Enquirers' Day with Norfolk Quakers

Michael Johnson

'Come to Enquirers Day with the Norfolk Quakers,' the flyer stated. What a waste of time I thought and dismissed the event immediately. However, encouraged by Aylsham Friends I changed my mind and attended the event. So, on Saturday 9 th October, I joined twenty-five other Friends, including Aylsham Friends Anne Bettany and Annie Blunden, at the Norwich Meeting house. How thankful I am to Friends who encouraged me to attend because the day turned out to be very interesting and I got more out of it than I first thought I would.

The first session started with a short period of silence followed by a brief overview of Quaker history by David Saunders. He started with George Fox, obviously, and quickly covered 350 years to the modern day. David showed us that despite the lapse of time George Fox's key elements are still true today, these elements being that God is within all and can be experienced by all.

Next our very own Jenny Routledge spoke about Quaker Faith. She started by defining faith as trusting something or reliance upon something and how Quaker faith is based on our personal experiences. It is these experiences that we as Quakers can trust or place reliance on. Jenny went on to reveal to us something of her Quaker faith from her own experience and the part this faith has played in her life.

After Jenny, Ian Breckenridge covered worship by giving a brief summary of his spiritual journey which brought him to Quakerism. He spoke about how he had discovered that Quakerism is not about what he believed but rather about how and the way we live. We sit, listen and wait for God. He encouraged us to live life adventurously and in dialogue with God, which is always on going. Even in the most mundane experience, for Ian, is a dialogue with God, everything is special. Worship means we look at our own worth, it is special.

The morning session ended in small groups and discussing what our three speakers had spoken about, which I personally found very useful.

After a superb lunch, where much discussion continued, we joined together for twenty minutes of circle dancing, a light-hearted way of waking us up for the afternoon.

In the afternoon session three more Friends addressed us on ‘Quakers at work in the Community.' Lesley Graham spoke first on ‘Living Witness Project,' which is about supporting the development of Quaker corporate witness to sustainable living and explore ways of taking it to the wider community in Britain and elsewhere. She used examples from her involvement with ‘Green' issues of how the Living Witness programme can work, which I found informative.

Prison Chaplin, Joolz Saunders, outlined her work in prisons. She explained how Quaker concerns for prisoners grew out of the experiences of early Quakers who had suffered had imprisonment for their Quaker faith. Also I was interested to learn how it is thanks to William Penn and William Mead that our jury system came into being. Joolz' talk gave me a much better understanding of why Quakers are involved in the rehabilitation of offenders. Something I personally need to give more thought about.

An interesting report about Quaker United Nation Office (QUNO) was given by Ben Carr, who had recently attended a two week QUNO Summer School in Geneva. A subject I knew very little about. He explained how QUNO is highly respected within the UN, because they are neutral and therefore able to provide a safe space for people to meet, away from the public glare, to sort out their differences. Ben explained that QUNO was able to influence many areas within the UN, such as human rights & refugees, global economics and disarmament & peace, because of their impartialness.

Like the morning session, this session ended with a single group discussion on what Friends had spoken about. After this discussion time we had a brief introduction to Quaker songs (a novel experience), followed by a thirty minutes time of meeting for worship.

Reflecting upon the day I had expected to learn more about the basic organisational side of Quakerism, but did not. It is what I learnt from the experiences and thoughts of our six speaker's during their addresses that made the most impression on me. By expressing their personal experiences, concerns and fields of interest, they opened me up to new deeper channels of thoughts and illumination. Through their sincerity and openness they showed me what is required to live the Quaker life. They showed it is not enough to just believe in God but it's fundamental to change how and the way I live, not to be afraid to experiment and embrace all my experiences, to engage with the world about me. The importance of holding my concerns in the light and having a constant dialogue with God at all times. This is achieved in time by using Quaker concepts and support. The Quaker organisational structure and support of Friends is what sustains us in our daily lives.

Am I glad I attended this event?

'Yes,' is my reply and I would urge all those Friends new to Quakers to attend an enquirers day if they have the opportunity. There is much to be learnt from such a day, not necessary the obvious. But certainly the day was not a waste of time.