Garden worship

Glorious day today, just hope that these few days are not the limit to our 2018 summer.  To make the most of it we set up our Meeting for Worship on the garden patio where some of us could choose shade while others sun.  This weekend is the weekend of Britain Yearly Meeting and Simon Jenkins, in a Guardian Opinion piece with the headline "The Quakers are right.  We don't need God."  His first paragraph,  says "Atheists, according to a Birmingham University academic, comprise a rising 14% of professed Quakers, while a full 43% felt “unable to profess a belief in God”. They come to meetings for fellowship, rather than for higher guidance. The meeting will also consider transgenderism, same-sex marriage, climate change and social media. Religion is a tiring business."

Jenkin's piece goes on to talk about people's changing attitude to churches and belief systems, accepting that "It seems cathedrals meet a quasi-secular searching for solitude and inner peace, stimulated by great architecture and music. Above all, they offer anonymity."  he explores the way in which a majority of people seek solutions that are within their own minds and are not led by a church based curriculum.  He finally concludes "Clear God from the room, and the Quakers are indeed on to something."

After a Meeting for Worship in which the Ministry matched the sparkling day our conversation turned to inclusion and diversity, another aspect of the discernment being developed in London this weekend, and which will feature at our Area Meeting this coming Saturday.  No doubt the future of the Society of Friends is dependent upon increasing inclusion and diversity, but is our membership procedure getting in the way?  Most churches have membership process based on church goers volunteering to be listed until such time that their membership ends by choice or death.  We now have a data protection process that controls the information in our membership book, do we need more than that?