Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 4th May 2025

Dear Friends,

Tim Pitt-Payne writes:

Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God…

(George Fox, quoted in Quaker Faith and Practice 2.18)

I recently came across the following passage.

Before I accepted I asked if I could spend a few minutes in the room next to the one with the balcony overlooking the square. My head was completely empty and I was seized by a great anxiety. To make it go away and relax I closed my eyes and made every thought disappear …
I closed my eyes and I no longer had any anxiety or emotion. At a certain point I was filled with a great light. It lasted a moment, but to me it seemed very long. Then the light faded, I got up suddenly and walked into the room where the cardinals were waiting and the table on which was the act of acceptance. I signed it.

These are the words of Pope Francis, describing the point at which he had been elected Pope and had to decide whether or not to accept.

When I read them, I was struck by how Quakerly they sounded.  I looked for a quotation in Quaker Faith and Practice to illustrate the point.  I chose the one above, but there are many others that I could have chosen.

Quakers often emphasise how different they are from other religious groups: “we don’t have creeds, we don’t have ministers, we don’t have set forms of worship”, and so on.

Sometimes, it’s good to be reminded of the points of similarity and common ground.

“Come to meeting for worship with heart and mind prepared”. (Advices and Queries 9).

Each week the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) invites a Friend to write a message to help us to prepare for our Sunday meeting and to sustain us if we are unable to come. Our meeting is enriched by the diversity of our members and these messages help us to share and learn from others. Every contributor writes from their own experience as an individual, recognising that others may think differently.