker.' Quaker faith & practice 25.06
Quaker vegetarianism is not an invention of the twentieth century. Quaker abolitionists Benjamin Lay and John Woolman were both vegetarians in the eighteenth century, when it was a much more unusual choice.
Our discussion about not eating meat focused on the impact on the environment, on human health, and on animal suffering, and explored some of the complex issues involved in what we eat, including the way plant based eating is not without its own ethical problems, including excessive water use and food miles.
A couple of vegan friends described relief at not eating animal products, and how technology can make veganism easier, for example the production of iron tablets. Others have cut out some animal products from their diets, at least for some of the time, or are 'on a journey away from meat eating'.
Everyone agreed that industrialised animal farming has led to unacceptable levels of animal suffering, which might be mitigated on traditional farms.
We continue to grapple with the issues.
On Wednesday 28th January 2026 we held the second of our online Reflections on Quaker Texts - an opportunity for friends to explore Quaker writings that provide inspiration and guidance for our lives today.
The text we discussed was: '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 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 fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world.' Declaration to Charles II, 21 January 1661. Quaker faith & practice 24.04
The Declaration 'from the Harmless and Innocent People of God called Quakers' is one of our founding religious thoughts, setting out the commitment to peace for which Quakers are perhaps best known. However, it originated as a politically strategic document in a time of crisis, written just days after an armed uprising by Fifth Monarchists against the newly restored king, Charles II. During the Commonwealth period Quakers had not been noticeably peaceable: George Fox and the eleven other signatories to the Declaration were anxious to demonstrate that Friends were no threat to the new regime.
What may have begun as expedient became the expression of a transforming spiritual conviction, which is not to say that the challenge of living according to the peace testimony is ever easy. It is not simple, it is not set in stone - it gives us an orientation, rather than answers. In certain cases, like the American Civil War and the Second World War, some Quakers chose to fight, while others pursued alternative service or were conscientious objectors. The challenge, in a time of violent conflict in Ukraine, the Middle East, and on the streets of cities in the USA, does not go away.
The peace testimony challenges us to pay attention to all relationships, from those with family and friends, and within our meetings, as well as to relationships between nations.
On Monday 12th January 2026 we held the first of our online Reflections on Quaker texts - an opportunity for friends to explore Quaker writings that provide inspiration and guidance for our lives today. We've summarised our discussion below.
The text we chose was.. 'the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life', Postscript to an epistle to 'the brethren of the north' issued by a meeting of the elders at Balby, 1656. Quaker faith & practice 1.01
The quote is of course from St Paul, 2 Corinthians 3:6. The elders meeting at Balby, in the very early days of Quakers, issued a long list of guidelines, but finished with a postscript emphasising that 'these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by' but as guidance to be fulfilled by openness to the Spirit.
At the centre of Quakerism is the individual's experience of the Spirit, but how can we know what is Spirit-led and what is ego? There's a place for collective rules-based authority and compromise. On the other hand, Quakers, being ordinary humans, are sometimes guilty of using rules, written and unwritten, to exclude and to hurt those who are not familiar with them.
Maybe we can discern what is Spirit-led and what is not. We can ask ourselves, 'what does love require of us?', we can reflect on the Quaker testimonies, we can practise expectant waiting and hope for grace. But even after many years of being a Quaker, no one can expect to pin on a badge which says, 'I've found the answer. I've got it.'
The Stubborn Optimist: A Quaker Climate Scientist
'Stubborn optimism' in the face of climate change is what Christiana Figueres, the UN negotiater who played in a pivotal role in the achievement of the 2015 Paris Agreement, advocates, and it is what guides Emma Woolliams, Quaker and internationally respected climate scientist at the National Physical Laboratory. In December 2024, Emma spoke at Kingston Quaker Centre about her work measuring the true scale of the climate emergency - one of her current projects involves detailing the speed with which Greenland’s ice sheet is melting - and the science behind it. However, Emma also spoke of the increasing number of positive societal tipping points, from the recent closure of the UK’s last coal-fired power station, to the popularity of Greggs vegan sausage roll. The practical, corporate mysticism of Quakers gives her hope. She believes that the Quaker practice of listening attentively, and of recognising that scientific and spiritual truths both matter, can help us overcome social polarisation. We need to listen to the voices of Pacific islanders losing their homes to rising sea levels, and to workers in fossil fuel industries who face losing their livelihoods. A just transition to a more sustainable future involves searching for positive societal tipping points, and care for those struggling with the transition.
Read Emma's blogs about her work and faith.
On Saturday 19th October a packed Wandsworth meeting house enjoyed a fabulous evening of entertainment performed by Friends from the meeting. Neville Mignotte sang Jamaican songs and hits from the 60s and 70s and had the children in stitches with his lively rendition of The laughing Policeman, David Stephenson and nine year old Samuel Smith read stories and poems, and Marcus Morgan enthralled and delighted us with his magic. The evening was compered by Kate Bone, and copious amounts of tea, coffee and, of course, legendary Quaker cake, were enjoyed by all.
The Priest's Tale
The American journalist John Hersey went to Hiroshima in 1946 and interviewed six survivors of the atomic bomb, including a German Jesuit priest. Many years later he returned to Hiroshima to interview the survivors again and hear how they had negotiated the intervening years.
In The Priest's Tale, actor and Wandsworth Quaker Michael Mears enacted the story of Father Wilhelm, the terror and destruction wrought by the atomic bomb, his miraculous escape, and the long term consequences of his exposure to radiation with compassion, warmth and flashes of humour.
In 2026 the nuclear arms control START treaty may well expire, ushering in a new nuclear arms race and Quakers in South West London hosted the performance of this play to help raise awareness of the issue.
Draw Breath: Poetry on a summer evening
Draw Breath by Quaker poet Geoffrey Weeden describes the experience of a Quaker meeting for worship, and was the inspiration for the Geoffrey Weeden Poetry Prize, held in 2023. Geoffrey was part of a vibrant tradition of Quaker poets, including U.A. Fanthorpe, Philip Gross, and Basil Bunting. In June 2024 we held a poetry evening at Kingston Quaker Centre to hear some of the winning poems and enjoy a selection of works by other contemporary writers.
Thirteen year old Isabel Sudhakar opened the evening with a beautiful reading of her emotive poem Draw Breath, which won second prize in the young writers category.
Noel King, winner of the first prize for adults, then took to the floor. Noel, who was born and lives in Tralee, Ireland, is 2023-24 Writer-in-Residence at St Brendan’s College, Killarney was awarded the 2024 Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship.
Noel’s winning poem Small Duties: The Woman of the House conjures up, in 43 acutely and beautifully observed stanzas of three lines, the little details that constituted the life of a farmer’s wife in County Kerry in the 1970s.
Noel then read a selection of works including a series of sharp haikus, the tragedy of young teenagers finding an unexploded bomb, and the difficulties of choosing poetry to be read at one’s funeral. His latest collection of poems is Suitable Music for a View (SurVision Books, 2024). www.noelking.ie.
Fellow Irish poet, potter and singer Louis Mulcahy then took the stage, opening with a paean to the mountain Cruach Mhárthain which he read first in the Irish language and then in English. He followed this up with a light hearted account of his first encounter with his Danish mother-in -law, and with moving memories of his late wife, taken from Lisbeth – New & Selected Poems (Concerto Books, 2024). www.louismulcahy.com.
You can read the winning and commended poems from the Geoffrey Weeden Poetry Prize here.
Copyright of all prize poems (in print and digital media) remains with the authors but Kingston Local Quaker Meeting reserves the right to publish winning and commended poems.
Integrity in Business
Household names in Britain which were originally Quaker businesses include Barclays Bank, Clark's Shoes, and the chocolate companies Rowntrees's and Cadbury. The success of these companies was due to hard work and Quaker support networks, but also to Quakers' reputation for integrity.
What constitues integrity in business and the public world, and how it can be lost and regained, was the subject of a dialogue at Kingston Quaker Centre in April 2024 between Antonia Swinson, former business journalist and now charity CEO, and Tim Cowen, former journalist and corporate communications executive.
Antonia stressed the importance of social capital, in particular the Quaker emphasis on stewardship, trust, and building resilient communities. Tim discussed how difficult it is to rebuild trust once it is lost, citing the problems persuading at-risk groups to have the Covid vaccine, and the value of timely apologies for mistakes. In particular, he talked of the value of the Quaker advice, 'Think it possible that you may be mistaken' in light of the prosecution of sub-postmasters by the Post Office (where he worked briefly in 2011).
There was a lively Q&A session, highlighting the role of the integrity of individuals within organisations and we may well pick up this aspect in a future talk.
Artificial Intelligence and Human Spirituality, February 2024
How do we preserve what makes us human as the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies begins to encroach on all areas of our lives? Best-selling author and deputy editor at The Economist, Kenneth Cukier, examined this important question in an illuminating talk at Wandsworth Quaker Meeting House.
Starting with a great introduction to AI and in particular the growth of large language models such as ChatGPT, Kenn showed how the technology could provide insights hitherto undetected by humans, such as the ability to correlate retinal scans to gender, something scientists have yet to fully understand. However, whilst he cautioned us against over-reliance on technology, he provided a telling illustration of how the human brain could infer something that the technology could not. An illustration of this was provided by a graphic showing what appeared to be a number of triangles. The audience guesses ranged up to eleven or more, but the “correct” answer was zero, which is what a rules-based AI would have come up with. This illustrated our brains’ ability to infer something by using insight and our own mental models, something that machines cannot – and arguably will never be able to do.
Our greatest way of preserving our humanity in the face of increasing automation is therefore to allow the space and stillness to let inspiration emerge.
This was a fascinating topic that kept the packed audience in rapt attention throughout and gave us all much to ponder on.
Note: this write up was produced by a human being – an attempt to use Zoom’s AI features to produce a meeting summary failed, which the audience found rather cheering.
Prison Reform: 200 years on from the Gaols Act, December 2023
The Gaols Act of 1823, inspired by the work of prison reformer and Quaker Elizabeth Fry, was implemented to improve conditions in English prisons. Today we see chronic overcrowding, understaffing, and lack of investment in the prison estate.
This was the subject of our dialogue on prison reform in December 2023 at Wandsworth Meeting House. Dr Steve Foster, Associate Professor in Law at Coventry University, discussed the legal difficulties in advocating for prisoners' rights, given that prisons are intended to be harsh.
Single instances of degrading conditions do not breach Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, but multiple instances of inhumane treatment may do, 'and we are very close to catastrophe.'
Liz Bridge, the Quaker chaplain at Wandsworth Prison, gave us a graphic picture of the conditions at one of the worst prisons in the UK: the unsanitary overcrowding, the effects of understaffing, the rats, the high rate of mental illness, the lack of purposeful activities for the prisoners.
A passionate Q and A session followed: the consensus was that not only does the criminal justice system need more funding, but that what goes on inside the system should be more widely acknowledged.
You can read a short essay by Steve on the dilemma of Protecting Prisoners' Rights and enforcing Standards on Prison Conditions here.
An important update: The talk shocked the audience. Here was a prison in our midst where men were living in degrading conditions. In January a group of Quakers and other concerned friends decided to press for and encourage improvements for prisoners, staff and visitors. The aim is to return the prison to decent living conditions, away with rats, flooding, overflowing toilets, suffocating boredom, violence; in with good plumbing, a clean environment, organised activities, reliable daily routines. Some of the problems will be beyond the capacity of the group - the increasing numbers going to prison, the nature of the grim old building. But the group have committed for the long haul.
The conditions in Wandsworth were the subject of an extended item on Channel 4 News on 14th February and featured an interview with Liz Bridge, which you can see here.
Working for Peace: Reducing the Nuclear Threat, October 2023
The threat of nuclear war has hung over the world since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. But, as Paul Ingram from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University said at the second in our series of dialogues on Working for Peace, deterrence has “worked” for the past 78 years, in that nuclear weapons have not been used in conflict. Nonetheless, the massive stockpile continues to threaten unthinkable destruction even if only a fraction of the weapons were ever used.
Despite this depressing scenario, Paul encouraged us to see the potential for forming relationships where opponents see the humanity in each other and reach beyond conflict. Describing the Stepping Stones project that he had worked on – currently shelved as a result of COVID and the war in Ukraine – he showed the possibility of a route out of the chaos by recognising our need for common security and a set of gradual measures that could reduce the likelihood of nuclear weapons being used.
He concluded a passionate and heartfelt discussion by urging us to be revolutionary in our daily lives and talk about – and practice – compassion.
Working for Peace: Faith in Action, September 2023
Quakers are known for their commitment to working for peace. - which does not just mean pacifism, but active work to reduce violent conflict.
In September 2023 two Quakers spoke of their work in the field at Kingston Quaker Centre. Tanya Williams described how Friends Peace Teams Europe train local people in the Alternatives to Violence project (first set up by Quakers) and how they support Ukrainian team members. Helen Drewery spoke of her 10 years on the governing body of the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva, which focuses on mediation behind the scenes.
A very engaged audience asked several questions, including how the Alternatives to Violence project can be adapted to different scenarios, and how Quakers' long reputation as honest brokers in peace work serves them in practice.
Refugees: Quaker Perspectives & Experiences, June 2023
Quakers have a long history of helping the displaced, including enslaved people during the American Civil War, and children rescued from Nazi Germany.
In June 2023, at a public meeting at Kingston Quaker Centre, one Quaker spoke of her experiences over many years with Kingston Refugee Action and hosting asylum seekers. Another described her work with the Refugee Tales project, in which established authors help refugees tell their stories. Four volumes of Refugee Tales have now been published. (See refugeetales.org for more information) A civil rights activist who is in the process of claiming asylum told his own story. The audience was clearly moved by these very personal accounts.
Climate Crisis: A Dialogue on Actions and Beliefs, March 2023
Many Quakers are environmental activists, but being free thinking individuals, they do not choose the same forms of action. In March 2023, three Quakers took part in a public meeting at Kingston Quaker Centre to discuss their activism and how it is shaped by their Quaker faith, their attitudes to the climate crisis, and what ordinary citizens can do. Questions from the audience afterwards included doubts about the political effectiveness of Extinction Rebellion, and explorations of the science involved in understanding the climate crisis. Very helpfully, Emma Woolliams, a Quaker and climate scientist, was in the audience and was able to answer those questions.
Why I am a...a Dialogue on Beliefs and Values, December 2022
In December 2022, a local Quaker, an Anglican vicar, and a member of Humanists UK were part of a public meeting held at Kingston Quaker Centre to discuss their beliefs and values, and how they had arrived at them. The speakers gave candid accounts of their personal journeys, and their doubts and reservations along the way. What emerged was how much the speakers had in common, especially a shared commitment to care and compassion for other people, and the bonds formed in faith communities. There was a lively discussion with the audience.