Quakerism isn't a DIY religion but a Do it Together religion
This was a theme from Ben Pink Dandelion’s 2014 Swarthmore Lecture (linked below) and revisited in last October’s ‘Future of British Quakerism Conference’. If you’d like to listen to that ask your Area Meeting rep, or email Woodbrooke directly.
But our lives together aren’t just attending Meeting for Worship. That sense of being a coventantal community should encompass all of our lives.
Building Community
Covenants describe a commitment, or obligations between parties, but a covenant is different from a contract because they describe an agreement that is relational and personal.
So how can we use that covenantal relationship to strengthen not only our understanding of what it means to be a Quaker on Sunday morning, but in all that we do together as community? How can we join with others to create and strengthen relationships with others both within our worshipping community and wider afield?
Some of the places in my life that I have felt most connected and cared for have involved a Quaker community. These can be long term relationships, or shared shorter experiences. Some have ranged from a Yearly Meeting weekend or week long Yearly Meeting Gathering, with hundreds of others, while others are a smaller group over a working day where laughter and fellowship make the shared work go quickly.
Widening the Working Party
If you have a building project that is larger than the usual gang of willing workers can cope with, why not make it a working party?
Back in 2001 Muswell Hill planted over a 100 baby trees to celebrate its 100th birthday as a meeting. We invited local MPs, councillors and the Mayor – all of whom turned up to dig a hole and put in a tree! We also had members of the various hiring groups, people connected to the building who hadn’t worshipped with us in years, we managed to get into the local paper as well as the Friend.
If it is a very technical job then you may need the right people to organise and divide up the work. There are voluntary organisations who might be able to help, either locally or you could look at Quaker Voluntary Action.
When I’ve organised such days, I’ve listed out jobs and tasks alongside any requirements. There are always jobs or tasks that even a small person can do and feel involved. Picking up sticks, washing down benches and windows – all of this industrious community activity helps us learn more about each other. If you’re not up to being physically active, bringing cakes and helping provide refreshments are still much appreciated!
Some of the things I’ve discovered our clients doing that involve the wider community:
- Working with local refugee organisations to provide garden or allotment space, alongside communal use of kitchens and a place to have meals.
- Organising local recycling groups to store or provide unusual recycling collection points, which are either sorted by the group and sold to raise money, or taken away by other organisations.
- Hosting a couple of Apple Days which brought attention to the building and group, but also inspired local schools to learn more about local history.
- Working with a local school (their neighbours) to clean up and care for a piece of vacant land, planting wildflowers, bulbs and creating mosaic tiles to hang on the fence. Cleaning up a vandalism hot spot and making things prettier and more bio diverse too.
- Joining with the local Peace Forum to fundraise for and install a Peace Pole making part of the grounds a designated place of peace.
Finding ways for the community to celebrate
Of course there are other ways to join with others – celebrations of births, deaths, birthdays, weddings. Communities come together for these, Quakers often have other scheduled events – business meetings, discussion groups, meetings for learning. But even an informal meal together can help foster connections, and discussions.
Have you found ways to reach out to local faith communities and invite them to join you?
Perhaps to watch a film, or to discuss a shared testimony so you can learn from each other?
Or to work together on a shared project or in a shared forum?
... We do things together. We worship together, we discern together, we act in the world together.
If you’ve got an idea or experience of building community through working and doing things together that you’d like to share with us – please contact us, we’d love to hear about it.
Wendrie Heywood
MBS Founder
