Précis of essay on future of Quakers
My essay for the Friends Quarterly competition on the future of Quakers in Britain is a bit long for a blog post, so here is a summary:
- I consider the period up to 50 years from now (until my 80th birthday)
- We’re a persistent group, but need to tackle some problems to ensure our survival
- Survival in my view turns on the question of identity
- We should:
- avoid using a superficial unity of practice as the source of our identity
- instead, recover a stronger sense of the ‘essentials’ or common Quaker starting points
- prune time-consuming elements of bureaucracy (make our business as lean as our worship)
- radically rethink structures which currently place much of our resources and faith in action at arms’ length
- spend more time in study and worship together to forge a stronger sense of identity
- These steps should give us a more coherent voice in the world, hence boost our chances of survival
johnfitzgerald
but just to clarify, when you type about pruning back some of our bureaucracy & making our business as lean as our worship, what are you considering to be ‘the fat’, & where are you thinking the workload that is pruned should be directed ?
simon gray
December 5 2009 at 5:51 pm
Hi simon,
No specific ‘fat’ in mind, but see under ‘ministry at arms length’ in the main essay for some areas where we invest a lot of energy (but might not need to).
johnfitzgerald
December 5 2009 at 10:32 pm