Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 3rd May 2026

Dear Friends,

Quaker faith and practice 19.07 is one of my favourite passages.  It captures beautifully a key insight of our Quaker way: ‘what canst thou say?‘  I find a great deal of spaciousness and joy when I ask myself this simple question.  I have kept it as a guiding principle since I became convinced.

I find it helpful to read the work of practitioners across a range of traditions (Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, pagan and others), as well as the writings of early Friends.  However, it is hard to understand some writers, either because of dense or inaccessible language, or because vast differences exist between my own and the writer’s understanding of the world.  But Qf&p 19.07 is written in a plain and straightforward way, using clear language, so I find it easy to picture the scene, and to understand Margaret Fell’s powerful response.  We might be far removed in time from early Friends, but their writing often strikes me to the heart.

Britain Yearly Meeting is engaged in re-writing Qf&p (which is done about once in a generation). I am confident that core insights, including descriptions of powerful ‘openings’ such as Margaret Fell’s, will be retained in the new version.  The first draft should be published in July 2027, and the Revision Committee working on it will report to Yearly Meeting in May.  I look forward to hearing of their progress, and hope we can all continue to uphold their efforts.

For more information on the work of the Revision Committee, including a report to Meeting for Sufferings in December 2025, and a draft structure, follow this link Revising Quaker faith & practice | Quakers in Britain.  ‘Our Quaker Way’ is due to be published in its final form in 2030.

Liz Brooks

Quakers value diversity. We share this Friend’s message in the hope it will speak to others.

Pastoral Care and Eldership Team: Patricia Cockrell, David Hitchin, Sharon Krummel, Tim Pitt-Payne, Theresa Samms, Emily Slater.