"Here is the real core of the religious problem: Help! Help!" William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience In thirteenth century Japan, the influential Buddhist teacher Shinran pointed to the distinction between 'self power' and 'other power'. While some versions of Buddhism emphasise the necessity of constant self-discipline, Shinran's 'True Pure Land' school taught that the way to enlightenment is not by our own efforts, but through faith in Amitabha Buddha. For Shinran, the power of the Buddha is infinitely beyond human capacities, but it is not distant from us - the Buddha nat ..read more

Quakers sometimes make a distinction between ‘activist’ Friends, who are attracted by the social action, and ‘mystics’ whose focus is the Meeting for Worship. For me, the Quaker way is not about becoming either an activist or a mystic. It is primarily a path of discernment - a way of enabling each of us to discover our own unique calling and potential, which will look very different for every person. For some, faithfulness to the Inner Light will lead to challenging systems of injustice. For others, it may be about building up community, supporting their neighbours, caring for children or li ..read more

  Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it. (Rumi, from 'Story Water', in 'Selected Poems ..read more

As part of the revision of Quaker faith & practice, the Book of Discipline Revision Committee has been working on how to describe and explain the practice of Quaker 'discernment'. Group members have produced some short discussion papers exploring this concept, and the working document below has been contributed by Joycelin Dawes.  Discernment is a word Quakers use to talk about their way of making decisions, whether personal or in a group. Such decisions arise from searching inwardly for a source of wisdom that might guide the decision: “The first Quakers discovered a s ..read more

We are all ageing. If we are fortunate, each of us will pass through young adulthood into middle and old age; and yet our culture is strangely silent about these typical life-passages. The idea of a 'midlife crisis' is the closest our society comes to acknowledging the transitions that most of us experience in some form. Unfortunately, our stereotypes about midlife often seem to trivialise its challenges rather than offering any useful guidance for navigating them. Without any cultural signposts to guide us through the transition from the first to the second half of life, we may experience i ..read more

White people in the UK are usually very reluctant to talk about race. We are anxious to avoid getting it wrong and causing offence, but above all we are frightened of having our own innocence challenged. Most white people have a set of unconscious strategies to defend ourselves from even thinking about the evident racial inequalities that are all around us. But current events are offering us a teachable moment. The Black Lives Matter movement has created a breakthrough in white people’s awareness of realities that we have habitually hidden from ourselves. This provides us with an opportunity ..read more

There seems to be a traditional list of excuses for why so many Quaker Meetings fail to reflect the racial and social diversity of their local communities. These include: “Silent worship doesn’t suit everyone.” “We shouldn’t be trying to proselytise.” “They prefer their own churches, which have lots of singing.” “Muslims wouldn’t want to come to a Quaker Meeting anyway.” “We do have lots of diversity, in people’s beliefs.” “We welcome everyone, but we can’t force people to come.” Despite their absurd inadequacy, versions of these statements are still frequently used to shut down the con ..read more

This is a guest post by John Gray, Zélie Gross and Wess Daniels. Together they are currently co-tutoring an online Woodbrooke course, Leadership Amongst Friends. Leadership in a Quaker sense can often be compared to servant leadership – the gathering and promotion of the group as a whole, relying always on spirit-led decision-making rather than quick fixes, valuing people, showing authenticity, and modelling good leadership and good followership. In the phrase of George Lakey, leadership is ‘taking initiative in relationship’: the offering of ideas or inspiration whilst also relying on and b ..read more

This is a brief introduction to my new book The Guided Life, which is part of the 'Quaker Quicks' series of short books about the Quaker way. If you have already read it, please consider writing a review on the Quaker bookshop website, Goodreads or Amazon. I would also welcome your feedback about the book in the comments below. I hope you are keeping safe and well in these troubled times ..read more

As part of the work of the Book of Discipline Revision Committee, we have been experimenting with different approaches to what we are calling 'the voice of the book' - the explanatory text that introduces each chapter. Some priorities we have already identified are making the language clear and accessible, and not assuming that readers will already be familiar with  Quaker practice. We are looking for ways to explain both how Quaker practices are carried out and why we do them like this, while acknowledging the wide variety of religious language and understandings within Britain Yearly ..read more