Letters - 07 August 2026
From speaking one's mind to making a statement
Speaking one’s mind
During Yearly Meeting in July, a Friend called out at one point, ‘Our Friend speaks my mind’. This was followed by other voices and a murmur of approval.
We had reached a difficult stage in the proceedings, and an elder then instructed the Meeting that we were only to make such interventions after first standing and waiting to be called by the clerk.
The exclamation is a well and truly tried Quaker convention, and in my experience has always followed immediately upon what had been said before. By its very nature, it is spontaneous and incompatible with waiting for a call from the clerk; the moment will have passed.
Particularly in a large Meeting, it can be difficult for the clerks to gauge the feeling of the Meeting. This applies especially when those rising to speak are expressing views that may be deeply felt but are not necessarily shared by the Meeting as a whole. Allowing someone to exclaim that a Friend speaks their mind, especially where this is followed by a general murmur of assent as happened on Saturday, can I feel be a real help to the clerks in assessing the feeling of the Meeting. We were similarly upbraided for the chorus of ‘Nooooo’ when the clerk offered us a minute rejecting the proposal in question. But that was helpful too – the clerk rewrote the minute.
While the intervention by the elder may have been well-intentioned, I would also be dismayed if a spontaneous exclamation of ‘Our Friend speaks my mind’ were now no longer to be in right ordering.
Jan Arriens
Taking a picture
As my Meeting’s interfaith link, and with an Anglican upbringing, I keep having theological thoughts.
One is that Muslims seem to treasure the way that the Qur’an is brought to light and life by chanting rather than merely reading. The same applies to the Jewish community’s Torah. Most Christians sing hymns, but that is not the same. But what the Anglicans also do is sing the psalms. The psalms have content that is, from time to time… how shall I put it… uncomfortable. This is simply submerged in the traditional tunes and sixteenth-century language that make them inspiring when sung. (I make a particular plug for Psalm 122, which has the lines, ‘Oh pray for the peace of Jerusalem’, and, ‘Jerusalem is built as a city where people come together in unity’.)
Another finding is the seventeenth-century painter Michaelina Wautier, recently on show at the Royal Academy. Her take on Mary the mother of Jesus gives a more characterful impression than the conventional demure image. The first picture is of Mary being taught by her own mother. The expression on her face implies her saying, ‘So you expect me to believe all this?’ The next is the Annunciation, where she seems to say, ‘Well, if you say so, I suppose I’d better go through with it.’ These reinforce my notion that she should be particularly valued for the early learning of Jesus, as encapsulated in the Magnificat.
Richard Seebohm
