Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection, for which our leader today is Pamala McDougall from the Religious Society of Friends.
Pamala McDougall (Religious Society of Friends):
Thank you for listening to me today.
What canst thou say?
When I was thinking about what I should share with you today, I thought "So much to say—so little time!" I expect that you can empathise with that.
Quakers—or, to give us our full title, the Religious Society of Friends—are known for silence and silent worship but also for action arising out of that silence. To help our faith into action we have our Quaker testimonies to peace, truth and integrity, equality and simplicity and to the earth and the environment. A testimony is not a form of words but an expression of actions characteristic of Friends.
I stand before you a modern Quaker but with what are deemed now in certain circles to be old-fashioned values: a sense of duty, vocation, love of fellow human beings, civic and national pride and care for the world. Do those qualities resonate with you? I am far from alone in holding those values, but how difficult it is sometimes to hold on to them and acknowledge them in a changing world.
What canst thou say?
It was George Fox, our founder and spiritual leader, who made that challenge. Yes, we can listen to other people's experiences, read insightful books and use history, but it is our own experiences, good and bad, plus imagination that should lead us to discern the right words and actions.
When I worked for the national health service, one of my duties was to assess the development of young children. I asked one wee boy to draw a wriggly worm to demonstrate his ability to control a pencil. His worm was a straight line. When I asked why, his reply was "It's deid!" Children's imagination never fails to amaze me, but that was one child's way of answering what he could say.
We—you and I—are challenged every day on what we know, what we believe, what facts we have, what conclusions we reach and why. How do we do that and remain true to ourselves? That process of discernment, and especially of spiritual discernment, can be difficult, but there are helpful pointers.
First is listening and really hearing what the other person has to say, without interruption or just waiting to put our own point of view. That takes time.
Then there is listening to the inner voice—what we Quakers also call the inner light—which helps us to see what could be the next step. That takes time.
And there is also giving ourselves time to reflect, even in these few precious minutes, on our own spiritual leader and guide. For me, that is Jesus Christ.
Another Quaker, Isaac Pennington, wrote some beautiful lines in 1667 on what we can all aspire to. This is not a soft option, as anyone who has tried this way will testify.
"Our life is love, and peace, and tenderness;
and bearing one with another,
and forgiving one another
and not laying accusations one against another
but praying for one another,
and helping one another up with a tender hand."
Thank you for listening to me today, but what canst thou say?
I ask members to welcome the presence in the gallery of the Swedish ambassador, His Excellency Staffan Carlsson. [Applause.]