Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 16th March 2025

Dear Friends,

“The Light”

Advices and Queries No.1: Take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts. Trust them as the leadings of God whose Light shows us our darkness and brings us to new life.

So, what is this Light, or, as it is also commonly known, light? Friends who want to explore the Inner Light, Inward Light, Universal Light, the children of Light and the Divine Light might find a trip into our Quaker faith and practice to be rewarding.

In the turbulent 1650s, Friends preached Christ’s light as a remedy for the crisis in English society. The first phase of Quaker universalism framed the light as a presence which could empower men and women to transform the nation. George Fox later spoke of the more individual experience of being open to ‘the inward light’.

Scientists have discovered that the Quaker practice of ‘holding someone in the light’ does seem to have an effect: people with strong social bonds, people who know that they are loved, really can recover more quickly than expected from illness or trauma.

In our turbulent times of greed, violent conflict, forced migration and environmental catastrophe, and at a time when governments are diverting funds to the manufacture of weapons and away from social programmes, we too can be inspired by Christ’s light to mend the world.

As we continue to hold each other in the light, and as we seek to make the whole world brighter by sharing the measure of light that is given to us, why not extend the power of this light to world leaders, so that their decisions may be guided by the promptings of love and truth?

In Friendship

Patricia Cockrell

on behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (Patricia Cockrell, David Hitchin, Sharon Krummel, Tim Pitt-Payne, Caroline Pybus, Theresa Samms)