Being Salt and Light at Kabarak, Kenya

From 17–25 April 2012, almost 1,000 Quakers (Friends) from all over the world came together at Kabarak University near Nakuru in Kenya. This was the Sixth World Conference of Friends, a once-in-a-generation event with the theme of ‘Being salt and light in a broken world’. You can read more material from the conference at www.saltandlight2012.org

I was at the Sixth World Conference. So what did I experience? What made it special for me? This was not my first international Quaker conference, nor my first Quaker event in Kenya. However, I found the Sixth World Conference was special and profound: I believe it will have a lasting effect on my spiritual life. And not just because of its size!

Powerful messages

We began each day with worship on the theme. Much of this worship was ‘programmed’, in that it was prepared in advance. This is slightly different from unprogrammed Quaker worship as practised in my home meeting, but it is common enough at larger Quaker events. I was really grateful for the care and faithful work which speakers had given to their message: almost all of the 7 or 8 speakers gave me food for thought.

There are a few points which really stood out for me. First, many speakers reminded us of the need to stay ‘salty’ – to preserve our God-given flavour even when this might be uncomfortable or challenging. I think this is a special challenge for liberal and unprogrammed Quakers. We are rightly concerned to foster an open atmosphere, so we can include a diverse community. But we should not lose our distinctive flavours as we do this: a bland faith community is of little use.

Noah Baker-Merril shared a powerful message with an existential theme. I was really struck by his retelling of the story of Anne Wilson, an early Friend who challenged young Samuel Bownas:

…she with a great zeal pointed her finger at me uttering these words with much power, viz: ‘A traditional Quaker; thou comest to meeting as thou went from it, and goes from it as thou came to it but art no better for thy coming; what wilt thou do in the end?’

[Quaker faith & practice, 19.60]

I was really struck by this reminder that Quaker worship is supposed to be transformative. How ready am I to be transformed?

Jocelyn Burnell spoke about community and brokenness. She encouraged us to be honest about pain and difficulty we’d experienced in our lives. Jocelyn pointed out that often there is no ‘quick fix’ for brokenness – sometimes we just have to live with it for a while. She also reminded us that we can be called to ministry, even when we feel ‘broken’. And that a community doesn’t need to be perfect to be prophetic. I found this very thought-provoking. Often within the Quaker tradition, we can expend a lot of energy ‘putting our house in order’. Perhaps feeling that we need a little more time to perfect ourselves before we are ready to go out and answer God’s call. And yet it is clear that we can minister and be faithful to God’s call just as we are. Indeed, ministry from a ‘broken’ (or imperfect) place can be more authentic, more real, than supposedly ‘perfect’ ministry.

Transforming each other

But the conference wasn’t just about wise words spoken in a plenary session. We also spent time in small home groups. This was where I felt we put some of the wise words into practice. We were very honest with one another, sharing deeply from our spiritual experience. We didn’t hold back out of fear of causing offence, but we were respectful and listened carefully. I was really struck by this powerful mix of honesty and openness. It felt like God was using us to teach one another. I was also impressed at how gathered our times of worship felt. Often at conferences where diverse forms of Quaker worship are practised, we can get ‘trapped in the form’. By this I mean that we are so struck by the novelty or unfamiliarity of a different form of worship, that we find it hard to experience God through it. At Kabarak, I could see Friends experiencing God through many different practices.

Another time where I felt God was using us to teach each other was during a series of Young Friends meetings. We met several times late in the evening, as the main programme was full. We were asked if we would like to share a message with the main conference. So we spent a session in open worship, with people sharing as the spirit led from the body of the meeting. Two Friends were clerking, trying to come up with something which faithfully conveyed our experience to the wider conference. It became clear that we didn’t want to settle for a bland ‘minute of record’ – a bare statement explaining that we met and what we did together. So we tried for something more like an epistle, something which shared the content of our experience. Sadly, though we got close, we did not find unity on a shared message to the wider conference, even though we met for a second late-night session. Perhaps we tried to do too much in too little time? Perhaps we lacked a shared understanding of what we were trying to do? There certainly wasn’t a specific ‘issue’ which blocked us from agreement. However, I know that when we realised we were not going to find unity in a shared message, that felt painful. We felt like we had failed somehow. I felt bruised and humbled, since I had encouraged Young Friends to come together and try a minute. But after some prayer and reflection, I came to realise that our time together had not been fruitless. We might not have agreed a formal message, but God had used us to teach one another. Out of a place of worship, we had written an epistle on our hearts. So perhaps a living example of how ministry can come from brokenness.

There were many other powerful experiences at Kabarak. Just living in such a large, cross-cultural community for over a week was transformative in itself. I felt blessed to see old friends again (especially my roommate Ben, who I hadn’t seen since 2005), and to meet many new friends for the first time.

Overall, I think some of the key messages from the Sixth World Conference were:

• An emphasis on listening to God
• Being ready to be transformed
• Being ready to speak to one another’s condition
• Also, being honest about where Quakers worldwide are at: we have some divisions, some brokenness.
• Accepting that brokenness as a gift and not an obstacle

How might I change?

I come away from the conference with several challenges. I should be more ready to be transformed by what I experience in meeting. I want to challenge liberal Quakers to preserve their flavour and avoid blandness. I am reminded that sometimes, when parts of our lives or the world around us feel ‘broken’, we should resist the temptation to find a human fix. Sometimes our calling is to persevere as we are, to grow from that imperfect place.

How might Quakers change?

I feel that our home group was a metaphor for the whole conference. In our time together, we had a space of real honesty, learning from and teaching each other. We were hearing one another, and were ready to be changed by one another. I feel that this experience was shared across the wider conference, too. My prayer is that in the wider Quaker community, God can use us to teach and transform each other, and be taught and transformed by one another.